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And now more seriously.
I back up a bit.
I've been thinking about this tattoo, or something like it, for several years. Drew drafts of the basic shape on my leg a few times with sharpies, sort of thing. It's a religious thing, a spiritual thing, to me; it's an ancestor-work image, a dedication, an acknowledgement of the ancestors coming first, being called first, being acknowledged first, being the first on the other side of barrier between the seen and unseen worlds, who know what it's like to live here, and know what it's like to live there, like nothing else can.
It's a winged snake protecting an egg. I won't go into all the layers and layers of this -- echoes of the uraeus, of my Chinese birth sign, of generations of house snakes snugged under the hearthstone with the domovoi -- but there are many. The species of snake this is based on is not only sacred in parts of West Africa, but known for coiling about its eggs protectively.
"What do snakes mean to you?"
I talked a little bit about these things, and about the common cultural associations of the snake with healing, regeneration, rebirth; of the dual-edged protector who is also ultimately dangerous and to be treated with caution.
She asked me then, "Is the egg you?"
And ... I hadn't thought of it that way, but it works, in its manner.
And then she commented that the snake -- the healer and the protector -- is very much what I'm looking to do with my own family history. To make it whole again, pass on that energy and heal it and keep it from doing harm. To attempt, I would say, rooted in theology, to cleanse my ka. And I try to remember where it came from, the thought that as I make myself clean and whole I cleanse my ancestors of that which was handed on to me.
It's a good time to have that protective emblem carved into my flesh.
-- Assemblage 23, "Skin"
I back up a bit.
I've been thinking about this tattoo, or something like it, for several years. Drew drafts of the basic shape on my leg a few times with sharpies, sort of thing. It's a religious thing, a spiritual thing, to me; it's an ancestor-work image, a dedication, an acknowledgement of the ancestors coming first, being called first, being acknowledged first, being the first on the other side of barrier between the seen and unseen worlds, who know what it's like to live here, and know what it's like to live there, like nothing else can.
It's a winged snake protecting an egg. I won't go into all the layers and layers of this -- echoes of the uraeus, of my Chinese birth sign, of generations of house snakes snugged under the hearthstone with the domovoi -- but there are many. The species of snake this is based on is not only sacred in parts of West Africa, but known for coiling about its eggs protectively.
"What do snakes mean to you?"
I talked a little bit about these things, and about the common cultural associations of the snake with healing, regeneration, rebirth; of the dual-edged protector who is also ultimately dangerous and to be treated with caution.
She asked me then, "Is the egg you?"
And ... I hadn't thought of it that way, but it works, in its manner.
And then she commented that the snake -- the healer and the protector -- is very much what I'm looking to do with my own family history. To make it whole again, pass on that energy and heal it and keep it from doing harm. To attempt, I would say, rooted in theology, to cleanse my ka. And I try to remember where it came from, the thought that as I make myself clean and whole I cleanse my ancestors of that which was handed on to me.
It's a good time to have that protective emblem carved into my flesh.
- Shed your skin
Cast off your chains
Feel the sun upon your face for once
And wash away the pain
Shed your skin
Be who you are
Unencumbered by the weight
Of hiding every little scar
-- Assemblage 23, "Skin"
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That know about 'home' since they live in tree hollows, or rocks---and their humans become home.
--I have also seen a female exhibit 'brooding' of not just eggs, but young( unrelated )snakes, that were put into her tank in the pet-shop...
--I think the 'eye' formations some of them have to be Most interesting. They look so much like some of the Really old Goddess images---My last girl, Brigid, had nine of them... She broke out of her cage a year ago, died of cold--I still miss her.
I also wonder if they were the kind of snake Alexander's mother Olympias had----that shared her bed, and frightened Phillip