Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a recurring dream that pops up a few times per year, maybe every other month or so. In my dream, I'm always getting bitten by a venomous snake. I live in southern Georgia, USA, and my dreams often involve native species. For example, I've been bitten by diamondbacks, cottonmouths, copperheads and coral snakes. But the last two times my dream came around, cobras were my snakes of choice. About a month ago on a Friday night, I dreamed that I kept a king cobra in my home. I was cleaning out his cage when things went awry. I was keeping him in an 8' Neodesha cage, and I would put him in one side of the cage, and before I could close the glass properly, he would slither out the other end. After a few minutes of wrestling with him, he bit me -- twice. A couple of nights ago, I had a similar dream. I was carrying a nice sized cobra (don't remember which species, though it was not a king) in my hands when it wriggled loose, bit me on the palm of my right hand, and then escaped into a tree. I woke up before I caught the snake.

What's weird is that I don't keep any venomous snakes. I have two Burmese pythons (one in an 8' Neodesha cage), but I lurk around on the venomous forums and remain keenly interested in hots. I have kept a few rattlesnakes that I've caught or people have brought me, and I've relocated a large coral snake. But I don't regularly keep hots. Not yet, anyway.

But this dream surfaces every few weeks or a couple of months. I never get into trouble in the dreams -- the venom doesn't seem to work or I wake up before things get too bad (I have been on my way to the hospital when I woke up). Still, it's kind of unusual. The dreams are always vivid, and I can almost feel the bite.

Anybody else have anything like this going on? Just in case you're wondering, I haven't had a drink since 1997 and I haven't smoked any dope since around '94.

RP

have a drink and smoke some ditch weed! Nobody likes a quitter! besides thats what keeps the rest of us sane!
Hahaha LOL.
I'm just kidding. The recurrent dream is very interesting however thats not one I am capable of tackling. I'll leave that one for others.
Anyway, I could tell you lurk on the venomous forums, simply because of your disclaimer regarding drinking and smoking. Thats why I couldn't resist!
Best of Luck!
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It's what you learn AFTER you know it all that counts!

Terry Phillip
Curator of Reptiles
Black Hills Reptile Gardens
Rapid City, SD.

www.reptilegardens.com

I too have had a few somewhat disturbing dreams where I'm trying to handle a venomous snake (usually mambas) that end up getting the better of me. I believe what usually happens is the snake gets loose from my grip, and we dance around a bit, me trying to avoid it, until it catches up to me and nails me. It is curious that these dreams didn't start happening until after I stopped keeping venomous snakes....and may be good that they did! lol But seriously, dreams are just vague productions of the subconscious and do not always represent anything tangible. For myself, I believe it represents my (warranted) fear and caution of what can happen when dealing with these kinds of animals. I may take them as a sign though and avoid playing with mambas in the future....heh.
-Chance
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Chance Duncan
1.1 Retics (1.0 Tiger Het, 0.1 Dark Lavender)
1.1 Olive Pythons
1.1 Woma Pythons
1.1 Ball Pythons (Het Albino)
http://www.rivervalleysnakes.com

As a kundalini yoga teacher, and swami, I can give you one possible perspective.

It may sound a bit odd, but I can tell you that to many people in the world, dreaming of snakes can be considered very auspicious. It is often an indication of awakened kundalini energy. This is the same energy that is worked with by all chi-gong, tai-chi, and yoga masters throughout the world. Once awakened, this energy moves upward through the subtle bodies and eventually leads to spiritual enlightenment. The cobra is particularly auspicious. This is the reason the Hindu god Shiva always has a cobra wrapped around his neck.

Swami Muktananda, a very famous Indian spiritual master said, “If, even in a dream, one who practices Siddha Yoga is bitten by a snake, that, too, is a sure sign of liberation. But in meditation it is particularly auspicious.”

Perhaps you prefer a more Freudian approach to dream analysis, and believe the snakes to be phallic. Or, like Jung, you might see them as symbolic of the conflict between conscious attitudes and instincts. In many Eastern circles however, you could be considered lucky.

A whole lot of crap that I don't understand in the previous post, right or wrong, whatever. I too dream of hot herps, sometimes getting bit or not. It means we're all crazy. Just kidding. I think it's just a sign that we all are nuts about reptiles! A good thing.

The recent one that I remember went bad when I was tailing a rather unruly king cobra (one that I work with at the refuge) and suddenly found myself in a cluttered room (standing on the waterbed in my old apartment no less) where I was having trouble keeping track of the snake's head while using my hook to ward off the unsuspecting visitors who kept coming into the room to see what was going on. I'm sure it has something to do with some corner of my brain mixing my interest in hot herps with a general feeling that I'm trying to do too many things at once in my life and sprinkling in a few random memories. Too much root beer maybe...