I just got a new cat as a Christmas gift and he's beautiful.  He's all black and has bright yellow-green eyes.  I named him Shiva, after the Hindu God.

Anyway, I've been having increasingly important dreams lately (for the past week or so).  This usually happens around this time of year because my intuition usually seems to be having "hot flashes" and sending out these powerful thoughts/images/ideas to me as I go into recluse and allow myself to digest the year.  Its also a very dark period of the year and the moon has a substantial affect on me.
So I've been waking up around 3am for the past week for no apparent reason and now my sleep has adjusted to it.  I've been in a deep spiritual journey and study and after learning this was thought to be a good time for meditation and/or prayer I did as such.  I had a dream a few nights ago where I met the important teacher in my life and he told me that he had more to teach me but I had trials to come.  So, I've been asking for messages in dreams since I usually go to bed reading something from the Bhagavad or the Gnostic Gospels.

Upon arriving home with my new kitty he quickly ran and hid for the remainder of the night (being scared of his new home) and I left all his essentials out and went to sleep.

I had a few dreams of which  I remember fragments but this one is the one I am looking for advice on...

I was in my mothers house and she was asking if had found Shiva (my cat) yet.  I said no and continued looking.  Now I do not live with my mom (we have a very messy past but are making great strides) nor does she own cats.  Suddenly a white cat appeared (I had been looking for a white cat in the beginning of my real-life search for a cat but knew the moment I saw the black one that it was all me) and I believed it was my cat.  I got excited and went to go pick him up and then he jumped and bit me extremely hard (his mouth seemed to become much larger than usual) in my wrist.  I managed to release his grip and my mother was extremely worried because this cat (I believe it was hers) may be carrying something (not up to date on shots).  Then another cat appeared (maybe two---oh which my mom owned all in the dream) and I began to become fearful thinking that someone had opened up something to let all these cats in.  Then as I quickly became panicky, Shiva turned and jumped into my arms and I knew everything was okay.

Now I know this could be something minuscule about me being worried about my new cat going into hiding but I do not remember dreams often and when I do they usually have a significance.  I was also praying for dreams with messages/meanings and reading powerful literature that sent me to bed with lots of cosmological thoughts and inquiries.  I read that a white cat means death or struggle and I know that (from tarot readings, personal experience and neurological forecasts) I'm coming into a "test" of life if you will.
  It's also important to me because I wanted to originally buy a white and black cat and name them yin and yang.  I've been coming out of at troubled past and trying to sort of jump on the "bright-side" of things if you will (not good or evil!).  I've hit a mental impasse this winter and started questioning whether this natural disposition I have is who I am and the more I deny it it will only hurt me, or if its just been a shadow phase that I am to pass over.  I'm also going through a finishing cyclic year (9) and having a philosophical battle between "good" and "evil" being enemies or all things being necessary components of God (i.e. Shiva with Vishnu)

When I woke I almost immediately thought it was almost a confirmation of my self-nature in some form or another.

So while perusing the internet last night I came upon this and I thought it was very helpful for me as far as getting some hints in the nature of this dream!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_looking_glass (The follow up to Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

"Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty")—the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—........

Alice suddenly awakes in her armchair to find herself holding the black kitten, whom she deduces to have been the Red Queen all along, with the white kitten having been the White Queen. The story ends with Alice recalling the speculation of the Tweedle brothers, that everything may have, in fact, been a dream of the Red King and that Alice might herself be no more than a figment of his imagination. One final poem is inserted by the author as a sort of epilogue which suggests that life itself is but a dream."

You'd have to read more (if you don't know the context of the story) of the page wiki page but I thought this was very helpful and meant a lot to me.

Hi Philosophyof 9.  Nice dream.  How’s Shiva doing?

This isn’t really an interpretation, just some thoughts about the dynamics in your dream that might help you do your own interpretation:
- It might be a good idea to research, or refresh your memory, about the symbolism associated with cats.  Clearly, could be significant, since you get a new cat, then dream about cats.  
- All the action takes place in one area (I assume until it ends) – your Mother’s house.  So her influence and your feelings about her are very likely important in interpreting the dream.  
- This is confirmed right off the bat, since the *first* thing that happens is that she questions you, and the *last* thing that happens can be seen as a sort of ‘answer’ to the question.
- Note that the question asked isn’t whether you’ve found “a cat” yet (that real-life search for a pet is just in the past when you have the dream), . . . but whether you’ve found Shiva,  - *your* - cat yet (who was ‘hiding’ in your own home when you went to sleep).  One way to look at it might be to consider this: In real life, you have found a cat – Shiva - that you feel a strong connection to.  But the dream shows you looking for him in your Mother’s house, not your own house.
- First you find your Mother’s white cat, then Shiva.   You mention having wanted both a white and black cat, and also mention Shiva and Vishnu.   From what I understand, Vishnu can be seen as entirely positive – He sustains and supports the universe.  Shiva, on the other hand, seems more ambivalent – part of his function being destruction / transformation of the universe.  Stability versus Change?
- So . . . (1) Things start with a question. (2) Then you’re excited by seeing what you seem to think is the ‘answer’ – but reaching for your Mother’s (white) cat has some painfull  consequences.   (3) Excitement turns to panic.  Too many cats might be a threatening situation.   (4) Shiva – the real answer to the question – comes to you as your own cat, not your Mother’s, and without you needing to reach for him, or pick him up.  And he acts on his own – as cats are known to do.  
- I may emphasize certain things here, but your own feelings (including what you felt *in* the dream) are what’s important in understanding what it means to you.

Hi Philosophyof 9.  Nice dream.  How’s Shiva doing?

This isn’t really an interpretation, just some thoughts about the dynamics in your dream that might help you do your own interpretation:


- It might be a good idea to research, or refresh your memory, about the symbolism associated with cats.  Clearly, could be significant, since you get a new cat, then dream about cats.

- All the action takes place in one area (I assume until it ends) – your Mother’s house. So her influence and your feelings about her are very likely important in interpreting the dream.

- This is confirmed right off the bat, since the *first* thing that happens is that she questions you, and the *last* thing that happens can be seen as a sort of ‘answer’ to the question.

- Note that the question asked isn’t whether you’ve found “a cat” yet (that real-life search for a pet is just in the past when you have the dream), . . . but whether you’ve found Shiva,  - *your* - cat yet (who was ‘hiding’ in your own home when you went to sleep).  One way to look at it might be to consider this: In real life, you have found a cat – Shiva - that you feel a strong connection to.  But the dream shows you looking for him in your Mother’s house, not where he actually is.

- First you find your Mother’s white cat, then Shiva.   You mention having wanted both a white and black cat, and also mention Shiva and Vishnu.   From what I understand, Vishnu can be seen as entirely positive – He sustains and supports the universe.  Shiva, on the other hand, seems more ambivalent – part of his function being destruction / transformation of the universe.  Stability versus Change?

So . . . (1) Things start with a question from your Mother. (2) Then you’re excited by seeing what you seem to think is the ‘answer’ – but reaching for your Mother’s (white) cat has some painfull consequences.   (3) Excitement turns to panic.  Too many cats might be a threatening situation.
(4) Shiva – the real answer to the question – comes to you as your own cat, not your Mother’s, and without you needing to reach for him, or pick him up.  And he acts on his own – as cats are known to do.  

- I may emphasize certain things here, but your own feelings (including what you felt *in* the dream) are what’s important in understanding what it means to you.