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The Luminosity of the Cat

These aspects give us some idea of how our cat instinct can help us positively and how, when uncontrolled, it can endanger us on the negative side.

Puss in Boots made a good relation to his master who had given his last money for the boots.

The wild hunter can help us as Ra, the tomcat, fighting the darkness and its vermin in our unconscious, or it can endanger us as the fierce wild Bastet, losing our energy in wild untamed emotions.

It can bring us destruction if it is used as black magic—as the witch — or healing if the magic is tamed and used with a healing touch or purpose.

It can relax us and heal our too greatly overstrained attitude as the pleasant Bastet, or make us lazy and false, like the repentant cat.

It can lead us away into the desert, right away from our human relationships into a purely autoerotic isolation as the Ethiopian cat, or it can give us access to the universal knowledge and make us truly self-reliant as Puss in Boots.

Of course, in this story it is the instinct which is self-reliant; by relating to that, we take over that part of our self-reliance which is projected into our instinct…

I remember that Jung, in a seminar, said that we should realize what a help it is to our environment if we can become responsible for ourselves and not always try to find someone else…

f we can do this, as Puss in Boots did, without losing relationship to others and even helping them, it really represents the summit of what relating to this luminosity can do for us.

Barbara Hannah

The Cat, Dog and Horse Lectures

Pages 81-82

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would have needed a great deal more time. At any rate, these aspects give us some idea of how our cat instinct can help us positively and how, when uncontrolled, it can endanger us on the negative side. Puss in Boots made a good relation to his master who had given his last money for the boots. The wild hunter can help us as Ra, the tomcat, fighting the darkness and its vermin in our unconscious, or it can endanger us as the fierce wild Bastet, losing our energy in wild untamed emotions. It can bring us destruction if it is used as black magic—as the witch — or healing if the magic is tamed and used with a healing touch or purpose. It can relax us and heal our too greatly overstrained attitude as the pleasant Bastet, or make us lazy and false, like the repentant cat. It can lead us away into the desert, right away from our human relationships into a purely autoerotic isolation as the Ethiopian cat, or it can give us access to the universal knowledge and make us truly self-reliant as Puss in Boots. Of course, in this story it is the instinct which is self– reliant; by relating to that, we take over that part of our self–reliance which is projected into our instinct. I purposely left this story to the end, for nothing we can do for anyone is more helpful than self–reliance. I remember that Jung, in a seminar, said that we should realize what a help it is to our environment if we can become responsible for ourselves and not always try to find someone else. Another time, when discussing the parable of the unjust steward (the connection with the cat and the unjust steward is very clear), the unjust steward was praised because he did not collapse. He did not, it is true, behave very elegantly, but he was a going concern and by his cleverness kept his roots, kept his selfreliance. If we can do this, as Puss in Boots did, without losing relationship to others and even helping them, it really represents the summit of what relating to this luminosity can do for us.