Winter solstice in Australia was on Monday 22nd of June, the shortest day and the longest night ~ new beginnings coming out of darkness into light, letting go of the old and living in the eternal presence and newness of now.
THE STORY OF THE SNAKE.........
On Sunday the night before winter solstice a young python only about half a metre long was stretched out enjoying the warmth of the tin roof high up in the corner inside my bathroom. This was an unusual occurrence as I had never seen this young python before. There is a resident large python that lives in the roof; and always appears in spring to sun itself under the bathroom roof after the cold hibernation of winter.
On the night of solstice I noticed high up in the corner of the bathroom the head of the same snake moving, but I couldn't see any of it's body, I didn't worry about it, as snakes do what snakes do. The next night while showering I noticed the head was still there but not moving, I shone a torch on the snake and it's head moved. When I looked closely, I realized that it was stuck ! I have never heard of a snake getting stuck, but it was obviously a young inexperienced snake that didn't know it's own limitations ?
So out of the shower and up to the shed to get a ladder and some tools. When I finally climbed up the ladder and was next to the snake, it was obvious that it had tried to crawl through the smallest crack imaginable between two large beams of timber. The snake couldn't go forward or backwards, it was trapped wedged in and going no where. I used a crow bar to force the crack open, it took all my strength to open the crack just a little bit; but it was enough, the snake backed it's head up, squeezed through the gap and disappeared behind the wall, released and free.
I never use the word divine intervention but somehow it feels right .I don't think the divine intervenes, it's always here, circumstance makes it apparent when we stop, or are stopped, and then it appears to have intervened.
With the snake there was some divine intervention, and I was a part of that, it was an amazing realization that divine intervention is happening every moment, the extraordinary endless synchronicity of life and circumstance and situations, and seeing that I don't make anything happen or not happen ~ I don't do life it does me, it all happens, without me having to try and control anything., life happens, and just because it seems to go my way most of the time, I really start believing that I am running the show and in control, until I am in the snakes position, then it's obvious - life is not on my terms and I am not in control.
Circumstances have happened in my life where I have been in the snakes situation, where I have not been in control. I lived for 6 years in a place that was like a dark locked room, where there was no way out, free falling into darkness, panic, overwhelm and fear,no where to go, no way out, I know how the snake felt.
It was so good to see the snake freed, such a wonderful feeling. In bed I really hoped that the snake was ok, it was a very beautiful sensitive and amazing moment. I reflected a lot that night about what had happened and realized that freeing a snake will probably never happen again in my life. So what does it mean ? For the snake to be released on the night after solstice, what a new beginning for the snake, from self entrapment to freedom.
Snakes represent Shakti creativity power and transformation, and it was an extremely rare, unusual, auspicious and reflective situation.
The way the world is set up no matter how we disguise it, it's all about me, it's all about what can I get, what can I take, what recognition and validation do I receive. I can see that our inherent nature is to give, to love, to accept. It feels so good to give, it's the best feeling in the world.
When I have been in the snakes position, in that vulnerability, I have come face to face with my arrogance of how I live my life. In that seeing, there is divine intervention, the crow bar opens the crack and we free fall to freedom.
Sweet Surrender ~ http://kundamusic.com/track/646432/sweet-surrender?feature_id=123461&trackship_id=716436
