Of a Witch and a Black Panther

[Irrlich]

Hi, It's been a while since I've had a vivid dream, and such an interesting one too, but last night I had one. I dreamt of a witch, that was living just outside the city I live in, in an old wooden house. The house was so old you could see the sky through the roof and preform gymnastics on the plumbing that showed between the walls. There was a vague relation between me and that witch, though if it was by blood, proffession or something else entirely I do not know. We did not like eachother but never worded it. Her snobbish attitude and disdainfull curling of the lips, looking at me like I was some kind of oddly colored puke you can see on the sidewalk the night after a wild student party, made it clear that she found me far beneath her and not a threat. However in my dream I was scheming to 'bring her down', though how I do not know. There were people helping me, younger then myself, but they weren't around for long, only helping to set up the plan. I think my mother also might have been helping me. To execute the plan I needed to get her to my home, and we took the bus home. Though when we neared my home she stopped a few streats before my house and mockingly told me to get out and walk the rest. I was getting flustered because I needed to get her to my home or else it wouldn't work, but I think she knew and was just using that knowledge to toy with me. Then she suddenly turned the car around and drove off toward the city center, away from my home. But she was a horrible driver, driving on the sidewalk, and wanting to drive onto small walkways connecting the pavement to boat-restaurants. The first time she did that I screamed, yelling 'No! We'll drown!' And she got angry that I went against her will. The second time I got out of the car and left, thinking the plan wasn't worth this. I was but a few steps away when the car, as suspected, plunged into the water. The witch was fine, not even wet, and in a blink of an eye her car was also back on the road. But this is where the panther starts his part. He was some sort of familiar of the witch, large and majestic, and a shiney sleek blue/black coat. He never played a part, always prowling just behind her in her shadow. He also had the most beautifull red gemmed colar on, which seemed to add to his powerfull aura. And now he craweled out of the water, eyes wild; panicked and unbelieving, his beautifull fur ruffled and dull. 'I almost drowned' He said, but in a far off way. I ignored the witch I had been so fixated on for the first time and hugged the panther close, burrying my face and hands in his soft thick coat, trying to calm him. His collar was gone I noticed. I glanced behind me to see if she would come back for her panther but she just rolled her eyes and drove off, too good for the world as usual. I decided to take the pather with me, and a bit nervouse at first on what the reaction of the people would be on having an unchained (it's strange that those were the words in my dream, not a leash but a chain) panther with me, but it wasn't a problem. To cheer him up I promissed to buy him cake, and he was as happy as a child to hear that. He had never had a cake before. We passed one of the most expensive bakers in the city and he pleaded me with his eyes, I felt a twinge at the price, since as a student I don't have much to go by and appearently even in my dreams I count my pennies, but I bought him the orange and mandarine cake, and his happyness was enough to make me forget my cheepness. So that was the dream, lovely, but strange. And it was intense enough to leave me tired and with a headache, wishing I could go back to bed and hug that panther.

[Dreamcaster]

Hi, really interesting dream. You must read a lot of books or maybe you write a lot. Your post is really descriptive. If the roof was complete their wouldn't be a hole. I think the hole in the roof represents the idea that part of you is missing or incomplete or un "whole". The rundown condition of the house that the witch occupied could represents a part of you that doesn't take care of itself or a part of you that is self-destructive. I think the fact that she lives on the outskirts of town might represent the idea that you realize this self destructive trait can't fit into the part of your world that is constructive as represented by the city and your house. I think it's possible the way she treats you shows that she's the type of person who is very nature is abusive. She could represent a part of you that believes in furthering yourself by oppressing others or by belittling others. Even if you don't actually practice this approach to life, it looks like you may have observed this trait in other people. The dream may reflect the part of you that has been infected by this 'approach'. The rundown house and how the witch treated you may be showing you that being in an environment that encourages destructive and abusive traits weakens you. At the same time that same abusiveness empowers the witch. Clearly you are attempting to fight this vice within you. This is most likely due to the fact that you are empowered by creativity and constructiveness . You try to lure the witch to the house because there constructiveness and creativity is dominate and being in such an environment strengthens you, in contrast constructive/creativity weakens the witch. The fact that she tried to drive the car into the water best reflects the part of her that is destructive. Whatever she's in control of she tries to destroy. She apparently tried to drive the car into the water to hurt you and she doesn't care if she hurts herself in the process. This may represent the part of you that is tempted to abuse authority in order to hurt others. I also think the witch represents the part of you that is afraid to be happy. For me the black panther is the most difficult part of your dream to interpret. I usually associate cats with one's sense of balance. I think the black panther might also represent your sense of strength and majesty. For some odd reason that Black Panther also reminds me of the Marvel Comics superhero, the Black Panther. Obviously the panther is a big black cat. It's very possible that the panther was acting as a vessel for the witch. Typically, in witch mythology, witches use black cats. I think in your dream the witch was using the cat as a vessel to hold something that's part of her like her soul. I think the best example of what I'm talking about is in the movie "The Crow". In the movie the superhero, The Crow is a man whose soul is in the body of a crow. As a result you can't hurt the hero The Crow. If you want to hurt the hero you have to hurt the crow that carries his soul. In your dream it appears as though the panther carries the witches soul. Notice how despite the fact that the witch drove into the water the witch didn't get wet . Instead, the panther gets wet. Like the hero The Crow, it possible that the portion of the witch that's vulnerable is in the Panther and not in the witch's body. I don't think the witch is a hero though. She seems more a villain. It seemed she was trying to drown you. This might mean that you feel some part of your life is out of control and this part of your life is trying to drown you. Maybe you being drowned by your work, social relationships, and/or emotions you are feeling, etc. The idea that your life may feel out of control is represented by the witch and her driving skills. This also could mean that your having a hard time controlling the more destructive forces in your life. I think, as you pointed out, using the word 'unchained' was also interesting. It seems that based on this portion of the dream, the black cat represents the more wild side of you. This wild side is in part what makes the archetype of the panther strong and majestic animal; but at the same time it also makes it a potentially destructive force as represented by the witch. For some reason you get along with the panther. This means that you do have control over your primal nature, but you might fear your loosing control over it. That's why you worry that the cat is unchained. You worry about how others will react to your primal side. As I noted before, cats represent balance so maybe it's possible that your fear is that there is an imbalance that threatens you. Your destructive side threatens to take over your constructive side. Another possibility is that the panther was protecting you. The panther might represent a part of you that is happy or that makes you happy. I say this because it sounds like the panther made you very happy. It's possible that the witch fears happiness which is why she didn't want to go to your house. It's possible the happiness of the panther is what makes the witch leave you alone. The same power that would have weakened her at your house was present in the panther. The witch stops trying to make you unhappy as a result of the panthers intervention. The Panther might have been wet because it was in the car with you. Maybe it even helped you to get out or break free of the chain that allowed the witch to retain her hold over you. By helping you to break this hold she had over you the panther allowed you to escape from the car, before the car fell into the water.