Yesterday I told you about trying to understand a recurring dream about snakes. As I said then, I planned to look to another source for insight. So that’s what I did.
My friend Gwendelyn gave me the Medicine Cards shown above about a jillion years ago. I’ve kept them on my shelf, and once in a while I turn to them. I can’t claim to glean deep meaning from them, but I am – at the very least – entertained. And hey – sometimes I do feel like I know a bit more after using the Medicine Cards.
So yesterday I pulled the book and cards from the shelf and turned to the section on Snakes.
Things have been going on in my little world. A while back, my face started to peel. And I do mean peel. Even my eyelids were peeling, y’all. While that was happening, I was navigating friendship hurtles and processing some unease on a professional level. And none of it was going very well. As I am not the boss of anyone else and therefore have no control over how other people choose to behave, I let go of trying to manage the professional and friendship bullshit and instead focused on my peeling face. I made an appointment with a dermatologist.
When I went in, I told the doc I had been guzzling water and moisturizing like crazy. She took one look at me and said, “You’re way past moisturizer.” Okay. I then told her I was going through a lot of life change, and that perhaps my body was behaving like a snake. That I was shedding my skin. She looked at me sideways and said something like, “Okaaaaay. Anywaaaaay…” My hippie-dippie side did not appeal to her and she proceeded to tell me I had a bad case of eczema and needed topical meds. I don’t like meds (as I often tell you), but when your danged eyelids are peeling off, you do what the doctor says.
I’m telling you this back story because of what I learned about Snake medicine during yesterday’s reading. “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 section goes on to describe how choosing this card means “…there is a need within you to transmute some thought, action, or desire so that wholeness may be achieved.” I thought about all that’s been going on with me and realized that I do indeed need wholeness. On a lot of levels. I also realized I am the only person who can provide that for myself.
So my takeaway? I think the recurring snake dream is about processing things going on around me in a way that allows me to care for myself. I think there’s a lot of growth taking place, and while that is sometimes uncomfortable, it is growth, just the same. Maybe those snakes in my dreams are just pushing me along my path. I don’t know where it leads, but it’s mine.
I want to share one more thing I read in the Snakes section of the Medicine Cards book: “This is heavy magic, but remember, magic is no more than a change in consciousness.” I like that. And I love magic. I’m even trying to not hate snakes.
I’m trying. All the way around.