Totem Tuesday: Snake/Serpent Medicine

Totem Tuesday:  Snake/Serpent Medicine

by Felina Lune Kavi

“You are guardian of a treasure,
Oh, just like a sleeping serpent
And you shall see, I shall make you
Spin around like that sleepy snake.
Listen to me.” 

― Jalaluddin Rumi, Love: The Joy That Wounds: The Love Poems of Rumi

Keywords:  Healing, Renewal without Replacement, Shedding Past Cycles, Transmutation, Movement, Dance, Trance, Hypnosis, Primal Life Force Energy, Kundalini Energy, Solar Energy, Creativity, Fertility, Survival, Root Chakra, Inner and Outer Balance, Conscious Awareness, Self-Motivation, Shamanic Passage, Feminine Wisdom, Shadow Self

Of all our creature teachers, Snake is one that often connects with fear and aversion from humans (rivaling Spider for ‘most feared’).  There are some totems that serve as shadow totems, and they represent those parts of ourselves that we repress or deny.  Often times we have irrational fears that link us to the medicine of the shadow totem, having us continually meet that fear in order to finally accept and embrace its medicine.  Or, sometimes the shadow totem is an animal that we have had a traumatic experience with in our past…such as being bit by a dog or, in my case, attacked by a rooster.  

With a shadow totem, the medicine of that totem is inherent in us, but we have a much harder time embracing it and utilizing it to our best advantage.  The Shadow Snake is there to teach us how to conquer our own fears and accept those parts of ourselves that we might rather eliminate than openly allow others to see.

Like many things that illicit fear from humans, Snake represents feminine wisdom.  As is the trend in a patriarchal society, the wisdom of the Feminine Mysteries is often repressed and we are taught to fear it or discount it in some way…much like the way we have been taught as a society, over time, to fear witches.  But, often, these animals are very useful creatures to have around us as they prey upon many insects or rodents that are not as beneficial to have around us unchecked.  The snakes we have around here (Omaha, Nebraska) are mostly non-venomous and powerful garden protectors.  Snakes, in general, are non-aggressive toward humans (in fact they’d rather not be around humans at all). 

The Feminine wisdom of the snake comes from its fertility and connection with creative life force.  Many creation stories from tribes all over the world often feature some kind of Serpentine Creatrix.  The Serpent is one of the oldest and widespread mythological symbols and has been associated with some of the oldest rituals of humankind.  

All snakes are internally fertilized, though they have a wide range of reproductive modes.  Most snakes lay their eggs and abandon them, but some stay with them throughout.  Some even retain their eggs internally until they are just about ready to hatch.  Interestingly (and uncharacteristic of creatures other than requiem sharks or placental mammals), some snakes are fully viviparous (such as the boa constrictor or green anaconda) and nourish their young through a placenta as well as a yolk sac.  

Much of their fertility and creative medicine comes from how many babies they can have at one time.  Though it does vary depending on the type of snake, they can give birth to up to 150 babies at once.  Similarly, those with this totem medicine are often very creative individuals who can have a multitude of creative ideas at once.  

The Snake Mother knows that not all of her babies will survive, but those that do will need the best environment for success.  Similarly, those with this totem learn to focus on nourishing just a few of the many creative ideas they put forth and letting go of the others…while making sure the creative environment is right for the development of the few that hold promise.

But perhaps the most well-known attribute of Snake Totem Medicine is its connection to the healing arts.  All totems are associated with some form of healing, but the Snake Totem is the medicine of medicine itself.  Their molting process of sloughing off dead skin cells and gliding through and out of it, renewed (though in the same form), is symbolic of our own ability to self-heal and go through cycles of renewal after discarding what holds us back from becoming better versions of ourselves.  

The Snake Totem has been used as a symbol of medicine all over the world for thousands of years.  In the U.S., the healthcare system itself is in a molting process of renewal.  Interestingly (and, sadly, fitting), in this country the ancient symbol of the healing arts (the Rod of Asclepius) was replaced by an ancient symbol for commerce (the Caduceus).  Both symbols incorporate snakes, but one is clearly about health and healing while the other is about business negotiations and profit-generation.  

I don’t know if this was a deliberate shift in the symbolism or if it was unconscious, but it describes rather well the crowding out of true healers in the medical field of this country and the predominance of the illusion that health can be bought and sold.  But this illusion will eventually molt into a new system.  

Until then, true healers will be harder to find but you will know them when you meet them.  There are some amazing healers in the medical field, and some outside of the field.  But the thing that Snake Medicine reminds us is that while having assistance in our healing from those who are trained to do so can be very beneficial, it is just as important to understand that it is up to us to take charge of our own healing in our daily lives.  

Snake absorbs the heat of the Sun to regulate internally with an external source, but once that energy has been received…it is up to Snake to use the energy well.  Snake reminds us that healing is a partnership, but that we must not forget that no one can help us heal unless we, ourselves, make the commitment to our own healing. 

Snake Medicine also works through hypnosis and trance states…which are particularly effective in healing the mental state.  Getting in a ‘zone’ (in whatever way gets you there) can help you to slough off the brain’s old thought patterns that are no longer serving you and focus on what you really need.  Dancing (particularly Tantric or ecstatic dance) is good Snake Medicine as well, as it is a way of honoring Spirit within the body.  This connects us to that primal life force energy, awakens the Kundalini (that coiled serpent energy at the base of our spine), and allows our muscles to undulate beneath our skin as the Snake who, limbless, glides gracefully across the belly of our Mother Earth.

If Snake is one of your totems, these and many other lessons will be prevalent in your life.  Snake will encourage you to refine your mastery of this medicine.  If you see a snake, but it is not one of your totems, respect it as a messenger for that time.  You may need its medicine for what is happening then or what is coming up in the near future.  Snake may be contacting you to get you to focus on a particular creative project and see it to fruition, or it may want to teach you how to heal through a process of shedding your outdated patterns and self-renewal.  For many, Snake appears to face us with our fears, reminding us to embrace our shadow self as well as that primal power within us that we may keep too tightly controlled out of fear of our own power.  However Snake chooses to share its medicine, it is always a deep and necessary healing.