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Author Topic: Cat Sith  (Read 2992 times)

Mountain Cat

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Cat Sith
« on: October 04, 2014, 10:47:50 pm »
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this being, beyond what can be found on Wikipedia.

I've been having dreams lately, about animals. Tiger, lynx, bear, wolf, but in all the dreams there is this cat, large, black with a white patch on his chest. At first I just dismissed it because I like cats and both my son and myself had imaginary friends as children, which was a white-patched black cat. We even gave it the same name, which I kind of found chilling when my young son "introduced" me to my own imaginary friend. However, during one of these dreams a few nights back, I looked at it and said 'Cat Sith'.

The dream has lingered so I decided to look it up, but there is very little info and I don't know how to tell reliable info about Irish/Scottish lore or mythology so I was really hoping some one might be able to help me.

Thanks.  :)

Faemon

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2014, 11:14:32 pm »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161196
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this being, beyond what can be found on Wikipedia.

 
Lady Jane Wilde has this weird one involving the satire of bards and ill-tempered saints.

This one by Gerald Griffin is a little scary.

My favorite has got to be this quite amusing story about cat royalty succession.

I'd like to find more stories about these cait sidhe, too, though.
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Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2014, 03:53:29 pm »
Quote from: Faemon;161197
Lady Jane Wilde has this weird one involving the satire of bards and ill-tempered saints.

This one by Gerald Griffin is a little scary.

My favorite has got to be this quite amusing story about cat royalty succession.

I'd like to find more stories about these cait sidhe, too, though.


Thanks for these, they were cool to read. I liked the royalty one the best, too. Very cat-like.

I have bunches of questions and I'm having trouble finding answers. Is it one creature? A group of creatures? Is it a spirit being? I don't know much about faery beings. Okay, nothing, so I'm having trouble starting.

The wiki article mentions offerings made at Samhain. Is it normal/acceptable to make offerings to faery beings?

Is it normal for faery beings to contact humans?

Faemon

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2014, 01:01:01 am »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161287
Is it one creature? A group of creatures? Is it a spirit being?


I don't know, as I've never met any. However...

Quote
Is it normal/acceptable to make offerings to faery beings?


Traditionally, a bowl of milk would be left out as an offering.

Quote
Is it normal for faery beings to contact humans?

 
I'd say that's unusual, but not unheard of definitely. There's stories of Thomas the Rhymer getting recruited by the Queen of Elfland, more inimically Tam Lin, there's changeling stories and fairy wife stories (such as the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach, whose faery-human line of descendants was said to have continued up to 1842.) And fairy doctors.
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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2014, 03:09:04 am »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161287
Is it one creature? A group of creatures? Is it a spirit being?


Yes...

IME, faery creatures are incredibly difficult to pin down. Personally I wouldn't try to work out exactly what it is. You won't get very far, I suspect!

Quote
The wiki article mentions offerings made at Samhain. Is it normal/acceptable to make offerings to faery beings?


Not unheard of, especially on Samhain, Beltaine and midsummer eve. Depending on whose myths you're reading. I have an area of the garden for the Good Folk and offer milk and honey regularly.

Quote
Is it normal for faery beings to contact humans?

 
It happens a good bit in folklore. And today, a fair few Pagans and CRs would say that they work with the Good Folk. You get people going "Eek, the lore says to stay away from those dangerous creatures", but you also get people who are faery-captivated and can't help it. And then the best thing to do is to give in to it, but be prepared for an interesting ride. (Just in my opinion, of course.) Still... always wise to read the folklore and know what you're in for. :P
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Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2014, 04:55:57 pm »
Quote from: Faemon;161311
I don't know, as I've never met any. However...



Traditionally, a bowl of milk would be left out as an offering.


 
I'd say that's unusual, but not unheard of definitely. There's stories of Thomas the Rhymer getting recruited by the Queen of Elfland, more inimically Tam Lin, there's changeling stories and fairy wife stories (such as the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach, whose faery-human line of descendants was said to have continued up to 1842.) And fairy doctors.

 
Interesting.

I'm going to take the time to look up these stories. Seems like the best way of learning. The names sound familiar, but I don't recall any actual stories so it should be fun to read.

That, and I'll leave out a few offerings. Not sure how to ensure that a cat faery gets them, but hopefully it doesn't hurt to try. :)

Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2014, 05:06:05 pm »
Quote from: Naomi J;161312
Yes...

IME, faery creatures are incredibly difficult to pin down. Personally I wouldn't try to work out exactly what it is. You won't get very far, I suspect!



Not unheard of, especially on Samhain, Beltaine and midsummer eve. Depending on whose myths you're reading. I have an area of the garden for the Good Folk and offer milk and honey regularly.


 
It happens a good bit in folklore. And today, a fair few Pagans and CRs would say that they work with the Good Folk. You get people going "Eek, the lore says to stay away from those dangerous creatures", but you also get people who are faery-captivated and can't help it. And then the best thing to do is to give in to it, but be prepared for an interesting ride. (Just in my opinion, of course.) Still... always wise to read the folklore and know what you're in for. :P

 
I think it would be interesting to try to figure out what a faery being is, but I suspect you're right. Unless it wants someone to know, I doubt they will. I'll just go with faery-cat-being for now. :)

Didn't think of honey for an offering. Obviously, I have some reading to do. It seems I'm turning out to be rather eclectic. My mind is pretty open to possibilities and odd ones keep popping in and saying, "Hey! look at me!"

I'd really like to learn some UPG on faery beings. I find it valuable to learn what others have experienced. That said, lore first (or at least lore looked up and started to try to understand), so at least I have a bit of an understanding.

Suppose I'm off to Amazon. There is so much reading in pagan-stuff.

Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2014, 05:08:38 pm »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161531


Suppose I'm off to Amazon. There is so much reading in pagan-stuff.


Okay. Just realized I don't know what to look for other than the stories mentioned by Faemon. LOL

Faemon

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2014, 07:02:23 pm »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161531
I'd really like to learn some UPG on faery beings. I find it valuable to learn what others have experienced. That said, lore first (or at least lore looked up and started to try to understand), so at least I have a bit of an understanding.

Suppose I'm off to Amazon. There is so much reading in pagan-stuff.

 
Keightley's World Guide is my favorite resource, but Yeats is pretty good too. The Child Ballads have Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin as part of the compilation. Those aren't exactly Irish, since if I recall James Child who was compiling the ballads considered the inclusion of Irish ballads to be "too ambitious" because there were so many but one of Yeats' compilations included a Donegal tale James Freel and the Young Lady which was like a genderswapped Tam Lin where the shapeshifting between worlds gets nothing but a mention. Compare to the Tam Lin ballad where the eponymous sirrah-in-distress warns Janet or Margaret about the shapeshifting upon rescue thing, Freel just went for the dashing rescue and when the shapeshifting happened he wasn't even like, "Whatever."

But for faery-cat specific stories, I only know of the ones I linked.
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the Otherfaith: Chromatic Genderbending Faery Monarchs of Technology. DeviantArt

Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2014, 03:37:31 pm »
Quote from: Faemon;161553
Keightley's World Guide is my favorite resource, but Yeats is pretty good too. The Child Ballads have Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin as part of the compilation. Those aren't exactly Irish, since if I recall James Child who was compiling the ballads considered the inclusion of Irish ballads to be "too ambitious" because there were so many but one of Yeats' compilations included a Donegal tale James Freel and the Young Lady which was like a genderswapped Tam Lin where the shapeshifting between worlds gets nothing but a mention. Compare to the Tam Lin ballad where the eponymous sirrah-in-distress warns Janet or Margaret about the shapeshifting upon rescue thing, Freel just went for the dashing rescue and when the shapeshifting happened he wasn't even like, "Whatever."

But for faery-cat specific stories, I only know of the ones I linked.

 
Very cool! Thanks for mentioning these. I had no idea where to begin.

Awesome. :)

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2014, 05:19:00 pm »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;161634



Not specifically Irish, but:
 
As far as I can see it actually mainly features tabby cats, but A Colony of Cats came to mind (also available in the Andrew Lang fairy books on Project Gutenberg, which may also be useful to you).

I think it's pretty much canon that cats and fairies go together like peanut butter and pancakes, so it should be not that hard to find more about it, although your specific cat may be a bit more difficult (although perhaps not, since there have already been several things linked).

And seconding milk and honey for fairies. Also white cake and other sweets. If it's a cat fairy though, milk seems like a good way to go.

Mountain Cat

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2014, 10:32:23 pm »
Quote from: Scales;161704
Not specifically Irish, but:
 
As far as I can see it actually mainly features tabby cats, but A Colony of Cats came to mind (also available in the Andrew Lang fairy books on Project Gutenberg, which may also be useful to you).

I think it's pretty much canon that cats and fairies go together like peanut butter and pancakes, so it should be not that hard to find more about it, although your specific cat may be a bit more difficult (although perhaps not, since there have already been several things linked).

And seconding milk and honey for fairies. Also white cake and other sweets. If it's a cat fairy though, milk seems like a good way to go.



Sorry I missed this! And thanks for the links and info and ideas. I still have so much to learn on the subject, it's always hard to know which authors are reliable when you are a newbie, so this certainly helps. :)

On Halloween I set out some milk for the Cat Faery and went off to sleep. After being in bed for a few minutes I heard purring. I looked around for my cats, but they where all sleeping elsewhere. The purring didn't stop and I finally fell asleep listening to it. I'm hoping it was a kitty that was happy to get milk. :)

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Re: Cat Sith
« Reply #12 on: November 03, 2014, 02:23:07 am »
Quote from: Mountain Cat;164166
Sorry I missed this! And thanks for the links and info and ideas. I still have so much to learn on the subject, it's always hard to know which authors are reliable when you are a newbie, so this certainly helps. :)

On Halloween I set out some milk for the Cat Faery and went off to sleep. After being in bed for a few minutes I heard purring. I looked around for my cats, but they where all sleeping elsewhere. The purring didn't stop and I finally fell asleep listening to it. I'm hoping it was a kitty that was happy to get milk. :)

 
That's really awesome! So nice to get at least some inkling toward your offering's reception, plus another happy kitty around is always good (and happy faeries are much better than mad as well).

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