The invention relates to a catalyst for catalyzing butadiene cyclization trimerization and an application method thereof. The components of the catalyst include titanium naphthenate and AlRyZ3-y, wherein Z is a halogeno group, R is an alkyl group, and Y is more than 0 and less than or equal to 3; and the catalyst also includes a small amount of zirconium naphthenate. When the catalyst is used for catalyzing the butadiene cyclization trimerization, methylbenzene, the zirconium naphthenate, the AlRyZ3-y, the butadiene and the titanium naphthenate are added into a reaction kettle in sequence and then mixed; the mixture is reacted for 20-40 hours at the temperature of 30-90 DEG C to obtain a reaction product; and sedimentation, distillation and purification treatments are carried out on the reaction product to obtain a butadiene trimer. Through measuring, the conversion of the butadiene is 90-95%, and the content of trans, trans, cis-1,5,9-cyclododecatriene in the trimer is 99.99-100%.