A tale of two snakes

I’ve just had coffee with a beautiful soul who is creating something quite exquisite to celebrate dreams. You’ll hear about it here first, when it’s ready to unveil.

“What is that pendant you always wear? Some kind of totem?” she asked, leaning forward to examine the fine detail of the chain that I wear day and night.

“Two snakes, from a dream,” I smiled, settling back to tell my story. “It all began in the year 2001. Oh, and it also began more than 2,000 years ago …”

I had a powerful dream in 2001. A huge golden snake opened its mouth and swallowed a huge silver snake, leaving only its tail protruding from its mouth, still very much alive. I watched, horrified, expecting the golden snake to snap shut its mouth and consume its prize. Then I realised that the golden snake was in an equally vulnerable position, because the silver snake could start eating the golden snake from the inside.

Then came the greater realisation. This was not a dog-eat-dog or snake-eat-snake situation. This was a situation of trust. This dream was about trusting the process of facing fear. As I watched, I noticed I was covered in cobwebs, which I pushed away, emerging into sunlight, like a butterfly – I thought in my dream – from a chrysalis.

So yes, snakes are a totem for me. They’re a personal symbol for transformation through trusting the process of facing fears at the deepest level.

Now, let’s go back some 2,400 years, to the healing temples in ancient Greece. If you were sick of mind or body in those days, you went to a healing temple to spend the night sleeping in a room filled with (harmless) snakes. In the morning, you told your dream to your healer, whose job was to interpret your dream to diagnose your situation and prescribe a cure.

Shades of my approach: first interpret the dream then prescribe a dream alchemy practice to create the desired result (healing).

One of these dream interpreters was Hippocrates, the very same Hippocrates immortalised in the Hippocratic Oath sworn by western medical practitioners. That’s why the caduceus, that symbol of modern medicine, is a snake entwined staff. (In truth, the original universal symbol for medicine was – and is – the Rod of Asclepius, a single snake on a stick, but some places in the world, particularly North America, have confused this with the caduceus.)

(Note: 2017: Read more about dream therapy in Ancient Greece compared to today.)

Michael surprised me, back in 2001, by taking my dream to a jeweller, immortalising it in white and yellow gold. Pure dream alchemy.

What’s your totem? Where can a little extra trust take you?

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