INTERPRETATION
This dream reflects a wonderful transformation that you are going through. The kitten you saw “emerging” from the painful labour represents something new that is emerging within yourself.
Birth in a dream represents what you are birthing into the world, whether that is a new attitude, a new way of being in the world, or something more physical such as a new project, product or job. The feeling from your dream is that you are birthing a new attitude.
Animals in dreams tend to represent our instincts. They tend to come into our dreams when we are faced with change OR when life seems to have pushed us into a corner, leaving us to rely on our survival instincts. Sometimes our survival instincts are helpful to us, sometimes they’re not, especially if they’re based on coping patterns we have learned at earlier stages in our lives in order to get us through tough times, to survive.
Surviving is one thing. But surviving can mean just hanging in there. Better than surviving is thriving. Rather than just hanging in there (till the danger rears its head again) it’s better to grow from the experience, move forward, thrive and prosper in every way. To thrive, we need to understand our survival instincts, understand why we put them in place and why we believe they keep us safe, and then question this. To thrive, we sometimes need to transform our old survival instincts into better ways of responding, ways that are positive and fulfilling for us.
This is what your dream enables you to do, so let’s look deeper.
In your dream you are afraid to take responsibility, afraid to help the cat give birth. Responsibility was an issue. The cat was left in your care as if this was your responsibility. You stated that it wasn’t your cat, which is a way of denying responsibility. You kept calling for other people to help you (either share the responsibility or take over the responsibility). At the very end of the dream you were almost too afraid to help and screamed for someone to help, so again there’s a question of responsibility or not feeling confident about taking full responsibility. Even so, I love the way you used the word ‘almost’ – “I was almost too afraid to help …”. Even though you still screamed for help, that word ‘almost’ shows that you were not completely afraid. You had begun to break your fear of taking responsibility, and this is part of the transformation you are currently going through.
Where, in your life, have you been feeling pressured to take responsibility? What do you do (how do you respond and behave) to try to avoid responsibility?
Where, in your life, do you ask for help? How often do you ask for help? Do you feel people dismiss your calls for help, just like they dismissed you in the dream? When you really take a long hard look at your life, would you say you are over-burdened with responsibility (especially for things you feel you shouldn’t be responsible for), and that no-one hears your cries for help? Or would you say that you are fearful of taking responsibility in some areas of your life, and instinctively cry out for help rather than seeing if you can help yourself a bit first?
Have people been telling you it’s time for you to take responsibility for something, and not to call out for help until you really need it? Have people been suggesting you tackle something by yourself, perhaps even encouraging you, saying they know you can do this?
The clue here is that you say, “after all the other people had had enough of my crying wolf”. Everyone in a dream represents something about you, the dreamer. There’s a part of yourself that has finally had enough of you “crying wolf’, and is ready for change!
Crying wolf means sending out a false alert over and over again until, in the end, no-one takes your cries for help seriously. The danger then is that when there is a real danger – when you need to cry out a true alert in the face of real danger – no-one takes you seriously. Where, in your life, have you repeatedly sent out a false alert? Why? Have you tended to sense danger when there really is no danger? Have you suffered extreme anxiety or fear, and cried out for help when it wasn’t really needed? Do you tend to avoid taking responsibility for something because you are scared of what will happen if you do, so you tend to cry for help too easily?
Sometimes, all the help in the world can work against us, when what we really need to do is help ourselves, even when we don’t feel like taking that responsibility, or don’t think we should have to. Think of it like this: if you have an assignment to do, and you ask for lots of help, and people end up writing the assignment for you, you may get a pass mark but have you really learned anything about the subject? No. Have you developed, changed for the better, thrived? No. If people refuse to help you, or just help you a little, then you have to take responsibility and go through the hard work (labour) and face the pain of doing that and write the assignment yourself. And what is the outcome then? You’ll have learned something, developed, changed for the better, thrived. Taking responsibility, in the right circumstances, is a growing, empowering thing.
(In different circumstances we can take on too much responsibility, or not ask for enough help, but your dream suggests this is not the case. Your dream suggests the need to labour through responsibility by yourself for a rewarding outcome.)
One clue showing your dream is about the need to take more responsibility in one area of your life is that people kept dismissing you and telling you the cat wasn’t ready yet. This means there’s a readiness factor – you have to reach a point before you are ready to receive extra help – you have to do some of the work (labour) yourself. In particular, you have to face some of the pain yourself first, because this is what really is at issue here.
What painful situation, in your past, made you less willing to take on responsibility for something? What pain are you trying to dismiss by crying wolf or calling out for help before you really need it? What pain are you trying to avoid facing?
Actually, your dream does capture the turning point, as the kitten is born, and, as you say in your dream, “it was in striking contrast to the cat”, which means you did birth the change – made the transformation – did something new “in striking contrast” with the old way. (A dream reflects the last 24-48 hours leading up to the dream, so you did this in your life, and your dream captured the change.)
What you did in your waking life just before this dream was wonderful. You finally faced the pain you have been trying to avoid. Your old instinct was to ‘cry wolf’. In your dream, it was the moment people had had enough of you crying wolf that the cat started crying out in pain! So this was your moment of transformation – you gave up crying wolf (to avoid the pain) and started CRYING the pain, actually feeling it, finally REALLY READY to make a change (give birth), instead of pretending (“she wasn’t really ready yet”).
And so the kitten was born, the ‘new’ kitten from the ‘old’ cat, the new instinct from the old. Your new instinct, in striking contrast to the old, is prepared to take responsibility, to work through the pain, to focus on colour (emotion) and light (white kitten) instead of no colour (or fear only, blackish-grey maybe depressed cat) and dark (blackish-grey again).
At the end of the dream, you still screamed for help, but you were only “almost” too afraid to help. You had begun to face the fear. Also, the cat (the old way) no longer really needs help, because you have moved on. The focal point now is the new attitude in your life (the kitten). It’s the new you, that has emerged from taking responsibility and facing and feeling the pain, instead of dismissing it or crying wolf.
Congratulations. You must be feeling very powerful and excited about what is opening up to you now you can take on responsibility in a playful, thriving, kitten-like, yet focussed way, instead of avoiding it through fear.
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Find a picture of a blue-eyed white kitten exuding a positive energy, as if she would happily and playfully take responsibility knowing this is the way to have fun, grow and thrive.
Display the picture somewhere where you’ll see it every day. As you look at the picture, really get a feel for the energy of that kitten, and use that feeling to connect with the same feeling within you.
Do this several times every day for two months – and longer if you wish. The more you connect with this energy, the more you establish it deeply within yourself. Remember this kitten isn’t a baby that needs looking after! She doesn’t cry wolf! This is a lively kitten, happily embracing her new life in a totally responsible way.
As you do this alchemy practice, you’ll be surprised at your change in attitude. Responsibility will come naturally and playfully to you.
Jane Teresa Anderson
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