Black Snake Dream

"Did he just say something??"

This is one of those posts that has been percolating for years. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share it, but The Voice kept bringing it up and insisting I do. I’ve learned that ignoring The Voice can have dire consequences. She goes silent for a while, and I depend on her for inspiration. So, here I go.

As much as I love to write, I’m very lax at writing in a journal. But I have kept a dream journal for many years, so when I decided to share this dream, I went upstairs, searching through a pile of them and looking for the date it happened.

I thumbed through the pages one notebook after the other, looking for my Snake dream. What I didn’t expect was finding about three other brief dream entries over the years that read “Snake dream” or “Black Snake dream.”

It wasn’t until I got to the last notebook in the pile labeled “Dreams and Journeys 2019” that I found it—dated 8-14-2019.

Stars were drawn around it, indicating its importance. ⭐⭐⭐

Before I tell you about the dream, I want to stop and mention how I am always amazed that, despite struggling to remember most of my dreams, the animal ones are almost always clear as a bell and stay with me as if they happened yesterday.

We don’t choose the helping spirits who appear - in dreams, meditations, or shamanic journeys. Or even in “real” life. At least, I don’t think we do. I probably wouldn’t have chosen a Snake as a spirit guide. I’m not afraid of them, nor have I been drawn to them. I can probably count on two hands how many times I’ve seen one in the wild.

I’m not sure why mine have always been animals, plants, or stones —no angels, ancestors, or human-like guides have ever whispered to me or appeared in a shamanic journey. Well, I can’t say this with certainty. I’m still trying to figure out who The Voice is…

The night of August 14, 2019, was a pre-full moon (another note written next to the dream.)

I was sitting in a large, too-bright room—an auditorium of sorts—with folding chairs all around the perimeter. It was filled with people but eerily quiet. A woman was sitting next to me with a large brown bag or sac (burlap, perhaps?). I looked over and saw a gigantic black snake rising from it. His head was huge, and he was staring right at me. I remember being cognizant that the snake was a he.

He started to crawl out of the sac and into my lap! I was frightened by this, but not too much. More uncomfortable than frightened. I don’t know why I didn’t say anything to the woman holding the bag, but instead, I asked a man standing in front of me if he would take the snake. The man picked the snake up, and as he did, I thought I heard the snake talk! “Did he just say something?” The man replied, “Yes, he said he wants to sit in your lap because you’re a healer.” He deposited the big Black Snake into my lap, and I woke up from the dream.

Holy moly.

At some point post-dream, I remembered that I had been at the Omega Institute in Upstate NY in 2017, walking down a path back to my dorm room, when a giant Black Snake, at least three feet long, crossed the path right in front of me. It wasn’t just long, it was fat. Like the Snake in my dream!

When I found the dream in my 2019 journal, I noticed another snake-related entry two days later, on August 16th. This one was from a shamanic journey I had undertaken. I’d forgotten about it, but it all returned after I saw the notes.

I’d journeyed to the Lower World, and there was the Black Snake from my dream. He was lying across the threshold of the Bear’s den, which looked more like a cottage. :) I remember stepping over him to go inside and that he followed me.

Inside were the Bear, Lioness, Pigeon, and Turtle—my helping spirits at the time.

What happened in that journey resulted in a massive unblocking of my creativity.

I’d made a notation at the bottom: important new spirit animal. 🐍

I never wanted to share this dream because my first reaction to it was that it was egoic. Healer is such a powerful, loaded word, yet I am quick to say we’re all healers. We all have self-healing abilities and the ability to help others tap into theirs.

That’s why I’ve kept this dream to myself for so long.

The old self-judgment shadow.

I remember waiting a while before curiosity got the best of me, and I opened Steven Farmer’s book “Animal Spirit Guides.”

If Snake is Your Power Animal:

You’re a healer, whether your focus is primarily on plants, animals, humans, or the earth.

You’ve gone through a series of initiations, including death and rebirth experiences and as a result have gained compassion, wisdom, and a powerful capacity for healing.

You’ve gained a deeper interest in ancient and indiginous cultures and spiritual practices and feel quite at home with these, along with other esoteric and metaphysical interests and pursuits.

You’re very sense-i-tive, able to perceive subtle energies emanating from others and interpret them by trusting your gut feelings.

—Steven D. Farmer, PH.D., “Animal Spirit Guides”

I’ve spent twenty years of my life reading, learning, reading, learning over and over about healing.

Why? Because that’s what some of us do after spending years healing ourselves. We want to share what we’ve learned with others who are suffering. And, as I’ve mentioned before - healing is a seemingly neverending process. I like this mantra best — I'm sure I’ve mentioned it before.

I am healing, and I am healed.

Or, to quote myself :) from a recent post:

Maybe we should stop thinking so much about healing and more about just living our best life, finding what brings us joy and purpose that leads us to a more conscious way of being.

This is not a post just about all those years, but I’ll mention that it was the reason for my break from allopathic medicine and when I entered the world of traditional, ancient original medicine.

Ayurveda, Energy Healing, Shamanism, Holistic Health. You name it, I was studying it.

Yet, when I began seeing clients, I immediately sensed that it was too much of an energy drain on myself. Doing distance sessions depleted me. I loved working with clients in person, mainly doing hands-on healing and Ayurvedic consultations, but again, it drained me.

I think that my very sensitive nervous system was too fragile. And I had poor boundaries.

So, I began to write more about healing.

But the dream…

Last year, over and over again, I would hear The Voice telling me to write about the Black Snake dream. I didn’t understand what the big deal was.

I looked to Ted Andrews for more about Snake medicine:

SNAKE
KEYNOTE: Rebirth, Resurrection, Initiation, and Wisdom

Of all the reptiles—and maybe even all animals—the snake has been the subject of great controversy and paradox. Religious sources argue over whether it is the symbol of the higher or the lower. Sometimes seen as devil and sometimes as healer, it is an animal that truly has earned the mythical reputation.

In the Americas, the snake served as a prominent symbol in art and lore. To the Native Americans, the snake is a symbol of transformation and healing.

In Greece the snake was also a symbol of alchemy and healing. The god Hermes carried a staff upon which were entwined two snakes. This caduceus symbol is the primary symbol of modern medicine and doctors. It is a symbol of wisdom expressed through healing.

The serpent and snake has long been a symbol of the sexual/creative life force within humans as is taught in Eastern traditions. The kundalini or serpent fire lies coiled at the base of the spine. As we grow and develop, the primal energy is released, rising up the spine. This in turn activates energy centers in the body and the mind, opening new dimensions and levels of awareness, health, and creativity.

Anytime a snake shows up as a totem, you can expect death and rebirth to occur in some area of your life. This rarely represents an actual death but rather a transition.

Snakes are symbols of change and healing. They have speed and agility, so those who have snakes come into their life will usually find the changes and shifts occur quickly and are soon recognized and defined. When snake comes into your life you can look for a rebirth into new powers of creativity and wisdom.

Last spring, I heard the nudge to write about it as I walked through the woods toward Gone-Away Pond. I am not kidding you - when I got to my favorite sit spot on the Pond, there was a Black Snake, sunning himself on the rock! He was tiny and quickly slithered into the Pond, much to my dismay.

Not long afterward, I took a longer hike, searching for the Pond in a bog in the woods. I found it, and as I gingerly made my way on the wooden planks to see the Pond, I was excited because surely there would be Turtles! My very first spirit animal.

There were no Turtles, but as I made my way out of the bog, I saw something move by my boot.

It wasn’t anything like the Snake in my dream, but it was black and in the water!

While writing this, I discovered a notebook I’d kept in 2019 when I had the dream. Thumbing through the pages, I was reminded that it was one of the worst years of my life. The first six months were heartbreaking. And yet, it also had many beautiful gems that happened, and isn’t that just the wonder of life?

I learned a great deal about Grace in 2019.

Within those pages of my Pink journal were notes from my three-hour session with a shamanic practitioner. It’s when she said to me, “You’re like the Quaking Poplar.”

That year, I was nudged into receiving mode and sought advice from a few wise women in my life.

Reading through those pages, I realized that all of this, including the Snake dream, happened the year before I uprooted myself from the city and made the transformative move that led me to where I am now.

Talk about shedding my skin. I’d never lived in the country.

The woods and woodland animals became my closest neighbors, and everything shifted.

All I wanted to do was share my stories as I began to witness the deep healing that was going on in myself. Especially my nervous system.

I closed my website and moved my newsletter to Substack to keep things simple.

Simple has always worked best for me.

Four years have passed, and every once in a while, The Voice would nudge me to tell the dream. “No,” I would say (sometimes out loud), “I want to keep it to myself.”

But 2024 took it to a different level, and I couldn’t understand why.

And then, this past December, a friend from the city emailed me to ask if I realized that January 29, 2025, ushers in the Year of the Snake in Chinese Astrology, and 1953 (the year I was born) was the Year of the Black Water Snake!

I had no idea.

Was this the reason The Voice was so insistent all last year?

It was beginning to feel like pieces of a puzzle were starting to come together.

The Snake is the 6th sign of the zodiac. Six has always been my favorite number for no reason whatsoever.

The last Year of the Snake was 2013. A quick check of my photos from 2013 revealed that I’d traveled most of the year, studying energy medicine and Ayurveda. Healing…

If you’ve read this far into my post, which sounds like one very long backstory, I wanted to share with you about the Year of the Snake, which will be upon us in just a few days.

The information I shared above applies to everyone, not just those born in a Snake year.

Even in other forms of astrology, 2025 is predicted to be a year of shedding, transforming, letting go, owning our gifts, and many revelations, individually and collectively.

Are you as reticent to claim your gifts as I am? Let’s stop that nonsense and make our spirit guides proud! :)

If you’re thinking, “Spirit guides? What spirit guides?” Start taking walks in Nature. Meditate. Get up with the sun. Sit out with the stars. I guarantee you they will begin to show up.

Do I need to hang a sign outside my door saying “Healer?” I don’t think so. When I say that simple works best for me, I feel the same about the kind of healer I’d like to be.

A Lighthouse is what Lynnette Duncan likes to say—those who are here for perhaps no other purpose than to shine their healing Light into the world.

I want to be a Sunshine Soul.

Charlotte Freeman

Want to join me? What a world we could help create.

On January 1st, I pulled an Oracle card for the year: the Lion. The Lioness is one of my spirit guides. As I put the cards back in the deck, the Snake card flew out and landed in front of me.

Of course, it did!

Here’s the message. It’s a good one for all of us.

Snake - Guardian of Unawakened Magic & Creative Potential

The Snake is a symbol of our highest potential. It is said that shakti (our creative life force) lies dormant at the base of our spine, in the form of a coiled snake. Regardless of whether this image rings true for you, it’s well worth considering the amount of “unawakened” or “untapped” potential within. What would life look like if you woke it up? How can you stir it from slumber? An experienced yoga or meditation teacher can lead the way. Make haste…the Snake card appears when there is no more time to waste.

—Kim Krans, “The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Guidebook”

Wishing you a transformative, creative, magical Year of the Snake! Let there be shedding and a fresh new chapter in all our lives.

Much Love,
Barbara

Also, Fresh batches of Elderberry Syrup are still being made to order, and my new batch of Forest Oil is bottled and ready for sale. It’s called Forest Oil because it smells like the forest! 🌲🌲🌲! Links are below.

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