Mutilated animals, repeating dream...

[Randi193]

She looked down to discover an assortment of large cats, roaming the porch and steps, lying about, and lazily circling her legs.  One of the cats approaching her had a dead animal in it's mouth.  She stared, dismayed and horrified, as it dropped the mangled, bloodied corpse at her feet and began circling her legs and purring.  'Oh my God.  It's a kitten.'

Or, rather, it was a kitten.  One sad little eye was propulsed from it's skull, hanging out by the optic nerve fibers.  The jaw hung crazily from one mandibular joint, completely dislocated but swinging from a stretch of remaining skin on one side.  The fur, matted and bloody.  She turned to the side, retching, tears welling up in her eyes for the suffering this little creature had sustained.  'How could that other cat have done this? And why?'  As she looked back, she realized it wasn't dead at all, but trying to drag itself over to her, mewling piteously in pain.  She noted the front leg, bent at an unnatural angle, bone fragments showing through torn flesh. Somehow, she was going to have to kill it and put it out of it's misery, but she didn't know if she had the guts......"

I'm so sick of dreaming about dying and mutilated animals.  I just want to get a little restful sleep and not wake up with my pillow soaked from crying all night.....so frustrating.  I've had dreams like this ever since I was little, and there is never anything I can do to help them. 

[Tony Crisp]

Randi – Imagination is an awful and wonderful ability. Awful if we let it loose without realising its power, wonderful if we recognise that we can create our world with it.

Like any animal a mother can both support or mutilate our young growing self, as the cat did to the kitten. In India they symbolise this as Kali, the energy that can give birth and destroy. That is just like our imagination. By using your imagination constructively over a period of time you can stop these dreams. I will try to explain how.

Imagine yourself in the dream and continue it as a fantasy or daydream. Consider what it is that troubles you or is not what you want in your dream. Now take time to think how you would alter it and how to have an ending that would satisfy you. Not, in your imagination enter your dream and alter the dream in any way that satisfies. Experiment with it, play with it, until you find a fuller sense of self expression. It is very important to note whether any anger or hostility is in the dream but not fully expressed. If so, let yourself imagine a full expression of the anger. It may be that as this is practised more anger is openly expressed in subsequent dreams. This is healthy, allowing such feelings to be vented and redirected into satisfying ways, individually and socially. In doing this do not ignore any feelings of resistance, pleasure or anxiety. Satisfaction occurs only as we learn to acknowledge and integrate resistances and anxieties into what we express. This is a very important step. It gradually changes those of our habits which trap us in lack of satisfaction, poor creativity or inability to resolve problems.

Tony

[Lisa]

If this were a one-time dream and not a repetitive dream of injured animals, I wouldn't post. And, a disclaimer I am not a therapist or analyst. But, I have worked with dreams for several years. 

I want to add to Tony's astute comments and make a suggestion that perhaps the dreamer needs to work with someone she trusts to get to the bottom of these dreams. If we are indeed all parts of the dream, then there's some self-limiting and/or self-destructive behavior suggested in these dreams. As these dreams have gone on for years, it may be worth the time and expense to talk in depth to another professional. They may be patterns or behaviors that are hard to consciously see, and harder to change on one's own.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes has a CD "In the House of the Riddle Mother" in which she addresses women's dreams of injured animals as well as other women's dream motifs. It is a fascinating CD.

Thanks for the courage for posting the dream.

[Tony Crisp]

Lisa - Thank you for your thoughtfulness in replying.

I would like too add that we have a trained therapist built in - our dreams. And working gently with our imagination can do wonders. I know from personal experience because I was suffering from depression which was painful to live with, and in those  days there was no therapist, and my doctor only suggested a form of emotional sedation - I was born in 1937. And when therapy came into fashion it cost more that I could afford anyway. Instead I discovered an old path - LifeStream coupled with exploring dreams. Not the talking about dreams, but actually diving into the unconscious and sorting out the knots.

So my whole work is to stand for self-help. I understand that this way is not what many people seek, but if it is something you can do I recommend it -- but of course you need courage, or a belief that your unconscious is not out to get you.

Tony