As a child I was born and raised in a city. Not a big city still a city, far away from nature, in an apartment where the only sign of nature was a giant pine tree in a small piece of land that was not touched by the greediness of urban building.
Those days we were fully allowed to hang out with all the kids in the neighborhood and play till it was getting dark. So we would run on the ground and get in dirt as often as we could discover it in another small patch of land that was not covered in concrete. Periodically, at school, they would take us to a bigger patch with some trees, a bad imitation of what should have been a proper park. That was our slim chance to be in nature, and to see and touch nature.
So it is no surprise that it took me years to discover the hidden world of all creatures living in dirt, in pure nature style, with no walls, heating, or electricity. I saw most of the species on tv, many times humanized and beautified through cartoons and only later in life while travelling I had the pleasure of seeing and even touching real animals in an imitation of their real environment in some of the largest zoos of the world. It was only many other years later that I refused to myself to any longer going to any zoo since I feel strongly that animals should not be kept in captivity so we can see or touch them. They should be free to be wherever their life takes them. However, that is another story.
Back to this one, my perception was how Hollywood wanted to teach me about them. One of them was the family of snakes. Seductive cobras in Indian settings that are tamed by the dance of the film heroine, poisonous fast snakes in adventure films that rendered the leading actor into sickness with dramatic effects, the despise of Indiana Jones for snakes, are some of the images that stayed with me for life. They unconsciously forged a dislike for snakes based in no other but the cinematographic imagination of some scriptwriters.
Until my real life imagination kicked in and started exploding. Until I was initiated by life into different spiritual practices and modalities to discover a different number of references in snakes as one of the most mystic animals that have transcended the divine energies into matter and brought awareness, consciousness and knowledge of a higher nature into our limited minds and lives.
At one point imagination became reality. The serpent way, the movements and purposefulness of the serpent paradigm glided with grace into my being to allow me to connect with the ones above and the ones below. Energies before thought as darkness and despair swung slowly, entrancingly, and with no return to the fusion power of a Light that is beyond our textual descriptions. The sight of any snake ceased to be perceived as a threat or an anomaly but rather an omen of a greater awakening that is undergoing and flourishing little by little. The sliminess of an ever-changing skin is now seen as only the adaptive power of wisdom that is not bound by any form or reason, allowing to anyone who has the calling a glimpse to the higher planes.
At present I am most captivated by the elegance of the rocking of a serpent over the earth. Surfing the earth amongst holes of dirt, roots of plants and trees, while protecting each self from predators and having an acute sense of direction without ever being able to raise its head. It cannot fly to the Father Sky. It is rather serving the realm of the Mother Earth. With subtle messages of its characteristic whistling sound, it brings an air of the Mother Presence. With its skin change, it signifies another earthen circle of death and reborn. It can be felt in our spines; it appears in real medicine of effective therapies and healing. And it is very much alive in our consciousness.