PASSION: I live right on the beach and in front of my place is a tap. It’s mostly used for feet washing or dog drinking. On this one day, I see a woman dressed in her religion covered from head to toe and she is passionately washing something at that tap. The water has been running longer than usual and being conscious of water wastage, it starts to pull my attention. I walk from the lounge to the kitchen and back and I’m starting to wonder what is needing such maticulous cleaning. With my curiousty perked I edge up to the window and take a closer look. Her husband is waiting in the car parked along side her and the kids are patiently calm in the back seat. But what is she washing? Never in a million years would I have ever guessed it was her husbands artificial prosthetic leg. She would hold the leg up as though inspecting a precious jewel, making sure that every last grain of sand was washed away and ready for her beloved to wear again. I thought about the agony this family had endured when her husband had his leg amputated and the hope this prosthetic leg had restored into their family structure. I went from being annoyed about the water wastage to being struck by an unending stream of love and devotion.

LOVE: On another day I see a gentleman aged somewhere between old and ancient, shuffling along the beach. Just so you don’t get confused, this isn’t on my beach but one that is just around the corner and not one that I usually do a morning walk on. We cross paths and exchange our morning salutes and I can tell that this man is astute and gentle. After my third day of walking on this beach, I see the man each day and his routine is the same each time. His rhythm is slow and hypnotic as he elegantly sweeps the sand of unclaimed rubbish. His neighbourly gesture surpasses the mere act of keeping the beach clean. This man is completely devoted to this beach, his beach and he combs the sand with the grace of grooming a loved one. After he’s completed his walk, he starts a very simple yoga regime. His age restricts his moves from being too deep, but move he does. After offering a modified Surya Namaskara he then proceeds to the ocean for the completion of his ritual, but not before completely disrobing and entering the water naked. Now, when I first saw this I was completely gob-smacked as the Brits would say, and never would I have guessed he would do that. But that’s what I love about life, you just never know what’s coming. It’s really an exquiste experience to feel the water gently lap up against the whole of our body. This man was totally in love with his beach and his nakedness was his final merging with his beloved. There was no partner in sight, only his beach of unending love that he faithfully devotes himself to everyday. Beautiful sight!

MY SPIRIT: In one day, I see many snakes. I have a very quiet obsession about them. Now before you go all Jungian on me, or is that Freud, my libido is doing just fine. They are in my dreams mostly, either at night or just when I’m day dreaming. I imagine that one is sitting right along side me just chewing the fat and pondering life. In Bali one year, I met the very spirited Bec that was soon to become my BF on that trip. She is a turbo charged, larger than life bright spark and wherever she went I pretty much followed. So when she mentioned going to see a healer there was no question that I was going too. After our hour long trip further into the forrest we finally arrived at the healers abode; one crematorium! Interesting! He poked his bony fingers all over me and then piped up in broken english that my snakes where running loose… WHATDA! His aim was to align them to my spirit. Which I think he ABSOLUTELY did. I really feel like I’m a snake. It all started years ago when I did a vision quest. It was my third day into the solo bit and I started to see snakes. Of course I was freaked out, but I figured that after three days of not eating and hanging out with only me in the middle of the Flinders rangers, that maybe my mind was getting desperate for entertainment. Where they real or not? I couldn’t even tell anymore. But since that intensely profound trip I see them everywhere. I’m even contemplating getting a tattoo of one, as my ode to it’s spirit. A friend of mine told me that he had a premonition that when he was to meditate at a particular tree out the back of his house he would be visited by snake spirit. So this one day he sat at his tree and he settled into his medative state and before long he was indeed visited by a snake.. not a spirit, but a real one. The snake moved across his legs, stayed for a bit and then disappeared into the forrest. My friend didn’t feel fear, if anything a oneness with the simplicity of that moment. A tree, a man, a snake… that’s all. It was indeed a beautiful meditation.

What is snake energy:

Wisdom, Healing, Initiation

The symbol of eternity

This a powerful totem — it is
the symbol of transformation and healing.
The Snake is wisdom expressed through healing.

It is a protector and guardian totem,
along with its sister totems, the Dragon and the Serpent.

If a snake totem has come into your life, your creative forces are awakening.
Your intuition will sharpen and be more accurate.

Snake energy is the energy of wholeness, cosmic consciousness, and
the ability to experience anything willingly and without resistance.
It is the knowledge that all things are equal in creation.

It also signals a transition in your life.
New opportunities and/or changes.

Snake is fire medicine, the medicine of transmutation.
On a material level, it is vitality; on an emotional level, it is ambition and dreams;
on a mental level, it is intellect and power; on a spiritual level (the highest level),
it is wisdom, understanding and wholeness.

Snake magic is heavy magic.
Become the Magician and transmute the energy and accept the power of the fire.

This is what I see… and you, what do you see?