The Mysterious, Magickal Cat

by D.J. Conway, Rebecca Zins (Designer), Anne Marie Garrison (Designer)

Few species have evoked such extremes in emotions as the feline family. A black cat crossing your path in England portends good luck; in America, bad luck. Popular pagan author D.J. Conway takes a complete look at the beguiling cat--its origins, little-known details of anatomy and behavior, the cat in ancient history and superstition, feline deities, felines in folklore, and much more--including cat spells for healing and attracting love and prosperity.

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Cats, Animals, Mythology, History

211 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

A native of the Pacific Northwest, author D.J. Conway has studied the occult fields for over 35 years. Her quest for knowledge has covered every aspect of Paganism and Wicca to New Age and Eastern philosophies; plus history, the magical arts, philosophy, customs, mythologies and folklore. In 1998, she was voted Best Wiccan and New Age author by Silver Chalice, a Pagan magazine.

She lives a rather quiet life, with most of her time spent researching and writing.

Reviews

[Natasha 4E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and easy read with beautiful illustrations, although it gets repetitive at times and Conway tends to give tales (especially, I think, the historical ones and the part with the superstitions) her own spin. I liked how she would talk about her own cats throughout the book. I liked the cat tales and the parts about mythology. I would have liked to read more about the cat talk, with maybe pictures to illustrate what specific cat body language things mean. The chapter with horror stories about cats being tortured and murdered felt very unnecessary.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of facts about cats. If you’re looking for trivia fuel, you might enjoy it. It often goes from one story to the next and can be a little hard to follow. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who really loves cats, as it spends a good portion of the book focusing on the maladies cats have incurred (in gory detail) throughout history.

[Ellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painfully historically inaccurate. Citations used sparingly and never when they are most needed.

[Chezarey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very charming book. Easy read. Informative, but sometimes a little general. Does not include all sources. There was a story about Chinese lore where two people fell and love, were forbidden to be together so they turned into cats and ran away. This story was not sourced and did not have names of the characters. Contains detailed descriptions of species of cats and breeds of house cats.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good - a lot of research has gone into this. The only quibble I have is that, because of the structure of the book, there is a lot of repetition, e.g. the goddess Bast appears in at least four different sections

[AA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just fun. I liked the historical references to how cats have been treated throughout the ages.

[madwhimsy (Madelyn) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, cute read.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explains alot about cats, past and present.