The Cat Dream: Post #3

courtesy of thecatwiki.com

The Dream about Cats

I’ve been featuring a dream that involved cats. The dreamer was in a meeting with women. Everyone had a well-behaved cat in her lap even though the cats were being diapered. The dreamer was thirsty and saw a drinking fountain with a window over it. As she looked, the sun shone brightly through the window.

Last time I wrote about how I helped the dreamer determine the symbol meanings. We chose the important symbols, and then I asked her to “tell me about” each one. Here’s our exchange.

The Dream Symbols Interpreted

Tell me about:

Women: “I’m a woman, so I have a strong sense of bonding with other women. They’re like me.”

Cats: “I am reminded of the expression, ‘catty’—like back-biting.”

Diapers: “Dealing with babies or infancy.”

Well-behaved: “Content, not making trouble.”

Thirsty: “Parched, uncomfortable.”

Drinking fountain: “A place to refresh myself and get relief.”

Window: “Transparent. It’s where you see through—both in and out.”

Sun: “It provides warmth, light and vitamins. It’s essential for growth—really growth of everything.”

The Cat Dream Reassembled and Retold

In the above exchange, we were “translating” the language of metaphor into common English. Dreams communicate in metaphors; that’s what dream symbols are. It is up to us to decipher the metaphors because that tells us the symbols’ meanings. Then we need to reassemble the dream and retell it replacing the symbols with the definitions we came up with.

There is one other piece of the puzzle: As a general rule, dream symbols represent aspects of the dreamer herself. So when we retell the dream in its new form, we’ll insert occasional phrases to remind us of that fact. I recommend taking another quick look at the very first paragraph above which states the dream in its original, symbolic form. Then read the retold version which comes next.

The Revised Cat Dream

In my dream, I’m with a part of myself that is a lot like me; I feel a really strong bond with this part of me. I am holding a part of myself that is catty and can be back-biting. In fact, all the aspects of myself in this dream are holding potentially back-biting qualities. But what is remarkable is that the potentially back-biting parts of me are all behaving themselves, even though they are all being treated like babies, in their infancy.

I feel parched and uncomfortable, and I see a place within myself where I can refresh myself and get relief. It’s near the part of me that is transparent—the part of me that I can see through, both in and out. As I look, I see the part of myself that provides me with growth, that gives everything about me warmth, light and vitamins. [END]

Coming Up

Aren’t dreams amazing? In the fourth and final post on this dream, we’ll learn what this dream was specifically referring to in the dreamer’s life. In the meantime, let me know what you think!

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