If a Black Cat Crosses Your Path...
(An Essay)

Actually, I agree with Groucho Marx: “If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.”

The Maryland version of this superstition is: “If a strange black cat crosses your path, turn around three times to break the bad luck.” On the other hand, if you knew THAT black cat belonged to the church deacon, Mr. Jones, well everything would be just fine and dandy.

The source of this notion is a STRANGE black cat COULD be suspected of being a witch in disguise. In sundry places and times during the 13th--17th century, black cats sadly were occasionally killed right along with the suspected witches. (The term witch is used in this context to indicate a wholy malevolent user of magic and could be male or female. At times, in English, the term witch meant almost exclusively a practitioner of malefica.)

I suspect this negative belief in the USA about black cats might have some Southern roots, as spinning around clockwise three times could be said to break a jinx. It could also be that the cat really didn’t cross your path because spinning around changes the direction of your path. In Southern hoodoo speech, “crossing” someone actually means a certain type of curse.

However, this belief isn’t universal. The black cat in Asia and the U.K. is associated with good luck.