The Serpentine Mind

Susan O • Nov 13, 2014

“The serpentine mind

Disentangles

From the branches of confusion

Uncoils its knowledge to greet the dawn

And sees In the growing light.” ─ Quetzalcoatle

I have noticed that some of my clients seem to be stuck living in a “Garden of Eden” type frame of mind. This kind of consciousness is really an unconsciousness causing their thinking to be irrational. They are entangled and entwined in confusion. They are not clear headed about their personal reactions, and responsibility toward the negativity they encounter during their lives. The different interactions and events that happen throughout the world, and in their lives shock their idealization. Their notion is that everything should be good, loving, and harmonious in their lives like a peaceful garden.

The Garden of Eden is a symbol of paradise. It was a place of a union with God where individual consciousness did not exist. It could be likened to grains of salt or sugar that are dissolved in water.  Perhaps, symbolically this was where we were before we were born into the world of shape and form. The garden contained the tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

Tree

A tree can be a symbol that represents a human being. The tree’s trunk is like the trunk of a person’s body. The branches are the arms. The roots to the tree are the feet. The tree’s top is how the head flourishes in thought and ideas as it grows. The tree unites heaven and earth as the sun shines on it, and the tree is rooted to the earth. A human being is also the center of their own life. A life that is cultivated by soul and spirit. A person grows up just like a tree and develops its intelligence and understanding. It seems like the idea of “blame or blaming” began in this garden. Adam and Eve did not take responsibility for their choices and looked to blame others. This causes confusion, lying and chaotic thinking like a serpentine mind.

Genesis 3:1-6

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband, and he ate. ( http://www.tlogical.net/adameve.htm )

The Blame Game

According to J. M. Fritzius at tlogical the human behavior of blaming began when God sees that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree. Adam said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Adam blamed Eve). Subsequently, Eve said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Eve blamed the serpent). From then on humankind began blaming others for their actions. Blaming others is still a common behavior. It is very difficult for many people to take responsibility for his or her life. Some people are always wanting others to tell them what to do or blaming them for their bad advice.

Adam and Eve responded to the serpent’s temptation. They each made the choice to eat the fruit from this tree. Because they ate the fruit, they were expelled out into the world of duality and physicality for their disobedience. The world of duality is the tension of opposites (Jung). Some examples of common dualities are good and evil, positive and negative, war and peace. There are  many other tensions of opposites in the world of ego consciousness. Various pairs of opposites are filled with archetypal paradoxes that all people have to learn to navigate, manage, and integrate themselves.

The word serpentine has many different descriptions. It can be shrewd, subtly, sly, cunning, crafty, wily, turning, twisting, winding, and slithering to name a few. The serpentine mind connotes and portrays someone’s mind as circumventing and indirectly winding, twisting, and meandering around issues; sometimes to avoid blame, or personal responsibility. Oftentimes a person can seem to be winding and twisting in with different types of fears or anger. They are psychologically and emotionally stuck in embroiled tensions. There is a difficulty in moving into a clear-thinking  mind. When an individual has lived a long time with confusion, personal enmeshments, and entangled associations, they find the serpentine mind is not on a straight path. The road ahead zigzags through the tension of opposites. Carl G. Jung who developed analytical psychology explained it this way:

“There is a good thing on top of that mountain. I will make a straight line for it.” But the archetypal way is not like that; it is a serpentine way that wriggles and spirals its way to the top. We often feel defeated by it and brought to a standstill. It makes most people terribly impatient and even desperate when nothing happens and they get nowhere. They feel hindered all the time; they don’t understand that this is just as it should be, that it is actually their only chance of getting to the top.” (C.G. Jung, The Visions Seminars , Book Two , p. 295)

Jung wrote extensively about the Self. The Self is similar to your own concept of God, Higher Power, the Divine, etc…. In Jung’s thought and theory; the center of your personality is the Self. It innately seeks to organize and maintain wholeness within your individual mind. Jungian psychotherapy is about becoming completely and wholly yourself. He called it the individuation process. The inner world brings to you from your unconscious dreams, images, urges, impulses, etc. to help guide your path. When you work with your own issues, you are navigating the serpentine way.

The “Fall”  from the garden into the physical world has led to a great distancing from the personal connection to the inner Divine nature. There are many ways to integrate and reconnect your body-mind-spirit within yourself.

1. Depth Psychotherapy

2. AcuProcess TM   (see my website)

3. Mindfulness and meditation practices

4. Body work

5. Authentic Movement

6. Dreamwork

7. The expressive arts

“Poetry, Painting & Music: the three Powers in Man of conversing with Paradise which the flood did not sweep away.” — William Blake, A Vision of the Last Judgment (1810)

© Ozimkiewicz

Susan Ozimkiewicz NCC LCPC: Life and Love ‒ Happy Valentines Day
By Susan Ozimkiewicz 10 Feb, 2024
Every February 14, across the United States and in other places around the world, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint, and where did these traditions come from?
a woman wearing gloves is blowing snow into the air
By Susan Ozimkiewicz 08 Dec, 2023
January became the first month of the year about 700BC after the Roman King Pompilius added it to the calendar along with February. Janus is the ancient Roman god of beginnings and endings plus he is the god of gateways, gates, door and doorways. He had two faces one looking back and the other forward. As the opening line in T.S. Eliot’s East Coker said, “In my beginning is my end,” and in the closing line “In my end is my beginning” (1942). January ends the past and sets up the future; winter is the season when the world slows down. As snow falls and covers parts of the earth as an insulating blanket one knows it is winter time. People pull back their energy and hibernate too by the fireplace or under their soft and cozy covers. They might reflect on what was accomplished in the last year and formulate new ideas as seeds to plant for the coming year. Life seems to stand still. The vibrant energies of nature such as growth, vitality, expansion, and progress seem to disappear underground and stop dead in their tracks. The instincts and senses appear to withdraw from worldly distractions and stimulating diversions while a discontent can set in. For some it can be the winter of their discontent. Originally the first line of William Shakespeare's Richard lll was "The winter of our discontent." The interruption of the life force produces decay and a dark stillness possibly a dark night of the soul. Wintertime can contain contraction, restriction, perhaps decay. The beginning of the coming year might be characterized by a bone chilling coldness, a misery to be endured, and barrenness due to death of a way of living. "Write the vision and make it plain..." Habakkuk 2:2 During this seemingly slow passing of time some people will write down a list of resolutions, as they create a set of goals to commence implementing as the year begins, their hope is to harvest their ideas and visions through coming year. January is burdened with all our hopes that are pinned on those first 31 days. We cram a laundry list of goals into one month and try to make them all happen at breakneck speed. Inevitably, by February we are burnt out, and by the summer, our declared resolutions are long forgotten. A personal inventory and reflection on the mistakes and mishaps of the past year is a good place to start when there is a desire for the new. What do you want to see change? Be specific. Where could you have done better? No need to be down on yourself. Just take a look at the areas that are considered your weak points or disappointments from the last year and create a plan and vision for this coming year. Let's give January a break? If your goals are worth attaining, they will take time - much more than a mere month can offer. Plus the effort and energy it will take to accomplish those goals are too much to do all at once. Space them out. Some resolutions and personal goals can't be worked on immediately. Give your New Year's resolutions some breathing room. You've laid the ground work to achieving your dreams, and you can take the next year to perfect them. Learn from the previous year's mistakes and grow. Every year is another chance to do it. C.S. Lewis said, "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." Here is an excerpt from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem: In Memoriam, {Ring out, wild bells} Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Wishing everyone a joy filled 2024!
By Susan Ozimkiewicz 08 Oct, 2023
"Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy." — Enchiridion of Epictetus Ch. VIII:
By Susan Ozimkiewicz 25 Jun, 2023
Everything Begins with the First Step
By Susan Ozimkiewicz 08 Apr, 2023
On the Tip of the Tongue
08 Jan, 2023
“Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.” ̶ Rebecca Solnit Since the pandemic people have expressed to me that they have a loss of hope. These clients have noticed that before the pandemic they experienced a felt sense of hope. Hope can be the antidote to stagnation. Hope is an inspiring power that can transform despair, defeat, and a dispiriting cynicism into a personal power to reach and move forward toward the future. The word hope is about the future. There are some people who have lost their hope and who are seeking to find their hope again. Some people may have been recently suffering their current feelings around hopelessness. Hope is a feeling that lives in your chest and is invisible. You know when you have hope and when you have lost it. Your hope talks to you about a particular desire and an expectation of a better possibility to come. Without hope, there is pessimism about the future with a lack of any kind of anticipation to restore the hopeful feeling in your life. Emily Dickinson's poem inspires as it describes the invisible nature of hope. Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. A symbolic, metaphorical, and imaginal psychological interpretation of Dickenson’s poem suggests, compares, and attaches hope, which is invisible, to a "thing." Then this thing is compared to a bird, as if this thing hope is bird like. The bird as a symbol can represent lightness of being, soul, messenger, peace, and spiritual knowledge, according to the Dictionary of Symbols. "Feathers" symbolize the freedom to align oneself to something new by and with the movement of this invisible energy, hope. When the bird of hope "perches," it has settled on and perhaps is resting on a branch and "sings" without words. Therefore, hope always exists continuously producing a feeling, a resonance with a certain vibrational hum to it unless hope has been lost. Sometimes hope is lost or destroyed through anger, great negativity, or cynical self-sabotage, whereby, a person can abandon all hope. Hope is an energetic experience. You know when you have it, and you know when you have lost hope and feel hopeless. At some time, everyone experiences metaphorically "stormy weather" where your feathery wings are deflated and there is no freedom to fly. For instance, you can recognize this emotional state when you have encountered a painful angry feeling, or maybe suffered a stinging heartache or have been stifled by isolation during the recent Covid pandemic. The glimmer of hope can begin to warm your heart. Your own warm heart is a feeling response that encourages forward movement out of tough situations into new possibilities. The "chillest land" is a disturbing place of cold feeling, frozen in fear, with perhaps, a numbness to life. Water, "the sea" speaks about emotion and feeling; a strange feeling is seen that may be coming up to a self-consciousness from the waters of life. Yet, in the most terrorizing, menacing, and intimidating sense, hope is available and doesn't want anything except to be hope. The word yet implies, thus far, up until now. However, yet is used to stress that it remains possible that something will occur despite the problems in the present. Hope springs eternal. Exercise to restore hope. Hope is free. It costs nothing, and it is available to everyone. Sit in a quiet space and follow your breath in and out for a few minutes then allow yourself to remember a time you had hope, felt hopeful or were full of hope. As you remember, can you feel it at this moment in time as you call up the memory? Because the past, even though that was then and this is now, the past is contained in the present. Is there any resistance to feeling hope again and letting it live in you now? Keep remembering past times when you had hope. Each time let yourself feel it now, in the present, to enliven and restore your own hope “I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.” ˗ T.S. Eliot
More Posts
Share by: