A few nights ago, I opened the door from my foyer to go into the garage.  I was heading out to the big freezer to get some frozen berries.  I was barefoot.  As soon as I opened the door, with my first step out, I stepped on a snake, a black snake, so black, he almost looked blue.  I screamed and the snake took off.  I guess we scared each other. The last I saw him, he was slithering under a tarp next to an abandoned kitchen cabinet.  My husband and son poked around the garage for a long time, but, so far, the snake's hiding place remains his secret. 

 

Now I'm not only putting on boots before I go in the laundry room, but also the garage.  Yes, a few months back, we found a snake skin in the laundry room.  We couldn't tell for sure what kind of snake it was, because the skin was tattered and shredded as he slithered along the wall. All I can say for sure is that it was a big snake and mostly brown in coloration.  I hope it was a king or corn snake and not a copperhead.  We did call a critter buster, but the critter buster said that snakes are almost impossible to find unless you manage to keep your eye on them up until the moment they're caught.

 

I'm wondering why the very thing that scares me the most is invading my life and home.  

 

Yesterday, my friend Carol sent me some information about animal spirit guides.  I don't like to think that my spirit guide could be a snake.  I have always been terrified of snakes!  I'm so scared of snakes, I scream and shut my eyes when I see them on a TV.  I can't stand to look at pictures of snakes in books either.  They almost evoke a visceral response in me, the kind of intense fear that makes me feel nauseated.

 

But I suppose it would be wise for me to pay attention to the fact that snakes have started appearing, albeit unwelcome and unbidden, in my life.  Here is what Carol sent me about 'Shadow Animal Guides' in general and about snakes in particular.  I'm wondering if anyone else has thoughts about their own 'shadow animal guide.'  If you do, you are welcome to  share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section. In fact, I'd be most interested in reading them.  

 

Be well and Good Luck,

Martha Maria 

www.dogwooddaughter.com  

 

COPIED AND PASTED FROM CAROL'S E-MAIL:

 

A Shadow Animal Guide is one that invades you with fear. Its purpose is to teach a lesson you have not learned from repeated mistakes because of anger, avarice, greed, insecurity, or other negative thoughts. A Shadow Guide will return again and again bearing strong feelings of fear until its message is acted upon or a change in lifestyle or actions are incorporated into your life. The Shadow Guide is powerful. It can help you to overcome fear by bringing truth and turning fear into a helper animal guide or spirit animal guide. However, if ignored the Shadow Guide can become dangerous and its powers will have a negative effect on your life. The Shadow Guide lives in the spirit world and usually arrives during a time of testing.

 

 

Snakes are fascinating creatures that deserve respect.  Throughout history the snake has had many legends associated with it linking them to creation, fertility and transformation.  

SNAKE MEDICINE

• The snake has many symbolic meanings among various cultures  across the world.  In the Middle East, snake is seen as Mother Earth and immortality. To Christians, the snake is portrayed as evil, lust and temptation.  In Asia, the snake is the life force awakened.  To American Indians the snake is a friend who shares its secrets of the water element.  Altogether, the tremendous symbolism placed on the snake makes it a powerful and worthy spirit guide. 

• Snakes regularly sheds its outer skin as it grows and a new layer of skin develops.  Crawling out of its skin is an important aspect of snake medicine because it symbolizes ways we must move away from old and useless habits and thought patterns as we grow spiritually.  It symbolizes death and rebirth.

• A snake does not have ears or eardrums but instead has small bones in its head that conduct low frequency vibrations that travel through the earth.  Among all creatures of earth, the snake is best equipped to hear the heart-beat, or magnetic resonance of Mother Earth and is therefore able to continually communicate with and be in perfect harmony or balance with Mother Earth.   

• As a symbol of renewal and transmutation, land snakes do not require food to generate body heat and they lay motionless and soundless against the earth absorbing the heat of the sun and the earth.  To those lives to whom the snake slithers into, be aware of its subtle and silent messages.  Before this may be possible, it is necessary to become balanced in your path and ground yourself to Mother Earth and all of its elements.

• Just before the snake begins to shed its skin, its eyes turn pale blue or opaque giving it a trance-like appearance as if the snake is looking right through you.  Snake spirit guides teach ways to look into the hearts of others and find ways to help them along their spiritual paths.