Beware the Panther

From around the start of fall until Christmas, I was having re-curring dreams that involved animals. One of the more striking images in my dreams was one that involved a black panther. Apparently, this is an omen that portends good luck. I don't remember much of the details of the dream. What I do remember is that I was walking in a forest and I heard a growl. I hid behind a tree and I saw a cougar pass by me. As the cougar left I saw a cheetah walk by, so I hid again. Finally, I came from out of my hiding place only to see a black panther coming my way. I froze in my place, not knowing what to do. Then, from the other direction a koala bear walked towards me. The koala was some sort of protection that helped me climb a tree, so the panther couldn't get me. I have no idea what all of those symbols mean. I think it relates to my waking life and how there are political tensions at work. I generally find that I have to act friendly on the surface but stay vigilant interiorly. The people at my work are very passive-aggressive so I have learned that I have to be friendly on the surface, but to be wary of people. To me, that is what the koala represents, someone who looks cute and cuddly on the surface but can be vicious when threatened. To date, I am not sure what the panther represented, but it was a cool dream to have.

Another recurring image in my dreams from fall to winter this year was bears. In one dream, I was running from an aggressive bear. In another dream I was at a party where a bear was going after me. So I went into the backyard where it was dark out and there was a maze made of the bushes. I hid in the maze to confuse the bear. The next thing I know, the bear put in a disguise. The bear had on a hat, trench coat and glasses. He looked like a detective from a 1950s film noir, except he was a bear. Then everybody was like, hey this is a detective, he's totally not a bear. They were trying to convince me to come inside and that there was nothing to fear. Indeed, I thought to myself, that bear isn't fooling me. I know it's just a bear dressed up in a detective suit. So I stayed outside. The third bear dream with a bear symbol was the one I talked about above. So basically, at work I feel like I'm being pushed around by more powerful people. At first, the people were overt in their aggression, but then tried to veil their aggressive tendencies and act friendly. As a defense, I always ran and tried to hide. However, with the koala image, I think I became more like the bear and played the game. It think the second dream shows me trying to outsmart the bear. However, with the third dream, I think I realized I had to use more political means.

Come winter, I had a dream about a buffalo. The buffalo is supposed to reperesent abundance or taking the path of least resistance. So at work, I found myself going with the flow and resisting the urge to arge, disagree or insist on my own way. This has worked for me. I have stayed the course and I haven't been my usual opinionated self. So far, this has kept me out of trouble. We shall see how this pans out. I haven't had any dreams about animals of late, so maybe I've learned the lesson that they had been trying to relate to me.