Snake Visitation: Animals as Messengers from Spirit

            There are no accidents.
            Everything is in perfect alignment with Divine timing.
            Everything happens exactly as it should.

            Sometimes I have to repeat this over and over and over again and I still have a hard time believing it. But, most of the time, I believe it and accept it. Even when it hurts.

            I often pray a prayer my mom taught me: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

            It makes sense, right? That the human brain could not possibly fathom the web of experiences and happenings of Life, or figure out the interconnectedness of all events and beings… It’s really just all a matter of perception, anyway, isn’t it?

            With that being said, I also believe that there are no coincidences. What was it that I saw recently (probably on Facebook)? “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.” (Presumably, it was Albert Einstein who said that, but I haven’t checked-in with Senorita Snopes about that one yet.) When I run into Coincidence, it’s a sign to me that my life is on track…or maybe way off-track; either way, it’s a sure sign that I need to take note of it, because it is a Sign, indeed.

            A sign came slithering my way just last night, as a matter of fact. You see, my husband and I have been searching for a house…for, like, 3 years or something crazy like that. Last night, we finally moved forward on a bid. It was right after we'd sent the email to the realtor outlining specifics, in fact, that I'd gone out to get JoJo (our cat), as he'd been outside for a good portion of the evening, doing Feline-knows-what. It was dark, so I had a flashlight in tow, and luckily, I had turned it on before I reached the main floor; otherwise, I may not have seen the skinny, black-and-brown, 18-inch-long snake at the foot of the steps.

            I halted. It lie still. I didn’t freak-out or anything, since I’ve done a bit of educating myself about snakes (and how most of them in Texas are not venomous yet get killed due to fear and ignorance all of the time by kill-happy-hickoids – no judgment there, just observation).

                       Red touch yellow, kill a fellow; red touch black, won’t kill Jack. "But what about black touch brown?” I wondered.
     
           I looked up to see JoJo quickly approaching. Whether venomous or not, I did not want my kitty using this creature as a plaything, and anticipation made my heart skitter briefly until I was able to snatch-up JoJo...at which time, the snake glided its way behind a bush.

            I couldn’t help but wonder the odds of my walking downstairs to get JoJo at that perfect moment in Time to come face-to-face with a snake. So, I decided to look it up on my iTotem app just in case the Universe was attempting to relay a message (which it always is; we just have to open our hearts and listen). Snake: Wisdom, Healing, Initiation. “It…signals a transition in your life. New opportunities and/or changes. …accept the power of the fire.”

            I like to use several sources when something unique happens to me, so I also got out my Animal Speak book (Ted Andrews): “…It sheds its skin and outgrows the old. This death and rebirth cycle is part of what snake represents… is often symbolized by the ouroborus, the ancient image of a snake swallowing its own tail…the symbol of eternity… enabling the individual to see the world from an entirely new perspective… Anytime a snake shows up as a totem, you can expect death and rebirth to occur in some area of your life…What new opportunities are surfacing that you need to strike out for and take advantage of?...When snake comes into your life, you can look for a rebirth into new powers of creativity and wisdom.”

as well as my Animal Spirit Guides book (Steven D. Farmer, PH.D.): “You’re about to go through some significant personal changes, so intense and dramatic that an old self will metaphorically die as a new self emerges… You’re about to resolve a long-standing issue, one that has required a great deal of your attention…Call on snake when…you are anxious about what lies ahead.”

            I took a lot of this interpretation to fit the situation of our moving forward in our first home-buying process, which has been causing a lot of angst in us, but there really is so much more to the snake that applies to my life. I’ll save that for another post, another day, I suppose.

            I do try to use the signs in Nature to guide me in my endeavors in life, and I hope I am appropriately interpreting them so that I can be the best that I can be in all that I Am and in all that I Am to Become.

            Namaste.

            P.S. No lie: I just finished typing and I glanced down at the bedside clock and it read 11:11. If that doesn’t ring a bell, then you must not be my Facebook “friend”, and I say, hold tight; I’m sure a post will emerge regarding that phenomenon at some point. <3