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day of the snake

Submitted by helen on Fri, 2007-04-27 07:13.

sometimes life is more interesting than art.

it's hard to study when there's a snake in the kitchen, even when it's sleeping & probably harmless. it's just that it's a little ... disconcerting. i'm wondering how long it's been there - did i shower a couple of feet from it this morning? was it there all night when i was sleeping in the next room with the door open? and - where are its friends and relations???

the snake catcher has been called and jesse and i are on snake-watching duty until he gets here ...

LATER ...

the Snake Catcher duly arrived, in a '68 mustang as all good Snake Catchers should; without any fuss he calmly reached up with his bare hands and gently picked up the snake. we watched a little nervously through the window from the bedroom.

the Snake Catcher referred to the snake as a she, and tickled her under the chin and let her wind herself around his hand and arm for a while as we all watched, impressed. he confirmed louise's suspicion that it was a carpet python, about 2 metres in length, and thanked us for not harming her. he said that she's actually good to have around the house as she'd eat any mice and rats. louise (who has a rat phobia) suggested that if another one moves in we should let it stay ... personally i'd prefer a cat.

after all the excitement it was difficult to calm down for a rehearsal of our new avatar body collision show, but i did eventually and we had a good session, & i finished off the evening with a derrida dvd.

i kind of miss her, now that she is gone.

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What do snakes know of their own histories?

Submitted by Aileen Derieg on Sat, 2007-04-28 13:16.

As a symbol snakes have long held a strong appeal for me. This is probably due to my background as a feminist theologian from a generation that was especially interested in mythologies and herstories, with beautiful images of ancient goddesses holding snakes and reinterpretations of the story of Eve and the snake in the Garden of Eden, among others. Because this symbolism has meant so much to me for such a long time, I still wear a ring in the form of a snake wrapped around my finger, which I have worn now even longer than my wedding ring.
However, looking at the picture of the snake in your kitchen, Helen, I can very easily imagine how disconcerting that would be. How can you tell whether this particular snake is conscious of its symbolic history in connection with ancient goddesses, or whether it might tend to identify more with current popular negative connotations (e.g. "Snakes on a Plane")?
Harmless, maybe even friendly, regardless of how beneficial they might be, symbolic creatures taking up an embodied residence in the kitchen is not an idea that appeals to me in any way, so I sympathize with your sense of unease with this unexpected co-resident.

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meeting the unknown

Submitted by helen on Sat, 2007-04-28 23:44.

thanks for this, aileen : ) i'm sure snakes do have some innate sense of their history. i too am familiar with the minoan snake goddess, & somewhere in my jewellery collection is a snake earclip that i used to wear a lot. a large part of my fear of the actual snake is that i come from a country (new zealand) where there are NO snakes (and almost no poisonous spiders) so i have little practical experience them.

watching the Snake Catcher handle "my" snake, in the kitchen, was quite a powerful experience. she was transformed from a mysterious, unknown, potentially dangerous uninvited presence into a gentle, harmless, even useful, natural cohabitant. the snake and Snake Catcher were clearly not afraid of each other.

i am still looking cautiously around when i enter the flat but if i have another such visitor, i won't be quite so freaked.

h : )

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