Black Cat Dream Meaning

There is one word for this dream that I need to tell you and that is simply: PROTECTION. Spiritually, black cats are amazing, they are used in hoodoo as omens and on photos of little bottoles. You are here on my website because you could have seen a black cat. I know, this could be like "out there" a little bit, especially if you don’t really OWN one but bear with me here. 

Or maybe it crossed your path in the dream and you felt that real shiver in your bones that you could not explain, maybe it was a super nice dream and the cat was friendly. It all does not matter as it means mainly one thing - you are protected in this life, in this world. It means your angels are looking down on you.

It may have been there watching you with those yellow eyes that seemed to know everything you keep from yourself and everyone else. Maybe it followed you around rooms and down corridors and you woke up still feeling its shadow dragging you along.

What do black cats mean in dreams?

Well I firstly need to tell you that black cats DO NOT show up in dreams by accident. Nothing appears in dreams by mistake. Black cats brought REAL prosperity to Scotland. They let black cats in kitchens because they believed the cat was lucky. Black cats were kept in homes of sailors' wives as protection against sea and for returning safely from dangerous voyages. 

Some fishermen paid huge sums for black cats because they were so sure of their protection. Black cats were signs of death - companions of witches - shapeshifters who would take your soul if you stared at them too long. Old wives told daughters never to let a black cat pass by them on their way to a wedding or a business dealing. 

Why have these superstitions changed?

Well, the black cat was the same in Scotland as in Germany or Spain or anywhere else. What changed was how humans told about it. What went away was the significance that we gave to something that was just being itself. Or perhaps you believed someone else's version of events in your life, about you or something else, that was never true. Your dream black cat might be asking you what folklore you're following. 

In Japan black cats are lucky for single women. They were thinking a black cat would bring love and romance to you. As a wedding gift to some parts of England a black cat was the most important blessing to a bride - happy marriage, safe home - the old wives had different tales depending on which way the cat walked too. A black cat coming your way meant luck was coming your way. If a black cat ran away it was taking the luck with it. 

If a black cat stopped and sat down in front of you? In Roman times this meant pay attention because something big was about to happen.  So with all this in mind, and the ancient meaning, my thoughts are if a black cat comes into your dream it brings something with it. A message, warning, even a gift. Sometimes all three got messed up. In ancient times according to my superstition books, black cats are carrying peoples hopes and fears on their backs for thousands of years and it shows in your dreams.

What people forget is this. Black cats were holy before they were luck symbols in other Western religions. They were revered. Cats were so holy in ancient Egypt you could be executed for killing one - even accidentally. The goddess Bastet was a black cat who represented fertility and motherhood. Black cats were blessings in your home, not curses.

But somehow it got twisted. That was the Middle Ages. Witch trials happened. Black cats came to mean dark magic and evil spirits and women who lived outside the lines men drew for them. Black cats were also guilty by association with their companions - wise women and healers.

If you dream of a black cat, you're seeing an animal that either blesses or curses depending on who is telling the tale. Your subconscious knows this. I will say, you probably have that same duality it chose that symbol for. But something in your life right now may be a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it.

That black cat wants you to look deeper. To question what people have told you about good and bad, lucky and unlucky, safe and dangerous. Perhaps that thing that you ran from is trying to help you. But what you might be chasing might be taking you somewhere you do not want to be.

And I've had dreams of black cats when I was telling lies about myself. When I had taken other people's definitions of who I was and what I deserved. But that black cat came and reminded me not everything that is called evil is evil. Not all things to fear are things to fear. But sometimes that which you were taught to avoid is exactly what you have to take on.

What does it mean when a black cat comes across your path in a dream? 

This is the picture (that I have in my head) and most people have in their heads. Why because this is the most superstitious of superstitions if you get what I mean. A path being crossed means your direction is interrupted. Something is going across your life right now. Something wants you to stop and notice before you keep walking as if nothing happened, you are so focused on getting there that you've forgotten what you're walking through to get there that you're charging forward (do you get that, and understand me)?

But a black cat crossing your path can also mean protection is coming as I said before in my opening sentances. Think about it this way. What if the cat isn't blocking your path to curse you but to save you? What if something up ahead would have hurt you and the cat showed up to make you pause long enough to avoid it?

My grandmother used to say that when a black cat crosses your path it's checking whether you're paying attention to your own life. She didn't believe in the bad luck nonsense. She believed black cats were testers, sent to see if you were awake or sleepwalking through your days. If you noticed the cat - really noticed it, honoured its presence, took the moment seriously - you passed the test. If you just kept rushing forward without breaking stride, you failed.

Maybe your dream is that same test. Are you paying attention? Are you awake to what's happening around you and inside you? Or have you been so busy, so distracted, so determined to get somewhere that you've stopped noticing the signs and messengers appearing in your path?

What does it mean if a black cat bites you in a dream?

Now we're getting into that place, that feels more threatening and your body probably remembers that dream with a jolt of stress. A black cat biting you in a dream is your subconscious turning up the volume because apparently the gentler messages weren't getting through. Something needs your attention badly enough that your brain created pain to make sure you'd remember. Think about what a bite actually does. It breaks skin. It penetrates your defences. It gets inside you in a way you can't ignore or brush off. A bite leaves a mark.

If a black cat bit you in your dream, something in your waking life is trying to get through your defences. Something you've been protected against or protecting yourself from has found a way in. This could be a truth you've been avoiding that's finally piercing your denial. It could be an emotion you've suppressed that's demanding to be felt. It could be intuition you've been ignoring that's gotten aggressive because you wouldn't listen when it whispered.

Where did the cat bite you? This matters more than you might think. A bite on your hand might relate to something you're doing or creating or holding onto. A bite on your leg might connect to your direction, your foundation, your ability to move forward. A bite on your arm might be about strength, action, or how you reach for what you want. I had someone contact me on Tiktok because they had a dream of a black cat biting my hand once during a period of divorce. This was like a wake up call, it is breaking the old to make way for the new. The black cat that bites you isn't your enemy.

What does a friendly black cat mean in your dream?

A friendly black cat in your dream is one of the best signs your subconscious is sending you - good for you this is GREAT. It means the dark parts of yourself (the shadow sides) the intuition - the magic you were taught to fear or suppress are coming along for the ride - and working for you instead of against you. Consider what a cat needs to be friendly. Cats do not like just anyone. They are not like dogs that wag their tails at people randomly. Cats choose. Cats assess. Cats decide whether you deserve their time and act accordingly. Cat friendship is earned not given. If in your dream a black cat touched you warmly on your legs or purred or let you stroke its fur - that means something good is going on in your spiritual growth. Parts of yourself you feared are no longer enemies. They're becoming allies.

If the black cat was your friend it can mean that you have lived your entire life afraid of your own power. You might have dimmed your light, shut down your knowing, made yourself smaller because someone once said what was really inside you was just to much - too dark - too weird - too dangerous.

Is a black cat in a dream good for you?

Here are some things I've learned from watching my dreams, and for the last 30 years… helping others understand theirs. The question is not whether seeing a cat is good or bad. The real question is what the cat is trying to show you and whether you dare look. But if you want the straight answer - yes - seeing a cat in a dream is generally good in most spiritual traditions - and black cats in particular are more protective than people give them credit for.

From ancient times, cats were spiritual guardians. The Egyptians did not worship them for nothing. So they were thought to see where humans can not, to go between worlds and defend households from negative energies/malevolent spirits. That guardian energy is there when a cat appears in your dream - whether you feel it or not.

In a dream a cat usually means your intuition is sound right now and you can trust it. But your inner knowing is awake active if your conscious mind was too busy/skeptical to pay attention. That cat says your spiritual senses are on point. That cat tells you you know more than you think you know.

Cats also represent feminine energy which is receptive, intuitive and mysterious in everyone - not necessarily female but feminine energy. Spotting a cat may make you reach for that energy. Stop pushing and forcing and making things happen by will. So sometimes you gotta just wait, watch and see what happens to you like a cat waiting immobile to move.

There are now some dreams where the cats are warnings instead of blessings. Dreams about an aggressive cat or a sick cat or a dead cat or a cat attacking you are not feel good dreams, and should not be treated as such. You may feel them as they are warning you of betrayal or of something bad in your life, of intuition you killed off, of feminine energy wounded or turned against itself.

But a cat by itself? Not bad luck. That is not a curse. That is an invitation to pay attention to what can not be measured, explained or controlled. I like having cats in my dreams even when they make me feel sick. Even if they say things I don't want to hear. Because I have learned that discomfort means something is true, something important is about to come out whether I want to or not.

What does a black cat mean spiritually?

In a spiritual sense, for me, a black cat is one of the least understood symbols of human consciousness - and that misunderstanding has meaning. That black cat represents the shadow self - which Carl Jung called all the parts of ourselves we deny or keep because we were told they were wrong. Your rage is there. Your hunger is there. You have there your wild knowing that does not obey rules nor ask permission. The black cat comes out of that shadow not to scare you, but to make you whole by bringing what you left behind back to you.

Spiritually the black cat guards the threshold. Located at the interface of the seen with the unseen worlds - conscious with the unconscious - it is the doorway between your own life and the life that lies beyond your fear. When black cat energy comes in you are invited to cross a threshold. Something is ending. Something is beginning. And then the black cat will take you through if you follow him.

I think of all those wise women that kept black cats as friends. The healers. The midwives. The herbalists. They were the ones who knew things that books could not teach them - they believed dreams and visions and their bodies knew better. Those were women who knew they were burned. They killed their cats along with them. But it's that history that the black cat means in spiritual terms too - it is persecuted wisdom - feminine power that disturbs order - knowing that refuses to die no matter how many times it is condemned.

Black cats may be asking you what wisdom you kept hidden to protect yourself. Which knowings did you deny yourself because to speak it would be dangerous? What parts of your power have you given up for acceptance? The black cat also is related to magic - not stage tricks and illusions but real magic. The kind that changes reality by intention. The kind that believes in forces that cannot be measured. It is the kind that knows thoughts become things and words become things and nothing happens by accident. Whenever you've ever been skeptical of your own magic, the black cat reminds you what you can do when you stop playing small.

It isn't black without colour spiritually either. Black is all the colours absorbed into one colour. And black is potential before it happens (so no, its not darkness or bad vibes). In black you have everything and nothing at once. The black cat carries that energy of possibility and potentiality - of the darkest possibility out of which all light is born.

What does it mean to see a black cat with green eyes in a dream?

The eyes matter in dreams, and the green eyes are super cool. The colour of those eyes adds another message on top of everything the black cat already represents. The heart chakra is green. Green is growing out of dead ground - healing, renewal - new life coming up. Green also is the colour of envy - that horrible feeling we hate having to admit to carrying around. In some traditions green means money and abundance. Green means the forest, the wild places where nature has not been tamed or controlled.

Also, this is a black cat with green eyes telling you about heart matter. Maybe this dream means something deeper than you've acknowledged. Maybe someone is not what they seem on the surface, a warning or a gift in your life.

Finally, what does the black symbol mean in your dreams?

I hear the words:  stop apologising for your darkness. Everybody has darkness, and, everyone has shadow. Some parts of ourselves just don't sit well, or make polite conversation or fit in the story we should be living. That black cat does not apologise for being black. But it doesn't wish it was another colour. It isn't hiding in the daylight hoping no one will know what it is.

Can you live that way? Can you stop covering up the parts of yourself you were taught to be ashamed of? Black cat says be independent, walk your own way. Never were cats completely domesticated as were the dogs. They lived among humans - never completely wild. They come & go as they like! They do not do tricks for treats. They keep their dignity and their mystery no matter what anyone thinks of it.

Maybe you've been too domesticated. I also think the black cat is about the unseen world. We worship what can be measured and ignore everything else. But that black cat is wiser. The black cat goes between worlds. Black cat sees in the dark. The black cat has faith in things that rational people deny.

These realities are yours too, that is what the black cat wants you to remember. To be clear, you are not limited to what your five senses, there iis more to you and more to this life than meets the eye on a spreadsheet or in court of law.