The black cat is one of the most contradictory figures in world folklore. In Britain it is lucky. In America it is unlucky. In ancient Egypt it was sacred. In medieval Europe it was the devil’s familiar. In Japan it brings good fortune. In Scotland a strange black cat arriving at your house is a sign of prosperity. In Germany a black cat crossing your path from right to left is bad luck and from left to right is good luck. No other animal carries quite this density of contradictory supernatural significance across cultures, and the contradiction itself is worth examining because it tells you something important about how folklore works.
The black cat’s association with the supernatural in general, rather than with good or bad luck specifically, is the one consistent thread across virtually all the traditions. Something about the black cat, its colour, its nocturnal habits, its eyes that reflect light in darkness, its independent and unpredictable character, has made it a figure that cultures consistently attach supernatural meaning to even when they disagree completely about what that meaning is.
Ancient Egypt and the Sacred Cat
The Egyptian reverence for cats is well documented and represents the most positive end of the cat’s cross-cultural supernatural spectrum. The goddess Bastet, one of the most widely worshipped in the Egyptian pantheon, was depicted with the head of a cat or as a full cat, and was associated with protection, fertility, and the home. Cats were kept in temples, mummified at death, and killing one, even accidentally, was a serious offence that could result in execution.
The specific reverence for black cats within the Egyptian tradition is less clearly documented than the general reverence for cats, but the colour black in Egyptian symbolism was associated with fertility, the rich black silt of the Nile flood, and rebirth rather than with death or misfortune, which meant that a black cat in the Egyptian context carried associations of abundance rather than danger.
The Medieval Devil’s Familiar
The association between black cats and the devil in medieval European tradition is the origin of the most persistent negative superstitions about them. The witch trial tradition documented in texts like the Malleus Maleficarum and in countless trial records described witches keeping animal familiars, supernatural beings in animal form who assisted them in their diabolical work. Cats, particularly black cats, were the most commonly identified familiar in English trial records, though other animals including dogs, toads, and hares also appeared.
Pope Gregory IX’s papal bull Vox in Rama of 1233 described heretics worshipping a black cat as a manifestation of the devil, which gave official theological weight to the association between black cats and diabolic power. The subsequent persecution of cats, particularly black cats, in medieval Europe is documented and was severe enough that some historians have suggested it contributed to the spread of plague by removing a significant predator of the rats that carried plague-bearing fleas.
Britain and the Lucky Black Cat
The British tradition of the black cat as lucky is one of the most counterintuitive in the European context, given the continent-wide association between black cats and witchcraft. The British tradition appears to derive from the same source as the negative tradition, the cat’s association with the supernatural, but to have resolved that association in a positive rather than negative direction. A creature with supernatural connections can bring good fortune as easily as bad, and the British tradition took the former position.
The specific tradition that a black cat crossing your path brings good luck in Britain, and bad luck in America, reflects the different history of cat superstition in the two cultures. British settlers brought the lucky black cat tradition to America, where it encountered Puritan witch trial associations that were considerably more negative, and the American tradition resolved the contradiction in the negative direction.
Black Cats and Halloween
The black cat’s association with Halloween is primarily a twentieth century American development, driven by the visual culture of Halloween commercialisation rather than by any deep folkloric connection between cats and the 31st of October specifically. The witch’s familiar, the black cat, became associated with Halloween because the witch became the defining symbol of Halloween, and the cat came with her as her attribute.
Further Reading
If this article sparked your interest, these are the books worth reading next.
Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night
by Nicholas Rogers — the best single-volume history of Halloween, tracing it from its Celtic and medieval roots through to its commercialisation as a global holiday. Properly researched and clearly written.
Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween
by Lisa Morton — a thorough and highly readable history of Halloween’s customs and traditions, from souling and guising to the modern American commercial holiday.
The Halloween Encyclopedia
by Lisa Morton — the most comprehensive reference on Halloween in print, covering every aspect of the holiday’s history, folklore, customs, and cultural expressions in detail.
For more on the seasonal folklore tradition, the Witches and Halloween article covers the real history of witch belief and its connection to Halloween. The Origins of Samhain article covers the Celtic festival at the root of Halloween. The Halloween hub page has every article in the cluster.
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