Cat Naming Ritual

The following ritual can be performed when naming a new cat or when giving a magickal name to a familiar. It can also be utilized as a wiccaning or paganing ceremony for newborn kittens.

When the Moon is new (which is the traditional time for performing rituals and spell-work connected with beginnings and new things), cast a magick circle in a clockwise manner and summon the elemental spirits of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. In the center of the circle, either upon an altar or the floor, light a brand new cat-shaped candle that has been anointed with a few drops of catnip essential oil or any oil that magickally corresponds to the cat’s astrological sign (if known).

Take the cat lovingly in your arms. Gently stroke the animal’s fur, and when it begins to purr,visualize the cat surrounded by a protective aura of white light and then recite nine times the following pagan prayer (once for each of the cat’s nine lives):

(Name) is the name I give to thee.

(Name) is the one who ye shall be.

And may the sound of thy new name

Magick and power ninefold claim.

May ye live free and blessed be

By goddess Bastet. So mote it be!

After the prayer has been recited, take a concecrated athame, or wand, and use it to trace the sacred symbol of the pentacle in the air over the cat. Give the cat a kiss; then give thanks and bid farewell to the elemental spirits. Uncast the circle in a counterclockwise manner, and extinguish the candle.

The cat naming ritual is now complete.

From Gerina Dunwich’s Your Magickal Cat