Screeching dogs head or animal carcass head in darkness – my interpretation this morning after a sleep, our conversation and what emerged as I drove to work.
The picture I saw is of an animal trapped in the darkness, dog like, but wild. Its head emerged from the darkness stuck in sticky black mud or tar, blackness all around. The head popping out is in agony, in terror, trying to breathe or screech – crying from fear – oblivious to the possibility of help. Just raw animal fear and struggle to breath and escape – thus making matters worse. The actual darkness isn’t mud at all or even tar, it is just the blackness of nothing. But the fear of the animal “stuckness” is that it thinks it is trapped and stuck in this dark place and cannot get out.
There is a wolf standing on the right hand side looking down on the struggle. She is a powerful, strong she-wolf. She cannot help or come down to save this animal. This would be the destruction of self. She just observes and waits and is there.
When I saw the struggling animal my immediate interpretation was that it was an evil presence. It had caught me by surprise and was scary. It reminded me of some picture I have seen before where three people are travelling through the realms or layers of hell to get somewhere and there is a sea of lost souls stuck in the river or sludge of mud. The people travelling in the boat are trying to cross this river of lost souls and these souls are grabbing and stretching their arms out, wailing and pleading for help. There are so many of them that the occupants in the boat cannot rescue any of them else they would not succeed in crossing this river, this pool of hell. There are too many lost souls needing rescuing and if the people on the boat attempt to save even a single soul, they will be pulled into the darkness and will themselves be stuck in hell.
Upon looking more closely at this poor stuck animal trying to emerge from the darkness and the stickiness that it thinks it is in, I realised that there was no evil entity or someone else’s dark energy, but the pain and suffering you were talking about – stuck in some sticky beliefs that seems to be holding this animal back in pain and suffering. The belief that suffering is required is the stickiness. This is a belief, not the truth. There is pain, of course, but feel it, try and understand it, but don’t get stuck in the suffering.
The wolf on the side looking down is a protector and a spirit guide of strength and support – a SHE wolf. It is your pain trying to come out, and suffering by staying stuck in the mud. The she-wolf cannot help, she can just observe. The scared animal needs to relax and calm down. The sticky black hole is just the darkness of the night—or lack of light to see the real situation. The animal needs to realize this and then slowly emerge, shake off the dirt and sticky wetness, and be cleansed by some clear, beautiful rain from heaven. Once it has done that and dries out, it will be ready to rejoin the pack. Perhaps this is the solitude or alone time everyone talks about.
The wolf cannot do it for this animal. It cannot carry the wounded animal’s weakness as it threatens her own, and her pack’s survival. She can just be there for the animal when it is healed enough to re-join the pack. The wounded animal needs to find the strength to heal itself.
It will need to retreat into a cave, lick its wounds, lie down and heal. The she wolf can bring food, so it doesn’t starve yet she can’t help the wounded animal to eat it. He has to emerge from the cave and use some of its strength to eat and then retreat back and rest. Only when strong enough to add value to the pack should he emerge so that the union is strengthened rather than weakened.
This message is not an absolute truth or exact science or interpretation. It just the story that emerged and I liked the symbolism. It makes some sense to me and I hope to you too. The story helps me understand the wounded animal and the guidance and assistance that is always out there waiting to aid us when we are ready to heal ourselves.