Snake medicine people are very rare. Their initiation involves
experiencing and living through multiple snake bites, which allows them
to transmute all poisons, be they mental, physical, spiritual, or
emotional. The power of snake medicine is the power of creation, for it
embodies sexuality, psychic energy, alchemy, reproduction, and ascension
(or immortality).
The transmutation of the life-death-rebirth cycle is exemplified by the
shedding of Snake's skin. It is the energy of wholeness, cosmic
consciousness, and the ability to experience anything willingly and
without resistance. It is the knowledge that all things are equal in
creation, and that those things which might be experienced as poison can
be eaten, ingested, integrated, and transmuted if one has the proper
state of mind. Thoth, the Atlantian who later returned as Hermes and was
the father of alchemy, used the symbology of two snakes intertwining
around a sword to represent healing. Complete understanding and
acceptance of the male and female within each organism creates a melding
of the two into one, thereby producing divine energy.
This medicine teaches you on a personal level that you are a universal
being. Through accepting all aspects of your life, you can bring about
the transmutation of the fire medicine. This fire energy, when
functioning on the material plane, creates passion, desire, procreation,
and physical vitality. On the emotional plane, it becomes ambition,
creation, resolution, and dreams. On the mental plane it becomes
intellect, power, charisma, and leadership. When this Snake energy
reaches the spiritual plane, it becomes wisdom, understanding,
wholeness, and connection to the Great Spirit. If you have chosen this
symbol, there is a need within you to transmute some thought, action, or
desire so that wholeness may be achieved. This is heavy magic, but
remember, magic is no more than a change in consciousness. Become the
magician or the enchantress: transmute the energy and accept the power
of the fire.
CONTRARY:
If you have this symbol in the reverse, you may have chosen to
mask your ability to change. Look at the idea that you may fear changing
your present state of affairs because this may entail a short passage
into discomfort. Does this discomfort keep you from assuming the
viewpoint of the magician within? Is the old pattern safe, reliable, and
a rut? In order to glide beyond that place which has become safe but
nonproductive, become Snake. Release the outer skin of your present
identity. Move through the dreamlike illusion that has insisted on
static continuity, and find a new rhythm as your body glides across the
sands of consciousness, like a river winding its way toward the great
waters of the sea. Immerse yourself in that water, and know that the
single droplet which you represent is being accepted by the whole.
Feel Snake's rhythm and you will dance freely, incorporating those
transmuting forces of the universe as a part of your sensual dance of
power.
