Author

Subject: Three Cats

Angela

05:03 30/11/1999 

My Grandmother (deceased), my parents and some other family members were to gather in an old barn for a meeting. We supposedly met in a different place each evening.

I arrived at the barn first and was going up to the loft to set up. I found two walls (one above the other) painted as if in cream corn. They were slippery. I had to climb a rope ladder to reach the inlet between the walls. I kept thinking that Grandma is never going to be able to make this climb.

At the inlet there was an empty bag of cat food. As I climbed over the wall three cats raced for me (black with orange flecks, grey and white). They clamped their teeth onto my hands. Two were on the left (the black and the grey) and the white one was on the right.

I wasn't afraid. I knew they were just hungry. I tried to gently toss them over the wall, so they could get back to the ground and find some food. But the black cat scrambled right back into the inlet again. The others followed suit.

I climbed down to tell my family members that we just couldn't meet here.

It was just too sad. I felt terrible for the elder couple who had rented us the barn too. I knew how poor they were.

Note:

I haven't really liked cats, which I'm sure has come from a small fear of them.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

Read the original thread or Jane Teresa's view.

Carole

23:57 05/12/1999 

Dear Angela

I'm not sure what your dream really means, but it brought up lots of feelings for me, which I would like to share with you.

I am wondering whether this dream is about the death of your grandmother. Were you very close to her, and do you wish there was a way to reach her? Do you wish you could scale the barrier between life and death to just see and be with her again? Let me explain what I mean.

The dream setting is in a barn, which is a store house: a storehouse for grain, corn, etc. It could also be a storehouse of memories: fond memories of your grandmother, perhaps. This storehouse is where there is to be a family meeting and you are to go to the loft to set up.

The loft is a place of high hopes, high ideals. You find two walls, one on top of each other, painted as if in cream corn. When I think of cream, I think of milk, mother's milk, which nurtures the baby. The top of the cream is condensed loving. Mother, to me, represents milk, and perhaps the cream represents the grand-mother. The rope may be the strong attachment you feel towards your grandmother, and the ladder is your attempt to connect between your conscious and unconscious mind, the physical and the spiritual. However, the barrier is high, and you are worried that your grandmother won't be able to make the journey.

YOu arrive at the inlet where there is an empty bag of cat food. Cats often symbolise our psychic senses, our ability to seek out the intangible, the unknown, the non-physical world. Three cats come bounding towards you and you gently attempt to toss them over the wall. If you could manage to scale this barrier, then perhaps you would have access to this other world. HOwever, they get no further than the inlet.

YOu descend the ladder with sadness and tell other family members that you cannot meet here. In other words, you realise you cannot, for the time being, get beyond the barrier - the barrier which separates life and death, and your grandmother. It is just too sad, you say. I am not sure who the elderly couple are who rented you the barn, but they may represent the part of you which feels all the poorer for not having your grandmother near.

I might be completely off the mark. We can only use our own imagination with the symbols, but I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Best wishes

Carole

Angela

04:30 06/12/1999 

Hi Carole

Thanks so much for your time on my dream. You allowed me to get past my first barrier in what the dream means.

I was not close to my Grandmother, but her death is going to be reinacted in my novel. This writing is of the utmost importance for me right now and perhaps it is about that. I was originally working on a trilogy (3 cats?), but that has reverted back to one book now (the cats remain on the one level?) The book, however, is based on my Grandfather's story, which would include my Grandmother. So, what you were saying about trying to climb the rope to connect with death would really apply in that sense.

I am going though a bit of family stuff these days too. Much has not been discussed because it is 'too sad'. Gee...not being able to have the meeting because it is too difficult to scale the barriers...

The cream corn still feels a little mysterious. What you said makes a lot of sense, but I think it is a personal symbol for me. I have dreamt about it before, but I can't seem to find the notes on the dream. I think of my father when I think of cream corn. He loves it. I think it reminds him of his childhood, which would in fact be the Grandfather and Grandmother to whom I'm referring. Interesting.

I'll try harder to find my previous cream corn dream. And thanks again Carole. That did really help.

Angela

Angela

04:39 06/12/1999 

Oh yeah, and the barn was swept completely clean by these older, poor people. I remember thinking there would be nowhere for anyone to sit.

It definitely would not be comfortable to discuss things with my family... Hmmm.

Jane Anderson

14:44 06/12/1999 

Angela,

Is the one book that was to be three, taking a more spiritual bend? I'm thinking of the white cat (white: pure, spiritual) trying to feed from (hunger) your right hand (how you handle the outer world: your book communication)?

The loft, being at a higher level, could be seen as a spiritual level too, both in the sense Carole suggested and also in the 'higher level' sense.

A 'clean sweep'. Have you recently made a 'clean sweep' in spiritual/higher levels of your life, leaving you with a hunger for more (hungry cats)? Has this 'clean sweep' of (I imagine) personal issues left you in a different space from your family? Has this new perspective led you to a space where there is nowhere for your family to sit: i.e. as if you have dealt with what you need to deal with within yourself (and are ready to communicate this through the new form that your book is taking), but this is almost leading you to a space where you no longer NEED to discuss certain things with your family? Have you a different perspective, one which you feel your family would not understand?

Your metaphorical cats would not find fulfilment (food) at base level if you are currently operating with a more spiritual focus. They are returning for more.

In what sense could you be the 'poor people' who so want the barn to be rented? (You seem to have the strongest emotional attachment to these people in the dream, which often denotes an emerging sensitivity towards and acceptance of an aspect of yourself.)

Jane Anderson

Angela

10:05 07/12/1999 

Wow.

It all seems to come together now...

The poor old people are the 'me' who has tried, in vain, to communicate with my family and worked so hard to create a spotless environment. But my barn/I just cannot house such diversity.

It seems that there is great empowerment, but yet there is also terrible sadness in coming to terms with one's individuality -- that lonely aspect and loss of sense of belonging. I believe my 'poor couple' has saddened me so deeply because what they/I have will never suit my family and we will never be able to meet on the same level in comfort.

Oh, that is so right about the fact that the 'need to discuss things with my family' has passed. And I also have very different life perspectives from them. I had actually consciously noted that only very recently.

That makes terrific sense about the cats. Thank you. There is a bit of starving instinct going on then isn't there? I need to bring food to them. I cannot choose to abandon them just because it's a pain in the butt to climb that rope ladder. I can reach them, it's just that the 'narrow', 'distant' and 'too frail to climb' traits in me (represented through my family members) cannot.

It is interesting because I see that now I am curious about the upper cream corn wall. Perhaps the nourishment is up there and those cats know it. Their determination is a bit frightening, but I must say it is also a bit inspiring, because it must be 'mine' afterall...

Cream corn -- still couldn't find the connection. Oh well, I'm sure that it will pop up in another dream.

Thank you Carole and Jane. You were both really very helpfull.

Angela.

Angela

16:41 07/12/1999 

Make that helpfullllll... :)

2008-2010

Jane Teresa's View

Jane Teresa Anderson

Overview Interpretation & Dream Alchemy Practice suggestion

JANE TERESA'S
COMMENTS
Please see Jane Teresa’s replies (in turquoise) in the original discussion thread above.

JANE TERESA'S
INTERPRETATION & DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Jane Teresa's interpretation and suggested dream alchemy practice will be added here during 2008-2010.

This is one of 500 dreams Jane Teresa is interpreting for this Dream Index.

You can read the interpretations as Jane Teresa completes them by subscribing (free) to our RSS Feed.

Thank you for your patience during this major web development.

You can consult with Jane Teresa or her Dream Team and receive your interpretation by email within five working days.