Had a great weekend
First least I forget check out this great site met the young gentleman behind it a couple weekends ago at the Sanford Hurricane Party: www.dizzlephunk.com Started our day at the Lakeridge Winery http://www.lakeridgewinery.com/ for one of their festivals, lots of good food and wine as well as live music and vendors selling everything from soap to nuts… We also took the winery tour and did a wine tasting which is offered all the time and not just at the events and checked out the wine and other items offered in the store. . Then on South on US 17 to Hwy 50 then west to Clermont http://www.city-data.com/city/Clermont-Florida.html (look for a sign on your right noting where to turn for downtown), a town that is just now showing recovery from the poor economy with lots of newer and revived older shops including Tres Chic Boutique with some great items www.treschicboutique.com. and then lunch (a late one as they don’t open till 3:30 pm) a place were the service is only beaten by the great food: 801 City Grille http://www.801citygrille.com/www.801citygrille.com/Home.html Then it was home and being lazy all day Sunday….did enjoy This TV’s movies: http://www.wesh.com/cw18/thistv they have bunches of movies to watch 24/7 and are on all the cable networks.
Another weekend without Claire and Jamie and you can’t on Demand 107 anymore—guess It’s 109 from now on…..
THOUGHT THIS WEEK I woul deal with one of my favorite thing—CATS
Today CATS IN LEGEND AND MYTHS
I AM A CAT PERSON—I like dogs, but I am basically too lazy for dogs…they require walking and grooming and bathing and so on and so forth or they’ll poop on the floor and smell bad (both the floor if you don’t walk them—oh and it take major effort to get them use to pooping on the walk and not the floor—and the dog if you don’t bathe them). Of course you know where you stand with both dogs (you are the best friend, master and center of the universe) and cats (you are staff, servant, and something to provide scratching in areas they can’t reach) and I have come to accept that and moved on with my servitude which I have accepted rather than trying to potty train a puppy.
The Egyptians had a cat-headed goddess: Bast or Pasht , who was served by cats, as was Isis the mother goddess and Ra, the sun god who in the form of a cat slayed the Serpent of death. So cats were sacred in Ancient Egypt and to kill one was a crime against the gods. And if one’s pet died there were even prescribed mourning forms including shaving off one’s eyebrows. Ouch.
The Goddess Diana liked cats so much she actually at one time took their form according to legend and because of this it was assumed that they were protected by her.
Freya (pictured above) was a Scandinavian goddess of love and fertility (kinda goes together with most goddesses and gods) actually had a rather large pair pulling her chariot.
Cats (in countries that had them) during these early times were believed to be mystical (sometime good and some bad). In many places they were believed to be able to see spirits, foretell the future (with specific actions) and even control the weather.
Cats divinity seemed to pass away with the ages (possibly the church–only one at this time my dears– trying to free the world from it’s ancestor’s heathen follies? ) especially in Europe where they along with toads and owls, were associated with witchcraft, sorcery and gypsies (interesting enough the word Gypsy comes from the early Europeans calling them “Egyptians” one of the earliest sites for our note of cat worship.).
Witches were said to be able to assume the shape of cats 9 times (I wonder if this is where the cat’s nine lives legend comes from or if they could assume the shape that many times as it was already a belief?), while black cats were felt to be the Devil in the flesh (and fur?!) and were routinely hunted down and burned just like their human counterparts.
A fact you might not know is that James I (of England–see our Scottish week in previous blogs) had a real issue about witches and was a moving force in the 16th century Scottish (he was James VI in Scotland) witch persecution including John Fian’s Trail where Fian and his Coven were said to have tried to cause the death of James and his queen (Anne) by christening a cat, then tying it to a dismembered human corpse and throwing the lot into the sea while chanting something to cause a ship wreck. Alas the storm that arose only caused return to port of the king. Scotland by the way had a large breed of cat (Elfin) about the size of a dog which were suppose to all be witches in disguise.
Ireland is a good example of the drift of legends on cats. Of course there’s the obvious as they keep mice and rats away from food and goods so many have them–but one of the notions that abound are that the cat dreams three times each night of killing their owners but never do because the family dog would not allow it.
In the oldest legends are of big cats that fought heroes like Fionn Mac Cumhaill but in later church stories they became companions for Saints and even supplied fish for one group of Monks. Their creation is even attributed to St. Martin to control mice (whom the devil created—interesting since in those other legends we talked about he was a black cat himself).
Other legends however included one found in other countries as well, that a cat was capable of stealing souls and they were not generally allowed to remain in a house where a wake was going on or to cross the path of a funeral procession. As for black cats the jury seems to be out in Erie with some feeling that they were bad luck while others feeling just the opposite.
SOURCES:
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERSTITIONS/E & M.A. Radford
THE LORE OF IRELAND/Daithi O hOgain
WITCHES & WITCHCRAFT/R.E. Guiley
