.:|:. Dove Love’s .:. Points and Passions .:|:.

By Dove, www.TarotwithLove.com  This Nature Blog is awesome, I so enjoy his pics…  His recent one of the garter snake spurred my memory of all my snake encounters in the past while living in a wooded area, so many wonderful critter encounters there :)  The individual who encouraged me to live there told me there were no snakes – and I believed him (lol), and I actually didn’t see one for quite a while.  And, of course, my first encounter with one was with a monster of a snake!! 

On a daily basis, I would walk laps at the edge of the dense woods that surrounded this place — gawd, such delicious seclusion there.  For some reason I had the tendency to stay on this path, so it wasn’t long before I’d created a cleared (no grass) path.   One day I was taking my joyous, leisurely, totally private evening walk and to my horror I almost stepped on a HUGE (I’m talkin’ huge, babe) snake lying across (horizontal to) my path — no doubt enjoying my nice cool dirt path on its belly.   I screamed, um, just a little (heh), and I ran like hell to the house.  And I’m sure the monster-snake was equally horrified by my scream…and did its best to quickly hurry toward the safety of the woods. 

Granted, I only saw it for an instant (very close to it), but I’d say it was at least four inches in diameter and at least five foot long.  At least. 

Anyway, for quite a while afterward, I stayed indoors – for a ridiculously long time — or so it seemed.  The sight of that snake totally freaked me out.  But I missed my walks so much, I missed my other critter sightings, and so I finally decided I was going to walk anyway.  I didn’t see the monster-snake again for a long time — not sure how long.  But I did begin to encounter other,  much smaller snakes, only a handful in the on-and-off years that I lived there (covering about a decade).  But what I learned was that they invariably run, er, slither away rather quickly upon seeing me :) 

Yeah, I learned that they are equally afraid of us, and with that knowledge and experience, I kinda lost a lot of the fear I had about them.  I actually have a few fun memories of them.  One where the snake just about slapped itself silly up against the concrete foundation of the house when I came upon it, and clearly frightened it.  It then zipped under the porch, never to be seen again.  Another was when I was feeling playful upon seeing a tiny snake – it looked like it was checked with black and white.  I chased it (lol) up a cedar tree and as soon as it got on the trunk, it was like it vanished…  Ah, but my most enjoyable snake memory (and, I must admit I’m glad, there weren’t that many snake encounters) was right before I made a major move in my life.  My friend brought it to me and said he’d just found it under a rock — it was gray and orange.  It was maybe eight or nine inches long — and its mouth was tiny, but I still wouldn’t have held it without gloves :)   It was wonderfully enjoyable to hold it, because it was weaving in and out through my fingers.  I just loved that, and stood there for the longest time playing with it.   In the past, I couldn’t have imagined that I’d ever do such a thing.  I changed and grew so much while living there…

So what happened to the monster snake?   Well… One day, as I was walking my neat little dirt path, I suddenly heard something shaking in the brush of the woods — it wasn’t that far behind where I’d just walked.  I turned to walk back, kinda guarded, wondering what it could be.  As I took a few steps toward it, two HUGE wings rose up outta the brush (gawd, I miss that place) and upward it went.  I still don’t know if it was an eagle or a giant hawk.  It was probably a hawk.   I was only a few feet away from it.  As it rose up, likely not happy about my presence, up came what had to have been the monster-snake.  It dangled from the mighty bird’s claws.  Lifting the newly-deceased snake’s body was clearly a challenge, the bird struggled frantically to go upward.  I was mesmerized as it finally got up into the air.  It’s claws held the head end of the snake as the other end dangled – the dangling part about two or three times longer than what it held.  I knew it wouldn’t be going far like that.   It flew maybe twenty or thirty feet deeper into the dense woods, higher into the air than you would imagine it could with that load, where I think it felt comfortably safe from me.  And it quickly droppd down into the woods.  It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

I invariably consider unusual things that happen to me as symbolic messages.  And I always try to see the message in the “highest” or most positive light.  This happened shortly before major changes began to happen in my life — a lot of dangerous situations, and yet I made it through (amazingly and, often, miraculously) without any real harm coming to me.  I’ve always felt I was protected…  The snake totem often represents transformation (major change) and the hawk totem can be about messages and protection.  I know I felt wonderful, blessed and safe after watching this.  Remember, this snake had represented something that I felt might harm me…

The following is a hawk totem interpretation that I just came upon in doing a search for it, and it definitely reflects the things that began to happen to me following that amazing sight.  It would also seem that’s true about the hawk becoming a permanent totem, it has come to me many times in various ways.  Hawks are awesome :)

 Dove

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HAWK TOTEM

Power, Magic, Messenger

Hawk is the messenger, the protector and
the visionaries of the Air.
It holds the key to higher levels of consciousness.
This totem awakens vision and
inspires a creative life purpose.

A Hawk totem is filled with responsibility
because Hawk people seek the overall view.
They are aware of omens and spirit messages.

A Red-Tailed Hawk Totem is special.
It has direct ties to the Kundalini, the seat of primal life force.
It is associated with the base chakra.
If you have this Totem, you be aware of and work toward fulfilling your soul’s purpose.
It reflects a greater intensity of energy within your life:
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual forces will all be strong within you.
The Red-Tail Hawk is a permanent totem — it will always be with you.

It is associated with the number “14″ with the Tarot card Temperance.
This card represents the teaching of higher expressions of psychic ability and vision.

Source:  http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/hawk.htm