Author

Subject: snake

CM

10:09 09/01/2001 

I was sitting in a lounge room with my sister, brother and father (who passed away 7 years ago). I noticed a snake curled up on the lounge chair where the other 3 people were sitting. I mentioned it to them and warned them not to make any sudden movements.

We all recognised the snake as a highly poisonous one.

My dad kept teasing the snake, trying to stir it up. I remember wishing that the snake would bite him. Eventually it did, but it didn't use any poison (somehow we knew that if the poison had been injected the area would have swollen straight away). Soon the snake got sick of the teasing and left the room and went into the bedroom next door.

I went to follow it to check where it was going. It was curled up on my niece's bed, lying up against the pillow. I wasn't worried, but just monitoring it carefully to make sure that my nieces didn't go near it. My dad went into the room to continue to harass it. As I was trying to stop him, the snake sunk one of its fangs into my hand, very slowly, but I ended up with only a small hole. Once again, the snake did not inject poison.

I went into the kitchen where my mum and older sister were and showed them the bite mark. They were worried and said that I should go to the hospital, as it was a very poisonous snake. I refused saying that if it had injected poison, it would have been swollen. Just then the bite swelled. But just as quickly as it did that, it went back to normal.

I went back to check the snake and it was still curled up on the bed. I kept checking that it was still there and one time I noticed that it had gone. I went up a corridor that led to a smaller corridor running perpendicular to it. Just opposite the main corridor and a little to the left was another bedroom. I knew the snake was in there but I was trying to check by just peering in through the doorway. However, I could not see the snake.

A few minutes later my mum's cat jumped off the bed and started to walk down the corridor slowly. Within a minute, the snake flew out of the door I was watching, smashed into the wall and turned to come towards me. It zoomed through my legs and started going after the cat. Even though the cat was walking slowly, the snake wasn't catching up.

I was calling out to the others that the snake was after the cat, but even though I was yelling, my voice was barely a whisper.

The cat reached the living room and walked around the TV. The snake was still sliding down the corridor in pursuit of the cat.

When I reached the living room, my older sister was picking up a cat but it was a different cat, one I didn't recognise. This cat had long scruffy black/brown fur. She picked it up by the body with one hand, and was holding the tail near the tip with the other.

I looked and realised that the tail was the snake, and she was holding it near the head. She put the cat/snake outside and that was the last we saw of it.

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

Astrobean

11:30 10/01/2001 

Hi ! This sounds like an interesting dream.

SYMBOLS: Dreaming of a snake warns against all forms of evil and deception. Being bitten by a snake signifies that someone close to you is lying to, and deceiving, you. It also means that enemies are causing you harm. The snake biting another person means that you will hurt or criticise a friend. Dreaming about a cat is an indication of lack of trust and treachery. As you did not kill the cat, bad luck may result.

The union of the cat and snake highlights the similarities, and therefore strengthens, the symbolic meanings of cat and snake.

Dreaming of a dead father signifies that important news will come your way very soon. Dreaming of a big family indicates that things will go to your advantage financially. A living mum signifies happiness in love. A corridor means you need to be extremely careful regarding an important decision you are about to make. The living room forecasts suprise visitors.

OVERALL MEANING: The appearance of a cat and snake, and finally their union, provide a very strong indication to examine your friends and confidants carefully as deception, and treachery, from them is possible. You may have already felt the need to do this as you may have been experiencing a lack of trust towards such friends / confidants.

You may hurt or criticise a real friend by mistakingly misreading them as someone you cannot trust (the snake bite). Therefore, you need to be extremely careful about who you trust (maybe the important decision you have to make as indicated by the appearance of the corridor ?).

Please let me know it this has at all been helpful in any way.

Jane Anderson

12:36 10/01/2001 

Hi CM,

I'm sure you'll receive plenty of replies to this dream. Here's one from me to keep the ball rolling:

If you summarise the story line of your dream, it comes out that the threat of the snake bite and the fear of the snake are dissipated. At the end of the dream, despite all the fear and anxiety, the snake is put outside never to return. You are safe. The threats came to nothing and the fear was wasted emotion.

In the dream you were bitten on the hand yet you recovered. Even though your hand swelled up to prove that the bite had indeed been poisonous, you overcame it and you were healed.

Now - you were bitten on the hand and your older sister, in the dream, picked up the cat with one hand. So there is repetition of the hand theme. Hands, handling. At the end of the dream your older sister 'handled' the snake situation and got rid of the threat. In overcoming the snake bite to your hand, you also 'handled' the poison and healed.

Snakes can have many meanings according to each dreamer, but they frequently tend to symbolise facing something painful in our lives ... and then healing as a result. When the snake bites, in a dream, the story line usually turns into a healing and release situation. Indeed, your dream snake was eventually released and you were released from the fear and pain too.

It's possible that this dream has come up for you at a time when you are ready (at least unconsciously) to face an old hurt/poison/ fear .... and to handle it now in the light of the greater wisdom that you have acquired through time.

There is SO MUCH more to this dream. It is filled with symbols and clues and it is begging for questions. I'm sure others will post here, as Astrobean already has, to help you to fathom the meaning for you.

Questions are also a good line of elucidation and I'm sure people will come in here to ask you questions.

Enjoy unravelling this one, CM, and know that the simple act of facing a fear usually dissipates it.

Jane Anderson

CM

14:03 10/01/2001 

Wow! Thanks for the prompt replies. I have been so stressed in my job and life for a few years now that I haven't dreamed anything for a while. I am just starting to have occasional dreams again. It is great to be able to start to unravel the meaning of my dreams.

andrea

17:16 11/01/2001 

CM: I loved your dream - Jane is right it appears to be deeply symbolic - and I would hazard an educated guess that many of these symbols - are quite private and personal and heralding inner changes.

I have psychotherapy/counselling training and often when people start to dream - after a long time like that it is often a way of initiating a period of growth - ie the messages carried in dream are there as an indication that you are ready to face some issues in your life.

Your dreams are resurrected to throw all your resources into this effort.

The appearance of snakes is always exciting - because 'transformation' and healing are so often themes.

Jane is also right in saying that your dream begs questions - to be answered by you - in order for you use this dream as a springboard to learning more intimately about yourself.

If I was presented with such a dream by a client - there area multitude of questions that I feel would need to be asked before you would be in a position to fully appreciate the complexity of this richly symbolic dream.

Learning the language of your own personal symbols is the first step.. But mostly the great detail of this dream makes it seem more significant than most..

This is the sort of dream that I feel is ideally suited to Jane's dream interpretation service - as it is so complex and multi-facetted - and will more than likely unfold over time.