By Emily Heffner
In many indigenous traditions, the serpent is considered to be a sacred symbol of rebirth. In his book Animal Speak Ted Andrews explains, “Because it sheds its skin, the snake has long been a symbol of death and rebirth. It sheds its skin as it outgrows the old . . . It has ties and significance to the ancient alchemists and their symbolic transmutation of lead into gold.” In the shamanic tradition I studied, we explored four different levels of engagement with reality. The snake represents literal reality, or, an unemotional assessment of what “is.”
