I remember way back when I had my old dream interpretation thread at the FortMinor.com message boards. It was my little carved out spot in the High Command section of the boards. I honestly thought the thread was going to die but it turned out to be a big success. I really liked the thread, it reached into I think 50-something pages. My rules were no profane sex dreams, especially involving any of the members of Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Styles of Beyond, Lupe Fiasco, Demigodz, Holly Brook, Bobo of Cypress Hill, etc etc etc), be as clear as possible and if they didn’t want the dream interpretation to be public, just say so and I’ll private message (PM) them the interpretation.

I really did get a lot of people and even a few regulars. From the beginning, I managed to handle questions about dreams from both the psychological side and the scientific side with little issue and even help people. I wasn’t afraid to tell people to seek out a counselor if they needed one – quite a few did – and I could deal with anyone ready to start trouble, which thankfully was very little.

Always would I try to make sure to answer in the orderly time period of within a day and keep the interpretation as non-kooky as possible; I didn’t want to come off looking like a hack and I didn’t want the interpretations to be useless. My regular users started to get the hang of mentioning if the dream was reoccurring, a nightmare or if it could have any real world relation, which did help flesh out a better reading but if I felt the issues the reading would uncover were too deep, I would PM the dreamer in question.

What I liked of the dream thread was the near anonymity of the internet. Since Fort Minor.com was a themed site, I wouldn’t be able to pick out much about these kids (well, not all were kids but that’s how I refer to a group of people sometimes) that I could use for the reading and I definitely didn’t participate in the message board enough to know them well enough to dredge any info that could make me look otherworldly and all knowing. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t even really look at their screen names except to figure out who I’m talking to. I often didn’t know the querent’s gender, age, life or background, I just interpreted the dream for what it was and that’s it. If the dreamer didn’t understand or thought I was wrong, I wanted them to say so. How am I supposed to learn from my mistakes if I don’t know I made any? If I were wrong, I would ask how and see if I could right things.

Did anyone from Fort Minor ever use my dream thread? Nope. I haven’t even a clue if they ever peered into it or even knew that it existed. I always wonder if any of them at least scanned through a couple pages and what they thought of it. I dunno but still it’s something to ponder. At least Lupe Fiasco or Mike Shinoda – don’t ask me why, just seem like something they’d have an interest in.

My dream interpretation thread started back in ’06 but lasted a year because I began to burn out. I should have save the pages of my thread but I didn’t know of the existence of FreezePage or anything like that then. Combined with my laziness, the thread is pretty much gone for good. It does kinda suck and I do regret not saving it because it was a very nice piece of work and the best demonstration I’ve had of public divination on record. Not anymore.

I had started to burn out around the mid year of the thread, I think. My responses weren’t as fast and correct as they used to be and I was getting headaches constantly. I thought I could cure it by doing sabbaticals but nope, I was really becoming run down. This was terrible because I knew the more raggedy I would be, the more incorrect my readings would be and the more incorrect my readings would be, the less valid my interpretations would become. That’s not good. Instead, I opted to leave the thread alone after handling the last requests and letting it die on its own. There was still some chatter in the thread but I never read any of it since they weren’t dream requests.

It was nice when people came to me discussing dream superstitions such as a demon sitting on your chest and how it was actually sleep paralysis because the brain woke up before the body did. I loved those chats because I liked discussing how dreams worked, how they’re not all rubbish and they’re not all decipherable by Freud. Holy snickerdoodles would people think everything could be interpreted by the Freudian school of thought or that all of Freud’s interpretations revolved around sex. I personally like Carl Jung’s ideas of dream interpretation which uses the archetypes but I make sure to keep an open mind. Dreams can vary because of who the dreamer is.

Dreams aren’t very one-size-fits-all, the interpretation could be modified drastically by the dreamer’s background, culture and way of thinking. One good example is on the Fort Minor dream thread, I would frequently come across many dreams involving the members of Linkin Park (since many Fort Minor fans were Linkin Park fans as well). I once had gotten a dream request where the dreamer was choking Chester, one of the members. The dreamer was very scared because Chester was his favorite member, never would he do something so violent and harmful to Chester. Thankfully the person’s dream did not refer to hidden motives to murder but a suppression of creative energy and appeasing those that the querent doesn’t like. Chester is known to be quite an eccentric livewire and the act of strangulation generally means forcibly retaining something whether it is emotion, truth or facets of personality, usually to bend into the norms. Basically, the dreamer was forcing back his own individuality for social approval. Before long, I learned to have a special definition for each member of Linkin Park because they were just as acceptable symbols as dreaming up a sink or a bear because for these dreamers, every member of the band has a special meaning. And with these specially created definitions, I really gave accurate readings because usually they would hit the nail right on the head.

Though I am a dream interpreter, I don’t always interpret my own dreams. Some dreams simply don’t need to be interpreted and some dreams make me go, “Ooookaaay, not lookin’ into that one.” I have accidentally done lucid dreaming (being in control of your dream) and interpreted the dream while dreaming. As in, I could see a house being hit by a tornado and instead of getting out of the way and going somewhere safe (since I can feel in my dreams), I just stood there and went, “Ok, that’s a tornado, it refers to emotional turmoil and it’s hitting a house which is in reference to me and – Oh crap!” Boy, I’m one weird cookie.

And speaking of being in control of your dream – a wonderful friend of mine had taken me to see the movie Inception. It was a terrific movie, I really recommend seeing it! As a dream interpreter, I really found the movie enjoyable! Now that positive review is out the way, I now have to say that Inception was just that, a movie. There are not people (not that I’m aware of) who creep into your dreams to sow ideas or steal information. It is a wonderful fabrication of the power of ideas and the intricate depths of the mind via dreams but it is just a piece of entertainment, not an instruction video. I’ll write a piece on movies and magick/metaphysics later but this is my little blurb. Onward with the remainder of the column:

I recommend that if you’re going to write down your dream, do it right when you wake up. Have a journal or a tape recorder nearby. If I’m not mistaken, the average person forgets 90% of their dream within 10 minutes and you only remember the last four to five dreams you had that night. When I jot down my dreams, I would keep my eyes closed or completely covered so not to forget any of the dream by being exposed to light. Just write, don’t worry about if it makes sense, just write it all down and review it later. I use dream dictionaries (which I will showcase in The Arts: Samhain Edition) to help interpret my dream but as I have mentioned, I don’t always interpret my dreams. Sometimes I just keep them in the back of my mind and if I have a reoccurring dream, I just note that it happened and put a little more effort into working on what it’s referring to. Not all dreams have to be interpreted but they are very useful insight into what is going on underneath the surface.

One kind of person that I would come across sometimes would claim they never dream. Why they sometimes tote it as a badge of honor I am not sure because it doesn’t make them seem cool or otherworldly but the average person has at least 200 dreams a night as they go through the different stages of sleep but only remember the last 4 to 5 roughly and maybe a couple of the first ones. Not having any dreams simply means you don’t remember the last few dreams you had, not that you don’t dream at all. The brain dreams for three main reasons: 1) It’s assembling the memory of everything you did that very day so your dream could be just a recap. 2) There’s something you’re ignoring that your mind (or body) is throwing up a red flag for, such as a dream about crumbling teeth can be an anxiety dream or a mental memo that you ought to see the dentist immediately. 3) Your mind is just being stupid and random, it happens.

Talking about dreams, I do have some dreams as a diviner. Silly little hopes, really. I always wanted to do divination for my favorite performers. It’s like taking a picture for me and as a fan it’s the least I could do. It’s either I want to read someone’s palms, interpret their dream or handwriting, draft their natal charts, whatever. I always think I will find something cool in there. I know for fact I want to redo Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington’s natal charts with them because I wanna get the charts just right. Oddly enough, I never go, “Hey! I want to do their tarot/cartomancy!” because it doesn’t have the same feeling for me as doing palmistry or explaining to someone their Mars sign and how it influences their Jupiter sign. I especially would like to do astrology (i.e. Natal Charts) because there so much crap astrology out there. Ah, dreams.

Next week! The Arts! Who’s going to be featured:

– George 2.0

– Atmosphere

– Baltimore Book Festival

– Baltimore Chocolate Festival

The Chocolate festival is in October but is being featured in September. Why? Because October is The Arts: Samhain Edition! Books and sites on Witchcraft, divination and Paganism galore! And speaking of George 2.0, I will be at the next two Janelle Monae shows in DC on Sept 13 and 14th at the 9:30 Club. Gonna be there too? Say hi to me! I’ll be in lolita (look in the links on the sidebar to see what lolita fashion is). I’ll also be in NYC on Sept 18!

After The Arts is Ask a Witch! You know the rules: comment, email, tweet me or use the Ask a Witch submission form on the right sidebar! Ask a good question, get a good answer. Ask a silly question, get a silly question. Ask a bad question…erm, get a stupid answer? Either way, ask me! You never know till you try!