Wednesday, May 28, 2014

What to do when one cat drives other cats away

My two female cats are not fighting so much as the new one is trying to drive the other one away.  I decided I would do a Journey Oracle card reading to help stress and bring guidance, for me more than to help the cats work through their power struggle.


This first card shows the situation.  I see the new gold and brown cat's face made from what appears to be stone...a hard place.  She looks vigilant, staring out with intense focus.  This card represents the Day of the Unhewn Stone, from Robert Graves' The White Goddess.  Its meaning to me is shamanic initiation, all knowledge. This Oracle has this question for me, "How safe is this repair?"
I am immediately thinking of the larger situation--we agreed to take in this cat to help a friend who had to move.  Now the repair for her doesn't seem so safe for the cats already here.


This next Oracle card shows the experience I am having in this situation.  I certainly feel turned on my head trying to figure out what to do.  I associate the color yellow with my personal power, yet I seem quite powerless to help this. Yet in the image a person is looking out to the light from the dark tangle.  I need to understand how to "become upright in my experience."  This card represents the tree month Hawthorn whose magical aspects are cleansing, purity and sovereignty. The message of this card is "inner truth."  I feel the truth of this experience is that I cannot really change the cat dynamic, just be loving to the insecure one while making sure food is accessible to the one staying away.


The third Journey Oracle card shows change.  This appears to me to be a caterpillar on feet.  Since caterpillars are all about food, it could be that the issue is about food.   The cats have all been fed together until this started happening, so this might be an insight worth pondering. This card represents Path: the realm of journey, and its Oracle also has a question for me, "Are you keeping track of all the parts?" This feels like important advice.  If I can keep the aggressive cat in during the evening when the timid one comes to eat then at least I would know both were OK.


This last Oracle card in the reading is about the resolution.  I see a face made of strong colors and complicated shapes.  A hand appears in front of a mouth in the lower right saying shhh. The right eye can see but the left eye is blind. This is the Oracle of the full moon in August and represents a gift of trust, warmth of the sun, spirit work.  This sound and these phrases help my stress.  It is warm this time of year with lots of sun in the forecast and the timid cat prefers to be outside.  This image shows I am not seeing the spirit work happening because my eye is blind to this side of things.  The message from this Oracle is "a safe place."  My task is this: see a safe place for all four cats that live here.  The Journey Oracle is telling me to trust this.