Dreaming about
black cats

Most people learn the superstition about black cats long before they ever meet one, and that early lesson is usually what a black cat dream is made of. Dreaming about black cats tends to point to a fear of bad luck, to something in your life you can't see clearly, or to a part of yourself you've kept in the dark. And in most of these dreams the cat does very little, because what you expect from it does the work. Dreams reliably carry over what we think about while awake,^[1] and for most of us that includes the old superstition.

That expectation depends on where you grew up, since we all pick up our superstitions from the people around us. In the US and much of continental Europe, a black cat crossing your path is bad luck, but in Britain and Ireland it has long been a good sign, and sailors once liked having one on board. So the same dream can feel like a warning to one person and a blessing to another, and how you felt when you woke up is the surest way to tell which one you had.

What dreaming about black cats means

A black cat is hard to see at night, apart from its eyes, which catch the light and seem to glow. That one physical fact explains a lot of what we dream about them. They're the part of a scene you can't make out, and they come with a story already attached.

A fear of things going wrong

If you've been waiting for bad news (test results, a decision at work, a reply that hasn't come), a black cat is a fast way for a dream to show dread. And you already know what it's supposed to mean, so the dream doesn't have to explain anything. In this reading the cat is your own pessimism, and the useful question is what exactly you're expecting to go wrong and how likely it really is.

Something you can't see clearly

Because a black cat disappears into a dark room, it suits anything half-hidden, a situation you don't fully understand or a person whose motives are unclear to you. Dreams of a black cat in the shadows, or one you only noticed when its eyes caught the light, often follow a feeling that something is going on that nobody has told you. Like dreams of darkness, they're about not having the full picture.

A side of yourself you've kept hidden

But a black cat can also be you, or at least the part of you that other people treat as bad news. Have you been judged for something you are, or kept a trait out of sight because you expected people to react badly? Then the black cat may be that trait, the part some call your shadow, asking to be seen, and the dream is less about luck than about being misjudged.

Independence with an edge

Everything ordinary cats stand for in dreams (freedom, instinct, affection on their own terms) still applies, as the cats page explains. The black coat adds mystery and a touch of danger, so a black cat often stands for independence that other people find unsettling, yours or someone else's.

Dreaming about a black cat attacking you

This is the most searched black cat dream, and it tends to wake people up frightened. It usually means the fear has stopped being general and become personal. The thing you were dreading has reached you, or you feel it's about to. Where have you been bracing for a blow? Has it actually landed, or are you still waiting for it? A scratch is often about a sharp word, while a full attack points to something bigger, like a conflict you can't avoid any longer.

Dreaming about a black cat crossing your path

Here the dream plays the superstition straight, so the reading depends on what happened next. If you stopped, turned around or felt doomed, the dream is about a plan you're losing faith in, often one you've just started. But if you kept walking and nothing happened, that's a good sign of a different sort, because it means some part of you has already decided the fear won't stop you.

Dreaming about a black cat in your house

Your home in a dream is usually your private life, so a black cat indoors brings the worry close. It may be about family or a partner, or about something you've let into your life that you're not sure about. A black cat that wouldn't leave, however many times you put it out, is a worry you keep pushing away that keeps coming back in. In British folklore a strange black cat moving into your home brings luck, which is a gentler way to read the same scene.

Dreaming about a black cat following you

A black cat that follows you everywhere is a thought you can't shake. It could be guilt, a fear, or a memory that turns up at the worst moments. Notice its distance, because a cat that stays a few steps behind is something you're aware of but not dealing with, while a cat that keeps trying to catch up wants your attention now. And if its eyes glowed in the dark, the dream may also be about feeling watched (by a parent, a boss, or your own conscience).

Dreaming about a friendly black cat

Plenty of people dream of a black cat that purrs, rubs against their legs or sleeps on their lap, and wake up surprised. This dream usually turns the superstition on its head. Something you were taught to fear turns out to be safe, or a person you had written off turns out to be kind. It can also be about making peace with a part of yourself you used to hide.

Dreaming about a black kitten

A black kitten is a small fear at the start, before it has grown into anything. It can be a doubt about something new (a job, a move, a relationship in its first weeks), and it's still small enough to handle. Kittens also need care, and a black kitten you wanted to protect is often about a new and fragile part of your life that you feel other people might judge.

Dreaming about a dead black cat

A dead black cat often brings relief more than grief, as if the bad luck died with it. Read that way, the dream is about a fear that has passed or a superstition you've outgrown. If you killed it, or felt guilty, the feeling matters more than the act. Edgar Allan Poe built a whole horror story, "The Black Cat", on a man whose guilt over a black cat he killed ends up giving away his worse crime, and dreams can do something similar with a smaller guilt you'd rather not look at.

Dreaming about black cats according to Jung and Freud

Each has something to say about why this particular image works the way it does.

Jung: a superstition and a shadow

A superstition is a ready-made meaning handed down with the object, which is exactly what Jung distrusted in dream dictionaries, and he held that the dreamer's own associations decide.^[2] His question about a black cat would be who taught you what it means and what you think of it yourself. His shadow, the part of you that you've pushed away, gives the second step: a black cat that stays half hidden, that you only notice when its eyes catch the light, is a shape a dream could use for something you keep out of sight. A friendly black cat would be that side of you starting to come closer. That's his idea applied to a black cat, not something he said about one.

Freud: the cat and the day before

Freud listed cats, with snakes, fish and mice, among the animals he read as sexual symbols,^[3] and he said it flatly. So in his reading a black cat that slips through a door you keep trying to shut, or curls up in your bed, could be about a desire you'd rather keep out of the house. His list has cats but no black ones, and he set the dreamer's own free associations above any list. For a black cat he'd also start with yesterday, because this is an image that arrives with plenty of fresh stock (a cat that crossed your path on the way to work, a Halloween window, a friend's joke about Friday the 13th), and a dream reaches for such things at night.

Questions to ask about your black cat dream

Superstition gives a black cat a meaning before it's done anything, so it helps to slow down and look at what this one actually did.

• Did you feel dread, curiosity, or something like affection?
• Was it outside, in your home, or following you?
• Did it come near you, attack you, or just watch?
• Who taught you what black cats mean, and do you still believe it?
• What are you bracing for in your life right now?

Oniri asks you questions like these before giving a reading, so your black cat is read from your fear, or your hope, rather than from the superstition alone.