Spotted Leopard From Olam Ha-Nekudim

AP Photo
י"ד בסיון תשס"ז

In follow-up to my dream Sunday about a big black cat - a speaking black panther (shamanistically symbolizing prophecy and prophetic ability), another big cat - a yellow and black spotted leopard in Israel - made the headlines in Tuesday's news.

Man clad in underwear pins leopard
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 29, 6:03 PM ET

JERUSALEM - A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.

Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.

Read full story at link above.

Interestingly, in addition to the connection of leopard's spots with the universe of Tohu (olam ha-nekudim and the state of unstable chaos), as a shamanic symbol, leopard "represents the power of silence, trust in our own inner instincts and a renewal of vision and vitality." In my speaking black panther dream, silence constituted the spell I cast in a magic duel with two witches to retrieve the treasure of my husband. The animal spoke. I cast my spell in silence.

While both my dream and the news item pertain generally to big cats, the big cat in my dream was black, symbolizing malchut, while the big cat in Israel was spotted, symbolizing Tohu as noted above. Also in contradistinction, the black panther in my dream was healthy and set free, while the leopard in Israel was sickly and captured. The link between the two big cats this week is through the quality of shamanic silence.

Hat-tip to Mystical Paths for news link.

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