# 301: Snakes
Bruce-Mitford, Miranda, ed. (2020/2008). Zeichen und Symbole: Ihre Geschichte und Bedeutung, 67.
Story behind the Passage
This morning during my run I saw a snake. Well, it was not a real snake but a blind worm, as I later googled (they are not real sknakes but lizards). Still, they look like snakes and are actually quite pretty, even though they are small. Anyway, the thing that I saw on the ground was badly injured but still alive — somewhat. So, I later took the car back to the spot and took it home. I figured it might have gotten rid of the last part of the tail to distract an attacker. Or that attacker bit the fail off — which is more what it looked like. Anyway, I cleaned the wound and put some honey salve on it. Later I gave it some water and bought some worms. But when I got home…
I found out that it had not made it.
That is the sad part of the story.
Here comes the thing about nature and its miracles. Think of the hundred worms or even more that were in the little plastic container. At least a few of them would have ended up in the mouth of that little snake fellow. If someone else had bought it, maybe all of them would have been swallowed in a few bites. So, for a moment, after I had burried the kind-of-snake properly underneath a tree in the garden, I thought about donating the worms to some animal shelter or place that needs it. Well, the other alternative would have been to actually cook them and take a bite myself but I feel, I do not want to do that until I really have to, e.g., when traveling to some country where it really is a delicacy. I actually asked my mom what to do with the worms and she had an answer straight away (as moms often have):
“Put them in the compost. They can do miracles.”
That was great!
I did it right away.
Then, after that job had been completed and I was looking at the happy worms making their way into all kinds of directions, spreading out, obviously faster and more agile than they had been in the plastic container — I noticed something. I felt really happy! Just a few minutes ago, I had been sad about the loss of the snake. And here I was, smiling at the worms. So, you see where this is going: I lost one life and that made it possible to “save” a hundred worm lives. I know that this is stupid and you should not weigh up one life against the other. In addition, we are talking about WORMS and a NOT-EVEN-A-REAL-SNAKE after all. Still, that is the way it is. And to me, everything living deserves to live — unless nature really wants it the othe way.
In the case of the snake, it was me interferring with nature. I am sure, had I left it there on the spot, it would have been killed right away or at least faster. You might say that I caused additional suffering then. But there was a chance. There was hope. And I, of course, remembered the little bird baby from a few weeks ago. There was very little hope but I tried to save it and it worked. It is not that I go looking for injured animals so save them every morning. But if they cross my path, it is up to me to make a decision.
And I do take a moment to reflect before I make that decision.
So, before you are afraid that this is going to become some pathological lecture, I am going to turn to the short text passage above. The funny thing is, I am just reading this really exciting and fantastic book right now about symbols. And this very morning, I am not joking, I came across the pages about snakes. Obviously, snakes have a fundamental meaning in many cultures but we here in Germany, not necessarily in all “Western” countries, are more or less afraid of snakes, even though we have no reason for it. This is an indication of the legacy which snakes leave on the cultural psyche — passed down from generation to generation in the form of stories and fairy tales.
My Learnings
“In vielen Kulturen gelten Schlangen als geschickte Mittler zwischen Himmel, Erde und der Unterwelt.“ / “In many cultures, snakes count as mediators between heaven, earth, and the underworld.” This sentence is basically telling you that snakes are in-between. In some cultures, they are being celebrated. In other cultures, they are doomed. Actually, my personal association with them is that I have no real association — not a clear one. They do remind me of the desert, though.
I love the desert.
The desert is the place where you find peace.
The dunes bear the traces of snakes.
They vanish somewhere in the unknown.
And the silence makes you feel what it means to live.
Reflection Questions
1) What do you associate with snakes?
2) Do you remember any book or movie which deals with snakes? Why do you remember it?
3) Which animals do you associate with the desert?