I had this dream a few years ago and I can't get it out of my mind

[the Princess]

Every once in a while this dream comes back to me with all the intensity of the very first time I had it. I cannot get this dream out of my head again and I was hoping anyone here might give me an opinion.

I am standing on a moonlit hill in a beautiful garden. Ahead in the distance I see a beautiful golden square. It's like a frame of a house but it is made of glowing gold pillars. Inside the square on the left stands a beautiful Goddess in long flowing white gowns. On her right curled up is a HUGE black Cobra.

The Goddess beckons me with her hands to come into the "house" with her. I walk toward her and enter the golden square. With her left hand she motions to me to go to the Cobra. I walk toward the cobra and he slowly rises up to look me in the eye. We are inches from each other and looking into each others eyes. I am not afraid - I am fascinated by this. The snake just satres in to my eyes for a few minutes. And then lowers his head almost like he is bowing to me. He then returns to his reclining position. I turn around and the Goddess is smiling at me.

I wake up.

Any thoughts?

[cliss]

1. Wow, awesome dream, P.

I'm not a dream interpreter. The only thing that strikes me about this dream is the cobra itself. A cobra is a snake: doesn't the snake have some significance in Freud's dream analysis? Or was is Jung? Anyway, in my opinion a cobra is a hypnotic reptile. It's beguiling - it sways back and forth and seems to induce the viewer into some kind of trance, and then it might strike -- ?

It seems that in your dream, though, you have vanquished your nemesis.

*wow, awesome avatar, and really cute photos, Princess:smoke:

[seventythree]

2. Yah, with Freud a snake

would be phallic (but then he had penis envy!), but in Goddess worship, the snake is the messenger of the deity. It is by no coincidence that the snake is brought to tempt Eve in the Garden, and is cast in an evil light. The patriarchy was rebelling against the symbols of the worship of God the Mother. I'd say this dream is about recognizing how male domination reared it's ugly head -- the tools it used -- and being one with God the Mother in looking it in the eye and cowing it.

[seventythree]

3. I have a snake bracelet

-- rather nice, made of silver, with rhinestone eyes -- winds around my wrist. I wear it sometimes when I am feeling ticked at the patriarchy. I used to wear it all the time, but it is so malleable that it broke once and I had to have it repaired, so now I wind it on just when I feel the need. I was having lunch with an elderly friend one day, when a women came over and showed me her snake -- very similar to mine. She had noticed mine across the room, and she began to speak of my mother, who she had known, asking if it had been a gift from her -- her snake was a gift from her mother. I felt as if it was a sign -- from my mother -- from THE mother. My elderly friend asked if I could find a snake to give to her granddaughter for college graduation. I never could find another one, but it was clear to me that my friend had keyed into something special about the snake, too.

From a speech I gave a couple of weeks ago -- In the many myths spun by the male God worshipers (the battle ax cultures which invaded and conquered the more agrarian female God worshipers over several thousand years -- known as the Northern invasions) the female deity is symbolized as a serpent or dragon, associated with darkness and evil. In the worship of the Mother God, the serpent was a symbol of divine counsel. Think of the myth of Hercules and the serpent Ladon, who guards the sacred fruit of the Goddess Hera. In Hebrew myth, we have Yahweh's conquest of the serpent Leviathon. (read more: When God was a Woman; Ariadne)

Since I have read your posts on "Fat as a Feminist Issue" (yah, probably still have it in my library, too), I'd say the Goddess is saying -- keep the faith -- you are right.