Earlier this afternoon, I was thinking a lot about some new projects I wanted to start. One of these things was to start wood carving, I've always loved wood and the idea of using a knife upon something has always brought a certain feeling of release sometimes. Most often when I'm angry, but I won't get into that.

So there I was with this idea in my head just waiting to take some form. After rummaging in a closet for a bit, I located some small bits of wood I had collected here and there. I picked one of the larger blocks, for most of them were not more then a palm's width, and sat down in a comfortable spot. I began to look over the piece of wood and tried to decide what to make. This was the stage I had always managed to end at in my previous attempts at carving. It felt most daunting as I worried about how difficult it would be to carve `this' and how I didn't really want to work upon `that' at the time.

As I reached this point of decision, I took a different approach. I figured that I would just go about reducing the wooden block to wood shavings and if something appeared in the time between now and then, so be it. I'd just try to let the wood and the world do its will and not be stopped by choices I thought had to be made.

With a big grin upon my face at the `wisdom' of my action, I began whittling away. In no time I realized exactly what it was that I wanted to make out of the block. The head of a serpent. Now my grin widened to almost devilish delight as I suddenly found a purpose that I could relate with. Something fairly simple yet also something that I would like doing. It was a nearly perfect choice, and my knife went to work on the wood.

A short time later I had to put the block down for my fingers were starting to ache from the stress they were not used to. I went off and did some other things, thinking I would continue on with it some other time. I mean, it's good to be focused when you are doing something, but it's also good to know when to stop.

Anyway, as I was sitting down relaxing for a few minutes, a thought suddenly came to me. Snake medicine, Snake majik. I'm a firm believer in reasons, all that cause and effect `reap what you sow' karmic stuff. There was something more to this snake carving then it had at first seemed. Something that rang true inside me.

For the past few weeks I had been experimenting with a new way of looking at things. I had experienced some bouts of depression during that time. This new way of perceiving was tied to the emotion, depression. I tried more then ever to actually be depressed, and to know why I was there and what everything appeared as from that low place. I was studying the whole experience, that I might know it better and not just hope to avoid being depressed in my life. The emotion became very interesting after a while and sometimes I even removed myself from others just so that I could explore it more. Instead of trying to scratch and claw my way up out of this pit I simply slithered around in it, observing all the little details I started to find.

When I thought about the comparison between the depressed `low' state and the snake, who slides through earthy dark places, I felt certain that this creature could teach me something. More to the point, I thought that perhaps it had already done so and I was only now beginning to realize it.

I decided to look into it further and found a book about snakes, some of the myths and some of the facts. Naturally I dove into it with all my spirit. It was an interesting book, but more important then anything it could have told me, the book created in me a burning interest to uncover the powers of the Snake.

So I sat down and relaxed again, this time thinking and visualizing heavily upon the attributes and powers of Snake. The first thing that I thought of was an image of a snake opening its jaws in preparation to strike and the gleaming fangs contained therein.

The fangs, the venom. That was the part that gripped me. There were the key features that almost everyone I know of remembers and worries about when the mention of snakes arises. I thought long about what they meant, the ability to paralyze and kill its prey. The snake is feared by many for its legendary ability to injure with the smallest nip of its fangs.

The power to seriously wound an adversary with the fangs, or rather, with the mouth. There was something I had been thinking on recently for a while also. How to affect someone with words, as the voice could be considered humankind's venom. There is a friend of mine that seems to be on a path that leads down to pain and a slow, living death. This is something that I continually observe whenever I see him and I feel somewhat powerless against it, for I do not want to hurt him. After all, he is my friend.

Speaking with him normally will not work, for he listens politely, sometimes interrupting, but does not quite hear. I have tried to be understanding but he just continues looking down his path and repeating what he see over and over. I have tried to show him other ways of perceiving the issue but he won't look in that way, he is sure that he knows what the problem is. I have tried waiting for him to see things on his own, but he continues to spiral down this ill road. There were no other choices that I could see, for I myself was blind to the idea of using a venom to bring change.

Yet if the venom is placed in the right spot, it will injure that which must die and cause attention to be brought to the afflicted area so that a clean separation can be made. This is what I heard the Snake saying. I must think longer upon this teaching. Maybe it was a poor understanding, maybe not. But there is too much that could be lost by an ill-conceived strike to chance it being a wrong action. I will listen further to the circumstances.

I thought further about the Snake, looking at it in my mind, and saw the shiny skin upon it. The Skin, there was another thing. Snake sheds his skin when he grows too large for it. I also read that the eyes of the snake cloud over before the skin is shed and during that time, it is blind, and very vulnerable.

This shedding of skin seemed so natural to the process of growth. If I cannot rid myself of something that hinders and restrains me, how will I ever reach my full growth and power? The outer shell is what shapes and refines our inner selves. If I acted on the outside like a wicked and evil wretch would it matter if I had a heart of gold inside. No one would ever see it, and no one would care to.

Snake knows this and she knows also that in order to grow strong, one must experience vulnerability. One must be blind sometimes so that she may know what to look for next time her eyes work. There is something to be said for the experience of losing something, for when one again gains it, that something is worth much more.

Thank you for the lessons, friend Snake.