Snake
Snakes in dreams often represent the energy keeping us alive at a basic level. But we can express this energy in many ways such as kindness, love, anger, killing things, creativity and so on. See Levels of the Brain and Dreams – Snake Dreams
Example: Dreamt that a snake – a huge python – had raised me. I had the sense that it had cradled me in its coils when I was a baby, and that it had taught me without words how to survive. This was a sort of jungle/life wisdom.
It is usually depicting the fight or flight instinct. It is also an image connected with the force, purpose or energy behind that power of growth and unfolding. It is the force of life, the latent energy or potential within us, particularly the primal urge to survive. It leads us both to growth and death, along with the passionate emotions and urges that drive us so powerfully. The ancient civilisation of the South Americas, saw the snake as a messenger of the gods. And it can be if we relate to it well, because it represents the force of Life in us – surely worth listening to!
The snake can bite you, and its venom may flow throughout your being and kill you. Most of us are very frightened of this. The reason being that the venom will certainly cause death- it does this by the power of growth, which will be the death of your old self as you outgrow it. It replaces the old personal interests and fears with a self that is part of the one great life. So the fear of the snake is not because its venom is deadly, but because it transforms. It turns you into a being who is part of the whole. It robs one of the artificial walls placed between self and the collective pool of life consciousness.
Moses saw the energy of this inner snake in the form of the burning bush. During the exodus the Israelite’s lost faith and were smitten by fiery serpents, so God told Moses, “Make thee a serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it on a pole, and it came to pass, that if a fiery serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” An apt description of the healing qualities of the awakened snake energy. Some of the Israelite’s even began to worship this symbol, and the practice of worshipping the brazen serpent on the pole as a god was either passed on, or was revived later. Bronze and stone serpent artifacts have been found in excavations in Canaan, Gezer and other parts of Israel!
That energy, like electricity in a house, can be heat, power, sound or vision, and lies behind all our functions. So in some dreams the snake represents our sexuality; in others the rising of that energy up our body to express as digestion – the intestinal snake – or as the creative or poisonous energy of our emotions and thoughts, even disease. In the throat it becomes the destructive or constructive speech and language – expressed or repressed feelings and speech. In the head it becomes thinking, perception and higher cognition.
The ancient civilisation of the South Americas, saw the snake as a messenger of the gods. And it can be if we relate to it well, because it represents the force of Life in us – is surely worth listening to!
The snake can represent many different things, but usually the energy that expresses as our life processes. If we think of a person’s life from conception to death, we see a flowing moving event, similar in many ways to the speeded-up films of a seed growing into a plant, flowering and dying. The snake depicts the force, purpose or energy behind that movement. It is the force of life, the latent energy or potential within us – that leads us both to growth and death, along with the passionate emotions and urges that drive us so powerfully
In the destructive aspect the snake represents the poisonous thoughts and emotions that can destroy you; the awful things we do to ourselves, to Life in us. We tend to depict this facet of the snake as biting or attacking us, even though we have ourselves given rise to such poisonous emotions as hate and guilt. Because our thinking and emotions are an expression of our life energy, you are capable of directing the creative force of life toward self destruction. As an example of this, a dreamer exploring her snake dream saw that it represented her flight or fight instincts. This linked with her aggressive and protective feelings in connection with the way men had acted with her. The problem was that the snake was in a poisonous, strangling and killing mode. This, she realised, showed how she had withheld, strangled, her anger about what had happened, and that anger was turned inward, poisoning or strangling her flow of full life.
The opposite is also true. The power of life and death can be directed creatively. Then the snake is seen in its healing role in dreams, and in ancient times was shown in the form of the staff with two snakes coiling up it – caduceus – still used today as a symbol of the medical profession. See: Energy Sex and Dreams
Example: Dreamt I was on the side of a very steep hill. So steep I could only just hold on. It was very rounded and grassy. I was near the top clinging to the grass. There seemed to be many snakes, lizards about. Occasionally one would leap at me and bounce of my coat. I took care to keep my hands covered. There was a woman, who seemed to be something like a secretary, who was advising me. I was then in a wood. There seemed to be a lot of apprehension and fear. Some robbers had stolen my pony. The fear went when I realised that there was no need to walk through a swampy area of the wood. Only the robbers, or rough types knew the way through. I turned to the right out of the wood.
In exploring his dream this is what he received – The dream shows you bringing your love to the crown. The dream was the way of sorting out your problems over sinking or rising. You can reach the highest either way. Sinking is the way of letting go. This was represented by the swamp. The way of bringing love to the crown is the way of rising. The hill represents your present situation. The clinging means you try too hard. There is no need to bring so much effort. The snakes represents your lower powers trying to break into consciousness. These must be directed to the crown. These are the forces which help you break through. They stimulate you to rise. The woman is love giving you advice. Love will direct your efforts. The part where you walk through the wood means you look for life through delving within. The swamp is swamping my consciousness. Your consciousness must live, not drown, in the deep waters of life. This can be achieved only by bringing unification to those urges seen as the brigands. These and the snakes are much the same. Your soul must live without division. When the soul brings union within itself, so it achieved union in the whole. This way is a way of love.
It doesn’t matter that your dream snake bites you – after all it is an aspect of you, and the only poison you will meet is the poisonous emotions you have been injecting into yourself – and they need to be felt to clear them out. See Our Reptilian Brain
The snake can shed its skin, and so symbolises self transcendence, rebirth.
The alchemists put a gold crown on its head, symbolising expanded or spiritual consciousness arising from the same energy as sexuality. Often a diadem, gem, or light is at its brow symbolising the possibility of expanded consciousness, or awareness of the eternal nature, and life in eternity. Christ is sometimes depicted as a crucified serpent, suggesting the mystery of Life nailed to physical awareness of the senses. See: Reptile.
Example: I just woke up from a bad dream. I saw that I was in a car without a driver and I was sitting on a snake which I could not see but only slightly feel under me. I was afraid that the snake might bite me because of the bumps during the car drive. And then it does bite me. It was painless but I felt blood oozing out of my tummy. Then suddenly I saw a stranger in the driver’s seat who was a lady whom I don’t know. And I am just praying her to drive me to the hospital and she refuses to drive. I was spooked big time and I am on the internet now. Came across your website. I hope I can find an answer. Please help me.
The snake is your dream snake and should not be confuse with an actual snake. It is your basic energy, like electricity in your house, and as such can be expressed in any number of ways. This links with the car, another form of energy, expressed as a way of getting where you want. But the snake energy you are sitting on, not knowing how to direct it, yet you can feel it wriggling at the base of your trunk. You are scared of what this energy will express as if you allow it, but sitting on it is not good, because your thoughts and feelings, your imagination are the way we direct this energy. And what did you do, you felt fear it would bite you, and that is where you directed it. Fortunately you were not scared enough to direct it to inject you with the poison of your own fear. But it did cause an energy leak that you realised you needed help with.
 |
The Hebrew word for the serpent in the Garden of Eden is Nahash. And to be understood we have to understand that Hebrew is a sign language, one that each letter of the alphabet had a particular meaning. And there is no indication in the ancient Hebrew that this was a snake. It has been translated as snake because the original meaning was lost. It can be seen as a divine force that expressed in seven levels or ways – so much like the ancient symbol as it was understood by older cultures. For full explanation see Hebrew Translation. |
Example: A dream told me by a woman I met in Mexico. She said that she dreamt a large snake was crawling up the bed and then bit her on her left breast. She said she then tried to suck out the poison.In the destructive aspect the snake represents the poisonous thoughts and emotions that can destroy us. We tend to depict this snake biting or attacking us, even though we have ourselves given rise to such poisonous emotions as hate and guilt. Because our life energy flows into thinking and emotions, we are in this way directing the creative force of life. Directing it negatively has the power to bring illness and death, for we are dealing with the power of life and death itself.
I asked her to explore the dream by imaging herself as the snake, feeling it biting her. The result was that a story unfolded. She had felt, rightly or wrongly, that her husband had been unfaithful, and she had felt bitter and revengeful. But instead of expressing those feelings they had turned inwards and poisoned her, leaving her depressed. So the snake was an image of her poison biting her and poisoning her life. So do not be afraid of a snake biting you. It is not dangerous. The dangerous part is avoiding the bite, because the poison stays in you unmet.
The opposite is also true. The power of life and death can be directed creatively. Then the snake is seen in its healing role in dreams, and in ancient times was shown in the form of the staff with two snakes coiling up it – caduceus – still used today as a symbol of the medical profession.
Example: ‘A small snake about a foot long had dropped down my shirt neck. I could feel it on the left side of my neck. Fearing it was poisonous and might bite me I moved very slowly. At one point I put my head on the ground, hoping the snake would wish to crawl away. It did not. Then I was near an elephant I loved, and hoped it would remove the snake. It did not. Even as I slept I felt the snake was an expression of the attitude of not sharing myself with anybody except family.’ David T.
For months prior to the above dream David had experienced a great deal of neck pain. After discussing the dream with his wife, and realising much of his thinking and feeling was in-turned, the pain disappeared. So the snake was both ‘poisoner’ and ‘healer’ representing the power of David’s negative and introverted emotions and thoughts on his body. This may be why snakes are used as a symbol of the medical profession.
Example: ‘I was in a huge cathedral, the mother church. I wanted to go to the toilet/gents. As I held my penis to urinate it became a snake and reached down to the urinal to drink. It was thirsty. I struggled with it, pulling it away from the unclean liquid. Still holding it I walked to a basin and gave it pure water to drink.’ Bill A.
Here the connection between snake and sexuality is obvious. But the snake is not just Bill’s penis. It is the direction his sexual urges take him that he is struggling with. Out of his sense of love and connection with Life – the cathedral – he wants to lift his drive toward something that will not leave him with a sense of uncleanness. In this sense a snake might be something one wrestled with, depicting the wrestle one has with inner drives and hungers, especially sexuality or anger. The Mother Church was a form of initiation into a much wider view of spiritual beliefs. It came about because his sexual drive was directed more upwards rather than out of his genitals.
Example: “Tony taught me a process in which a dream could be interpreted and understood by assuming that everything, people and objects alike, in a dream represented aspects of the Self. Sitting cross-legged on the squishy, old-fashioned sofa in the living room of my sadhu’s cave opposite Tony, I’d close my eyes and mentally return to a dream I had the previous night.
So if I dreamt about a tree, I would ‘become’ the tree, assume its personality and respond from its viewpoint. He’d ask ‘So what kind of tree are you? Are you big or small, old or young? What do you look like? Where are you growing? Why are you in Tiziana’s dream?’ This sounded like a silly exercise at first, but I was soon enough convinced of its validity.
Other dreams taught me about my psychological and emotional processes, such as in one dream, in which I was in a dark forest with a female friend. We hid behind a felled tree. From our path towards the left, we saw a big black snake approaching. It was absolutely enormous and had no head. We were exhilarated and scared. Next, a badger walked past. Then, to our wonder, a gang of wolves came by. In my consequent interpretation I saw that the headless snake stood for `my sexuality and my often ‘headless’, raw desires. The badger signified my illusions that needed to be ‘killed’ and transformed by the pack of wolves, who represented my growth and evolution. Although painful, my intuition – symbolized by the female friend – knew that I had to go through the fear and ‘be killed’ in order to grow.
Overall, together with the practice of LifeStream the dream work helped me to retrieve and untangle many clues and memories that were buried deep in my unconscious.” See Life’s Little Secrets
The Africans believed the dream of a snake round the leg signified slavery, while the dream of a dragon round the body is a symbol of bondage in Artemidorus.
A crowned or light encircled snake: When our blind impulses our instinctive or unconscious urges and functions are in some measure integrated with our conscious will and insight, this is seen as the crowned snake or even winged snake. It shows real self awareness and maturity.
Unfortunately, as Jung points out in Man and His Symbols, people in modern society, whether black, yellow, brown or white, have lost their sense of nature and the cosmos as being anything other than processes without consciousness or living feeling. Jung says, ‘No river contains a spirit, no tree is the life principle of a man, no snake the embodiment of wisdom…No voice now speaks to man from stones, plants, and animals, nor does he speak to them believing they can hear.’
Black King Cobra: The king title shows the important role the snake will have in the life of the dreamer. That it is black indicates that it is only just becoming a part of their conscious life.
In coils of snake: Feeling bound in the blind impulses or habitual drives and feeling responses. Instincts and habits can be redirected, as illustrated by Hercules labours.
Sitting on snake: Mastery of the instinctive nature and transformation and the making conscious of the wisdom and power resident in the unconscious.
Snake biting you: Unconscious worries about our health, frustrated sexual impulse, our emotions turned against ourselves as when internalised aggression poisons us causing very real illness, so may be shown as the biting snake. It may also suggest an influence in ones life – the venom – that takes away ones identity and perhaps opens one to a life beyond self, the spirit.
Example: I realised as I explored my dream of being bitten by the snake I had thought about this a lot already and that losing ones identity meant in this case not being tied to ones family so rigidly, no longer relating to people as if from a single fixed gender, also there is the possibility of getting insight into the person you are meeting more fully, because the artificial barriers of gender, family ties, nationality and creed have been dropped. These barriers prevent us from actually knowing each other very fully in everyday life, and are operative in most of us without our realising it.
As I think about this I wonder whether this is part of the way we create identity. It appears to be made from many sources. For instance the family physical – DNA – inheritance plays a very great part, as does the information of behaviour repertoire handed to us when young. The cultural patterning given with language shapes our mind, and the chemical importance is also being seen lately. All of these produce the person we call I. Yet the ‘I’ is capable of being radically shifted, simply by taking a drug or medicine. This often reshapes the way we see ourselves, so an evolution in the process of identity building has occurred. Identity in the end is not a set of beliefs or behaviours. The I is not limited to these. See Programmed
So as I faced this part of the session I wondered what I would be saying goodbye to if I allowed myself to be bitten by the serpent and its poison transform me. I felt that although I would lose my old connection with my family I would bring them a lot more than in the past because my being would itself be much larger and connected. I saw this as if I were living in a courtyard, and that courtyard was my family life, my work life, and was made up of my sympathetic connections with my children and the powerful bonds that led me to favour them over others. If these bonds dissolved they would no longer be favoured above others out of the same powerful ties. The ties would dissolve, but of course they would still be people I had a lot of connections with because of friendship and common goals, etc. So I would relate to them out of something other than family feelings. We would be drawn together or pushed apart out of the same influences that attracted or repulsed in general.
I felt then that I did want to be bitten by the snake. I trusted the larger life. I want my life to have connections with it and my actions to flow out of these wider connections.
At one point it was like being shown something. On my computer I have a small program to do my accounts on. I take a lot of time putting information into this program to keep my accounts straight. It was as if the wider life said to me, “You don’t need to all the time look after your own affairs in this individual way. There is a wider life in which the ‘accounts’ program is built-in. Every action you do, every interaction is recorded automatically, and so you no longer need a personal piece of software”.
Snake biting others: Biting remarks; a poisonous tongue; emotional energy turned against oneself or someone else.
Snake coiling up tree, pole, cross: The blind instinctive forces of life emerging into conscious experience – in other words the essence of human experience with its involvement in pain, pleasure, time and eternity; the process of personal growth or evolution; healing because personal growth often moves us beyond old attitudes or situations that led to inner tension or even sickness.
Snake coiled around you crushing you: The way you are caught up and constricted in your own or other peoples emotions. Being crushed by emotions, fears; struggling with powerful emotions and urges.
Snake Colours – Green: Our internal life process directed – perhaps through satisfied feelings, love and creativity – into a healing process or one that leads to our personal growth and positive change. White: Eternal aspect of our life process, or becoming conscious of it. Blue: Religious feelings or coldness in relations.
Snake in connection with any hole: Sexual relatedness.
Snake in the grass: Sense or intuition of talk behind your back; danger; sneakiness.
Example: I dreamt I was outdoors walking through open ground, maybe at times gardens. I was with others – not sure who, and we frequently came across large snakes which we reacted to as if they were venomous. Then I came across a lot of them and they swarmed onto me. I froze, terrified that if I made a move I would be fatally bitten. But they just swarmed over my body and got under my clothes without harming me. Gradually I relaxed and slowly began to move about with the snakes still on me. They started to feel like a built in defense system which would attack anyone who was aggressive to me. At one point several large and aggressive dogs walked past me. They turned as if thinking about attacking, then appeared to sense the snakes and ran off cowed. As time passed the snakes felt like part of my body.
Snake with tail in its mouth: Sense of the circle of life – birth, growth, reproduction, ageing, death, rebirth; the eternal.
Useful questions and hints:
What is happening with my dream snake, and what is the significance to me personally?
What does this indicate about the way I am direction my life energy?
Is this depicting my life energy expressing some positive potential or healing
Comments
Hi, I had dream that a snake of black colour with bright red spots on it’s body was near my pillow and tried to go into the ear I didn’t know it went inside or not but I wakeup suddenly with fear… Can u please tell me what is the meaning
Thank you
Garry – A snake can either represent something poisonous or healing, depending on how you react to it. For a snake is an expression in a dream of powerful and instinctive emotions. Like electricity in a house, it can be heat, power, sound or vision, and lies behind all our functions. But it can also kill you if you handle it wrongly. In the destructive aspect the snake represents the poisonous thoughts and emotions that can destroy you. We tend to depict this facet of the snake as biting or attacking us, even though we have ourselves given rise to such poisonous emotions as hate and guilt.
Your feeling of fear is an example of how your own emotions can poison you. Every feeling changes the way your glands work, and negative feelings produce poisonous substances. Positive feeling produce life giving substances.
So if you were not frightened of the snake it would be okay to let it in your ear. Then it would bring greater strength. See http://dreamhawk.com/uncategorized/dream-yoga/
Tony
Hello,
I have had a couple of animal dreams the last few nights, one with a snake, the other with a tiger and I am hoping for some insight into them. Three nights ago, I dreamt I was in a large field with two Navajo friends of mine, a brother and sister. The sister had just finished riding her horse and went to talk to a friend. I saw her horse and thought I would like to ride it, so I mounted it bareback and began to ride. The horse however, did not want me to ride it and it started bucking. Then its head and neck turned into a snake and was thrashing about wildly. I jumped from the horse and landed on my hands and knees. I started coughing up a bloody snake, its body in three parts. Then I was woken up by my son…
Just last night I dreamt I was walking and a tiger came at me. I was scared, but I thought I would try to be strong and not show my fear. It did not work and the tiger ran at me. I climbed a tree and onto a roof of a tin shed. The tiger followed me up and I ran across a series of tin sheds. I finally realized I could not escape and I turned and faced the tiger. I screamed at the tiger and ran straight at it. The tiger got scared and turned and ran away, then I woke up. These dreams have been on my mind, and I would love some insight into them. Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Kurt
Kurt – You seem to be in a great struggle with the wild and natural side of you. The horse starts off as something you think you can handle, but turns out to become a terrible threat. And the snake in three parts is something done in rituals. So I feel you are doing something that does link you with the mysterious side of your nature.
The horse and the snake are very similar in meaning, a great natural energy that can carry you or throw you down – much like emotional or sexual energy does. So ask yourself in what way do you feel thrown down and then felt some powerful feeling wanting to come out?
The tiger is often an expression of anger or fierceness, but as you saw, when you expressed a similar feeling it ran away.
From that you can see that an image – in a dream – cannot hurt you, though it can cause you to feel fear. So this is where what I call Dream Yoga comes in and is useful. Having realised that nothing can actually hurt you, you can learn to react to your dreams differently. Dream Yoga is a way of transforming your life. The first steps of it are:
1 – There is nothing in any dream that can hurt you, unless you run away from something. Running away is leaving yourself open to being a victim of whatever frightens you.
2 – Every image and person in your dreams is an expression of your own life process. As such it is alive and intelligent and is something sent to help you.
3 – Instead of running or avoiding things, take them into yourself. This is like eating; you take something in and it becomes you. Except that every part of your dreams is an expression of some part of you. So taking it into you makes you stronger and more capable. In fighting the tiger you are fighting or running away form yourself. Taking it in means you have its strength.
The horse probably threw you because you were too proud. I think the Navaho would respect the horse and need it to be with them.
Tony
Thank you so much Tony. You have some valuable insight that has been very helpful. I have been having a hard time trying to achieve a higher connection to nature vs. living within “societies standards” especially at work and finding the middle ground or balance, between the two. Like you said, I need to take it in, embrace my spiritual pursuits and see where it can take me… Thank you again.
Best, Kurt
Kurt – Thank you for letting me know that I have been of help. It makes a difference.
Tony
Tony..
i’ve been having some dreams that are now falling into the realm of reoccurring and though i’ve looked into what these dreams are supposed to mean nothing is hitting home.. so maybe you can help…
the dreams all start off the same. in waking life i own two snakes, a four foot ball python and an eight foot beauty snake. the beauty snake is a bit aggressive but thats what i like about her (Attila). these dreams always start out with Attila getting out of her tank and me struggling to get her back in. usually something has happened to the tank like it is broken and i end up having to fashion a makeshift enclosure for her. at this point the tank continually breaks down and each time i have to rebuild i find another snake. the snakes start coming out from under my bed, in closets.. and get progressively larger and more dangerous. sometimes i am bitten by the snakes, sometimes i am constricted, sometimes they only act aggressively and do not actually strike. the dreams get progressively more stressful as i am trying to find a place a put all these snakes.. in the dream i am very rational. i know for example a four foot snake cannot go in with that 10 foot snake because the little one will be eaten. sometimes i have pressure from others to get the snakes together, other times i am by myself in my room or a house iv’e never seen.
if this same theme keeps reappearing then i know i am trying to tell myself something.. i am just not 100 % clear on what that something is.
Danielle – It seems this is a power struggle, and no one is winning.
You can see, having been bitten and constricted, that you cannot come to harm, and the struggle is about containing them, controlling them.
Perhaps you need to practice a little Dream Yoga. And the first step is to recognise the difference between caring for your snakes in waking, and being with them in your dreams.
In dream yoga you cannot control everything, but you can realise there is no harm for you and others if you give them freedom. What often happens then is that you discover that the snakes, and animals, and even other people are all a part of you, and they can add to your ability. So you do not get at odds with them, and they are not at odds with you.
You do not need to stand on your head for this yoga, but you do need to change you attitudes. Stop being frightened of your dream snakes.
Tony
Hello Tony,
I hope you can assist me understanding this dream I had last night. I dreamt of something bothering or hurting me on my left arm. When I pressed on my arm, I saw something which looked like a green snake made of something like green peas. I continued pressing on my arm till the whole snake came out. It was not a pleasing feeling. Then I noticed that there was another snake still inside my harm but which was more difficult to reach as I could see neither the head nor the tale; it seemed that this second snake was well rooted into my arm; while the first one I took out was willing to come out and easier to extract. What does all this mean, please? Thank you in advance for your help.
Chahd – You didn’t say whether you are right handed or left, as it makes a difference.
So I will take it you are right handed, which suggests that your left arm and hand are your support system. So when you are doing something with your right hand you support it with your left. That may not seem important, but it is like having confidence in what you can do. And the snake, being green suggests that this is something that can have a positive influence. But it has been held back, and one snake is still held in you, repressed, and so can be a negative influence.
This may sound silly, but I believe that every part of us has a level of awareness and intelligence, and so do the images in your dream; they are after all aspects of yourself. So do not treat the snake as something awful. It is that sort of feeling that has held the snake back. Speak to it as if it is a living and feeling part of you – which it is – and say something like, “I am sorry I have kept you buried in me, and it would be best for all of us if you came out as a good and positive part of my life. So I invite you to come out of me and take up a positive life.”
Tony
I dreamed about lots of poisonous snakes all around, I was bit twice in the leg (I think). I had a man carry me for help and he was also bit several times trying to help me, walking through the snakes. I ended up helping put tourniquets on his bites and felt the venom pulsing through me knowing I would die probably but still trying to help him. I remember the seeing the bites and feeling an almost numbing pain going through my body and then I guess I woke up.
Hello,
I had a dream where
it was just me in my living room, I walked towards the kitchen and there was a big rattlesnake and it was trying to attack me and bit me I was backing up with ever strike the snake throw at me!!! So. I grabbed my hockey stick that was beside the dining room table and started hitting it with the back end of my hockey stick!!! It was hit and miss so I flipped the stick around and I cut of its head with the blade of the hockey stick. Then I was just staring at the dead snake in my living room for some time. Then my dad came out of know where and seen me just looking at this dead rattlesnake in my living room. And he grabbed the dead snake and he cooked it and we ate the rattlesnake…then I woke up from my sleep.
can u help me with what this means?
Sheldon – The snake is a great power that you have within you. The power expresses as a snake. You were or are frightened of this power that you do not feel in control of, and it could never hurt you. If it could have harmed you, you would have died when the snake bit you.
So step back a bit from your fear – and what you fear is the force of Life. Life is wonderful and everything – destruction as well as creation; but you are life, so it cannot ultimately hurt you. Here is a dream that illustrates this:
I was outdoors walking through open ground, maybe at times gardens. I was with others – not sure who, and we frequently came across large snakes which we reacted to as if they were venomous. Then I came across a lot of them and they swarmed onto me. I froze, terrified that if I made a move I would be fatally bitten. But they just swarmed over my body and got under my clothes without harming me. Gradually I relaxed and slowly began to move about with the snakes still on me. They started to feel like a built in defence system which would attack anyone who was aggressive to me. At one point several large and aggressive dogs walked past me. They turned as if thinking about attacking, then appeared to sense the snakes and ran off cowed. As time passed the snakes felt like part of my body.
But you got the right idea in the end. You father cooked and you both ate it. The main thing about snakes is to integrate them – eating or letting them become a part of you. So now feel the strength of the snake inside of you.
Tony
I dream of snakes quite frequently, and I also used to have a pet snake. She lived about 6 years, until she became ill, and passed away. I used to dream of her all the time. She has been gone for a year now, and I still dream of snakes. The other day I dreamt of snake heads, and tails cut off all over the ground, they looked like rattle snake heads. A week before that I dreamt I pulled a snake like thing out of my throat, it was sticky, and gross and then threw it to the ground.
What does this all mean?
Tara – I feel the dreams are about something you loved or cared for that has become hurt or sick in some way. The dream of you pulling the snake thing out of your throat seems to be about something you need to express, maybe a feeling you have that needs to come out as crying or sounds.
You could try holding the image of the snake coming out of your throat, and then allow any weird sounds to express. This is a great way to discover what is hiding behind the symbol of that snake.
Tony
Hi. I am on occasion having dreams about snakes. I am pregnant so I chalked it up to having wierd dreams because of that. The first dream I had, had my deceased grandomother and a gold snake that bit me right in the throat. This latest dream had her in it also and 5 snakes again with the golden one. This time the snakes didnt attack they were all laying flat and around a mailbox. Also in this dream my deceased grandmother accidentaly knocked my two year old off of some very steep steps. It is starting to disturb me with these dreams. I have been having some trust issues with the sperm donor of the child I am pregnant with could this be the reasons for the snakes. I just do not feel comfortable being with him. Is my grandmother warning me? Why is he not in the dreams? HELP!
Kara – You keep worrying about all sorts of things. And the snakes around the mailbox are trying to give you a message, as is your grandmother.
And as far as I can tell the message is that you do not need to worry about the father if the child. You are hugely influential in the life of your unborn baby. You are making a mistake about how you see life. It isn’t all about genes and influences. It is about a wonderful thing that is happening to YOU. It is about an actual miracle taking place in you – the forming of the baby. And what is important is that every baby that is born is a divine being. But it can be put in the prison by thoughts of worry and are you doing the right thing. Instead bask in the knowledge that in you is a divine spark, and is you keep worshipping at the feet of that divinity, that is you and in your baby. All other influences will count for nothing.
You are the most important influence in your babies growth. Mothers who have taken hero’s of music, or art or even aviation as the model for their baby, they gave birth to children who became great in those areas.
That is the greatest truth.
Tony
I had a dream recently about a lot of little baby snakes coming at first, out of my arm.
Then somehow I was at the hospital and they
were everywhere! There was a doctor examining me as they were being pulled out.(I could literally
feel myself pull them out, even from my throat.)
It felt like I couldnt breath for a second as it was coming out.The doctor even found one
inside my eye sockets! They were a dark green or black and had a yellow stripe on either side I think.
Anything you could tell me would be great.
Thanx.
Candace – It is difficult to be certain about this type of dream. It could indicate an infection of throat. The only other thing I have seen this in connection with is a lot of negative emotions that needed to be dealt with and discharged.
Seeing that the dream also included a doctor and hospital, it is certainly about a physical or psychological situation that is worth looking at. If you can have a doctor examine you for an infection it could set your mind at rest.
It seems as if your creative energy has got blocked somewhere and therefore is expressing as these baby snakes. If yo9u can imagine the babies becoming one big snake it might help.
Tony
Another snake dream. This one I am in my parents house that I grew up in. I am at the front door and see a huge amount of grass being pushed up over the ground by a huge snake. I tell my ex-husband to run out the back and get it. While he goes out the back of the house I hear a noise coming from the old fire range in the kitchen that I am standing in. I look on and as my ex husband comes back in the back door I say he is coming through the pipes of the fire. I quickly pull out the copper piping from the right side of the fire range and bend it with my hands and put it into the front of the blazing fire. Thats it. The feeling was a sense of fear in case the huge snake would get in.
Well Patie – You are bent on crucifying your snake.
I think it is worth giving you more information about the snake as a part of YOU! You have what is called the Reptilian Brain and includes the brain stem and the cerebellum. It carries our genetically transmitted ‘instinctive’ behaviour such as suckling at the breast as a baby, aggressive response as with and including territorial defensiveness, the courtship and mating behaviours in reproduction. One of the best known expressions of this brain is the ‘flight or fight’ response in survival situations. This part of your brain deal with behaviour that is either innate, as described above, is learned and has become habitual, or is a conditioned response. If it is habitual we can repeat it without having to learn it or be very aware of how we do it – as with riding a bicycle or driving a car once we have mastered the skill. To read more see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/
Now this is a big one to move the earth, and it is obviously heading your way. The panic you feel is you getting in touch with your fight and flight mechanism, and it is worth telling yourself to calm down, as it is not a monster trying to get you, but a very necessary part of you that civilised life has not helped you to deal with. You will not be a whole person until you can meet and tame this snake.
I know that sounds wrong but I have met this again and again with people – after all, how can we avoid it seeing it is a part of our brain and mind. It wants to get into your house – your body and mind – and to keep it out will cause all manner of struggles with fear, sexual feelings and your own strength. Obviously at first it will feel frightening, because we have been raised in a way to keep out such strong and primal feelings. So if you can, feel your feelings and grow.
Tony
I had a dream last night that I fell from the sky to an amazon and another person had fallen with me. We were exploring and came across a waterfall and the girl wanted her picture taken by it. As I lifted my camera I saw a huge snake laying right by her and she noticed it as well. All of a sudden the snake moved quickly forcing the girl into the water. I was screaming and trying to help her get out of the water but I couldn’t so I ran for help. I came back with 2 other people and noticed the girl floating face down in the water. The water was murky, muddy like and very still. The snake then jumped out at me and I was trying to kill it with a pole but did not succeed. I remember it’s thick scaly brown skin and touching it while trying to kill it. The snake slid back into the water and slowly pulled the girl underwater. Could you interpret this dream for me? It’s been driving me crazy. Thank you!!
Brittney – This is the second snake dream today that I have looked at, and I ask again, “Why do you try to kill the snake?” It is part of you, and instinctive reactive part, but you cannot separate yourself from it. What most people do is to have a fear reaction – the instinctive drive – and then it becomes a fight.
The poison or threat of a snake is only your own fears given a shape of a snake through your dream process. If you cannot face your own fears or poisonous feelings such as hatefulness, then the snake continuous to attack you.
The waterfall is a tremendous energy flow – in you – and so it was showing you that when you allow that much energy you need to direct it or it will express as negative feelings – as it did.
Please see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/crazy-as-a-jaybird-sane-reasons-for-some-crazy-behaviour/
I believe we tend to blame our negative feelings on circumstances or other people. I know I did, and the only way I found any peace was to accept I was responsible – and open to whatever you consider the highest good.
Tony
Hi,
I had a dream last night that I was home and my cousin came home with a snake. I asked him to hold it and as I was grabbing it from him the snake crawled up my arm and to my head. I wasnt afraid of it, but it wrapped itself around my head and just rested itself there and I allowed it to stay, as it was no big deal and continued on with my day. I cleaned house and sat down to eat a snack when the snake loosened itself and began to crawl down my back, and when it did I saw the oppurtunity to grab it and released it outside. I was never afraid of it, but a little worried that I would never be able to get it off my head. It was a bright green snake. Could you help me interpret this dream? Thank you!!!!
Well AlyshaM – A bright green snake usually signifies growth, and our internal life process directed – perhaps through satisfied feelings, love and creativity – into a healing process or one that leads to our personal growth and positive change.
That it moves to you head shows a very important expression of your energy. You have to realise that the snake is a part of your brain – the reptilian brain – and that is represented by the snake in your dream. The energy it expresses is like electricity in a house. It can be heat, power, sound or vision, and lies behind all our functions. So in some dreams the snake represents our sexuality; in others the rising of that energy up our body to express as digestion – the intestinal snake – or as the creative or poisonous energy of our emotions and thoughts, even disease. In the head it becomes thinking, perception and like extra sensory perception.
So it is a premising sign that you were not afraid of it. If you were it suggests fear itself is poisoning you.
Tony
hi my name is biancas and i just recently had a dream about me holding snakes of different colors and i was showing them to other people in my dream and the only colors i can remember is green, red, and a black, and if imnot mistaken like a blue purple kinda like… but i had these snakes with me and as i turned i wasnt afraid or nothing of them it was like they were mine so i had nothing to be afraid of,.. but when i turned away it was like i was looking for these snakes and i would get them back one by one… other people would hand them to me cause they new they were mine… can you help me try to interpret this one
I had a dream last night where there were hundreds of baby snakes in my house. Maybe about 3-4 inches long. I was scooping them up in my hands and putting them in a big plastic container trying to get them out of the house because my husband is really afraid of them. I wasn’t afraid of the snakes. They were just crawling all over the place. I would lift up an area rug and a bunch would crawl out. I would lift up an article of clothing and the same thing. It seemed never ending…..to get the snakes out.
Hello,
I had a dream where I was seated on a chair and right beside me on the chair there was a snake crowned. The atmosphere felt to be calm and serene. When I woke up I almost could still feel the top part of the snake still touching my neck.
Hi ADR – Have you read about the crowned snake?
The snake represents the most basic force of life. In Indian symbolism they call this the Kundalini. It is shown as a snake that can be released up the spine. What it means is that we all have an enormous potential only a small part of which has been released or known by our conscious mine, a bit like the image of the iceberg, only a tiny part of it showing above the surface.
To explain this, look at the phenomenal range of life forms on this planet; and if we remember that as far as we know, this variety developed from bacteria and single cell creatures. We can see from this that the process behind the variety has infinite possibilities. The variety could not have developed if there was not a potential for its appearance. The shaping influence of evolution then played its part in directing or exploring the potential. Some of the latest findings in regard to the quantum level of the universe, and therefore of our being, suggest that at base the universe can be thought of as infinite potential. If we approach this potential in the right way it can begin to express.
The crowned snake is not an Eastern symbol but one from Western philosophy. It suggests in your dream that the snake is rising upwards, and that the crown shows it is ready to show it wonderful potential in you.
Tony