Thursday, April 17, 2014

ANIMAL MAGNETISM – A Dream to Remember

How often do you dream? If it’s frequently, you’re lucky. Me, I very seldom dream—or should I say, remember my dreams. So when I do remember one it’s likely to be a beaut…like the one I had last week:

I was taking a nap in the living room. As I awoke, I noticed Charlie, an old friend who’d been visiting me from Boston, standing next to me. He was about to leave and head back home. Without as much as sitting up, I gave him a sort of awkward handshake, and he walked toward the door with his small carry-on bag.

A few steps behind Charlie tottered a very young horse, a winsome, long-legged, still-slightly-gangly  chestnut foal. Charlie opened the door, turned and beckoned his young friend to leave with him. Instead the animal stopped beside my day bed, glanced down at me, and lay down…right on top of me.


Not the slightest bit alarmed, I put my arms around the beautiful animal, marveling at its smell. It wasn’t that I’d expected it to smell bad, but I thought it would at least smell like a horse. It didn’t; it smelled even better, a sweet, warm-nutty scent something like the way your skin smells after you lie in sun for while.

You’d think having a horse of any size lying on top of you would, if not crush
you, at least squeeze the wind out of you. But this foal was nearly weightless.
I felt nothing but its smooth, still-soft coat, its warmth, the slow ebb and flow
of its breath.

It nuzzled with me.

       The big cat licked my face and then 
       nestled its head in the crook of my neck.

WITHOUT A WORD
Charlie had left without a word, and I lay there overcome with wonder at this sweet animal’s affection for me; with what seemed like the opening of a clear channel of silent communication between us. It was as if our spirits flowed together into one. I closed my eyes and, basking in this magical moment, drifted off to sleep.

Later, when I opened my eyes, the foal had somehow morphed into a stunningly beautiful cat. Again, it was not the kind of cat you'd expect to be sleeping with—it was a cougar. It was looking right into my eyes, deeply, as if this was as extraordinary an experience for it as for me.
 

I studied every hair on the cougar’s face, the meld from fawn to white around its eyes and mouth, the little black spot at the root of each whisker. I could feel that
the animal shared my admiration and wonder.

The big cat licked my face and then nestled its head in the crook of my neck.
I did not lick it back.

When I awoke from my dream, I lay in bed for the longest time basking in the rapture of that transcendent experience. I felt a guest in a paradise of possibility, though, try as I might, I could not go back again and conjure up my enchanting new friends.

      Whatever life may throw at us, the only thing 
      we have to fear is failing to understand its
      place in that sacred reality.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
I've shared my dream with my wife and several friends. Inevitably, we traded hypotheses about its meaning. I guessed it might have been inspired by my recent visit with my grandchildren, and our snuggling at bedtime.

My wife thinks that’s too literal, and that the animals and their calming, positive energy were more likely a manifestation of my father, come back to reassure me during a time of extraordinary stress and anxiety in my life.

One friend has an even more literal take on it than I do: that my close encounter with such improbable creatures was merely a playing out of the mystical connection I already feel with all living things. It arises from my deep conviction that every single organism, every rock, every cloud, every drop of water, even the vast emptiness of deep space, is part of a single, universal whole.

And that, when we come face to face with whatever life may throw at us, the only thing we have to fear is failing to understand its place in that sacred reality.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

When dreams are very vivid and with great feeling.... they are in essence downloads from the higher realms .... one could even call it an initiation into a particular frequency band of spirit... in a sense the horse and the cougar are totem animals... whose energies have merged with your own since you have taken them within and to heart... and so they are akin to opening new doors where because you have new energy invigorating your soul.. in companionship with these animals.... you will begin to notice great changes in your exterior world... in a sense you have morphed within.. and so the world outside will morph since the inside and the outside reflect one another. So you can ask your self... what does a horse represent to you of this type... what have you attributed to the cougar... you now have these qualities engrained to a higher degree within you.... plus... you had a feeling of peace and connection within the dream... you then take this feeling into waking life... and if you ever feel down for any reason... you can call upon the horse or the cougar to assist you and lift your energy levels... You can ask your self too what Charlie means to you... because there is then a direct link to his energy state with these animals... perhaps attributes he himself contains. The handshake therefore represents the transfer of such energies into your very own auric field which will begin to radiate these added energies into the world around you. ..

Jeffrey Willius said...

Many thanks, Bern, for your encouragement to take my amazing dream with me. So maybe my wish that it wouldn't be over -- that I could go back and revisit it -- can still come true!

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the typos. I meant to say "Jeff is such a wordsmith...."

Jeffrey Willius said...

Hey Anonymous, Thanks for the nice compliment! I'll forgive your typos...whatever they were. (I don't see your original entry here, so just consider that a blanket amnesty. ;-)

Unknown said...

When Jeff and I were in high school, I briefly dated a girl.....let's call her Nancy. She was a "long legged, winsome, chestnut haired" beauty but our relationship never went anywhere. I think I introduced her to Jeff, and Jeff got to know her a little later, maybe during our college years. I'm not sure how long they dated and only Jeff would know whether she laid down on top of him, or smelled so beautifully, or was so weightless. For years and years after that, Nancy's name would come up in our conversation. Because she also dated a third friend of ours. What ever happened to Nancy?

A few years ago, through the magic of Google, Jeff found Nancy's email address. I encouraged him to contact her, after what was probably a 40 year hiatus. I was quite impressed when he did contact her, but I was very sad when he reported that Nancy was suffering from a serious disease, in fact, a terminal disease. Jeff stayed in touch with Nancy and supported her through emails. He told me about her life and her family and her highs and lows. Nancy "shared my admiration and wonder," as Jeff describes the cat in the dream. I can only imagine Jeff's feelings about her as she figuratively "nested her head in the crook of my neck." Sadly, Nancy passed away a few months ago. I have a great respect and admiration for my friend Jeff for the way he reached out to Nancy and provided her comfort and companionship. She was a real presence as a young girl, and Jeff said she was full of life and strength to the end.

So that's my interpretation of the dream. Nancy was the spicy foal in his youth and a warm feline presence in his old age. I suspect that Nancy's name popped up sometime during the day that Jeff had the dream, and it triggerred a rather remarkable dreamscape.

I played myself.

Charlie

Jeffrey Willius said...

Hey Chas. -- I hadn't made the connection between the foal and "Nancy." Nor the cougar. But it's as good an analysis as any I've heard, and, whether or not there's any connection, I'm glad I got to know her again after all the years and was able to share at least a little of her final journey from this life.

Post a Comment

Thanks for visiting One Man's Wonder! I'd love to hear your comments on this post or my site in general.
And please stay in touch by clicking on "Subscribe" below.