transform Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Closeup of Northern Ring-necked Snake – Photo: L. Weikel

Grim Discovery

I made a grim discovery on our walk today. Sadly, the snake pictured above suffered an untimely demise. Given its injuries, even though it was discovered on the road, I have to wonder if it was shaken to death by a dog or perhaps even more likely snagged by the claws of a raptor and then dropped. If hit by a car, I suspect it would’ve been much more smooshed.

As it was, I was shocked to see its bright orange underbelly. Before this evening, I’d never seen a snake with this coloring. Its top was such a uniformly beautiful charcoal gray color, it reminded me of a seamless suit of armor.

It wasn’t until I picked it up to take it to the side of the road that I noticed the ring around its neck. It was so pretty and distinctive – this single ring of pale orange at the base of its head, blending with and complementing the definitively bolder tangerine of its underbelly.

I’d already taken a photo of the slight little serpent when I discovered it. I wanted to document its striking coloring. But then I took a few more snaps of its distinctive markings before curling it up in the grass on the berm of the road. I made an offering of a few strands of my hair as a gesture of respect for its life.

PA Herp Identification

Once again, the wonderful site known as Pennsylvania Herp Identification (or PA Herps for short) came to my aid in identifying this beautiful creature. It’s a Northern Ring-necked Snake. They’re apparently ubiquitous throughout Pennsylvania, but in all my 62 years, I’ve never seen one before tonight.

It’s funny – in looking at the photos of other Northern Ring-necks on the PA Herp site, I wasn’t at all surprised to see many photos of people gently holding the slender creatures in their hands. I was surprised to feel a similar inclination when I picked it up off the road. Yes, I know, it was already dead. But I felt a distinct sense of gentleness from it.

It was still very supple when I discovered it, too – which made me sad to realize it had probably died only minutes before we discovered it. Its sweet little face wasn’t the least bit scary or intimidating. I felt a real sense of loss.

Grim Discovery – Photo: L. Weikel

Snake’s Message

As I’ve written a bazillion times a simple and obvious intuitive interpretation of such a discovery might be that change is afoot. Snake often shows up when we’re being encouraged to undergo some type of transformation; perhaps a major opportunity to let go of who we’ve been (our outer identity or ‘skin’) and grow into a whole new iteration of ourselves.

Had this Northern Ring-necked Snake been a venomous serpent, I might have pondered whether I was supposed to transmute some poisonous thought, idea, attitude, or belief within or about myself or my circumstances. But that’s not what this felt like.

To be honest, until I started writing this post tonight I never even considered that it might be bringing me a message. (I know; hard to believe. But it’s true.) I was more focused upon simply identifying its beautiful self and sharing my discovery.

Full Moon On Friday

But now that I think about it, I’m willing to honor this creature’s life by interpreting its death, and my discovery of it, as a message to me in my own life. As we approach this full moon on Friday, it might serve me well to take a little time to contemplate what I want to shed in order to move forward in my life. The orange underbelly could be a hint that it has to do with creative endeavors. Perhaps the ring around its neck might represent something (a belief? an attitude?) that’s been keeping me captive. Not poisoned – just…limited. It’s possible.

While shedding is often a task undertaken as we approach a new moon, it feels right to consider what has reached its fullest expression in my life and can now be let go. We’re always in a state of flux; a state of beginning, becoming, or shedding.

It’s sad when any creature meets with an early or untimely demise. I hope on some level that treating this Being with respect and expressing gratitude for its appearance in my life somehow added to the balance of all things.

(T-128)

Lurking Under the Leaves – Photo: L. Weikel

Creature Feelings

I have so many thoughts and feeling coursing through me.

On the one hand, I feel tremendous despair over the state of our country at the moment – actually, the state of our world at the moment. The fear. The hatred of the ‘other.’ I despair that so many feel such profound helplessness – and the rage over feeling helpless – in a country of purported opportunity. I am sickened by the blame being deliberately stoked by those who hold the greatest power – and privilege.

On the other hand, I sense a sea change. I know, I know: it’s been thought before, especially when innocents, little kids, were slaughtered at Sandy Hook. Or when high schoolers were mowed down in Parkland and their surviving classmates passionately and eloquently demanded change.

Something Feels Different This Time

But this time, perhaps because the racism in the White House, as it’s being leveled against duly elected Congressional Representatives and so blatantly being trumpeted against entire American cities and their inhabitants, is so obvious that the hearts of so many of us are saying, “Enough.”

I don’t know what feels different this time, but something does.

Needed to be shed (Cicada shell covered in mud) – Photo: L. Weikel

The insanity has reached a tipping point. The old ways simply must be shed.

Good people – who I truly believe are the vast majority of our country – are waking up to the horror and banding together. We are beginning to realize that it really does start with each and every one of us taking stock of our truth, taking stock of our lives and saying, “If I don’t call it out, who will?”

If I Don’t Call It Out, Who Will?

All viewpoints do not demand nor deserve equal time. All arguments do not demand nor deserve to be accorded respect. Vapid talking points need to be treated as such. Idiotic assertions need to be dismissed for their utter lack of merit. Immoral, hateful rhetoric needs to be deemed utterly unacceptable. Cruelty needs to be shut down.

And we don’t need to use cruelty to fight cruelty, either. But we do need to stand firm. We need to stop attempting to persuade when there is an utter lack of shared facts, when there is a refusal to acknowledge even the most basic tenets of a shared reality.

We can be kind; but we must say no. And we must disarm the desperate.

Closed in fear? – Photo: L. Weikel

We Know the Facts

There is incontrovertible evidence that weapons of war – automatic and semi-automatic guns with high capacity magazines – mow people down. The only use these weapons have is hunting humans.

We must stop pandering to those who would argue that the sun revolves around the Earth – and would cite a conspiracy theory to make their case that it is so. For they are shameless. They will argue anything to confuse, to obfuscate, to claim victimhood. They are the same people who argue that “guns do not kill” (as if anyone is saying that guns shoot themselves) in order to thwart any meaningful regulation. It’s specious and astoundingly tone deaf, and blind, and disrespectful to all those who’ve suffered loss as a result of these insane attacks.

Gradually opening up – Photo: L. Weikel

We Must Take Our Cue From the Caterpillars

It’s time for us to take our cue from the caterpillars. We need to utterly and completely transform. We must go within, engage in collective self-reflection, and transform. We need to realize our systemic racism, the lies we’ve been telling ourselves as a society since our nation was first formed.

And we need to have the courage to just face it. We must acknowledge the depth of our shame in treating other human beings as ‘less than.’ And that starts with admitting the systemic obliteration of the people who lived on this land for thousands of years before Europeans even arrived or Africans were forced to relocate to these shores.

NO ONE wants to be exploited. NO ONE wants to be judged by superficial standards (the color of our eyes, the shade of our skin, the accent of our first language). NO ONE (except for perhaps the most damaged among us) wants to succeed simply to screw someone else over.

We must drop the fear. We must drop the rage. We absolutely must LEARN TO LISTEN to the feelings of others – and cultivate compassion and empathy for ourselves and each other.

We can do this. The vast majority of us already know this is possible in our hearts.

If we don’t say it, who will?

Let us transform.