For several years a python that lives in the roof where I live, comes out of hibernation every spring, and curls up each night in the corner of the unlined roof in the bathroom. It then heads off during the day. This routine goes on for about 3 weeks every year, and then the python disappears.
But this spring for the last few days, 3 Pythons three metres long, have been curling up together in the corner of the veranda roof each evening on top of a stereo speaker. They spend the night together, and in the morning, once the warmth of the sun hits the roof; one of them slides silently along the roof beam of the veranda and makes its way onto the roof to fully catch the warmth of the sun. The other 2 pythons sleep in for about a half hour and then curl, slide and glide off in the opposite direction. At sunset they return to the corner of the veranda, and curl up together for the night.
It’s a threesome situation; I really don’t know anything about love making rituals, territorial fighting, and family life of pythons.
LAST NIGHT IT ALL CHANGED. I went out onto the veranda and was about to go into the bathroom for a shower, and there, 2 metres in front of me, was a mass of knotted intertwined pythons’ hanging down from the veranda roof. In midair the 2 heads and bodies danced and swung from the roof for about 5 minutes. They then lifted themselves back up to the top of the rafters of the roof, and went through to the unlined bathroom. I went into the bathroom and there they were once again dangling at full length from the bathroom roof down into the bathroom. For another 5 minutes they intensely moved together in mid air, intertwined swinging and moving in sequence, mirroring each other in their movements. The dance intensified until one python dropped to the bathroom floor, and curled up behind the washing machine. ~ As you do after love making? Was it exhaustion, orgasm or both? I am sure we can all relate to that, falling to the floor and resting behind the washing machine after exhaustion and orgasm, very common. The python that was still in the rafters of the bathroom returned to the other side of the wall into the corner of the veranda, and curled up with the other python on top of the speaker. She had quietly looked on in amusement at everything that had just happened.
To me it’s all very confusing. It went from being a very cosy threesome situation for some nights; and now monogamy had replaced the adventure and excitement of polyamory. One python experienced an orgasm so intense that it hit the bathroom floor, and then ended up isolated behind the washing machine, very common in polyamory threesome situations from what I have heard. The washing machine apparently represents washing and cleaning out the psyche, and then hanging out - new beginnings.
I went back inside the house and an hour later I came back out onto the veranda. The 2 pythons were still happily curled up together in the corner of the veranda, and the other python that was behind the washing machine, was now up in the corner of the roof of the bathroom curled up on its own.
Were they fighting or mating? To the untrained eye it could have been either. Just like an alien watching the human love making ritual from a distance, it’s questionable and unclear as to what’s really happening? On a bad day I often wonder the same thing? From my own love making experience, I could definitely relate to hanging from the veranda roof intertwined and mirroring my partner’s movements I always had an adventurous spirit, but admittedly that was 20 years ago, and I couldn’t imagine hanging from the rafters of the veranda these days. Some things do change!
And what does it all mean to have this sequence of events unfold in front of my eyes? What message is life is trying to convey to me? Pythons living on top of a stereo speaker, what are they trying to tell me? I don’t want to read too much into this very powerful and rare experience, but this doesn’t happen every day in my life! This was an extraordinary ritual to witness.
