I thought we might talk about the Snake totem since the Chinese New Year has just begun and this is the year of the snake. People with actual Snake medicine are very rare, that doesn’t mean that the spirit of snake does not work with people. It just means that people who walk this earth with the absolute knowledge of Snake Medicine are not numbered very high. Part of that is because to be initiated one has to experience and live through multiple snake bites. But, that isn’t really what I want to share with you today. If you landed on this page, you must be feeling that the spirit of snake is working with you in some way.

Snake can be a hard teacher. His lessons involve a transmutation of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Snake symbolizes this cycle with the shedding of his skin. We learn to the whole energy of life, the cosmic consciousness and have the willingness to experience anything without resistance. It is also about the poisons that we might take in. Those poisons can be eaten or ingested in some way but they also may be integrated into our lives. The goal is to not let the poisons kill us…in body or spirit.

The totem of snake reminds us on a very personal level that we are universal beings. When we are able to accept all the aspects of our lives we can bring about the transmutation of the fire medicine which is connected to snake. This energy of fire creates passion, desire and physical vitality when it is on the material plane. Fire energy on the emotional plane becomes ambition, resolution and dreams. When fire acts on the mental plane it becomes intellect, charisma and leadership. When snake and the fire energy reach the spiritual plane the transmutation takes on wisdom, understanding and a connection with Great Spirit.

If the Snake Totem is slithering on your path it is time for you to transmute some thought, action or desire so that you can achieve wholeness. That is pretty heavy stuff but if the lessons are learned you will be ever changed and whole.

~Beverly Two Feathers~