Spells for Cats
Daisy Pepper
Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 2002
96 pages
This is one of those cute little hardcover gift books you find at the chain stores. When I first got it from Amazon, I wasn’t sure what the premise would be–would it be yet another “Here are some cat deities, and how about reading your cat’s astrological chart?” book in the vein of Enchanted Cat and Your Magickal Cat. Or would it be something entirely different?
Well, it’s definitely a book of spells, and cats are involved. They range from spells to keep cats safe to sabbat celebrations that are centered on the feline who owns you. Creative ideas include a spell to be sure the cat only kills vermin, and one that blesses an herb garden planted especially for an older cat. There’s even a touching ritual for marking the passing of a kitty friend. The spells are simple and sweet, nothing too incredibly complicated; this book is meant for a broader audience than just the pagan community.
That also means it’s not a particularly theory-heavy book; it’s mainly just the spells. This is a light-hearted gift book, not a serious treatise on feline familiars. Still, the material is quite practical to the average witch or pagan who might like to involve hir cat a bit more in hir magical work. There are occasional historical inaccuracies or oddities, and the information is pretty simplified, but no huge glaring errors. My only real problem is that for all the spells that are meant to protect the cat, the author advocates letting cats roam unattended outdoors, where they’re more at risk for getting injured or killed by dogs, cars, or pedestrians. Cats can’t be contained in the safety of a yard like a dog, and so IMO need to be kept indoors.
Still, it’s a cute little book and would make a nice gift for a pagan–or for a pagan-friendly acquaintance (and hir cat(s)) who might get a kick out of it. The whimsical drawings of cats accentuate the text, and it’s a very aesthetically pleasing work. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than what it is, and for that I like it.
Four kittyprints out of five.
Pagan Book Reviews 
Miss Lynx said,
July 17, 2007 at 6:51 am
My wife’s response, upon hearing the title of this book, was to fix our youngest and most troublesome cat with a baleful glare and snap “They DO NOT NEED any extra magical help!” 🙂
Ealasaid said,
July 17, 2007 at 11:54 am
Aw, that sounds like a cute book! I agree that it’s weird not to mention that the easiest way to keep a cat safe is to keep it indoors. I grew up with indoor/outdoor cats (out during the day, closed in at night when they came home for supper) and while most of them lived long, venerable lives, some of them just never came home one night. I keep my two kitties inside as a result (it started with me not wanting to have to track them down when they hit the adolescent wandering stage and ended with me realizing I live close to two major expressways and three freeways).