Analysis for St. Machiavelli, 14 January 1999

This is how you described the room:

The room is hard, cold and quiet. Dark colors adorn the walls, black with burgundy wall hangings. The furniture is sparse and solid, heavy wood, dark oaks, and simple. A rough chair, and a simple couch line the walls. In the center of the room sits a table, long, and as solid looking as the granite mountains from which is was hewn.

The initial room is the subject’s childhood. What interests us here is the general atmosphere of the room, in addition to the level of furnishings described by the subject. A very uncomfortable room suggests a highly traumatic childhood. The items in the room are average, which tells us that the subject has the normal memories of childhood.

You wanted to stay in the room.

The subject did not want to grow up.

This is how you described the forest:

The forest is rich, and full of life. The soft scurrying sounds of small birds and animals hum in the densely pack evergreens. The air is heavy with the sent of approaching winter.

The forest is growing up, and the trees are those adults with whom the subject interacted at that time. Tall trees imply that the adults had a strong influence on the subject.

This is how you described the path:

The heavy thick woods line the path as it twists and wanders through the trunks. It's way is often lost, meandering forward, and sideways, seemingly unable to simply cut to it's destination like a knife.

Adolescence is represented by the path through the forest. A narrow path suggests that the subject had limited options for emotional growth at this time. That plants are the major source of obstructions tells us that the subject’s problems arose mostly from interactions with adults.

This is how you described the water:

The water boils with the earth's energy, hot near the center where it springs from the mother earth, cooler, comfortable, and less enticing near the far edge.

The water is the subject’s sexuality. What interests us here is the clarity of the water (representing attitude) and its movement (representing libido). Rushing, violent water indicates a powerful, vigorous, and quite possibly compulsive sex drive.

When you came to the water, you crossed it.

The subject is open to new sexual experiences.

This is how you described the cup:

An army green 1940's style canteen, complete with web belt, and wooden cork.

The vessel, or specifically the practicality of the vessel, is how the subject approaches marriage or bonding. A practical container indicates that the subject is pragmatic when it comes to questions of marriage.

You took the cup and filled it.

The subject is interested in marriage, and sex will be a significant part of that relationship.

This is how you described the key:

A simple silver key, obviously worn, and tarnished, it has seen better days. The teeth look to be well used, perhaps belonging to front door of the room I had dissolve around me.

The key is the ideal career for the subject. What interests us here is how the key appears (representing how others view the career) and what it may open (representing the subject’s goals for the career). Indicating that the key accesses something along the path (the subject’s history) suggests that a career is to solve a life-problem. An ordinary-looking key suggests that the subject desires a nondescript career.

You confronted the bear.

In a crisis, the subject prefers the direct, no-nonsense approach.

When you came to the wall, you jumped over it.

The wall represents death: by jumping over it, the subject not only acknowledges death but has come to accept its finality.