The Snake

I just finished a wonderful book by Alice Walker, “Now is the time to open your heart”. In it she tells a quaint tale about a snake who is nearly frozen on a cold, dirt trail. A man hiking along the trail discovers the snake and muses over the sight since the cold had immobilized the body. The snake asks the man to help him by warming his body against the mans chest. The man, wanting to be good but leery of the snake asks why he should do such a thing when the snake could bite him at any moment. The snake assures the man that he would not bite because the man would have saved him and the snake would not wish to harm someone that is so good. So, the man takes the snake and tucks him in his chest pouch letting him warm against the mans body. The man feels proud that he could do such a good deed for such a creature and smiles to himself. Awhile down the trail the man feels a pinch and realizes the snake has bitten him. He asks the snake why since he had saved the poor, frozen body would the he bite him. The snake replies, “because it is my nature.” And the man falls to the trail and awaits death while the snake slithers away. Sadly, the snake will eventually find himself in the same predicament since it is still cold on the trail and may not be so fortunate as to find another man hiking along the path.

Since I was very little I have identified with the snake as an animal and am told is my totem animal. It is said that the snake is a powerful totem in that it is the symbol of transformation and healing. The energy of the snake is of wholeness, cosmic consciousness and the ability to experience anything willingly and without resistance. The snake on an emotional level encompasses ambition and dreams while on a mental level harnesses intellect, power, spiritual wisdom, understanding and wholeness. I, of course can identify with all of these good blessings as I feel I have something to share with this world. But i keep coming back to the story that Alice Walker wrote about the snake. That the true nature of the snake is reactive without thought to its future.
I sit here on my cold trail looking at the man who is willing to save me and wonder why I keep biting at him. While my bites don’t seem to immobilize him or kill our symbiotic relationship, they slow him down little by little, whittling away at the heart of his proud stature. I am not thinking of how cold the trail will be without him, I am simply reacting in my true nature. I am whole without the man, willing to experience anything openly and without resistance even my eventual death should I end up on the trail cold and alone without a warm body to save me.