Dear Lipstick Mystic,

I had a dream. Your blog entry about shamanistic dreams (from 09/09/04) was posted the morning after I had this dream, so I knew that I had to write you about it. All I remember from the dream was that I found (or it found me) a cat with wings (and not one of those fake ones claimed to have wings that are really cats with folds of extra flesh on their back.) This cat truly had feather wings and could fly! My daughter thought it was too weird and wanted me to get rid of the creature . . . give it away . . . something, just don't keep it. Well, I would not get rid of my cat. This cat went everywhere with me, snuggled in my arms, though others wanted to harm it, get rid of it, etc. So, my friend, what do you think?

--- Lottie

Dear Lottie,

A cat with wings - cool! Maybe you were dreaming about the lucky angel cat graphic that I use in my Cat Gallery section. You can find lots of these fun cat graphics at http://www.actioncat.com. If you go to the "Lucky cats" section there, you'll find these traditional Meneki Neko Japanese cats available for download. There's a wealth cat, an angel cat and more. The site also has free animated e-postcards that you can send to friends featuring funky and funny cats.

Here's what popped into my head when I read your dream account. I've been working with animal communication for some time and have found that there are two guaranteed ways to connect with cats. I learned the first technique through trial and error. All of our eight cats are indoor/outdoor cats who come and go as they please, letting themselves out of the house through various cat doors we have installed. Every once in a while one of the males will disappear for a couple of days and go for a long jaunt somewhere. Usually, after a couple of days, I get anxious and want my kitty to "check in" so I can make sure that he's okay. I've learned that cats are very telepathic, and if you consciously send a telepathic message like "Please come home by sunset tonight so that I know you're okay," they will always respond. This has happened over and over again with our various cats. They always pick up on my silent communication and return within the time frame I request.

Another way to communicate with cats is to pray for help from Cerambriel, the cat angel. This is an angel whose exclusive domain is pusscats, and she's great at helping you troubleshoot stuff with your kitties. I've never had a vision of her, but I've sensed her many times, and she's given me interesting information. So it's possible you actually had a glimpse of this being in the dream you mentioned, since you saw a loveable cat with wings. Maybe Cerambriel was checking in on you!

The angels I've been lucky enough to have visions of in the past do seem to have feathery, pretty wings, like you described. Seeing wings might be our brain's way of translating an angel's hyperdimensional, fast-moving energy into a visual that we can better understand.

One time the angel of transformation made an appearance in a dream at a very stressful and scary time in my life. She flew across the sky like a force of nature and had a blonde, Madonna-like countenance (as in Mother Mary Madonna, not pop singer Madonna.) And she had this amazing covering of smoky-colored feathers. They weren't black, they weren't white, they were this dramatic smoke color. Her appearance marked a huge change in my life. At the time, I didn't know what she was, but I was able to figure it out later when I read about other people's experiences with the angel of transformation. Several written accounts I found described this same being.

I think dreams are very important and that we truly connect with spiritual stuff during our sleep. Too often, we're too busy during our waking lives to pay attention to these same energies, which are, no doubt, around us all the time, if we'd just take notice of them!

Here's wishing you many more encounters with angelic cats.

-- Lipstick Mystic