From: Tom
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
Sent: Monday, September 5, 2016 2:37:55 PM
Subject: Shadow Cat
On Sept 2nd, 2016 this past Friday, I took a party of groomsmen on a night hike in a nature preserve called Mantle Rock, located in Livingston County, Kentucky, USA. It's a beautiful area, and one of the last remaining original portions of the 'Trail of Tears'. I've been going out there for almost the last 20 years of my life, so they selected me as the trail guide (no problem!).
The only thing different about this trip, was that it was the New moon, and it was completely black in the woods. We literally couldn't see our hands six inches in front of our faces when we turned the lights out. I know, it sounds really cliché, but that night it was a fact.
We'd walked probably a good two and a half to three miles in, and discovered that the storms last week did a real number on the trail, and we basically had to turn around (would've been a different story in daylight!).
This part of Kentucky is known for bobcats, and some people even claim to have seen mountain lions in the area, which I don't doubt for a second; the environment is perfect for big cats, and the land surrounding the area is all farmland (a big cat would have it made!) As we were walking back, out of the corner of my eye, I spied the perfect silhouette of a BIG cat, sitting about five feet off the left side of the trail (head, ears, shoulders, front legs, haunches and tail...UNMISTAKABLE.) sitting perfectly still, the top of its head, just about level with my waistline (I'm 5' 10"), and it startled me! It didn't terrify me and I wasn't scared at all, really. This is not the first encounter I've had with shadow critters (...mice, rats, 'little' shadow people, dogs...), but his was the biggest one I've ever encountered. The silhouette of the cat was so well defined, in fact, I thought it was REAL, and acted accordingly. I turned toward the 'animal', raised my walking stick defensively in case it pounced, and alerted the guys behind me!
As I stepped back, and turned to shine my headlamp at it, I realized my light was going through it! It quickly turned to its right and leapt directly into the side of a fell tree, vanishing…Not under the tree…not over the tree but directly into the solid side of the tree!
"Did you guys see that???" I was met with blank stares, which sucks, because it was RIGHT THERE beside us! When I told them what I saw, they were ready to get back to the vehicle.
Of course, there were attempts to rationalize it away, but like I said, this wasn't my first encounter with a shadow creature. Initially, I thought it was either a bobcat or a small panther. People scoff at the thought of panthers being in Kentucky, but the farmers out there will tell you, and I've seen pics, but I digress...
I've theorized an explanation for the shadow cat being there. This may sound fanciful or fantastic, but I can assure you it isn't. I've been studying and practicing the occult, and various occult techniques for nearly the last thirty years of my life, so when things like this suddenly appear, I don't get frightened, but it's definitely startling, lol. Because the area is what it is, a number of Native Shamans, Pagans, Witches, and various other magical practitioners have rituals and circles there, in the deep woods (the place is truly magical... you definitely get the sense of being 'somewhere else' in Mantle Rock). If you know what to look for, there are always tell-tale signs of offerings, small hangings left in the trees as gifts to local nature spirits, etc.
I've concluded that the shadow cat I encountered was either a guardian put in place to keep vandals out of the area. That would make it either a magical 'thought form', or a created 'egragor' or possibly even some form of spiritual energy that wasn't properly dismissed, and took that form, for whatever reason. But, like I said, that's a theory. It may well have just decided to check us out and see what we were doing. I'm going back on the 17th of this month (full moon/ Harvest Moon) in the hopes of encountering the shadowy feline again, but this time, we won't be using any artificial light unless it becomes absolutely necessary (on a full moon and a clear night, the whole place looks like a scene from Avatar... Okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but everything does light up with a bright, silvery sheen, and flashlights and headlamps are completely unnecessary).
Please let me know if you'd like to hear more of my encounters (it seems I've run into everything EXCEPT human-sized shadow people. For some reason, I attract the animals (with the exception of that one I mentioned earlier...It was human-shaped, but couldn't have been more than foot tall.
You have permission to redistribute/post/print this story as you see fit, but you should know it'll be making an appearance in a book I'm writing about magical energy and how we can pierce the veil to other dimensions of reality.
If you have any questions, or if I didn't quite follow your guidelines or if you would like me to elucidate anything for you, please feel free to email me or message me on FB. I'm really glad I found your site!
Thomas
