Tarot card reader with a pet tiger

[LadyDaphne]

I'd really like some input on this one, since I've no clue what it could mean. In my dream, a friend of mine and I were seeing a live show in a different country. The dream started at the end of the show, with the curtain fall and us walking out of the theatre. As we were leaving, a woman with long, wavy black hair gestured to us and said something to a little boy next to her, then turned and disappeared into the crowd on the street. The boy ran up to us and signed to us we needed to come with him. I, being an eternal skeptic, said to my friend that it wasn't a good idea and that if we went, we'd most likely end up getting robbed or wake up in matching bathtubs minus kidneys or something and should get back to where we were staying. She protested and said she wanted to see what the lady wanted. We stood there and discussed it, and the boy grabbed our hands and pulled. I stayed put and looked at my friend and shook my head "no." beginning to get a little scared. She rolled her eyes at me and said we were here in this beautiful country, and asked me where my sense of adventure was. "Oh, I left it back at the hotel, along with my trusting nature and ability to find my way in cities I'd never been to before, whose languages I didn't speak," I said, and started to pull away, wanting to go home. She waved the key in front of me and said that she was going with the boy to see what he wanted, and that if I wanted back into the hotel room, I'd have to come with, too. I glared at her, she took that as triumph and we followed the boy. Still annoyed and apprehensive, I replied "I'm pretty sure I've seen this film before, and we die at the end..." We ended up following the boy. He led us through the city, up flights of stairs, next to fountains, past places I was sure I'd seen before, and the longer we followed him, the more frightened I became because I felt we were being led into a trap, and were merrily prancing into it, fully living up to the "stupid, gullible Americans" stereotype. I felt like we were being led around in circles so that we would lose our bearings and be easier to take advantage of. Needless to say, I was none too happy about how this evening was panning out. My friend seemed to have no such reservations, and began to look quite a bit like a wide eyed lamb happily following a goat into a slaughter house to me. Her facial features even began to change a little. I felt for my map and then for my phone and flashlight, just in case. Eventually, the woman came in to view. She was standing in front of a building, and waved us inside, looking up and down the street before following us in. I gave my friend one last "We'd better not die tonight..." look and followed her inside. The door closed behind us, and we were in a lobby with a tall podium style desk on one side and a glass room with comfortable looking couches and chairs on the other side. At the far end of the chair room, there was a small table with two chairs. Everything smelled of incense. The woman told my friend to sit down and gestured for me to follow her into the chair room. Once inside, I heard what sounded like rumbly growling. I froze. In a circular chair, there was a full grown tiger. The woman walked up to him and muttered to him, scratching him under the chin and kissing him on the forehead. She said not to be afraid, that he was a lot nicer than he looked and I was amazed to understand her, since she wasn't speaking a language that I know. I still didn't trust the situation, and she went over and poured some cold tea. I didn't want to take it, but it'd been hours since I'd had anything to drink and I didn't know when I'd get another chance to drink something, so I took a small sip and thanked her. She told me to sit and gestured to the plush chair near the tiger. I looked at him and back to her. She gestured again. I walked over and sat in the chair. She walked over to the table and said that the reason she called us here was that she needed to read for me (the cards). I began to get up, saying that wasn't necessary and all the sudden was very, very tired. She said that was nonsense and began to lay out cards. Next thing, I wake up feeling very, very warm, and find the tiger in the chair with me, curled up half on my lap like a big dog, dozing happily, and the woman is reading for someone else. She glances at me and continues the reading. The tiger then wakes up and sits up, yawning so I can go. I go out into the lobby and find my friend crying. She says she doesn't want to talk about it, and she wants to go. At this point, for some reason, I really wanted to know what the woman wanted to tell me, and then I wake up. If anyone has any ideas what it could mean, it would be lovely! Thanks, in advance!

[JoannaB]

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? For example if the friend is a girlfriend, the dream could be about your wanting to know what the future of your relationship with her may be. Also is the friend more gullible and more ad adventurous than you in real life and was there something recently that made you think so? This drweam could be about that. Note that a dream is much more likely to be telling you something about yourself and your mind though than about your friend, though your perception of the friend may be an important part of it. The dream may be about different parts of your mind "fighting" between being more practical/cautious and more adventurous toward new ideas. The tame tiger may be something that you think should not be safe but you kind of hope it is - for example, if in your waking life you were about to start a relationship with a person who makes you nervous that could be the tame tiger, but I bet there are many other options. As usual, if any of this does not sound right, please disregard.

[LadyDaphne]

Thanks The friend isn't someone I recognize. In the dream, I knew her well - well enough to travel with her and share a room, but she's not someone I actually know. Your idea about the tiger is an interesting one, as I've been single for years, have just made some fairly significant changes to myself and have just started to entertain the idea of maybe dating again, and struggling with the fact that one of the guys at work has shown interest in me (I'm not interested in him) and that I'm going to have to find a gracious way of saying "no, thank you," without causing any more drama than there has already been (before I found out he was interested in me, half of my coworkers, including my supervisors already knew, and my boss pulled me aside, gave me a bit of a speech and told me that while I was excellent at my job, I should be focusing on work and not the men I work with, which confused me because I had only even noticed one out of the corner of my eye and I make certain to try and not show it - not too difficult, since we work in different departments and rarely see each other when we're not on break - so I had no idea where the speech had been coming from). Word had spread around my work place that I have an "I don't fish where I work" rule, so I hadn't expected any of this to happen, and one coworker has figured out that there might be one guy who I might be willing to break that rule for, so the situation is sticky at best - one of those situations where by accident I ended up leaving something just open ended enough that a different coworker figured out that I had a potential rule breaker. No one knows who my rule breaker is, but people are trying to find out (in a mid-size company, any sort of gossip is highly sought after). I'm doing my best to keep it quiet because, again, I don't want office drama or for things to get awkward between myself and the guy in question. Having to watch every word and gesture, and, especially having to make sure not to appear to pay too much attention to Mr. Rule-Breaker, even though I'm very, very into him and he sometimes seeks me out to waste a couple of minutes joking around when neither of us have anything to do, so it gets stressful. Hope that's helpful! Thanks again!

[JoannaB]

Ah, I am thinking that if you do not know the friend in waking life and yet in dream you knew each other well, chances are high that this friend is an aspect of yourself. So there are two parts of your personality, for example the one who has a I-don't-fish-where-I-work-rule and the one who has a crush on mr-potential-rule-breaker. In your dream the more adventurous part of you won in that you went along to see the fortune teller, however it is probably significant that you self-identified with the more no-nonsense cynical practical part in your dream, so that may be the more dominant part of your personality, at least at this time. Yes, I think this dream may well be at least in part about your rule and rule-breaker at work, though I think it may go deeper than that or in more layers: this dream may be asking yourself "who would I rather be?" "Do I wish to take the risks which could go very wrong? Or do I wish to avoid unnecessary risks?" And this may apply to your situation with coworkers but it may apply to all kinds of other situations as well, basically figuring out which aspect of your personality will be more dominant, and ultimately your waking self will make those choices not your dream self.

[LadyDaphne]

The cautious, no-nonsense side definitely wins on a daily basis. The thing that stood out to me in this dream most was about how my fears seemed to get justified, but not in the ways I expected. Following the kid seemed like an awful idea, as did taking the tea, but they turned out badly in ways I didn't expect. Instead of us ending up getting killed or something, I ended up fine and my friend, the one who wanted to go in the first place, ended up in tears. I expected something awful to happen after drinking the tea because I didn't trust it, but nothing happened to me save for a tiger ending up in my lap - but on the other hand, that does suggest that I may have been drugged, and I still missed what the fortune teller had to say to me as well as whatever she said to my friend (I'm guessing my friend was crying because of whatever the cards said)

[Presence333]

Interesting dream. The emphasis of your 'eternal skeptical' side persona was the ultimate hint of the dream meaning for me. I believe this to be a very positive dream in relation to your growth. There was some pretty distinct fear separating you and the part of your self represented by the 'mystic' woman. Nevertheless you faced it; you did not run away or avoid the situation. Your sense of adventure and innocence led you thru. I believe this represents a successful attempt from your unconscious to balance out your conscious 'skeptical' mind which had previously been unsuccessful due to fear. I think the tiger represents the power or instinctual energy that exists within you relating to that mystical part of you. I don't know exactly how to discern it for you, since that is something that you would know best, so I'll just continue to sound like a broken record by saying mystical...but there is a power that lays out of the grasp of the conscious mind dominated by skepticism, and that can be represented by the woman and the tiger. The fact that you, despite your fear, were able to co-operate with her and eventually connected intimately with the tiger due to the force of your unconscious (consciously becoming tired and eventually losing conscious awareness) shows an unconscious progress with that part of your self. I think a key message here is in the recognition of how your current 'skeptical' attitude is creating unnecessary fears and thus are your current obstacles for a holistic self, but that your unconscious is successfully attempting to balancing it out.