Artist Date

So, I'm doing "The Artist's Way", a 12-week self-guided study course to help you unlock yourself, written by Julia Cameron. It's actually pretty great. Two things you must do: daily "morning pages", sort of a crap-dump out of your head and onto paper, and a weekly "artist date" where you take yourself on a date of some sort that is hopefully filled with sensory input.

My artist date yesterday was to go up on the mountain to one of my favorite spots, the Stone Cuts. The Stone Cuts are huge limestone boulders that have subsided and cracked down the middle, and you can walk through them, sort of a mini canyon. I was a bit worried as I walked through because I knew that it was the tail end of snake season up there, and I kept having this fleeting idea that I'd have an encounter with Snake while I was there. I sent my thoughts ahead of me and asked that, if I did have an encounter, please make it gentle and harmless for us both.

Safely through the Stone Cuts with no Snake encounter, I sat down just outside the cool mouth of the cavern-y interior and started talking to the Stone People, asking about the earth. I had my hand on the big rocks you see to your right in that last picture, and was sitting on a little stair made of rock that someone has thoughtfully constructed outside the exit mouth of the Stone Cuts. Stone People didn't give much reply, except for a rumble from a huge entity that I'd met once before who sent some thoughts my way and then sort of chuckled in a deep mind-voice. We both fell silent, and as I glanced around me, I looked to my left and saw perched on the log that I was almost touching this cute little copperhead baby.

About ten inches long and just beautiful, we just sat watching each other. S/He was a little sluggish, or merely content, and had no reason to move much, and so didn't. For the first time in my life I actually saw a snake breathe, which is pretty amazing. These pictures are blurry, having been taken with my phone, so they don't show the detail of the scales nor do they do justice to the beautiful coppery sheen on the snake's little head. He was so cute! Cuddly even. We sat and grokked together for a long while, neither of us moving much, each admiring the other. Their lungs must go all the way down to their little snaky feet! I blew on him from time to time and watched as his tongue flicked madly as he tasted the volatiles I was winging his way. He seemed unconcerned, and though fleeting thoughts of "where's mama?" drifted through my head, I was unconcerned as well. Every now and then he'd move his head this way or that, but slowly and without menace. I kept asking him what he was trying to tell me, but nothing came immediately to mind.

After a while I said my gentle goodbyes and walked on and back to the car, curiously pleased, and glad that our encounter had been gentle and pretty wonderful. On reaching home I looked up Snake in my totems dictionary, and as usual was pleasantly surprised and validated as to the why I've seen him right at this particular moment in time.
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