Serpent first came to me in the desert many years ago. She and I played in the ethers all summer, and - even though I never saw a snake in person during my stay there - I knew that they hid in the scrub oaks surrounding our cabin by the dozens. I would stomp my feet up winding trails to relieve myself in the bushes, so that they could hide before my arrival - no need for us to startle each other.
She showed me how to feel the movements of all life and events around me by pressing my belly to the earth, extending my awareness out and up, listening with my whole body. Serpent spends her life crawling, and yet her Knowing exceeds the "bird's eye view"; she does not just see the full picture, she sees right through it.
Some years later, I had the privilege of trying a true alchemical spagyic of Serpent medicine, made by a magical friend of mine who emerged out of nothing one day to change my life, before disappearing again some months later. I don't know all the details of how this man transforms animals into liquid gold, but I do know that I drank an entire vial of it instead of following the recommended 2-drop dose...
I sat for days in my dark room, feeling my DNA dancing with the snake's until we became one. Did you know that strange knowledge just floats in the air around all of us, waiting to be plucked like rip fruit? Like Light? It was exciting and unbearable to behold the rich fabric of our existence playing across my skin. The experience was like waking up to a room of bright fluorescent lights after the deep sleep after surgery, disoriented and trying to find yourself again.
Sometimes people say they see her face in mine still. Usually only noticeable by mystics and magicians, or those with eyes to See and ears to Listen.
Here is an excerpt from the Medicine Card deck:
"Snake medicine people are very rare. Their initiation involves experiencing and living through multiple snake bites, which allows them to transmute all poisons, be they mental, physical, spiritual, or emotional. The power of snake medicine is the power of creation, for it embodies sexuality, psychic energy, alchemy, reproduction, and ascension (or immortality).
The transmutation of the life-death-rebirth cycle is exemplified by the shedding of Snake’s skin. It is the energy of wholeness, cosmic consciousness, and the ability to experience anything willingly and without resistance. It is the knowledge that all things are equal in creation, and that those things which might be experienced as poison can be eaten, ingested, integrated, and transmuted if one has the proper state of mind.
… Transmute the energy and accept the power of the fire."