Madame Minerva

[THE REPORTER]

Have you had a nightmare that has plagued you for some time? Have you been having strange dreams that you know mean something but you just don't know what? Write in to Madame Minerva, The New York Times' own dream interpreter.

Please send in your dreams to: profm, hades, or jamesmoriarty and they will be analyzed post haste by Madame Minerva herself.

-This is Kay, I'm Madame Minerva and I will do my best to analyze your characters' dreams. This is very much like Agony Aunt Augusta except none of my characters are charading as Madame Minerva, she's her own seperate NPC like the reporter.

Note From Admin: You will get 5 pts for submitting to this column.

[THE REPORTER]

'Madame Minerva,

I'm not the sort of person who ordinarily buys into dream analysis and similar, but I have been plagued with this recurring dream (nightmare, rather) for quite some time now and have become anxious to understand its meaning.

At the outset of the dream, I find myself standing on the balcony of a high rise building, surveying the city. All seems to be well. Even as I think this the building begins to collapse, although I don't hear the sound of it collapsing. Instead I hear gunshots; rapid machine gun fire at first and then three single shots, one after the other. By this time the building had crumbled to the ground, yet somehow I am still alive. I emerge from the wreckage only to find myself in a desert, alone and fruitlessly searching (though for what I don't know). It is when I am on the point of abandoning the search that I hear the sound, very close at hand, of a woman and child crying. I turn to see where the noise is coming from but it is at this point that the dream ends.

If you could help me to understand what this dream means I would be very grateful.'

Well dearie, let's break this down into small bits. The tall building overlooking the city then crumbling around you represents loss of control. You may be undergoing a change in power right now that you are having trouble dealing with. The sounds of gunshots can mean one of two things: either there is violence that has happened in the past that is catching up to you or you feel like destruction is the only way to be noticed. Either way, kick those thoughts!

You survived the building collapsing because you've survived many changes before and you found yourself alone (the desert) and you are trying to discover the new you, post-change. The woman and child crying but not being able to be found represents your need for comfort. The child represents you and the mother represents what you need in your associates, someone to look after. Them being so close to you but not being able to find them means that you aren't looking in the right places for that support.

I hope the nightmares go away soon dearie!

-Madame Minerva


((Dream from Nessie: Richard Plantagenet))

[THE REPORTER]

Madame Minerva,

Okay, so look, I don't normally write to this kinda crap. But a... friend of mine keeps begging me to send this thing in since I'm getting no sleep at night, and I'm always grouchy all day because of it.

The dream starts out with me on the computer. I don't normally use the computer, and I don't know why I'm on it at the time, but that doesn't matter. Suddenly, I send something to someone through my email, though I can't tell who its to. When I click "send" the mouse starts to disappear. So does the computer, and then the walls start to disolve, and I'm left stranded in the woods. Finally my chair disappears, and I'm thrown to the ground. The woods are all bright and cheerful, like a Disney movie or something, the trees green and birds chirping and all that gushy crap.

Suddenly, the trees start to wilt. The animals have heart attacks or something, and everything is moving at ten times its normal speed. The leaves turn black and fall to the ground, the sky turns a brownish gray, and the tree limbs curl into creepy shapes that freak me out, like a Tim Burton movie. The animals turn into skeletons.

Then, the ground feels like its becoming quicksand. I try to scramble away, but a pit opens up, just large enough for a grave. I try to crawl out by my fingernails but I end up falling. And you'd think, since its the size of a grave, I'd only have to fall about six feet. Wrong. I end up falling and falling and falling, and the hole opens and becomes bigger, until I fall into the earth's core, in the very center.

I'm slammed into a dark coffin, it closes, and the dream ends.

Its freaking insane even by my standards, and that's saying something... So... Um... Help?

Well, sweetheart, it seems as if you're undergoing quite a few changes in your life and you feel like you have no control. There is someone that you want to communicate with but a business or industry is getting in the way. A guess would be either a parent or a long time friend that isolates themselves with their profession.

Disney, being a familiar look, shows that the world that your are very comfortable with is turning into something different. Change is often scary for people so it's understandable that the forest would twist itself into a nightmarescape and that the animals would die. The quicksand is another symbol of change, fast-coming change that you cannot avoid.

Fortunately for you, the grave, endless falling, and the coffin are all good things for your future. If you are dreaming about burying yourself (even if you aren't the one doing the burying specifically) you are dreaming about turning yourself into a different person than you are now. Since the death part of the dream is particularly menacing, you want to get rid of the bad part of yourself to make room for a better you. Seeing the grave and knowing it's relative proportions means that you can identify the part of you that 'needs' changing; the freefall is, like the quicksand, a way to get where you need to go quickly but the journey is long: you have a lot of work to do; finally the coffin closing is when you lock away the bad part of you, making room for a new you and a new life.

From my experience, the last bit happens because people find someone that they consider very special and dear. Love is a powerful impetus for change.

-Madame Minerva

((dream from Leffie: Damien))

[THE REPORTER]

'My dear Madame Minerva,

I'm afraid I had rather a strange dream the other day and was wondering if you would have the goodness to decipher it for me.

The dream was surprisingly average at first: I was having one of my usual Saturday afternoons browsing at Tiffany's before heading off for a vanilla latte at Starbucks. However, not long after I had finished my coffee, as I was walking down the street, everyone I passed seemed to be gossiping amongst themselves and looking pointedly in my direction. Since I consider myself to be an upstanding and moral character this obvious gossip perturbed me but before I could inquire further as to what exactly was amiss I found myself awake.

If you could interpret this I would be most grateful.'

Sorry for the delay my dear, but I had to make sure that I analyzed your dream right!

The main portion of your dream was being unable to hear what others were saying about you, the situation being unimportant. Like the gentleman before you, it means that you're struggling with communication. You want to reach out, get to know others, but your view of yourself is preventing you from doing so. Your position in society, upstanding and moral or not, is hampering your ability to connect with others. I recommend forgetting about who you are, according to preset standards and just reaching out to someone you never have before, someone 'below' you, so to speak. You also have a small fear of not being able to control other's perception of you. I'm going to guess that you like to be in charge and, for some reason, that is slipping away from you. It's okay though, I promise you that. Just go with the flow and you'll be okay.

((Dream from Lady Catherine))