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The Dual Nature of Snakes in Mythology
311 Plays3 months ago
Welcome to The Bell Witch Podcast "Witching in the 21st Century"
In episode 36 host Swailes, AKA "Friendly green Witch," delves into the fascinating world of snakes in folklore and their magical associations within witchcraft and paganism. Swailes shares personal anecdotes about their experiences as a snake owner, emphasizing the emotional connections formed with their pets.
The episode explores cultural perceptions of snakes, contrasting negative portrayals in media and mythology with their positive symbolism in various cultures. Swailes highlights snakes' roles in transformation, fertility, and healing, encouraging listeners to appreciate the multifaceted nature of these often misunderstood creatures.
Sister episode - Kundalini with Yasmin Rose https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UCRVLjShx7MT5kEvl8HEx?si=06b84e1762a646c4
Check out Patreon.com/thebellwitchpodcast for extra and bonus episodes and to support the creator.
Podcast Pals-
Just Us Thinking- https://open.spotify.com/show/3cCp76Ly97i2AEV023XPFN?si=d78563224a114ddb
The White Witch Podcast Medusa Episode -https://open.spotify.com/episode/2gmxmxkdEYdTE2axJDFkqy?si=bba15ba7b1ec4d43
Research Links- https://www.bing.com/search?PC=PI04&FORM=PISBRL&q=snake+eating+its+own+tail
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hopi#ref239442
https://mythsandlegend.com/legend-of-the-white-snake/
https://historycooperative.org/asclepius-greek-god-of-medicine/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_in_mythology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesculapian_snake
https://www.learnreligions.com/manasa-the-snake-goddess-1770365
https://symbolismandmetaphor.com/symbolism-of-snakes/
Made with love and magic instagram.com/The_bell_witch_podcast
email [email protected]
Knaresborough reptile rescue- (1) Facebook
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, I am Michael. And I'm Rebecca. And we are the hosts of Just Us Thinking. Come and join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays to have a little fun and a good laugh or two. We talk about all kinds of everyday things and we like to have a few laughs ourselves. You can find us on your favorite podcast player at Just Us Thinking, but make sure to drop that G. Make sure you also hit that subscribe button and you could follow us on Facebook. Thank you for listening.
00:00:59
Speaker
Greetings witches, our beautiful souls. You are listening to the Belle Witch podcast with me, Swales, the friendly green witch. Witching in the 21st century. How you doing? I hope you're all right. This is episode 36 and it is a solitary witch episode where yours truly talks to you directly about something I find interesting in the spiritual realms of witchcraft and paganism.
00:01:30
Speaker
I can't talk about all aspects of witchcraft because some of it just ain't for me. And that's all right. There are plenty of amazing witchcraft people out there doing fascinating podcasts on all kinds of topics that I have no idea about. And that's OK. I can't do it all. anywho for this solitary witch episode i was pondering what to cover because the last word was just so good the kundalini one and i'm obsessed with kundalini still think about it all the time and then looking at my numbers the folklore of forget me nots episode is doing really well getting good numbers
00:02:13
Speaker
So I thought I should do a folklore episode again and I came to the conclusion of doing the folklore of snakes. Well like folklore and mythology as it turns out. After a bit of research for podcasting I couldn't really find anything much on snakey witchcraft and folklore. There were lots about dragons and Adam and Eve and all that jazz but I couldn't find anything about snakes as a magical aiden reptile and also snakes as a magical being and I'll use snakes in your witchcraft and also really awesome snake associated goddesses, gods. I have a big love for snakes. I have had snakes since I was 15
00:03:03
Speaker
I had two snakes, Morgan and Cleo, they were both kingsnakes. One was a black Mexican kingsnake and he was so beautiful, Morgan. He was so friendly and he was such a babe. And my second one who had the same time is called Cleo and she was a chocolate and custard kingsnake. I'd had Morgan not very long at all and he got ill and he died unfortunately cancer of the kidneys which is a thing snakes get who knew and his kidneys blew up like balloons bless him and had to have him put to sleep yeah that was a bad year 2006 that was I never actually got these two snakes tattooed on the top of my feet
00:03:44
Speaker
There's a year between them because it hurt so much but that was my first ever tattoo was Morgan on the top of my right foot and then lovely little clear at the top of my left foot and she died about five years ago now so she was an old kingsnake she must have been 25 years old proper old lady. I've got snakes right now, I've got pebbles who is a ball python or royal python as they're called apparently because in the ancient times kings used to walk around with the snake around the necks royal pythons because they're just such a chill snake and they love the warmth and they can hear your heartbeat and they trust humans quite a lot the story goes royalty used to wear a snake on the throne and that's why they're called a royal python they're called a bald python because when they get scared they turn into a little ball they kind of coil up really tight but i think royal python is a better name with a better story behind it anyway i was saying my lovely little pebbles she's absolutely beautiful she's on my stories often and i've also got my little corn snake who is a typical corny color bright orange red eyes she's quite shy she's quite old as well and she is called hidey officially but people tend to just call her snakey and she's so greedy she'll eat everything
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, snakes have always been around me. I really associate with snakes. I really trust snakes and love snakes and I think they love me in return, especially pebbles. She is such a sweet little snakey. She was a rescue snake that I got in 2006. She had a wound on the top of her nose when I got her that I had to bathe. She were really thin so we thought she were a boy at first because boys tend to be smaller than girl snakes in royal pythons. but she would just smile and I fattened her up she grew loads she ate well and now she's the best snake ever and she's just so loving to me and she comes up to me face and sniffs me face with a little tongue and yeah I really love her
00:05:49
Speaker
Pets in general are amazing for grounding you because they're earthly beings they don't have like awareness that we have about like mundane life and because their spine and chakras are levelled to the floor you know like they're horizontal instead of vertical so their energy moves easily throughout all the chakras it's very rare you get like a block chakra in an animal saw reed and when you hold your pets you cuddle your pets not just snakes but any pets they actually help you ground in the moment and like
00:06:26
Speaker
save for the moment and bring you back on a ah nice little vibration. I just love that about pets. That's why I think it's really important to have some kind of pet that you can cuddle and get close to. Snakes help my spirituality massively, absolutely massively. And so I thought this would make a very good topic for folklore and magical aspects associated with the beautiful reptile that is the snake.
00:06:57
Speaker
the scaly serpentine that hisses and slithers throughout the jungle. A reptile that can't heat itself, that basks in the sunlight and lives in an assortment of places around the world from hot jungle climates to dry deserts. A snake, a snake, a no-prop, a danger noodle. There's so many amazing in nicknames for the sweet little snake. Let me ask you listener, how do you feel about snakes? From my own observation as a snake owner, they are very, very marmite. People absolutely love them or really, really are repulsed by them and don't want them anywhere near them and don't want to think about them or anything. I really do wonder why this is. They get such a negative response and negative associations and I think a lot of that is to do with society and they are used in horror films as negative entities. Like in The Craft I remember when Sarah's nightmares are of snakes taking over her house
00:08:13
Speaker
and nancy says something like the serpentine is a very powerful being and it should be respected i agree nancy i agree but even when thinking about disney's cartoons all the snakes tend to be bad guys don't they like car in jungle book he is so untrustworthy and always out for himself and trying to hypnotise the little lad all at the time, I can't recall his name, Mowgli. He's always trying to hypnotise Mowgli and the only person who stands up to him is Shere Khan in that animated Disney old-school version anyway. I think he might be more of a good guy in the actual books.
00:08:59
Speaker
And then there's the snake in Disney's Robin Hood. He was also quite slippery and a little bit sort of yellow bellied actually. He's quite a weak character and in a bit of a dog's body for the king. and even Jafar in Disney's Aladdin he's got a snake staff and he's just so sneaky and out for himself turns into a massive snake at the end being all snake-like getting defeated by becoming a genie
00:09:33
Speaker
because he's just so greedy and he wants everything all the time i mean just in pop culture of today i was racking my brains trying to think of a nice snake i did actually locate one in the princess and the frog where the the old medicine woman in the jungle mama odie's pet snake called juju which she just wears throughout the whole cartoon just like a royal python the snake looks after her looks out for her that's probably the first at least disney representation of a lovable friendly snake so at least there is one there if you can think of any more do please let me know because i would like to hear them
00:10:20
Speaker
Email me eh? You can't really talk about snakes without talking about Adam and Eve in the Pleasant Garden of Eden where a snake convincing Eve to take a bite out of this magical apple on the magical life tree which led to their immediate downfall as humans in a brand new world made in seven days who and people suggest that this snake represents the devil doing devilish things to humankind, tricking them into doing stuff they don't want to do with hidden agendas, being all snaky and sly. Evil within. I mean, I'm not really a fan of this because
00:11:05
Speaker
done a lot of damage to the snakes you know because it's such a mainstream story with huge historic prevalence i believe is why snakes get such a bad time but i'm going to tell you some really positive stories about snakes in folklore there is so many so do stay tuned so because of this association people tend to imagine snakes as a masculine representing symbol and even on my little god on my altar you know i've got a little goddess and a god the god's willy is indeed a snake because of their shape i guess
00:11:49
Speaker
can be seen as a phallic symbol but that is really all I can find that suggests this. Literally just the fact that it's a long thin reptile with no limbs to speak of. they are not very often associated with masculinity in witchcraft anyway from my research um are more associated with Gaia the goddess seem to be quite earthly rebirth and transformation and the ability to adapt and transform and grow the survivors they can go for a long time without any food
00:12:29
Speaker
and survive. I mean my snakes I feed them every six weeks sometimes once every two months and they survive this because that's how they're built. I even believe as a snake keeper that it's better for them to feed them less. I think it makes them live a lot longer and more naturally. They are able to conserve their energies for survival. It's amazing. They're also feisty, you know, they're also quite fiery. In Kundalini, the snake curled up at the spine represents the fire element as Yasmin said last episode. I'm just going to quickly say You can hear all about my personal experience doing Kundalini diary episode. It's this episode to the Kundalini episode which is on Spotify right now. That's on my Patreon which you can subscribe to and hear all the bonus little bits and bobs like that. Okay, back to the episode. It's a reptile that represents getting stuff done and action. But snakes are fast. They're only fast when they need to be fast when they strike for their food.
00:13:36
Speaker
They'll take at the time slithering along nicely until there is a need to act, to strike what is needed, what they want and I quite like that in the interpretation of why perhaps you'd use snake symbolism in your magic and witchcraft. I'm just going to read a little bit from the book Animal Magic which is a pagan portals book by Rachel Patterson. Quote, quite often a shadow guide the snake has so many wonderful qualities that will help guide you
00:14:12
Speaker
It sheds its skin which reminds us that we can shed our illusions and any self-imposed limitations or ideas and brings us a link to astral travel. Snakes also bring fertility, creation and transformation. It can symbolise sexuality and is linked to many deities for that same reason. Snake is energy, raw power and in a spark of spirituality. But it also brings healing and wisdom. Keywords are transformation, fertility, astral travel, creativity, sexuality, power, spiritually, healing and wisdom.
00:14:53
Speaker
However, snakes also carry the weight of negative associations throughout history. As we've said, snakes are often viewed as a symbol of deceit, temptation and anger. But in many mythologies, snakes are tied to evil forces. Her bringers of death and destruction, their feminist bite, is feared as a deadly threat, reminding us of a life's fragility and the ever-present danger lurking in the shadows that cannot be seen, silently moving, slithering. I mean, they don't really hiss, to be honest. The hissing is definitely Hollywood. My snakes just kind of breathe out loudly and that would be considered a hiss.
00:15:36
Speaker
and Another reason people might not like them is the way they move because I guess they move like a worm, the slither for want of a better word. Some don't like the way snakes move because they have no outside limbs. They move contouring their muscles a certain way which gives them the look of I don't know a slug or a snail or a worm or something. The way the sidewinder moves on the sand goes in a weird kind of sideways shuffle which I really love but even that brings to mind a way of moving that isn't that isn't quite right or straightforward
00:16:19
Speaker
It's weird moving runway but doing something else. I don't know, there is something there about a snake can't be trusted and I'm pretty sure there is connection to how they move because of what we've brought up with as Westerners I guess. People are surprised who don't know much about snakes when they touch my snake and it's not slimy. It's actually really dry and smooth and shiny. This surprises people because they think the way it moves equals slime like a snail or a slug and it is just so far from the reality of the reptile. It is just bananas to me is as a snake keeper.
00:17:00
Speaker
But the snake is believed to be one of the oldest animals in the world as a reptile related directly to the dinosaurs, been around for a long time. And so the snake is believed to represent eternity and wisdom. And when you see snakes in symbolism, the symbolism of a serpent eating its own tail is known as the auroboros, o-u-r-o-b-o-r-o-s.
00:17:34
Speaker
Is that right? Auroboros. It represents several concepts such as infinity, cycleality. The circular nature of this symbol is the endless life cycle, death and rebirth and transformation, death and rebirth and transformation portrayed beautifully by the humble and ancient snake. and also self-renewal the act of the serpent eating its own tail represents the idea of something constantly recreating itself symbolizing growth renewal and the eternal return and the snake regenerates itself when it sheds its skin i absolutely love that
00:18:21
Speaker
symbolism i always think of the book you know the never-ending story how i think there's two snakes intertwined eating each of his tales because it's never ending it's like infinity story the snake goes right around in infinity ever progressing but following the same pattern so that's like our life we're born we live and we die But between those moments on this earthly plane anyway, we can make changes, adapt, transform and shed all skins, all belief systems, all patterns in our life.
00:18:59
Speaker
Different forks in the road but ultimately we are following it the same but pattern as all our ancestors before us and all our ancestors that will follow behind us. I just love that about the snakes. I love that. Oh what else? Let's have some mythology. In Greek mythology, serpents are ancient creatures that have been around since times of ancient Greece. And snakes are commonly featured in Greek mythology and they take two main meanings in this mythology and they're completely opposite like mirrors and yin and yang, usually good luck and evil. Hmm, have we heard this before? Snakes were thought to be bringers of good luck and that's especially common when people encountered snakes in the wild, which was thought to bring them good luck if it didn't hurt them and they didn't hurt the snake.
00:19:56
Speaker
But then on the other hand it was a symbol of evil and I guess one of the main symbols of evil is in the Greek mythology tales was a Medusa. This was an evil creature with snakes sticking out of her head like hair and was a scorned goddess that got turned into this scary creature and I think when she looked at men didn't they turn to stone. His saying and being aggressive, there's a lot more to that actually. and I'm going to signpost you to the White Witch podcast. Ooh, it's another podcast. Paul mentioned. Carly Rose does a really inspiring podcast. She's one of the OG British witch podcasters out there. One of her recent episodes is all about Medusa. I highly advise you and recommend you to go over there and listen after this because it is such a cracking episode.
00:20:50
Speaker
and it'll have so much more depth and insights into this amazing goddess and all the history and stuff, much more than this shoddy attempt from me. But I must say, like the snake, Medusa is seriously, seriously misunderstood. And after I listen to that episode, which I will link in the show description synopsis, it's absolutely on my bucket list to to work with her because I really, really, I feel you your medusa aphelia. I also learnt from the white witch that snakeskins are really good as a offering to medusa on the altar. I used to hang snakeskins around my bedroom when I was young and gothic. I used to hang them from the lampshade and pin them to the wall and stuff. That would mainly scare my mum and keep her out of my bedroom. They also look pretty goth.
00:21:44
Speaker
Anyway, what were I saying? In many Native American tribes they had a ritual called the ritual of snakes and they performed this ritual in order to protect their land and their hills but also themselves when they went away traveling. They really respected snakes. Ain't there something called the snake dance, one of the tribes? Don't they go out and find all these snakes in the jungle and then don't they dance with them? Let me see. Oh here we go. Hoppy office. Hoofis. O-P-H-I-S. Hoofis. The hoppy believe that their intimacy with rattlesnakes and other species is of great importance. For thousands of years the hoppy tribe of northern Arizona has performed a seductive
00:22:35
Speaker
sacred ceremony that embodies the manifold and richly evocative archetype nature of the serpent. In modern times the so-called snake dance has gained notoriety partly because the people who are doing the snake dance gather these snakes up from the jungle and they wash them carefully and they put these snakes in their mouths and round their necks and then I guess they dance around with them as the do they do this. The species are both feminists and non-feminists that might include garter snakes, gopher snakes, bull snakes. I know they're really aggressive bull snakes because my mate used to have them. Sidewinders and even rattlesnakes so it is proper dodgy stuff.
00:23:25
Speaker
They do this every August in the rainy season within a flute ceremony. The snake dance occurs in the village of Oriby. Oh my god, I am butchering this. This ceremony can't actually be considered serpent worship. It is instead a plea to the monsoon moisture in a stunningly beautiful but harsh desert landscape. It's a 16 day ritual and it encourages the final maturity of the crops, mainly corn, beans and squash during the natural cycle of the crops in the monsoon.
00:24:03
Speaker
season. I'm sure I read somewhere they tried not to hurt the snakes and set them free again to appease the goddess of nature but I can't find where I read that because I've done so much research on this. In India snakes are worshiped by the locals during the month of Sharavan. When this happens that they feel milk to the snakes and they worship them. Ah! And in Japan they connect the snake to life-giving ability and fertility and also connect them to rice fields where they usually find them in nature kind of sounds like it's just a normal situation for them and they don't give it much thought however in China snakes represent an evil quality because of their cunning nature they are often feared animals and the Chinese don't like to have them in their home it's considered a bad omen if a Chinese person was to find
00:25:01
Speaker
a snake lurking in the corner trying to find some warmth. However, there is some Chinese folklore mythology that explains why the Chinese dislike snakes so much. The Legend of Madame White Snake. This is quite a massive and in-depth story and I've found lots of different versions of it. Some of them are quite negative and some of them are really romanticised but the general gist is there's this huge magical snake that lives under the sea that desires to be a human and so gets given the gift of transforming the self into a human to metromorphosis through
00:25:45
Speaker
practical magic so she's also a witch, a witch snake, snake witch. Madam Whitesnake goes to a boat race in China, falls in love with a man who is a herbalist and this herbalist proper loves her absolutely dotes on her but the local buddhist who I think is a friend of the herbalist advises the herbalist that his wife who he loves isn't who she says she is. She's deceiving and sinister but he won't hear of it and eventually I think she gets given some herbs or some poison or something which reveals her snake in a snake. Oh my god it reminds me of Shallow Hal. Do you remember that film? And either the herbalist forgives her
00:26:37
Speaker
or gets really upset and dies and she goes back to the sea with a broken heart from a human experience but there was another version where the man was snooping in the woman's bedroom and he saw Madame Whitesnake as a partial human partial snake and of course he wasn't right best please was he? The husband now full of remorse renounces the earthly world in hope of redemption and I think there's been loads of films made about it and it's really deep and definitely could have its own episode but from that it seems women are sometimes associated as snakes and can't be trusted and are devious
00:27:23
Speaker
There is sort of that running through the sneaky connection with reptiles and how they respond to them. It's definitely worth a research. I'm going to link all the pages I've read in this research in the show notes so you can dive into your own little rabbit hole. It's all about the connection between dangers of beauty Snake women are both cunning and lethal taking advantage of their surpassing beauty and their prey always dies a horrible death. Oh my god. Okay I feel like I need to get some but positivity back in here now.
00:28:01
Speaker
I don't suppose you've heard of the symbolism of snakes in medicine. This is pretty cool. You know the famous Caduceus sign. Caduceus sign. I think that's right. which is a symbol of medicine today. It's the symbol of two snakes wrapped around a pole with wings on the top of the pole which is an occasional symbol of medicine today in different industries and established companies such as the World Health Organization aka WHO
00:28:41
Speaker
Oh well this dates back to an amazing little tale back in Greek mythology where the serpents were a symbol of health and medicine that has managed to snake through in today. they're associated with healing and the god Asclepius whose snake was his familiar and would crawl across the bodies of sick people asleep in the temples at night and lick them back to health. How cool is that?
00:29:17
Speaker
proper love that. Initially described as an average Joe in Homer's Laird, Askelpios went to be defined across ancient Greece for his medical powers of healing the sick. although as a mere physician it took me bloody ages to say that just then. Popular belief would render him a son of Apollo and a mortal princess by divine right of God. Unfortunately, Jesus really did not like doctors especially divine ones
00:29:51
Speaker
afraid that he would grant the man immortality. Jesus killed Asclepius. Aww, gutted. Okay, I hope that made sense. It was actually quite a challenge for me to read. So the rod of Asclepius is a symbol used by the World Health Organization. It direct directly relates to the god of medicine. The staff with serpents wrapped around is actually the only true symbol of medicine. The origin of the rod, well it's like anything, people disagree with the origins of the stories that claim to be connected to it. The first theory we referred to as the worm theory
00:30:38
Speaker
and revolves around treatment involving worms and the other relates to the biblical story of Moses. So the first theory with the worms basically refers to Ebus Papyrus which is a medical textbook from ancient Egypt. It covers a whole range of diseases both mental and physical and is believed to be written about 1500 BC. So I'm not going to read all this but basically it was just putting worms and letting them crawl all over you when you were sick. Peridigros! The other one which revolves around the story from the Bible. Moses carried a bronze staff.
00:31:25
Speaker
around which a serpent was wound. The bronze serpent was believed to possess strong healing powers. A combination of the serpent and the staff were somewhat viewed as a magic wand. Oh, such a witch. So there you go, you heard it here first. Moses liked snakes and he also carried a magic wand so he was a witch. In the passage in the Bible it describes that anyone sick must be bitten by the serpent. Its venom would heal anyone and any disease making apparent its obvious relationship with healing and medicine.
00:32:02
Speaker
I don't know, you know, I prefer the grease tail, the ancient grease one with the snakes chilling out in the temple slithering around all the sick people. I think that one's the best. There is the Hindu snake goddess, Manasa. Devi, a snake goddess, is worshipped by Hindus mainly for the prevention and cure of snake bites and infectious diseases like smallpox and chickenpox as well as prosperity and fertility. She stands for both destruction and regeneration almost akin to a snake shedding its skin and being reborn.
00:32:45
Speaker
The idol of the goddess is deciphered as a graceful lady with her body adorned with snakes and sitting on a lotus flower with a stake under a hooded canopy of seven cobras. She's often seen as the one-eyed goddess and is sometimes portrayed with her son asketa on her lap. During the monsoon seasons the goddess Manasa is worshipped mainly in the eastern Indian state of Benegal throughout the months of June, July and August at a time when the snakes leave their nesting ground and come out into the open to become active. It's a month-long affair spanning July and August
00:33:33
Speaker
Devotees pay absence to the goddess. People perform at various punjas or rituals to appease her and in some rituals worshippers are seen to pierce their bodies. Poisonous snakes are displayed on the altar And a live show is there depicting the life and legend of snakey goddesses and all that jazz. And that was from that fantastic website Learn Religions where I get so much good information all about paganism and all kinds of cool spirituality and religious types of stuff.
00:34:12
Speaker
And then I guess the last thing to think about is snakes in dreams. This is quite hard to research because I think dreams are just so personal because of people's associations with snakes as a living creature and a symbolism. It's really hard to pin down. I dream of snakes a lot. I dream of snakes eating each other and snakes my snake tattoos disappearing off my feet and me being devastated about it. Snakes for me tell me messages of resilience and change is coming but that really is personal because snakes are just so positive to me
00:34:56
Speaker
and I use snake skin all the time in protecting spell jars. I'm bringing up my snakes with love and trust and it's such a big part of my life. I always use pebbles as snake skin in spell jars for protection and when people want sigils for change or rejuvenation or success in a project. I ah put a little bit of s snake skin in there but again using animal byproduct it really is about your relationship to that animal if you've got an animal or what you feel and think about that animal on a personal level you know like if you're scared of dogs you're not going to be putting canine teeth in a spell about loyalty and friendship
00:35:48
Speaker
because the dog is, it doesn't represent that to you if if you see what I mean. You could add canine teeth to a spell that you wanted to be aggressive in or to add more bite, bite onto something and bring it to you or even as a warning because that's your association to a dog. Whereas people with dogs who love their dogs would put K9 teeth in a spell for protection and for more aggression in taking over a situation perhaps because their pet dog is on their side. So it's just magic is like that. It's just so very personal. You can buy all the books till the cows come home. In the end, it's your personal relationship and understanding and intent, the animal you choose to work with, whether that's on this earth or spirit animals, spirit guides and all that. I hope that makes sense. I'll listen back to it and check.
00:36:52
Speaker
Well that might be your lot for now. I want to end on again why I love snakes so much and because I've always had snakes they are just so powerful for me. I think I really relate to them especially when I was young about how misunderstood they actually are. When I was a moody teenage goth snakes were my power animal and I would walk around with them in the summer around my neighborhood and people would be scared of me as opposed to picking on me and I think that's where the protective element comes from. I use snakeskin as a shield to protect me from negativity and bad vibes. I do have this one memory that I want to leave you with
00:37:43
Speaker
when I was very young I used to go on holiday with a guy that abused me all the time and I couldn't escape from him and I remember we went to Blackpool and there were this guy on the front and he had the biggest most beautiful python I'd ever seen not anything unusual in terms of python colours it was just enormous it must have been 10 or 12 foot it was huge and he was just walking around with it hanging off him and this snake were just so chill i think it was called Sid like Sid the snake and he'd stand outside of of the pleasure beach the theme park
00:38:25
Speaker
I was just so interested in this snake and I remember the guy just picking the snake up and plonking it on my head on my neck and it's so warm and and so heavy but my abuser was actually scared of snakes and would have come near me to get me to make me leave and I think being honest in this moment I felt like that snake, Sid the snake saved me that day. He saved me just for 20 minutes half an hour and I think that was the moment that cemented my love and appreciation of the beautiful reptile the snake. Who knew just how big a deal they would become in my life from
00:39:10
Speaker
having them in my home as beloved pets all these years to getting tattoos of them to using them in magic and witchcraft and now to experience the snake of Kundalini Yeah, I thought I'd share that as an ending signing off for the podcast. So I hope you have enjoyed this episode and it hasn't been too mumbly. I do try it really hard to give brief, helpful, fun, fast facts.
00:39:45
Speaker
and I will credit all my sources in the description in the synopsis so you can go ahead and research further but thank you so much for listening to me and if you want any information or advice about how to look after snakes if you fancy getting a pet snake or you've been thinking about it for a while and you heard me here this is your sign to get a pet snake There is this amazing reptile rescue place up in Nesborough I can totally link you up with. They have all kinds of amazing unusual exotic pets all looking for a new home and a hell of a lot of snakes and bearded dragons. I absolutely adore them and I would be lost without them especially my beautiful little pebbles. She is my beautiful serpent soul sister.
00:40:40
Speaker
You have been listening to the Belle Witch podcast created with love and magic by me, Swales, the friendly green witch. I love to hear from you and I absolutely love, love, love, love to celebrate you. If you have a podcast or a business, a witchy business, a pagan related topic you love to talk about, you can reach me on the Belle Witch podcast at Yahoo. dot com Send me a trailer and I will absolutely play it because there is magic in sharing audiences amongst podcasts. Music by Jeff Harvey of Pixabay. The official Bell Witch photographer is the lovely Beverly Thornton. Thank you so much for choosing the Bell Witch podcast to fill your ears. Stay magical witches!