People are afraid of the evil eye and corruption, ghosts, poltergeists and chupacabras, but for some reason they don’t think about the fact that many equally terrible creatures have long lived next to us. Take a closer look!
Almost every witch and sorcerer has a familiar - an assistant in animal guise. They can be very different. So, the magicians of New Guinea use crocodiles, in Malaya, witches are usually accompanied by owls or badgers, in Africa - snakes, lizards, and jackals.
But there are also "common" familiars. So, frogs were associated with the forces of the underworld in the folklore of many peoples, and the Mexican Indians generally considered them the ancestors of the human race.
An equally famous companion of witches is the toad. It is believed that even the devil himself takes the image of a huge frog during the ceremony of initiation into sorcerers. A person who decides to take this step must go to the bathhouse, renounce God there, promising his soul to Satan. After that, a small toad allegedly jumps out of the corner and grows until it takes up the entire space of the bath. After the one who chose the "black path" crawls into her open mouth (in fact, into the mouth of the devil), he becomes a real sorcerer.
In general, toads and frogs are amazing creatures and contenders for the title of "eternal animal". So, for example, in 1910 a resident of the county of Leicestershire, splitting a piece of coal, found a living young toad in it. But the age of coal is estimated at millions of years. "Buried" amphibians were also found inside the trunks of cut trees.
According to legend, witches flew to the Sabbath on bats, and they themselves often turned into these creatures. In the myths of many peoples, the bat is closely associated with evil spirits, black magic and witchcraft, being an integral attribute of the night and the bird of the Devil. The Poles considered her the soul of a sleeping witch and a vampire, Belarusians - the soul of a deceased sorcerer, Ukrainians - another devil, and many Russians - a kikimora.
Because of the color, ravens have always been associated with the afterlife. So, naturally, sorcerers and witches chose them as assistants. In magical practice, the raven is considered the energy conductor of its owner to the demon world. By the way, the supernatural qualities attributed to these birds are well founded. Scientists have found that the ratio of their brain weight to total mass is the most impressive among birds.
Of course, one cannot do without the most famous companions of witches - black cats. In some religions, cats are considered sacred animals, and bring both happiness and misfortune.
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The ancient Celts were sure that meeting with a cat threatened illness and misfortune. In Christianity, the cat was at one time inextricably linked with Satan, darkness and lust.
In the 13th century in Germany, the Luciferians (a sect of Satan worshipers) considered the cat to be a symbol of their devil-lord. And as the period of the Middle Ages turned cats into simply enemies of mankind. The Catholic Church declared these animals the first helpers of witches, who themselves often took the form of a cat. Therefore, they were hanged and burned at the stake. At first, only black cats suffered, and then they did not even look at the color.
The tailed beasts were the companions of witches, demons were possessed in them, who followed the orders of their mistresses. Elizabeth FRANCIS of England, convicted as a witch in 1556, said that she kept a white-spotted cat named Satan, who, when she did any "useful work" for her, received a drop of her blood as a reward.
But, as the legends say, there are much more dangerous varieties of the cat tribe. For example, in the north of England there is a legend that there lives a kat shi ("fairy cat") of black color, the size of a young calf. The Irish believed that the kat shee was a mystical animal, and the Scots believed that it was a reincarnated witch who was able to transform herself into a cat nine times, and then she would remain a cat forever.
The Scandinavians believed that the witches' helper was a homemade troll cat, made from sticks with burnt ends, spindles wrapped in scraps of wool. After creating such a "blank", the witch dripped three drops of blood on her and read a special spell to breathe life into her creation. Troll cats took the form of either a cat or a ball, like a ball of thread. Witches instructed their troll cats to infiltrate neighboring farms, where they stole milk by sucking it straight from the cows. Then the troll-cat returned home to its owner and vomited milk into the trough.
The Scandinavians were sure that if you shoot at the troll cat, milk will flow from the wound. In this case, the witch herself received the same damage as her troll.
And the Czechs generally believe that black cats kept by evil magicians are werewolves who, after seven years, turn into a witch or a sorcerer, and until then help their wicked masters in all their sinful deeds.
But perhaps the most terrifying cats are found in Japanese mythology. This bakeneko is "a ghostly cat that can change its appearance." At first, bakeneko are said to be indistinguishable from their common tribal counterparts. But after 10-12 years they begin to walk on their hind legs, talk and, at times, kill their masters. And having deprived the life of a person, bakeneko can turn into him in order to live among people, besides, terrorize his relatives and friends.
Of course, even if we ignore the witchcraft theme, one cannot help but notice that there is a lot of mysterious things in our pets. Cats perfectly feel people, sense their mood. As it became known to scientists, their energy is the opposite of human, so they absorb all the negative energy hovering around. The therapeutic effect of cats is based on this: the animal, of its own accord, lies on the diseased organ of the owner and, absorbing the energy of the disease, heals it.
According to bioenergy scientists, a cat is something like a portable biogenerator that generates electromagnetic radiation. The frequency and amplitude of the waves emitted by it have a strong effect on a person, protecting him, curing many diseases. That is why cats are actively used in animatherapy - a direction of medicine that has existed since the mid-50s of the last century and is gaining more and more popularity today. In favor of the fact that cats are able not only to relieve nervous stress, but also to cure, for example, cardiovascular diseases, the fact that almost half of American practicing doctors recommend their patients to have a cat, which helps to reduce the risk of heart attack.
Back in the 1930s, Dr. Joseph Wank RINE, who founded the world's first parapsychology laboratory at Duke University (California), recognized that cats have telepathy and foresight. Later, the Nobel laureate Dutchman Niko TINBERGEN and his colleague Robert MORRIS will open up in cats the ability to use psychokinesis (impact on objects in non-physical ways) and clairvoyance.
Perhaps that is why in our time, many believe that cats are creatures of extraterrestrial origin. Indeed, studying the rock paintings on the pyramids in Peru, archaeologists have discovered sketches of flying vehicles, aliens and animals that are very similar to cats. According to this version, cats are higher beings who are superior to people in everything, but do not strive to go into close contact with them. They're just watching us closely.