Author

Subject: snakes alive!

Suzie

11:26 30/04/2003 

I have had heaps of dreams about snakes lately, two with dangerous snakes coming after me and another where the quantity of snakes living and breeding around my house was extraordinary. Huge snakes and baby snakes all over the place. I can't remember how I felt about that one except being struck and surprised by the quantity of them.

The latest one was out to get me. I remember sitting on the end of a tall pole trying to get away from this snake and then thinking, "Damn it, I'm getting down and the snake can be on the end of the pole,” but when I managed to change positions with it, it just slid right down and after me again.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

Jane Teresa Anderson

14:08 30/04/2003 

Hi Suzie,

Which all goes to prove that slaying the snake is not necessarily the way to go. It's back. They're back. Even though you've sliced and diced them and eaten them. Even though you've tried to get away from them. They're still chasing you. They've multiplied. They're crying out to be noticed, to be understood, to be faced.

Snakes often represent healing - for many reasons outlined in this forum before and covered in great detail in "Dream Alchemy".

Also, the snake, like any dream animal (or person!) represents an energy or belief of the dreamer. These snakes represent YOUR healing energy - YOUR potential to shed the old skin and grow into the new. To transform.

This healing energy will chase you until you face it and ask what is required of you. (Anything in a dream that is chasing you is something you are not facing in waking life.)

The tall pole part of your dream, with you at one extreme of the pole and the snake at the other seems like a dream pun on polarity: the way we have extreme beliefs and swing from one extreme to the other on the journey towards finding the balanced path in the middle.

Suzie, it's time to do a dream alchemy dialogue. Take 20 minutes and a piece of paper and pen. Or sit at your computer for 20 minutes. Do a dialogue (script: fast writing without thinking) between the snake in your last dream and you sitting on top of the pole. See what transpires. Maybe post it all here in this thread.

("Dream Alchemy" also gives details on how to do a dialogue, how and why they work etc).

The snakes are ready to face you - are you ready to face them?

Jane Teresa

Suzie

11:26 02/05/2003 

Hi lovely Jane, Phew! Sounds a bit scarey but I'll have a go and post anything that seems remotely interesting. Thanks for your thoughts. Suzie

Suzie

12:16 02/05/2003 

Well that was quite interesting. Here's the transcript.

Me; Would you get away so I can come down. bUGGAR OFF!

snake; Nup. I want you. And I'm going to bite you.

Me: Why are you after me? Go after someone else. Leave me alone. Look over there. Heaps of people. Get them. Get them. Snake bait.

S: i WANT YOU. I want you. Because youre scared and your fear pleases me. I am attracted to your fear.

S.S. Somone please help me. I don't want to die.

S. Oh you'll get tired and fall down soon. and then I will bite you till my poison runs through your veins and turns you cold and stiff.

S.S. Then there's nothing for it but to come down and kill you. No point trying to stay out of your way. You have to be killed because you are too dangerous. I'm coming down.

S. At last. And I shall come up to bite you.

S.S. And I am so scared but I'm tired and will fall soon. I have to kill you. There is no-one else to do it. Here goes!

Guess that says it all. Thank you again.

My dream last night was of a new born baby I watched die. It was like a trial run. As if, - this is what will happen if... (I didn't know what) .. It was covered in blood as if the birth had been horrendous. But it was a beautiful baby, perfectly formed and healthy. And someone had turned the air off .. and I WATCHED AS IT struggled and fought for air that had been taken away from it and eventually die. Pretty depressing.

All connected up to the same thing probably heh?

Suzie

12:21 02/05/2003 

But perhaps I'm missing something. You say, slicing and dicing the snake isn't enough. What is it that is required of me. Is taking action to face my fear and kill the snake not enough? Suzie

Jane Teresa Anderson

13:06 02/05/2003 

Hi Suzie,

Good work.

"I WANT YOU. I want you. Because youre scared and your fear pleases me. I am attracted to your fear. "

This may be the key. The snake is requiring you to face and put an end to a situation that is keeping you in a state of fear.

Fear is an adrenalin state. There are many examples of addiction to fear: for example, extreme sports (for the adrenalin high), the Drama Queen situation (thriving on the fears and maybes of life for their highs - for the thrill of the unknowns).

Highs are about avoiding lows.

Hmmm - you were high on the pole and the snake was low on the ground - and, as the snake said in your dialogue, "Oh you'll get tired and fall down soon." So, the (healing) snake requires you to leave the highs and face the lows.

What fears are you feeling most in life now? What dramas? In what ways might these be keeping you wired and/or in escape mode?

Do you use fear or adrenalin to inject an alive feeling into your life?

In your second (baby) dream you mention feeling depressed by the dream. From high to low. Time to identify what is suffocating you (you as the baby being deprived of air), as this is the depressing thing.

What do you do/feel/think/act in waking life to avoid a situation in which you are being suffocated (emotionally, spiritually) - to stay "high" - to keep up a sense of drama and fear?

In your dialogue the snake talks about killing you. This is killing the you that is in a state of fear, so that a fearless you can be reborn.

You take the first step towards that fearlessness in your dialogue by coming down the pole to kill the snake.

You ask if slicing and dicing the snake is not enough. I suggest focussing on TRANSFORMATION rather than the process of killing and death.

The opposite of fear (which is attracting the snake) is love (fearlessness?).

How about visualising embracing that snake with a love that overwhelms it. In feeling your love, the snake's drive to kill you because it is attracted to your fear, will be neutralised.

Now - to the logical mind this will sound very contradictory. Kill the snake on the one hand, don't kill the snake on the other.

Sit with all of this, Suzie, and see what comes up.

This is just a beginning to working with this dream.

Jane Teresa

Suzie

18:45 03/05/2003 

Hi Jane, Thanks for your wonderful interpretation. I am printing it out and will read it over and over to see if I can really address this. THanks so much again. Suzie