by Searles O'Dubhain

In July 2005, Searles O'Dubhain shared a vision that had come to him during a ritual he was leading. Brighid stepped from the flames carrying a serpent on each arm — one venomous, one a constrictor — coiled in opposite directions. What followed was not merely a description of a visionary encounter but a sustained meditation on what the serpents meant: their coiling as stored potential, their shedding as growth, their movement between earth and surface as a bridging of worlds.

The vision connects Brighid's power (bríg, a force whose meaning derives from the goddess herself) to the snake's fundamental nature — shape-shifting, renewal, the spring-loaded strike. Searles traces the symbolism through Celtic and yogic traditions, landing finally at kundalini: the serpent fire that links subconscious bodily energy to the freed energies of mind and spirit.

This is one of Searles's most intimate posts — a practitioner reporting directly from the inner work, in his own voice, without abstraction or apology.

...of the Goddess Brighid that occurred during a ritual I was leading. When she stepped forth from the flames towards me, a serpent entwined either of her arms. Each snake was coiled in the opposite direction from the other, a sun-wise coiling for the right hand side and a land-wise coiling upon her left hand and arm. Their heads were facing outward. One serpent was poisonous and could bite while the other was a constrictor, able to crush and swallow its victims. Each of the snakes on her arms amplified her power and symbolized it at the same time. The twining serpents also left no doubt for me that they were the tools of wisdom and knowledge. In their complimentary forms, they brought teaching and learning, experimenting and analyzing, creating and destroying.

The coiling of the snakes has many possible meanings. One meaning is found in the snake's ability to spring from a coil. This seems to represent an energy that comes from its shape and interconnectivity. It is a potential energy much like bríg (a power that derives its meaning from Brighid herself). Coiling reinforces one part of the snake upon another part through a supporting of itself. The act of coiling also serves to make snakes a smaller target. A coiled snake is a spring with the stored potential energy to strike and move quickly. Another meaning associated with this coiling ability is shape shifting or shape changing. Snakes can bend and form themselves into a variety of shapes through their inherent flexibility. Another way that snakes change is through shedding their skins as they grow. The shedding of the snake's skin is definitely symbolic of new birth and learning. In our own life and learning, we can each learn a lesson from snakes by shedding our own outgrown beliefs and ideas as new knowledge provides us with wisdom. Our minds and selves should grow to fit the size of our expanded horizons. When our quests are fulfilled, we either quit growing or we go on new quests. The snake sheds its skin when it grows. There are other more sensual and suggestive meanings of this shedding of skin as well, but I leave that to the power of your imagination to manifest. Snakes go into the earth and return again. Snakes sleep through the long winter and re-emerge in spring. Snakes enjoy the sun and derive their inner warmth from it. They exist in the subterranean world and the world of the surface that we inhabit. They are a connection between the worlds. In this they are much like the fires of the mind that connect inherent, unleashed, subconscious, physical energy with focused and liberated mental, spiritual and emotional energy, which is another way of describing the characteristics of kundalini.

Colophon

Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid on 15 July 2005. Searles O'Dubhain was a practitioner and teacher of Celtic Druidry and founder of The Summerlands, one of the early online Druid communities. This post records a direct visionary experience within Druidic ritual practice and his sustained symbolic reflection on it.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]

🌲