Earth Medicine, page 21
Snake people are generous, not only with their money but with their time too. They like to surround themselves with luxury and are likely to be self-indulgent at times and go to excesses in food, drink and sex.
Positive traits: Purposeful. Determined. Discerning. Powerful. Imaginative.
Negative traits: Jealous. Resentful. Stubborn. Obstinate. Secretive. Suspicious. Intractable.
Vocational possibilities: Arts. Detection. Exploration. Law. Policing. Military. Politics. Transport. Scientific research. Medicine. Surgery.
Child
Snakes are usually strong and active babies, and their sense of curiosity soon displays itself. Snake infants are into everything, and there comes a time when even a playpen won’t restrict them. They will find ways of being up and out of them.
The Snake child can be quite a challenge, even to the most competent parent, and can display revengeful anger towards other children who step on its toys. But Snake children are quick learners and their penetrating minds and sharp intellect can make them among the leaders of their class.
Parent
Snakes make good parents. Father Snake will teach his children respect and a sense of responsibility and won’t let them run riot. Indeed, he can be rather stern and sometimes quite forbidding. His efforts in teaching his children what life is about may not be appreciated until later – perhaps not until his children have kids of their own – and then they may be grateful for the fatherly guidance they have had.
The Snake woman makes a devoted mother whose offspring will always feel secure under her watchful eye. She will provide motherly support and encouragement in all their endeavours and be sympathetic and helpful in times of difficulty. As they get older she becomes a wise counsellor and friend.
8.12 ROMANCE AND SEX
Snakes need a constant show of affection. They have to be loved in order to show love, then they are likely to make love with fierce abandon.
Snakes make loyal and supportive partners, putting their mate’s happiness right at the top of their list of priorities, and they will demonstrate this in many practical and pleasing ways.
Snake men are considerate and understanding to the woman who understands them, but they can be domineering and obstructive with an unsuitable partner.
Snake women are strongly individualistic. Confident and self-assured, they can be domineering and overbearing. The female Snake has a sharp tongue and can be brutally frank with it. She will always insist on having the last word.
The homes of Snake people are usually comfortable and tastefully decorated and furnished, but they will not flinch about uprooting and moving to an unfamiliar location and start a new home all over again.
Snakes have a highly developed sex-drive which can be obsessive. Their love-making can be passionate and even wild. But again, it’s total sex or none at all!
Compatibilities: Snake people are compatible with Wolves and Woodpeckers (those born between 19 February and 20 March, and 21 June and 21 July).
8.13 HEALTH
Snake’s ice-cool temperament is likely to freeze up the emotions and together with a bottling up of energies caused by stress, can result in nervous disorders, stomach ulcers, and intestinal complaints like constipation.
Snake’s frigid emotional nature is often compensated for by a heightened flow of sexual and menstrual fluids and these produce an abundance of sexual energy which if denied physical or creative outlets may cause problems in the reproductive system.
8.14 AFFINITY COLOUR: Violet
Snake people are influenced by the violet ray. Since antiquity, violet has been associated with religious devotion or spiritual values, with magik and mysticism, and with glamour and richness. Violet is a mixture of red and blue. Red, as we have already seen, shows energy and vitality, while blue indicates compassion and kindliness. Violet embraces all of these principles.
Purple is a rather heavier and more solemn colour and expresses feelings of grandeur. In an aura it indicates clairvoyance but it can also indicate eccentricity and pride that expresses itself in pomposity.
Violet in an aura is the colour of the mystic, but also the positive assurance that lacks dogmatism.
Snake people need the soothing rays of violet for it helps to restore their inner balance and to calm the mind and body, especially in times of stress or periods of despondency.
Violet brings with it peacefulness and tranquillity and its influence is towards involvement which makes no demands or attachments and thus arouses no anxieties.
8.15 ADVANTAGEOUS TIMES
Best months of the year for Snake people are from 23 October to 22 November, 19 February to 19 April, and 21 June to 21 July.
Best day of the week is Tuesday.
Best times of the day are from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
8.16 OUTWARD (CONSCIOUS) AIM AND INNER (SUBCONSCIOUS) DESIRE
The conscious aim of Snake people is to satisfy their impetuous desires which experience ultimately teaches them produces their most persistent problems and anxieties. So this aim leads to a realization that personal desire needs to be not only controlled but changed and elevated and that this can be achieved only by a letting go.
The inner desire is for union with the immortal self which will bring about an expansion of consciousness but which requires the elimination of those things that are no longer necessary to growth and reconstruction, so personal sacrifice is needed to find the deeper meaning of life.
The urge to penetrate into what exists around them in their circle of awareness stems from the desire to find ways of extending awareness through transition from one level of experience to another and thus to further their own self-development. But this activity requires sacrifice. As the snake sacrifices the skin that has held it together in the past, so the Snake person is required to cast off that which they have regarded as essential for past growth but now holds them locked in and constrained from further development.
8.17 SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY
As Earth needs Water for the fertilization of what it needs to produce, so Water needs Earth to hold it so that it can be used.
Snake, and its complementary opposite Beaver are on the Earth–Fire horizontal axis of the equal-armed cross within the Earth Medicine Wheel, with Salmon and Otter (Water and Air) on the vertical axis. Each of these four personality ‘groups’ is characterized by determination and strength of purpose.
Snake is strongly influenced by Earth and Water, but polarized by Fire and balanced by Air, indicating that strength of will and determination is needed to lift the self from the clinging attractions of Earth and up through the waters of emotion and transmuting fire into the Air of detachment which is soul purposefulness.
8.18 LIFE-CHALLENGES
Snake people are presented in their lives with what seem to be immense tasks to overcome, and it may even appear that they themselves have brought about the very circumstances that are so threatening.
My mentors have told me that what is happening is that the collective limiting factors of past errors which may even have developed over several lifetimes, are being brought to the surface for elimination in the present Snake incarnation. These challenges arise from inner unconscious levels and confront the individual with what appear to be formidable tasks involving sudden and dramatic change.
To the Amerindian, change was synonymous with death, for change was the death of what had gone before and the birth of what was to become. So the tests and trials and crises encountered frequently by Snake people are their points of reorientation – the facing up to what has held back the physical, emotional and mental nature to prevent the evolution of the soul, so that these can at last be overcome to enable regeneration on another level.
In some cultures the equivalent of the Snake was the scorpion – a creature that hides in the darkness and stings and wounds. The scorpion was symbolic of the unevolved elements of the ‘lower’ self which I have just mentioned.
Must cultivate: Determination. Resourcefulness. Agility. Flexibility. Adaptability. Creativity.
Must avoid: Egotism. Obstinacy. Arrogance. Suspicion. Jealousy. Envy. Despondency.
8.19 PRIMARY FUNCTION AND LIFE-PATH
The primary function of Snake is to expand the range of awareness through elimination of that which has served its purpose and is no longer needed and to attain union with the immortal self through renewal.
Sensitivity is the path of Snake and its purpose is to enable the vital life-forces to be recognized and made use of for further progress and spiritual evolution. Latent abilities and intuitive and creative skills leading to true fulfilment develop once self-discipline and emotional stability have been established.
It is a path that leads to a recognition that it is necessary to sacrifice something of value in order to attain that which is of much greater worth. Its emphasis is on the relinquishing of one thing in order for something better to emerge, and the need to be willing to trust the unseen workings of the unconscious to bring about a better life.
A prime purpose for being on this path is to attain the willingness to adapt.
8.20 THE I CHING TRIGRAM: K’un. The Receptive Earth.
Those born during the Frost Time are on the West direction of the Wheel of the Year.
The receptive Earth is the nourishing womb. It is also symbolic of the subconscious mind. It indicates that aggressive attempts to attain what is desired by forceful means will lead to confusion and instability. Success comes through quiet cultivation and persistence and through responding naturally. The responsive quality of Nature reveals that what is contained within must come forth, but only in accordance with natural laws. The seed must first root itself, then put forth shoots and come into leaf before it can burst into blossom and eventually bear fruit. This is the lesson Snake must learn.
8.21 HOW TO COPE WITH SNAKES
Be straightforward. Snakes dislike deviousness. Be precise. Snakes get bored with long explanations. Be true your world. Snakes won’t hang around it they think you cannot be trusted.
Don’t arouse their anger. Snakes have short memories, but they never forget a hurt.
2.9
Owl
SUMMARY
9. Owl
9.1 BIRTH MONTH: 23 November – 21 December
9.2 EARTH INFLUENCE: The Long Nights Time
Those born in the Long Nights Time are thoughtful people with an ability to seek out things from the minds of others as well as from within themselves.
This is the last of the cycles influenced by the spirit of the West with its qualities of introspection, and is the time of new opportunities.
At this time of the year in the Northern hemisphere, the air is crisp and clean and one can see clearly in all directions, and to people born at this time, growth is a question of determining the direction of one’s life and of having a clear ‘sighting’ of the goal or target. In so open an environment the individual is vulnerable and needs to be guard against falling prey to the forces of greed, indifference, and cruelty.
9.3 SOLAR INFLUENCES
This the period of long nights and short days, the darkest month when the power of the Sun has departed and chilling winds herald the arrival of the first flurry of snow. But it is also a time of thanksgiving for the abundance that has been gathered and stored in preparation for the winter to come.
The waning solar energy, however, stimulates hope and encourages foresight and vision.
The related Sun sign is Sagittarius.
9.4 INFLUENCING WIND: West Winds
DIRECTION: North-west
The influence of the West Winds brings clarity of mind to those born in the Long Nights Time which is so necessary to cope with change and renewal. The West Winds have a keen edge which enables their direction to be more sharply defined and thereby help those who are born at this time to attain a clear sense of their own direction in life.
The West Winds are not strong and blustery and constantly changing their influence, but more penetrating and therefore stimulating and arousing the generation of inner Fire.
The north-west direction immediately precedes a cosmic ‘gateway’ at the entrance of the north-north-west, which on the Medicine Wheel was concerned with rebirth. In ancient northern European cultures it was celebrated as Yule around 22 December and ‘recognized’ the birth of cosmic consciousness. The north-west direction on the Wheel is a very potent place because it symbolizes ‘initiation’ as an essential preliminary to spiritual rebirth which some have described as ‘Christ-consciousness’. Its polarity is in the south-east at the Flowering Time which precedes another cosmic ‘gateway’ which symbolized the entrance into human incarnation on the Medicine Wheel.
The north-west was the ‘gateway’ of initiation into the mysteries of life and in order to pass through it one had to demonstrate that one had learned correct use of the powers with which one had been entrusted. The greatest of these powers was the power of creative thought.
On the Medicine Wheel the north-west is also the place of karma where the unintegrated experiences of the past formulate patterns that are repeated into future lives until their lessons have been learned and applied.
The north-west direction is thus the direction for determining what to aim for and for learning how to take control of the constant movement of change.
Just as the grizzly bear, which is the totem animal of the West, is able to survive by its own strength, so the emphasis of the north-west is on self-reliance and on the power that comes from within. Its influence on those born in the Long Nights Time is in bringing out their potentials and hidden talents and enabling them to adapt to whatever environment or circumstance in which they find themselves. Its emphasis is not so much on absorbing knowledge as on imparting it. It is a quality that enables many people born in the Long Nights Time to become excellent teachers.
9.5 INFLUENCING ELEMENTS: Fire with Earth
Elemental Earth helps stabilize and sustain, and this influence is vital in the realization of ideas and ideals. It is the influence of step-by-step progress that ensures there is a firm footing with each move forward. Its emphasis is on carefulness, but this has to be properly discerned. Otherwise it can develop into over-cautiousness and placidity.
Elemental Fire in its cyclical activity stimulates and inspires and provides the spark of idealism. It also motivates activity.
9.6 ELEMENTAL CLAN: The Hawk (Fire) Clan
People whose birthdays are from 23 November to 21 December are of the Hawk Clan and are generally bright and clear-sighted. They are motivated by an inner Fire that drives them on to new challenges and to become pioneers and leaders. Like Falcons and Salmon they need the warmth of firm friendships and close relationships.
9.7 BIRTH AND ANIMAL TOTEM: Owl
Owls are soft-feathered and short-tailed birds with large heads, flattened faces with enormous eyes, and partly hidden hooked beaks. They are nocturnal creatures and might be described as the night-time equivalent of hawks and falcons.
The barn owl is an effective and powerful totem. It has a white face, pale feathers and long legs. It lives alone or in pairs and roosts in hollow trees, church towers and farm buildings. It hunts at night and feeds mostly on small rodents.
The female barn owl lays four to seven eggs which take thirty-three days to incubate. During this time the male brings her food. Owls are caring about their young.
Although many people regard the owl as a creature of dark augury, this attitude stems from times when everything was done to denigrate what had previously been held sacred. In pre-Christian times the owl was associated with the mind and with wisdom and sacred science. It was a sacred bird.
Like their animal totem, Owl people conduct themselves proudly, and some even flamboyantly. Because they are so observant that little of relevance escapes their attention, they have a keen eye for detail and a good insight into whatever they set their minds on.
Owl people in general feel drawn to esoteric subjects and ‘secret’ things, but with this inquisitive urge is an intuitive ‘pull’ towards cautiousness and the need to keep themselves grounded in the world of practical reality.
This desire to vanish from view like the owl disappearing into the darkness is reflected in many way, sometimes by the normally outgoing Owl person becoming withdrawn, even to the point of avoiding the company of others, or sometimes breaking away from situations in which they have been supportive or deeply involved. It is during such times that the Owl person is in danger of being misunderstood and causing hurt to others as well as to themselves.
The owl is associated with wisdom that is ‘hidden’ and with light that shines in the darkness, like the Moon. The Owl person often finds themself being made aware of some way of the reality of a situation before its effects become obvious to others. This is a form of illumination which precedes any ‘awakening’ experience that is to follow.
9.8 PLANT TOTEM: Mistletoe
Mistletoe (Phoradendron flavesceris and Viscum album) is a semi-parasitic evergreen shrub that grows on various kinds of trees, notably apple, hawthorn and maple. It lives partly off its host tree and partly off food it obtains by its own chlorophyll. Both American and European mistletoe have thick, woody stems and leathery leaves. The flower-heads grow on spikes which fork into two. It bears white, fleshy berries which contain sticky seeds.
