He glides so swiftly
Back into the grass-
Gives me the courtesy of road
To let me pass,
That I am half ashamed
To seek a stone
To kill him.
Seeing a snake or be bitten by one in your dream means hidden fears and worries that are threatening you. Your dream may be alerting you to something in your waking life that you are not aware of or that has not yet surfaced. The snake may also be seen as phallic and thus symbolize dangerous and forbidden sexuality. The snake may also refer to a person around you who is callous, ruthless, and can't be trusted. As a positive symbol, snakes represent transformation, knowledge and wisdom. It is indicative of self-renewal and positive changes.
In some cultures snakes are highly regarded and symbolise the ability to transcend into higher levels of consciousness or into areas of knowledge that exist outside perceived time and space. In the pre-Christian days, snakes were considered symbols of fertility, healing, and nurturing (the healing serpent representing a god). Post Eden, snakes are often considered symbols of temptation and evil, anger, and envy. Snakes emerging out of the ground may represent your unconscious or repressed materials coming to your conscious mind. Most snake dreams seem to be disturbing and they leave the dreamer feeling anxious and afraid. There are no simple interpretations to the snake dreams. Sometimes snakes may be phallic symbols and other times they represent negativity in our lives that hampers our progress and constantly threatens us. In the long run the snake may be a positive symbol; it may represent difficulties that lead us to the centre of personality and result in feelings of completeness.
Snake symbolic meaning, overwhelmingly and in various cultures, deals with primordial life force and usually turns our attention to gender supremacy (both male and female).
Consequently, snakes span the symbolic bridge between lunar and solar associations as well as aspects between water and fire.
Coiled within this polarity, we clearly see symbolism of duality and the search for balance. Other snake symbolic meaning includes:
Cycles
Rebirth
Patience
Fertility
Eternity
Balance
Cunning
Intuition
Awareness
Healing
Intellect
Protection
Solemnity
Rejuvenation
Transformation
Occult (hidden) Knowledge
Male/Female, Yin-Yang, Duality
As a Native American Indian symbol (depending on the nation/tribe) the snake can be a masculine symbol, associated with the phallus of lightning which is considered a medicine staff of tremendous assertive power. Other tribes lean in the direction of feminine attribution for the snake and pair it with mothering (creation), and lunar (moon) symbolism.
Whether raising itself in masculine authority, or encircling the Earth in a motherly fashion – the snake symbol of the Native American’s was highly regarded; utilized in ritual to invoke an element of pointed focus and weighty influence.
The ancient Celts were extremely nature-wise too, and approached snake symbolism from the behavior and life cycle of this magnificent creature. From the Celtic perspective, the snake was a symbol of secret knowledge, cunning and transformation.
Further, the snake Celtic symbol comes from observations of the European viper (also known as the adder) which is the only (along with the common grass snake) species able to tolerate the colder climate of the ancient Celts.
In the keen Celtic mind, snake symbolic meaning of transformation came from the shedding of its skin. Physical evidence of leaving its form behind (casting off the old self), and emerging a sleeker, newer version made the snake a powerful symbol of rebirth and renewal.
As far as the occult (hidden) symbolic meaning in Celtic and other cultures, this can be connected to the sleuth-like ways of the snake.
Disappearing in colder months and summoned by the sun marks the snake’s connection to the shadow worlds with its successful ability to live within the dark realms for extended periods of time. Alternatively, the snake softly moves into the embrace of the sun, and so it encapsulates the ancient magician's creed of moving in perfect rhythm of natural forces.
In Eastern Indian myth the Sanskrit word for snake is naga and these are associated with the element of water. Picking up water’s symbolism of emotion, love and motion, nagas in this light are considered a feminine aspect and embody nurturing, benevolent, wise qualities.
To wit, the practice of nagayuna in Eastern Indian alchemy seeks to achieve loving harmony between the physical and ethereal. Simply put, all of us striving to better ourselves by calmly easing into places of personal balance within the cosmic balance of the whole are practicing this ancient technique.
Snake tattoo symbolism varies according to the bearer of the mark. For example, I have a back piece depicting two serpents (nagas) wrapped around the seven prime chakras down the length of my spine. This (to me) incorporates the kundalini power available to all humans.
Additionally, this entwined snake imagery hearkens to the caduceus, in which the staves of Asclepius are made of two polar (and copulating) serpents which symbolizes balance, equanimity, union and regeneration.
Double snakes are common in almost all cultural symbolic languages. Ultimately the double snake is an icon representing:
Connection between primal forces
Integration of opposites
Advanced communication
Joining together on a divine level
Making whole what was once fragmented and doing so in a magical, organic way.
Snake Double HelixCarrying this dual snake imagery a step further, we could look to the language of science. Observe the formation of DNA and how it forms a perfect, serpentine double helix (shown left). This prompts us to consider how the energetic mind is connected to the grander whole, and how it so effortlessly makes graceful connections between the basic building blocks of data with the manifestations of the natural world.
There is no doubt, the snake is a unifying force embodying infinite messages to those who are energetically available to perceive them. Alchemists understood this, and thus incorporated the philosophy of snakes in their grimoires, practices, and even their daily life.
Indeed, alchemy literature is rife with the image of the uroboros which is symbolic of conceptualizing totality – embracing the whole of consciousness and devouring it with unquenchable passion.
As an animal totem, the snake surfaces into our awareness with all the power of the symbolic attributes listed on this page (and more). Those who are drawn to the snake (and vice versa) are gifted at perceiving life through an uncommon lens. Other characteristics of those who are connected to snake energy include:
A natural ability to balance energies (you’re likely a gifted healer)
Diplomatic and eloquent in areas of speech and writing
Dynamically intuitive (often knowing other’s thoughts and emotional states without trying)
Impulsive, but not without careful consideration – this may sound paradoxical, but those with the snake totem know what I mean here.
I invite you to step into the calming energy of the snake, and see what this noble creature offers you in the form of messages, growth, and enlightenment.
Further, it should be understood this page is but a miniscule sampling of the diverse snake symbolic meaning s available to us. Therefore, I encourage you to slither into your own personal ruminations, research and meditation of the snake.
You will find your investment to be infinitely rewarding.
By shedding its skin, the snake symbolizes change in the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. It counts among its strengths the power of creation, of se xuality, of the soul, as well as of transformation and immortality. Snake-people are higher cast, because as part of their experiences they have had to come into contact with poison (physical or mental) and have been able to transform the poison in their bodies into something harmless. The snake belongs to the element of fire, which causes desire and passion in the physical realm and, in the spiritual realm, creates a connection with the Great Spirit and leads to all-encompassing wisdom. Whenever the snake appears in your dreams, it is a sign of change as you come ever closer to perfection.
This animal gives you the ability to let go of things that are worn out and no longer useful - just like the snake sheds it skin when it is no longer needed.
Rebirth, wisdom, fluidity, wholeness, transmutations, sexuality, look for transitions, changes and new opportunities. Creative forces are awakening with heightened intuition. Snake can teach about shedding what is not needed; perceptions, attitudes, ideals. Snake shows how to access vitality, ambitions and dreams along with intellect and personal power. What things are surfacing that you need to strike out and take advantage of? Perhaps a time to rest and reflect? Listen to your intuition and visions at this time. Contemplate the colors, striking ability and activity of the snake type to further understand what snake is saying.
To see a road in your dream, refers to your sense of direction and how you are pursuing your goals. If the road is winding, curvy, or bumpy in your dream, then it suggests that you will encounter many obstacles and setbacks toward achieving your goals. You may be met with unexpected difficulties. If the road is dark, then it reflects the controversial or more frightening choices which you have made or are making.
If the road is smooth and bordered by trees or flowers, then it denotes a steady progress and steady climb up the social ladder. If the road is straight and narrow, then it means that your path to success is going as planned.
To see an unknown road in your dream, represents a path that has not been ventured. You are setting a new precedence for something.
To dream that a threatening creature is on a road, parallels a hostile situation/person you are encountering in your waking life. It is an obstacle that you need to overcome, no matter how intimidating the situation or person may appear.
Traveling over a rough, unknown road in a dream, signifies new undertakings, which will bring little else than grief and loss of time.
If the road is bordered with trees and flowers, there will be some pleasant and unexpected fortune for you. If friends accompany you, you will be successful in building an ideal home, with happy children and faithful wife, or husband.
To lose the road, foretells that you will make a mistake in deciding some question of trade, and suffer loss in consequence.
Seeing a road in your dream indicates your sense of direction and pursuit of your goals. Seeing a winding, curvy, or bumpy road in your dream, suggests that you will experience many obstacles and setbacks in achieving your goals. You may be met with unexpected difficulties. If the road is dark, then it reflects the darker or more frightening choices which you have made or are making. Seeing a smooth road bordered by green trees and flowers indicates a steady progress and steady climb up the social ladder. If the road is straight and narrow, then it means that your path to success is going according as planned. Seeing an unknown road in your dream means that you new project will cause more grief than it is worth and a waste of time. Dreaming that a threatening creature is on a road, parallels a hostile situation/person you are encountering in your waking life. It is an obstacle that you need to overcome, no matter how intimidating the situation or person may appear.
It usually symbolises the journey that we take to achieve our goals. The road in the dream represents a road in your life. It could be the road to your heart, spirit, or mind. Consider the kind of road that you are on and try to see how it relates to your daily realities. If the road is straight, well marked and lit, it may be reinforcement to you that you are moving in the right directions. If there are many obstacles and the road is very hard, consider your options.
To dream about half of something, indicates that something in your waking life is incomplete or unresolved. It may also indicate that you are only partially acknowledging your feelings. You or someone else is limiting or restricting you. Alternatively, the dream suggests that you need to be open to compromise and meet halfway.
Dreaming about half of something indicates that something in your waking life is incomplete or unresolved. It may also indicate that you are only partially acknowledging your feelings. You or someone else is limiting or restricting you. Alternatively, the dream may suggest that you need to be open to compromise and meet halfway.
Stone is a symbol of being, of cohesion and harmonious reconciliation
with self. The hardness and durability of stone have always impressed men,
suggesting to them the antithesis to biological things subject to the laws of change,
decay and death, as well as the antithesis to dust, sand and stone splinters, as
aspects of disintegration. The stone when whole symbolized unity and strength;
when shattered it signified dismemberment, psychic disintegration, infirmity,
death and annihilation. Stones fallen from heaven served to explain the origin of
life. In volcanic eruptions, air turned to fire, fire became ‘water’ and ‘water’
changed to stone; hence stone constitutes the first solid form of the creative
rhythm (51)—the sculpture of essential movement, and the petrified music of creation (50). The mythic and religious significance is only one step removed
from this basic symbolic sense, a step which was taken by the immense majority
of peoples during the animistic era. Meteorites, in particular, came in for worship; the most celebrated are the Kaaba meteorite in Mecca and the Black Stone
of Pessinus, an aniconic image of the Phrygian Great Mother taken to Rome
during the last of the Punic Wars (17). Here is a description of the Mohammedans’ stone, taken from Marques-Rivière: ‘Inside the Kaaba, which is nothing
more than a dark hall, there are three columns holding up the roof which has a
number of silver and gold lamps hanging down from it. The floor is of marble tiles.
In the eastern corner, some five feet above floor-level, not far from the door, is the
famous black stone (al hadjar alaswad) sealed off, composed of three great
sections. . . . In colour it is reddish black with red and yellow patches; in appearance it recalls lava or basalt’ (39). Among the stones venerated by the ancients, we
must not overlook the Greek omphaloi; Guénon maintains that they are really
bethels, a word derived from the Hebrew Beith-El (or the House of God), related
to the biblical ‘And this stone which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s House’
(Genesis xxviii, 22), even though its sense is magic and not architectonic (28).
There are numerous legends dealing with stones: the so-called Abadir which
Saturn devoured, mistaking it for Jupiter; or the stones of Deucalion and Pyrrha;
or those in the myth of Medusa the Gorgon (6); or that which contained Mithras
until his birth (11). There are other stones in folktales, but these seem to be
invested with rather more modest powers: the Lapis lineus, for example, as it was
called by the Romans, which was supposed to be able to prophesy by changing
its colour; or the Irish stone Lia-Fail, associated with coronations (8). As for the
philosophers’ stone in alchemy, it represents the ‘conjunction’ of opposites, or
the integration of the conscious self with the feminine or unconscious side (or in
other words, the fixing of volatile elements); it is, then, a symbol of the All (33).
As Jung rightly says, the alchemists approached their task obliquely—they did
not seek the divine in matter but tried to ‘produce’ it by means of a lengthy
process of purification and transmutation (32). According to Evola, the touchstone is symbolic of the body, since it is ‘fixed’, as opposed to the ‘wandering’
characteristic of thought, the spirits and desires. But only the resuscitated body—
in which ‘two will be one’—can correspond to the philosophers’ stone. Evola
points out that, for the alchemist, ‘between eternal birth, reintegration, and the
discovery of the philosophers’ stone, there is no difference whatsoever’.
To see stones in your dreams, foretells numberless perplexities and failures.
To walk among rocks, or stones, omens that an uneven and rough pathway will be yours for at least a while.
To make deals in ore-bearing rock lands, you will be successful in business after many lines have been tried. If you fail to profit by the deal, you will have disappointments. If anxiety is greatly felt in closing the trade, you will succeed in buying or selling something that will prove profitable to you.
Small stones or pebbles, implies that little worries and vexations will irritate you.
If you throw a stone, you will have cause to admonish a person.
If you design to throw a pebble or stone at some belligerent person, it denotes that some evil feared by you will pass because of your untiring attention to right principles.
Seeing stones in your dream, symbolizes strength, unity, and unyielding beliefs. Consider the common phrase "etched in stone" which suggest permanence and unchanging attitudes. Some stones also carry sacred and magical meanings. Alternatively, stones may relate to issues of moral judgment and/or guilt. Dreaming that you are carrying a bag of stones, refers to your inner strength and fortitude that you have yet to unleash and reveal to others. Seeing rough stones in your dream, represents your quest in recognizing and developing your self-identity. Part of this quest is to become aware of your unconscious and suppressed thoughts. For various cultures, stones have spiritual significance. Consider the Black Stone of Mecca which is believed by Muslims to allow for direct communication with God. For the Irish, the Blarney Stone is seen as a gift of eloquence.
To see green grass in your dream, suggests that there is a part of yourself that you can always rely on. The dream is also symbolic of natural protection. Also consider the phrase "the grass is always greener on the other side." Do you always compare yourself with others and look at what other people have?
To dream that you are planting grass, indicates that your hard work and efforts will pay off in the end.
This is a very propitious dream indeed. It gives promise of a happy and well advanced life to the tradesman, rapid accumulation of wealth, fame to literary and artistic people, and a safe voyage through the turbulent sea of love is promised to all lovers.
To see a rugged mountain beyond the green expanse of grass, is momentous of remote trouble.
If in passing through green grass, you pass withered places, it denotes your sickness or embarrassments in business.
To be a perfect dream, the grass must be clear of obstruction or blemishes.
If you dream of withered grass, the reverse is predicted.
Seeing green grass in your dream, suggests that there is a part of yourself that you can always rely on. The dream is also symbolic of natural protection. Dreaming that you are planting grass indicates that your hard work and efforts will pay off in the end.
To dream of your back, represents your attitudes, strengths, burdens and stance in the world. It may also relate to stress and pressure that someone is putting on you.
To see a naked back in your dream, symbolizes secrets that you may have kept from others or aspects of yourself that you have kept hidden and shielded away. Consider the phrase, "watch your back!"; this dream may be telling you to do just that. Traditionally, seeing a back in your dream, forewarns that you should not lend money to anyone. In particular, lending money to friends will cause a rift in your relationship.
To see a person turn their back on you, signifies that you will be deeply hurt as a result of envy and jealousy.
To dream of seeing a nude back, denotes loss of power. Lending advice or money is dangerous. Sickness often attends this dream.
To see a person turn and walk away from you, you may be sure envy and jealousy are working to your hurt.
To dream of your own back, bodes no good to the dreamer.
Dreaming of your back, represents your attitudes, strengths, burdens and stance in the world. It may also relate to stress and pressure that someone is putting on you. Dreaming of a naked back in your dream, symbolizes secrets that you may have kept from others or aspects of yourself that you have kept hidden and shielded away. Consider the pun, "watch your back!"; this dream may be telling you to do just that. Traditionally, seeing a back in your dream, forewarns that you should not lend money to anyone. In particular, lending money to friends will cause a rift in your relationship. Dreaming of a person turn their back on you means that you will be deeply hurt as a result of envy and jealousy.