Saturday, May 09, 1998: Snake Dream
BACKGROUND ON A DREAM:
Ziggy the Rosy Boa is this great and magickal snake. He condescends to live with Darlene, the animal care teacher at the ROP (Regional Occupational Program) where I teach animation. He is names Ziggy because he has a tendency to disappear from time to time and it is like he time travels and just jumps to a later time where he shows up again 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, and even once 2 years later.
I have always been fond of snakes and lizards. No, that is not true, I have always had a love bordering of adoration for lizards and snakes. I learned anatomy from lizards. I have had a number of dream cycles with the Lizard King. I can get into the head of a reptile and feel what they are feeling.
Ziggy is just so cool, it was love at first sight. I talked Darlene into letting me take care of him over one of the school holidays.
My daughter, Raven, shares my reptilian ways. Over that holiday she fell in love with Ziggy. She cried when I took him back. She kept asking when he would visit again. When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas all she said was; "I want a Rosy Boa and some Baseball cards!" and that was it. All she wanted was a Rosy Boa, all she would talk about was Rosy Boas.
Now there are not many 5 year old girls who are so obsessed by love of snakes, but obsession is a 5 year old's stock and trade when it comes to Christmas presents. Where I was going to find a baby Rosy Boa in winter was another question, but find one I must.
I took my problem to the animal care teacher and after a long search Darlene got a matching pare of baby Rosy Boas for $100 at a reptile show. One was for a student of her's and one was for Raven. Darlene brought me both snakes and told me to choose. After much thought and not a little talking to the snakes, I picked the female.
It was November and she lived in my classroom. There were problems getting her to eat. There were problems hiding her during Christmas break. Raven named her Happy and we were happy. She is the nicest snake anyone could have. It was one of the nicest Christmases anyone could have.
Now Raven thinks that Happy is her snake, but Happy thinks I am her human. We have bonded to the point that I share her dreams. It is often after she has eaten that my dreams take on a different aspect and deal with matters serpentine. Once after a heavy meal of mice she was trying to convince me to let her stomach out, "just a little bit".
The Rosy Boa is the poster snake for sweetness. They are the nicest snake in the world. When snake people take about nice snakes they often compare to Rosys. "It is as gentle as a Rosy Boa!" is a common statement in speech and print.
Because of this factor, the price of Rosy Boas have gone through the roof. They are now going for $400 to $500 in pet stores. Darlene saw a mated pare at a reptile show that where priced at $3,400.
Now Darlene has Ziggy, a very nice male, and Raven has Happy, a young but rapidly growing female. They are betrothed.
Last Christmas break with Happy 30 inches long and a year and 2 months old I thought that maybe the two of them should get to know each other. Not that they are ready for anything yet. You know, kind of a cotillion, a coming out into the society of other snakes. "I've already promised to let one of my students take him home for break!"
The Flake lost Ziggy in a friend's father's classic car and didn't even look for him or tell the person who owned the car that he was lost down under the strange dark corridors of darkness that are out of reach to human riders. High School students!
After 4 months Ziggy came back and last weekend he came to visit Happy. Things went well for a first date. The both were aloof and played hard to get but they were sniffing each other out.
Last night I fed Happy 2 mice. She crawled into her cave to sleep and then I went to sleep. The scene is set. Here is the dream we shared last night. It is a strange and non-human mixture of snake dream and Larry dream. I know my dreamtime and the feeling is different, the essence is differnt.
I am at a pet store and I have a cardboard box filled to over flowing with Rosy Boas of all sizes. Some are as small as tadpoles and some are up to 12 inches long. They keep slipping out of the box through the cracks and I have to pick them up. The shop owner wants two of my snakes and wants to trade me a whole lot of stuff. I don't like him or trust him.
Then Darlene is giving me a small electronic device that is a time machine. She sends me back to the Reptile-Prime time and tells me to get these eggs from the archetype master model of Rosy Boas. I am in this snake-essence-small-crowded-storage-room-oozing-mossy place with shelves. I fear that I will get snake essence of a poison snake.
I get some of the essence on my arm by accident. When I come forward in time the essence-archetype becomes active. The cells on my arm become unstable. Little tadpole size Rosy Boas start oozing out of my arm and I collect them in a box. The essence is cloning the snakes from my cells but I am not freaked by it. I'm just glad I didn't get the essence of a viper and I am a little mad that Darlene didn't tell me that I would be giving birth to snakes, even snakes as nice as Rosys. Larger Rosy Boas start coming out of the toes on my left foot. And at last I give birth to a full grown Rosy Boas through my right testicle and scrotum. I am almost fully awake by now and I can feel the snake coming out and it is real weird.
There it is. Very strange and not the normal Larry dream. All I can tell from it is that Happy knows what Ziggy is for and doesn't seem to be adverted to the idea.
