Snake Spiritual Meaning & Symbolism

Snakes have been symbols of healing in many cultures. The Greek god Asclepius carried a staff with a single snake winding around it; a later image of the same figure, the two-snake Caduceus, was associated with the messenger god Hermes. Both images can be found on medical insignia to this day.

Even Medusa, whose chief modern image is an ugly monster, may echo an older tradition of seeing the snake as a representation of serpent-priestesses. As patriarchal belief systems replaced goddess worship, many symbol sets were repurposed or rebranded.

Because snakes tend to move low to the ground and often like being near water, it's not surprising that they're thought to represent water or our subconscious mind.

Finally, snakes shed their skins regularly. It can be a good metaphor for letting go of dead habits or beliefs and embracing new ways of seeing things.

When you have a snake guide, this animal spirit is helping you shed illusions and own your true desires. Snakes are connected to sexuality, fertility, and passion.

Snake energy often appears when you are ready to move forward. You may feel stuck or ashamed of your own desires.

Snake teaches you how to open the Base Chakra, which is connected to your root chakra and helps you connect with the earth. The snake helps you cultivate this connection so that you can relax in your own skin.

Snakes help you process emotions about sexuality, personal strength, boundaries, pleasure, shame — things we're taught to be uncomfortable with.

Snakes can help cultivate self-worth and open the door to new beginnings by releasing old baggage.

People carrying snake as a totem tend to change and adapt quickly. They strike only in extreme situations, for example, when cornered or to defend loved ones. They need to stay grounded, like gardening, strolling in nature or simply sitting outdoors and focusing their attention there.

Those with snake as a totem often have magnetic personalities and can easily pivot from one task to another when necessary. They tend to be highly observant and can pick up messages from beyond.

Shamans and energy workers may ask Snake's power to steady them during trance, so their spirit doesn't wander somewhere it shouldn't. You can also turn to Snake's power when you want deeper wisdom or try to master an esoteric subject that resists easy study.

Just know that Snake's power brings change that isn't always painless. True healing comes after facing whatever the change demands of you first.

Snakes come up a lot in our dreams, usually right after dogs and pregnancy. They've been showing up in dreams forever, which shows how much of a place in our imagination they have. They tend to show you stuff you've been pushing down out of your subconscious. How you interpret the dream depends on what culture you're coming from.

• If the snake bites you, it's usually because you've got something going on that's making your life toxic, but you've been ignoring it. Your subconscious is handing it to you now.
• If the snake is black in your dream, then this is a sign of bad things coming your way.
• You may see the snake shedding its skin if some part of your life is about to change. This part may be shedding an old identity.
• If snakes appear over and over again in your dreams, they may be bringing information about a Kundalini Awakening that's occurring in your life.

Not every dream about snakes is meant to scare the daylights out of you! Many are there to give information about something real that has been going on for a long time.

A snake tattoo usually means the wearer has faced a big change, either transformation or a rebirth, which they earned the hard way. It's also a reminder that you have faced what distracts or tempts you.

A snake is often associated with healing, renewal, and transformation—especially the kind of change that might be painful at first but ends up being good in the end. You may recognize this symbol from the ouroboros, an ancient image of a snake eating its own tail. It symbolized infinity in Greek and Egyptian cultures.

In some African folk stories, there's a snake that can split into several pieces then come back together to become whole again. That's just another example of the way that people think of snakes as having to do with change and renewal.

Snakes have long thin bodies. And people have often thought of snakes as representing sexuality, fertility, and temptation. You'll find some examples of this in Tantric and Kundalini practices.

When a snake shows up in your life, it is probably asking you to take a good look at something that scares you and decide to face your fear and have some real changes happen.

The rainbow serpent is the foremost serpent in most of the spiritual world of Aboriginal Australians. They call it many different names but, wherever they may be, it's a creator god. In one version of the legend, this serpent created land itself. It's said to have come from the earth and burrowed upward while making all those river and mountain shapes. Some people think that when we see rainbows in the sky, we're really just seeing a rainbow serpent moving. In the Aboriginal world view, water is how this god makes itself known. They call it a giver of life and connected with rain. But sometimes we don't have any rain or there's too much water — like if people don't treat the water with respect. Not being respectful to this supernatural snake in some cultures can lead to bad times happening.

But in some Aboriginal cultures they also think this snake is connected with fertility and reproduction. For example, sometimes blood and women's menstrual cycles are part of this story. All these ideas are similar to what other cultures believe about snakes and fertility around the world.

This god's so big because its story is about more than one single house or area of land — its story is across many Aboriginal people's landscape all together. These legends are so old that you can see drawings about them made way back thousands of years ago!