What The Snake Told Me
Kathryn RavenwoodDuring times of intense growth and change in our lives we can easily
become blinded to conditions and actions that are often very apparent
and obvious to others. It is as if we have lost our ability to see. This
can be extremely frustrating and depressing, especially if we have come
to a level of self work that has taught us how to glide through change
with understanding— if not ease. When times arise that have us totally
blocked it is important not to give up and fall into despair.
Lately I have been experiencing a tremendous blindness in my life. I had
achieved what I thought to be an expanded awareness of working through
my heart chakra, making choices based on that positive heart expansive
feeling we get when something is “right”. I was thrilled that
I had overcome many obstacles in my life and was able to move on up the
chakra ladder to a closer connection with my higher self - closer to enlightenment.
Then, after a series of events leading to choices and decisions that left
me close to shattered in personal confidence and wondering who in the
world I thought I was to even THINK I knew ANYTHING about higher consciousness,
I turned to what “should” have been an obvious path from the
beginning— my guides. They see (while I did not) what is best for
us in the big picture. While setbacks and obstacles may seem like defeat
and the loss of personal power to us, they see the truth: we are always
learning. Just because we thought we “got it” at one point in
our life does not mean we won’t have to “get it” again
by repeating some of the old lessons. After all, we tend to forget and
cannot see how to apply what might have been familiar teachings to new
surroundings or conditions.
In a fit of despair I went into my altar room, lit one candle, started
to breathe and asked to be guided to help me see my way out of my grief
and desperation. I found myself out in the beautiful plains of Wyoming,
a place where I have met a great Spirit Guide, Buffalo, before. I expected
to see Buffalo and fall into that wonderful energy I know and love. No
one came. I started to sing a little song to the directions, thanking
the Spirits of each Direction for their help, for guiding me and showing
me the way.
“Thank you Spirits of the East for giving me this new day; Thank
you Spirits of the South for teaching me to play; Thank you Spirits of
the West for taking me within; thank you Spirits of the North for your
wisdom and my kin; Thank you Spirits who are above, the Sun and Moon and
Stars; thank you Spirits who are below, unseen ones that You are; Thank
you Grandmother Spider for the Web of Life you weave; Thank you God/Goddess
for in Your Heart we all are One.” It didn’t all rhyme and -
still no Buffalo! I drummed and sang for awhile and found myself walking
over to a grouping of rocks which were hot with the heat of the sun.
Then I heard the lesson.
It was Snake who talked to me. Snake, not Buffalo, showed up and told
me what I already knew, had already experienced, but completely did not
SEE in this situation. We all know that as snakes grow their skins do
not grow with them - they only stretch to the point of having to be shed.
The shedding releases the old body, so to speak, so that the new, larger
one can come forward. The old skin is dull and often has scales missing,
or is scarred and torn. When the old skin is shed it comes off all in
one piece, including little snakey eyeglasses where the skin fit over
their eyes. If you saw it laying on the ground it would look like the
envelope of the snake - a transparent tube-reptile. The new skin comes
in all shiny and beautiful making the snake feel soft and smooth.
What Snake reminded me of was this: before the old skin is shed, there
is a period of time when the snake is almost completely blind. A blue
film forms over its eyes. During this time of critical transition the
snake is agitated, strikes out, cannot eat, and is very defensive and
vulnerable. Then the blue film goes away but still the snake has not shed.
Maybe the whole process was a false alarm; maybe the snake was just sick
or crazy! Even experienced snake lovers can question the process. But
then the magic happens and that old skin does come off. Sometimes the
snake just wriggles out of it easily and quickly. Sometimes it takes more
effort, even requires soaking in water to loosen where the old skin is
so tightly attached it resists all efforts to release. Sometimes the snake
has to rub repeatedly over rough rocks to scrape off the torn pieces.
Eventually the shedding is complete. The snake is no longer blind; it
is ravenously hungry, and extremely active. One thing snakes do NOT do
is carry around the old skin as a reminder or a personal cross to bear
of their hard times and previous existence. They leave that old skin right
where it came off. They don’t cry about it. They just go on.
As a concerned human helper we could help that snake peel off the areas
where the old skin is stuck but we risk harming the new skin below. It
is just something the snake has to go through in its own time and on its
own.
What Snake told me, is that I am in the blind stage. My eyes are blue-filmed.
I am aggressive, lost, striking out and defensive. When the shedding finally
comes, no matter how long it takes or how difficult the process, I will
have gone through another growth cycle, ready to go forward. I am grateful
to Snake for this reminder and so feel safer in my blindness knowing it
is all part of growth and becoming a new and shiny being - at least for
awhile until the process repeats itself. “After all“, says Snake,
“that is the way of life.”
So I wait and in the waiting it wouldn’t hurt to go find a nice pool
of water to soak in……..
Kathryn Ravenwood is practicing Alchemical Healing in Tonasket, WA. For contact information call 509-485-3912 or email kravenwood@yahoo.com
