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Ancient Egyptian Crown Prince Thutmose
had this sarcophagus built for his
beloved cat
(Photo: Larazoni on Flickr)
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CATS HAVE been revered as “special’ for millennia. In ancient Egypt they were regarded almost as deities and in some cases worshipped as such.
The Elizabethans, on the other hand, held cats in high regard for reasons that today’s cat lovers would find cruel and quite repulsive. Apothecaries in that era believed that cat fur contained certain properties that eased the pain of gout and many other painful and inflammatory conditions.
The four-poster beds in the homes of the more opulent Elizabethans would be draped with cat fur in the cold winter months, not just for the warmth, but for the healing properties they believed were contained in the feline fur.
Belief that cats could heal all kinds of maladies of body, mind and spirit led to various and sometimes extreme atrocities. For example, blood would be extracted from the cat’s ears and mixed with an infusion of vinegar, honey and selected herbs, and then administered by mouth to a patient suffering from shingles or other conditions of the nervous system.
Although such repulsive practices were extremely popular throughout the Elizabethan period, from a metaphysical perspective there is some truth in the healing properties of cats.
For one thing, a cat will always gravitate towards its owner whenever he or she is feeling under the weather or out of sorts. Cats and dogs have the unusual ability to monitor molecular changes in the subtle atmosphere, allowing them to know when their owner is in need of some attention.
Using the same neurological monitoring system, cats can detect the onset of a volcanic eruption, up to 24 hours before it actually occurs, which is why many of the homes located in volcanic areas keep cats as pets.
Cats are extremely unusual creatures, which is why a witch in olden times was nearly always accompanied by her “familiar” – an extremely perceptive, usually black feline, who was frequently used to deliver a curse or blessing, or whatever was needed, to a selected individual.
From an esoteric or metaphysical perspective, cats have extremely acute and accurate senses, with a range that extends far beyond those of humans. It has also been discovered that cats possess an extraordinary neurological navigational organ that allows them to find their way home from great distances. They are believed to navigate their route home via the position of the sun or moon combined, maybe, with an accurate sense of their owner’s location.
As any true cat lover will affirm, cats are amazing creatures who really do make a house a home. They are extremely independent and will allow only their owners to invade their space when they feel the time is right for them.
The strange and wonderful thing about cats is that they will always attempt to change a person’s attitude towards them, and will target them even in a crowded room. They will do this by persistently rubbing against someone who doesn’t like them, before weaving in and out of their legs, in a final attempt to convert the person who dislikes them to the wonderful world of cat lovers.
When cats get a few negative responses, some will abandon the whole thing as a waste of time, but others will persist for a little while longer. Cats are persistent in their endeavours and really do like to make people and things their own, simply by spreading their own unique scent on them.
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Billy Roberts’ cats Ellie and Poppy
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Unlike dogs, who very often take it personally if a human doesn’t like them, cats don’t really care. Once their feline advances have been totally rejected, they just carry on with their lives regardless.
Having been brought up with dogs, I was always a dog lover. Then I was fortunate to share my life, albeit for a very short time, with an elderly Siamese cat called Suki. In fact, it was Suki’s persistence that contributed to my conversion to “catism”.
My true and final initiation to the world of cats came about when I met Pesi, my wife’s mother’s cat, who came to live with us when my wife’s mother passed away. Although it may sound strange to some people, as far as I was concerned, Pesi and I loved each other deeply, and we were fortunate to have her for about six years until she died at the age of 18.
In fact, when Pesi passed away, she really did leave a sadness and a huge hole in the family and home. As with the majority of cat lovers, when a beloved family cat passes away, we affirmed: “Never again. No cat could ever take Pesi’s place.”
But then we went to live next door to a farmhouse in Cheshire, and inherited Elly and Poppy, who are sisters but very different.
Elly is a mischievous tortoiseshell, a scally cat in every sense of the word, and her sister Poppy is an extremely refined and demure tuxedo-patterned cat, gentle and extremely sweet. Elly has put a claim on me, sleeps with me and follows me everywhere. I don’t know what that says about me.
Poppy is undoubtedly my wife Dolly’s cat. She sleeps with her and demands cuddles throughout the day. They are house cats, for the simple reason that today far too many cats are killed or severely injured on the road, and we want to keep Elly and Poppy alive for as long as we can.
The point I am making here is: cats infiltrate your life and completely take it over. They are different from dogs, inasmuch as they are completely independent and free spirited. Dogs are not as independent, and do tend to rely on their owners for many things. But we still love them, don’t we?
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Sylvia Barbanell, wife of Psychic News founding Editor
Maurice Barbanell, was known for her animal rights work.
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Both dogs and cats are known to release a very subtle energy into the surrounding air, encouraging the release of endorphins, our body’s natural morphine-like hormones, easing our pains and other maladies, and basically uplifting our spirits and making us feel better about ourselves and the world around us.
And so, a pat or cuddle a day really does help to keep the doctor away.
Cats help to lower blood pressure, reducing the chance of a stroke as well as bringing relief from pain. This cat power is not confined to cat lovers alone. On the contrary, although dogs also have an extremely powerful effect on people, cats home in on people very quickly, and produce some remarkable effects on the human nervous system.
Maybe the Elizabethans knew this, too, even though their use of cat power was carried to extremes.
Our solar plexus is the source of our own store of subtle energy, which in esoteric parlance is referred to as prana. When we are tired, or simply under the weather, our levels of energy are naturally depleted. Our interaction with cats helps to revitalise this, and encourages the restoration of our energy levels.
Over the years, research has been carried out into the way our pets affect our health. There is some evidence to show that children brought up without a pet are much more irritable, volatile and emotionally insecure, particularly in later life, than those brought up with a cat or a dog as a pet.
Cats will only give to you the vitality you lack, while dogs will allow you constant access to their personal energies, as in the case of PAT (Pets as Therapy) dogs which visit the elderly and infirm in rest homes and hospitals. If you are a cat owner, you might like to try this little experiment:
Sit beside your cat. Place the fingers of both hands (fingers spread apart) gently on your solar plexus, and breathe in very slowly, mentally seeing the in-flowing breath as intense white light streaming into your solar plexus and taken up by your fingers.
When your breath is complete, hold it for a couple of seconds, and before you exhale, move your hands to your cat, and exhale while slowly moving your hands from tail to head over your cat’s body, moving the fingers of both hands (as though playing a piano) and mentally seeing the white light streaming from your fingers, bathing your cat all over in it.
Repeat the same process one more time, and then watch how your cat reacts. It should arch its back, as though stretching, at the same time extending its tail into an S’ shape, before moving quickly away from you.
It does this primarily because you are transmitting to it a subtle energy it does not need. From a metaphysical perspective, cats are four-legged dynamos, constantly generating and discharging prana into the surrounding atmosphere.
They calm a restless and anxious mind, soothe away the stresses and strains of the day and promote peace and serenity where there is disharmony or sadness.
Alternatively, you can apply the same process to your cat or dog when it is feeling unwell or a little out of sorts. This will help to revitalise it and encourage it to get well.
The other thing to note is that a cat smiles at us with a slow blink of the eyes, as opposed to a dog’s wag of a tail. Cats are also extremely wary of the show of our teeth when we smile. They often equate our smile to an act of aggression. So, we must learn to blink at them instead.
My father used to say, those who don’t like animals, generally speaking, are not too fond of people either. What do you think?
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