Garter Snake Symbolism

“I dreamed of Garter Snake. She was giving birth and my husband was assisting her. At first, full size babies, and it was exciting. But they kept coming, getting smaller and smaller. I became anxious and tried to shovel away the small ones. Eventually, they were so small, they were only thin white threads wriggling underfoot and I felt repulsed. They put me in mind of pin worms. I have a fear of parasites.”

Okay! So that dream went off the rails rapidly! However, when I looked up the symbolic meaning of Garter Snake, it all made sense.

“You are entering a highly creative period in your life.”

Well then, let’s break the dream down:
1. Husband assisting me – I will be supported and assisted in my creativity
2. Full size baby snakes – new big projects coming my way; this is exciting!
3. They keep coming getting smaller and smaller – Ego kicks in with “Hold the phone! You don’t have time to take on new projects. What if you get too many? OVERWHELM!”
4. Parasites – as a result, I will have all the energy sucked right out of me.

Now, I could get into a battle with Ego. “Gee, way to go, Ego. There I was all excited and you came along and killed all the joy.”

Or, I could thank Ego. “Ah, you know me so well. Yes, I do get all excited and end up taking on too much. Then completely freak out, curl up on the couch, and binge on Netflix. Thank you for reminding me of this.”

What I did was both. “Geez Louise, Ego, did you have to turn such a pleasant dream into a nightmare? Sigh. Okay, fine, you are right. Thank you for the reminder. I will be mindful of my energy as I pursue new creative endeavours.”

This was over a month ago, and I was doing fairly well until last week, when I took on one project too many and crashed on the couch. However, I only made it through one Marie Kondo series when I happened to flip through my art journal and saw Garter Snake. Right *smacks forehead* and I cancelled that project.

Balance restored and back on track.