Dreaming about
cats

Cats have lived with people for thousands of years without ever quite agreeing to be tamed, and that half-wild closeness is what most cat dreams are about. Dreaming about cats usually points to independence (yours, or the lack of it), to a gut feeling you haven't acted on, or to someone whose affection you can't quite read. A cat that curled up on you and a cat that hissed from under the bed are pointing at different things, and both are common.

It also matters whose cat it was. And if you live with one, the dream may be nothing more than your day, because we dream about what we spend our waking hours with, and a cat that sleeps on your bed is a big part of those hours.^[1] A cat you didn't know, or one that behaved like no real cat would, is more likely to stand for something, and the details of what it did are what tell you what.

What dreaming about cats means

Cats sleep most of the day, hunt at dusk, and are loving strictly on their own terms. Anyone who has lived with one knows those habits, and each of them turns into a way of reading the dream.

Independence, yours or someone else's

A cat goes where it likes and comes back when it's ready, and anyone who has tried to make one do something knows why "herding cats" means a hopeless job. So a cat that wandered through your dream at its own pace is often about freedom. Have you been squeezing yourself into other people's plans lately? Then the cat may be the part of you that wants its evenings back. If it was someone else who kept their distance like a cat, the dream may be about a partner or a friend who stays close only as long as it suits them.

A gut feeling you haven't followed

Cats see far better than we do in dim light, and they notice things in a room before we do. A cat watching you from a dark corner, or staring at a door that nobody has opened yet, is often a picture of something you've sensed without putting it into words. It could be a doubt about a plan or a feeling that a friend is upset with you. The dream doesn't prove the feeling is right. But it does show you're carrying one, and that's worth knowing before you make up your mind.

Comfort and being looked after

A purring cat on your lap is one of the calmest images a dream can offer, and it tends to come when you need comfort, or when you've found some. Cats often sleep pressed against the person they trust most. If you've been lonely, or you've just moved somewhere new, a warm cat that chose you can be about wanting that kind of quiet company.

A sharp tongue

English calls a spiteful remark "catty", and some cat dreams are about exactly that, a sly comment that stung or a friend who smiles and scratches in the same breath. This reading fits best when the cat seemed sweet and then turned, which is something real cats are known for too.

Dreaming about a black cat

A black cat brings centuries of superstition with it, and that's usually what the dream is working with: luck, fear, and something you can't see clearly in the dark. Whether it feels like a bad sign or a friendly one depends a lot on where you grew up. It's a big enough dream to have its own page on black cats.

Dreaming about a white cat

White cats stand out in a dream the way they do in a room, and they tend to carry the gentler readings, like innocence, a clean start or something you want to protect. There's an odd fact worth knowing here. White cats with blue eyes are far more likely than other cats to have been deaf from birth, so a white cat that wouldn't come when you called may be about someone in your life who isn't hearing you, or about a part of you that has stopped listening.

Dreaming about a cat attacking you

Cats rarely attack people, and when they do it's usually out of fear, or because they were handled for too long. That's a useful frame for the dream. Has someone who was warm with you lashed out lately, or have you been on the receiving end of a mood that came from nowhere? It can also be your own anger, the part of you that has been stroked and handled and managed for too long and finally had enough. A black cat attacking you adds dread to the same picture, which is often a sign that you expected this to go badly before it started.

Dreaming about a cat biting you

A cat's bite in a dream is usually smaller than an attack, and so is what it means. Real cats often bite in the middle of being petted, without warning, because they've had enough. So the dream may be about a boundary, either someone telling you they need space or you wishing you could say it. Where you were when it happened (stroking it, feeding it, trying to pick it up) usually shows which.

Dreaming about kittens

Kittens are small, playful and hopeless on their own, and a dream about them is often about something new that needs looking after. It might be a project, a relationship in its first weeks, or a child, real or planned. A box of kittens being given away can be about having more to care for than you can manage. But a kitten you couldn't find, or that kept slipping out of your arms, tends to be about a worry that you can't protect something as well as you'd like.

Dreaming about a dead cat

If your own cat has died, a dream of it is usually grief doing its work, and many people find these dreams comforting even when they're sad. A dead cat you didn't know is more often about something independent in you that has been worn down, a hobby, a friendship or a sense of freedom that got lost under obligations. People say a cat has nine lives, and a dead cat that got up again is a familiar dream too. Usually it tends to be about a part of you that's tougher than you thought.

Dreaming about a cat clinging to you

Cats do cling, kneading with their paws and refusing to be put down, usually when they're anxious or deeply attached. A cat that wouldn't let go of you in a dream is often about someone who depends on you more than you'd like, or about your own wish to hold on to something. People looking for a spiritual meaning often find the folk belief that cats can sense illness or bad energy and stay close to protect you. Folklore isn't evidence. But if the clinging felt protective rather than needy, that's a fair way to read your own dream.

Dreaming about lots of cats

A house full of cats is many needs pulling at you at once, each small, none of them willing to wait. Some people also wake from this dream with a specific fear of ending up alone, the "cat lady" picture that pop culture loves. If the cats in your dream were big ones, the reading moves toward power and danger, and the pages on lions and tigers fit better.

Dreaming about cats according to Jung and Freud

Freud named cats outright, and Jung's list of mother symbols leaves room for a cat that looks after you.

Jung: the cat that looks after you

Jung's mother archetype, the picture of being cared for and held, drew on a long list of images, including the cow and the hare and "helpful animals in general."^[2] He doesn't name cats, so putting one there is our step, but a cat that curled up on you and stayed fits that list and the "comfort and being looked after" reading above. A cat that hissed from under the bed is another dream, and the independence reading is the better fit for it.

Freud: cats as genital symbols

Freud named cats in The Interpretation of Dreams, among the animals (with fish, snails and mice) that dreams use as genital symbols.^[3] Read his way, a cat dream can be about sex or desire, and plenty of languages already use cat words for the female genitals, English and French among them. He still asked the dreamer's own memories first, so if your childhood cat is in the dream, that cat comes before any symbol.

Other readings

Artemidorus, the Greek diviner whose five-book guide to dreams dates from the 2nd century, read a cat as an adulterer, since it steals birds and birds stood for women in his scheme.^[4] That makes his cat a person more than a pet, and it fits the sly side of the animal that the "sharp tongue" reading above is built on.

The spiritual meaning of cats in dreams

Cats have been worshipped and feared, so the readings pull in very different directions. Ancient Egyptians protected their cats, mourned them and even mummified them, and they painted the goddess Bastet with a cat's head. But medieval and early modern Europe tied the same animal to witches and the devil. Both pictures still live in how people dream about cats, as guardians in one dream and as something uncanny in the next.

The cat in the Talmud

In the Talmud, the rabbis' record of law and debate, a few folios of the tractate Berakhot go to dream signs, and its reading of a cat depends on a word. Where cats were called shunra, it reads the dream as a sign that a beautiful song will be written for you, and where they were called shinra, as a sign of a change for the worse.^[5] It's wordplay between two regional names for the cat, so it only works in the original and says nothing about the animal itself.

Questions to ask about your cat dream

The cat in your dream is probably not the cat in anyone else's, so before you pick a reading, look at what yours did and what you did back.

• Was it your cat, a cat you once had, or a stranger?
• Did it come to you, ignore you, or run from you?
• Did you feel calm, guilty, irritated or scared?
• Did it remind you of a person, in the way it looked at you or kept its distance?
• Where in your life do you want more freedom, or more company?

Oniri's reading starts from those same questions, so what it tells you about a cat dream is built on your cat (and not the average one).