Snake Symbolism: It's Supernatural

Hi! This is Toast (yep, my name is Toast, like bread; co-founder and partner with Siena of Love & Above Cat Club) writing a blog post for The Year of The Snake.

Before we dive in...

Here's a short video of baby Bear playing with a big toy snake!

We don't see snakes much in modern life.

...or do we?

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

I think it's fascinating that a snake – one of humankind's most ancient predators, and famous for being a killer – is literally at the center of our symbol for the OPPOSITES of killing: for saving lives, and medicine, and the healing arts.

What's up with that?

Well, I did some quick research.

Here's what I learned.

1. The name of the staff & snake symbol is called The Rod of Asclepius
2. There's even an emoji symbol for it⚕️
3. Asclepius was/is the Greek god of healing
   
4. No one knows for sure how the rod and snake became his symbols because it was so long ago
5. "long ago" meaning since at least 800 BCE

Now you might read all this and think "So what?"

Well, here's what.

Knowing that The Rod of Asclepius is so old that nobody even knows how it started...

...because the very act of writing things down, and our current concepts of 'recorded history' wasn't even a thing back then...

...can itself start to feel like a kind of message in a bottle that's survived and arrived to us on these modern shores, from across thousands of years – literally – calling us back to a more conscious partnership with the energies of the mythic and natural world.

If you feel drawn to a connection with the more-than-human realm, if you feel a pull towards the deep mysteries of our ancient heritage...

Maybe you could see these snakes in The Rod of Asclepius as part of an answer to the conscious or unconscious calls of your heart. It's a sort of "welcome home" sign for your longing.

Snakes were indeed one of our ancient ancestor's most feared creatures.

This relationship we have with snakes is so deep, our bodies tense up at a coiled rope in a dark corner before we even consciously stop to examine whether it's a snake...or not....?

What 'snake' means to us is a part of our animal organism.

It's deeper than thought.

That's some powerful energy that 'snake' has.

It can strike fast, and leave behind old skins...while its new self continues and carries on, as vital as ever.

This is an energy of re-birth, of power, and new possibilities.

This is a kind of mystery and magic.

And very importantly – this is the world AS IT ALREADY IS.

The supernatural world.

Not other worldly.

Extremely worldly.

"Super" as in "extremely."

Extremely natural.

The natural everyday snakes on ambulances, on uniforms for Emergency Medical Technicians...

We can begin to see and perceive these snakes with a quality of awareness that plays in the same field as the "energy awareness" that responds to, and works with, flower essences.

On this dawning of the Year of The Snake, we wish you the energies of re-birth, of healing, and magic ... all of that 'snake' energy and symbolism and symbiosis that is our inheritance and birthright for simply being human in this amazing, supernatural world.

Happy Lunar New Year!

P.S. One more pic of Bear with his toy snake. This was when he was supposed to be recovering from 'getting fixed.' That's why the (very floppy) blue cone around his neck.