"Eye iu fhe Ourubotus"

{Lifepath l}ream S E.lV. Ketlogg III}

Chapter 13
\Yisdom of the Serpent
by Ed Kellogg
From llreums thst Ch*nge Our Lives
Robert J. Ifoss & Robert P. Gongloff, Editors
A Publication of The International Association for the
Study of Dreaffi$, @ 2017 Chiron Publications
 Chapter 1-3

Wisdom of the Serpent

Ed Kellogg

"Why did I behave as if that serpent were my soul?

Only; it seems, because my soul was a serpent. This
knowledge gave my soul a new face, and I decided
henceforth to enchant her myself and subject her to
my power. Serpents ate wise, and I wanted my serpent
soul to communicate her wisdom to me." Carl Jungl

For thousands of years, symbols have played an integral role

in understanding the meaning of dreams. Archetypal symbols,
symbols that resonate across a wide range of cuitures, have a
powerful role in dreams, and the archetypal symbol of the snake with
its association with wisdom and higher knowledge, whether for good
or for ill, appears universal. With respect specificaily to healing and
dreams, serpents played an important role in ancient Greece in the
temples of Asldepios, which the sick visited with the expectation that
they wouid either receive information to effect a cure or would
receive healing directly from the gods while dreaming.2 In depictions
of the Greek godAsklepios, he holds lhe Sceptre of Medicine, which
has a single snake coiled about it, representing divine wisdom and
the power of healing. His daughter Hygiea, the goddess of Health,
also commonly appears with a snake, and the temples of Asklepios
where the sick would sleep featured sacred snakes in both the main
temples and in the dream incubation chambers.

Later the Judeo-Christian tadition downgraded and

literally demonized the serpent in the West, though it underwent a
rehabilitation and revitalization of sorts during the Middle Ages,
where in the aichemical tradition the serpent appeared in a wide
variety of positive guises, symbolically representing the transfor-
21,4 Dreams that Change Our Lives

mative processes involved in creating "the Philosopher's Stone."3

This stone, or as some believe, the state of consciousness the stone
represented, could reportedly not only change lead into gold but
could create a medicine to transform disease into health, and even
old age into youth. Known as the Elixir Vtae, this medicine
composed of corpus, anima, and spiritus body, soul, and spirit
-
healed wounds both outer and inner, and in this respect has
-much in common with dreamwork. In fact, it seems clear that
dreaming, and even lucid dreaminga, historically played an
important role in alchemical work. And in that work, the caduceus
of the Greek god Hermes, a staff with two intertwined serpents,
became an iconic symbol of alchemical processes, a visual
representation of the Hermetic "As Above, so Below" principle
that has had a deep and abiding influence on Western culture. This
chapter will focus on the snake-dreams of three different dreamers,
illustrating some of the different ways that the wisdom of the
serpent can manifest in life-changing dreams.

The One, the AII-Seeing

We'll begin with an important lifepath dream of my own
that provided clear direction to me, both with respect to empha-
sizing the importance of dreamwork as a spiritual practice and to
solidifying my commitment to it.
About a year after earning my Ph.D., having recorded a
hundred or so dreams in a variety of places, I decided to begin a
formal series using standard sized notebooks, starting with
"Volume l-" of this new set. About three-quarters of the way
through filling this notebook, I had a clear and definitive lifepath
dream, that has played a guiding role for me ever since:

A colleague of mine, from the U.C. Berkeley lab where we

bothwork as postdocs, v€r! excitedly thumbs through my Volume 1
dream notebook. On the cover of the notebook I show him or
draw him? -
a symbol of my message on Earth, o red snake eating
its own tail,- making a circle, and in the middle of the circle, an eye
Creative Wisdom Within 21,5

with a blackpupil and a green iris. However, a small cloud floating

in front of the snake's head obscures where the mouth eats the tail,
so the actual mechanism of self-ingestion does not seem opparent.

Although I had iittle acqu-

aintance wittr alchemical symbolism
at the time, the meaning of the our-
oboros s5rmbol that appeared on my
notebook in the dream and its rela-
tion to dreamwork seemed clear.
The paradoxical snake represen-
ted the Illusion of Material Reaiity,
the snake eating its own tail the
mechanism tluough which the lllu-
sion regenerated and perpetuated
itself, the Eye in the center, the
power of the Enlightened Mind, of
the Real Self, to disperse the cloud,
symbolizing the Veil of Ignorance.

The ouroboros, as an alchemical symbol, signifies a kind

of self-sufficient unification of experienced Reality, through
paradoxical processes that somehow connect the end with the
beginning. Like the circle, it also represents infinity and whole-
ness. This ouroboros with an eye in the middle also corresponds
to a more common alchemical symbol, a circle with a dot in the
center a symbol for the Sun, as well as for gold. In my dream,
--
a small cloud obscured the mechanisni of unification, maintaining
the illusion of separation. I understood that my lifepath involved
learning to see through the cloud through dreamwork, of finding
a means through which my "I" in the center could see through the
veil of illusion, to understand the true nature of Reality and how it
works, and to share this insight with others.

The dreamscape image presented above presents an updated

version of the symbol that I drew and hand-colored in my dream
notebook, as it also incorporates the hexagram symbol that appeared
in subsequent lifepath dreams. For inspirationai purposes, and
2t6 Dreams that Change Our Lives

because I've gained some understanding into how the snake eats its
own tail, I've removed the cioud. To me "The Ouroboros" represents
"The Matrix," while the Eye signifies Lucidity, consciousness that
has the power of seeing through the cloud of false and unquestioned
beliefs that can keep one from perceiving the Uuth. The snake eating
its own tail represents both a truth and an illusion, a paradox resolved
only through a higher-dimensional understanding'

Many years later I finally took the time to study aichemy in

greater depth. I soon came across one of the earliest examples of an
alchemical ouroboros in the The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatro dating to
circa the second centuryA.D. It depicts a red snake remarkably similar
to the one I'd seen in my lifepath dream' While this ouroboros does
not have an eye in the center, it does encircle the Greek phrase, "6v 16
novol[," meaning "The One, theAll-Seeing," which I've appropriated
as the titie for my owTl dream. Even in alchemy, apparently the more
things change, the more they staythe same. The unexpected placement
of a custom-made alchemical syrnbol on the cover of the first volume
in a proposed set of formai dream records, emphasized and under-
scored the importance of dreamwork for me and, in doing so, certainly
changed the course of my life. At this point in time, having recorded
well over 30,000 dreams and having made it to Volume 70, my
original understanding of the meaning of this s5rmbol still holds true,
and I have had many dreams reconfirming this message and of the
continuing imponance of dreamwork in my life and work.

eEgANrg

Pain Healing Pain

Deon van ZYI

In this next dream by Deon van Zyl, the alchemical

ouroboros also plays a featured role. But in this
case, the symbol underscores and sums up the
Creative Wisdom Within 217

essence of a deeper understanding and a new

perspective on pain, disease, and healing.

Itwas October 1982, an early spring evening inAfrica, with

the temperature at a balmy 86 degrees Fahrenheit. Little did I know
sitting in my study in the back garden, separate from the house, that
this night I would have a revelation in a dream that would change
the way I view life and the workings of the human mind for decades
to come. For months I had been trying to wrap up my doctoral
dissertation with the required "original and creative" chapter. My
literature review, research, and case studies were completed. I was
searching for some fresh and novel insights on my research topic:
the experience and dynamics of pain. I had read all the major books
and covered all the main theories on the subject. The floor of my
study was scattered with books, articles, and research papers. All
the famous authors and topics were there, covering all the levels of
pain from the physical to the so-called "psychogenic," from
emotional hurt to the spiritual "dark night of the soui."

My curiosity was insatiable, but something vital was

missing. I was looking for a golden thread, a deeper understanding,
a new perspective on pain, disease, and healing. My mind was
filled with questions; my heart was searching for answers: Why
do we have pain? What is its role or function? Why is it such an
unpleasant and intense experience? Does it have a positive contri-
bution, and if so, why does it feel so bad? What is pain, really?
Why is it so central to our human experience?
I attempted to order my scattered thoughts with a mind-
map on a large, white A2-sized paper. It was fun but still confusing.
Far away I could hear a frog choir in full voice from a nearby dam,
the accompanying summer crickets adding the high tones. I just
stared at the wordy mess in front of me and remember saying to
myself, "Each individual frog and cricket makes itself heard, calls
and responds to others, but to me listening in as an outsider from
a distance, it is all one great symphony." I decided to pack it in for
the night, but the questions about pain remained.
ztg Dreams that Change Our Lives

It was one of those early predawn dreams after a peaceful

night of deep sleep. It consisted of a few simple images: The first
image is of an animal that. was shot but still alive. The bullet had
penetrated its flank, Iodged in its side, and had started secreting a
paison that threatened to spread throughout the body. In the
dream, the wounded area with the bullet and poison is magnified,
as if under a microscope. The animal is in obvious pain, and I also
feel intense anxiety in the dream due to the threatening poison.
Then, in the dreem, I
see another aspect of the same
picture. Because of the bullet and threatening secretion of poison,
the animal stops dead in its tacks. Its freedom of natural
movement is immediately restricted, and yet, ot the same time, it
writhes and kicks violently.

Then I see the enlarged picture of the wounded flank section

again, and a hand with a surgical scalpel is fiing to cut out the
bullet, deliberately trying to cut deeply, beyond or aheod of the
poison, in order to get it out. as well. A distinctvoice that accompanies
the scalpel image in the dream clearly says: "Pain heals pain."
lmmediately with this voice, and still in the dream,I see the image of
a snake eating its own tail, the classic ouroboros symbol!
As I woke up from the dream I felt like Archimedes
revived. My personal "Eureka!" Iinked me with everyone who ever
knew the joys of discovery over the ages. As I charged to the
garden study, I could hear a few birds starting their day with
predawn chirps. To me the new day was a living example of my
new thinking, with fresh insight and deeper understanding into one
of our most profound experiences: pain. My revelation: "Pain
exists when and where boundaries are exceeded." I saw that
wherever a boundary is overly penetrated (e.g., like the bullet and
the secreting poison in the dream), pain occurs. Pain is a signal or
sign of unwanted penetration of a boundary. The minute a
boundary is destroyed through excessive penetration, new
boundaries are created (like the restriction of natural movement).
The dream presented destruction and forging of boundaries as
polar opposites, yet as one and the same process, and this is
Creative Wisdom Within 2r9

painful; but it also makes new growth and rejuvenation possible.

I saw that the healing hand with the scalpel had something pro-
found to say about healing and rejuvenation. The image of cutting
through with the scalpel, beyond the bullet and the poison into the
surrounding flesh, is of course also painful but healing at the same
time. The healing action is as paradoxical as the pain. The cutting
also penetrated the body's boundaries, just as the bullet and poison
did, but simuitaneously it created boundaries, by containing and
limiting the spread of the malady. This means that healing is also
breaking through and oeating boundaries at the same time.

The paradoxical phrase voiced in the dream, "Pain heals

pain," echoes T.S. Eliot's famous quote from Four Quartets: "Aur
only health is the disease ... and that, to be restored, our sickness
must grow worse."S My dream couldn't have ended with a better
image than that of the snake eating its own taii, the symbol of
ouroboros, a representation of the cycle of destruction and creation,
destroying its own boundaries and filling them at the same time.

This dream of 33 years ago not only helped me to conclude

the final "original and creative" chapter of my thesis but influenced
to this day my view of the essence of life and living as a comple-
mentary interface of opposites.

esmsL*o

Healing the Heart

Laura Smith

In this account, Laura Smith shares a life-changing

dream, in which snakes play both a symbolic and
active healing role, just as serpents did thousands of
years ago in healing dreams in the temples of Askie-
pios. Sometimes in dreams just as in waking life, the
more things change, the more they stay the same.
220 Dreams that Change Our Lives

"The goddess is more subtie than the fibre of the lotus. She
uncoils herself and raises Her head, and enters the royal road of
the spine, piercing the mystic centres, untii She reaches the brain.
These things are not to be understood in a day ... you taste Her
nectar, and know that She is Life." (a Tantric Yogini, quoted by
Francis Yeats-Brown in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer)

I was 43 at the time and about one year sober from a lifetime
of alcoholism and drug addiction that had started in my teen years.
My partner and I had been together 10 years at the time. We were in
upheaval and had recently relocated to Vermont, my home state,
from the San Francisco BayArea. We had left the city, our jobs, and
the pursuit of material wealth in an attempt to find ourselves. We
had an idea about wanting to farm. \tVe just knew we were not happy,
something was missing, and I was seriously in trouble with my
addiction. The self-destructiveness had taken me very far from
myself, and I was very lost. About one yea.r into my sobriety, I began
having very provocative dreams, including this one:
I am standing on the bank of a pond. The forest is behind
me and before me is a vast emptiness that is golden brown like the
hills of California or the desert. There is a ueature onthebankwith
me that appears to be a large coyote or wolf. I thinkhe has led me
to tltis place. He runs away over the brown hills. I look down at the
pond, and the water is black. The sunlight cant penetrate it more
than a few inches. I see that snakes are swimming in this pond ...
occasionally they swim near enougll to the surface for me to catch
a glimpse of them. Most are small, but there are few that are quite
large. They are black and only stand out because of a faint mottled
yellow on their skins. The large ones have yellow eyes. Then I see
someone in the woter. His skin is very srnooth and black, like
midnightblue. Hishair is short, closely cropped andkinlE. His eyes
are also yellow, and his neck and arms, which I can see treading on
the water, are very slender. He seems nongendered.

Suddenly my partner is there with me, and she wants to go

into the water. There is something there that she wants ar needs. She
is noked and standing in front of me. Her skin is very pale. Slrc dives
in the woter, ond I tell her to watch out for the snakes. Strangely,l
Creative Wisdom Within 221

am not afraid. I see one of the large ones swimming toward her just
below the surface. ... I can barely see its outline, but its eyes are
very yellow and stand out. in the murlE water. I can see her skin
through the murlE blackwater. The snake turns away from her.
Then I see it coiling around the dark man's arm and
shoulder, which he has lifted out of the water as if to show me. I say
to him that the snake may bite him, but then I see that it hasnt. He
says nothing but continues to look up at me slowly treading water
with his other arm. His eyes are very brightyellow, end his skinvery
smooth and black, inl<y. He has no real expression on his face at all.
But he is looking at me knowingly, expectantly, as if he is waiting
for something. I feel a mixture of curiosity, fear and desire.
Then,I feel something heavy on my chest and I look down
and see that the snake has somehow gotten up out of the water qnd
is hanging from my own bare chest ... attached by its fangs above
my breast, over my heart. I feel fear. Then I wake up.

This dream launched me into a spiritual journey. It marks

the turning point of when I began to truly turn inward with
curiosity. I wanted to know who this man was, what the snake
meant, and why I had been bitten. I knew there was something
important going on within me; that this man/woman wanted
something from me, and I wanted to know what it was.
I first found a Shamanic practitioner who I did some work
with for about four years and later found someone with whom an
exploration of the dreams resonated with me. This exploration
opened me to a calling for working with dreams as a healer. [t also
opened up my creativity. During my first year working with
dreams, I painted over 60 paintings. I had never drawn or painted
before. I believe that the bite of the snake sent its venom straight
into my heart to kill the way in which I had been closed to my
spiritual life and my own creativity. I believe the being who came
is an "Animus/Anima" figure who came to awaken me to the
sensuality of the snake that wanted to come alive in me, and to
support my opening to a richer and more deeply feit experience of
my heart and of life.
 351

Chapter 12 Healing in Cancer Dreams

1. Lyons, T. (2012). Dreqms qnd Guided Imagery: Gifts for

Transforming IIIness and Crisis. Balboa Press, May 1,4,
2012.

2. A fuli description and history of the IASD project with

cancer patients can be found on the website,
www.healingpowerof dreams. com.

3. Norment, R. (2013). Guided by Dreams: Breast Cencer,

Dreams, and Transformation. Balboa Press, September 20,
2013.

Chapter 13 Wisdom of the Serpent

1. Quote from: Cari Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus, p 318.

2. Edelstein, E.J., Edelstein, L. (1945, 1998). Asclepius:

Collection and Interpretatian of the Testimonies, Johns
Hopkins, Baltimore.

3. Jung, C.G. (1953). Psychology and Alchemy. Collected

Works. Volume 1-2. Bollingen.

4. Kellogg III, E. W., Ziemer, M. M. (20L4), Lucid dream

alchemy: Making the philosopher's stone: An online
workshop. Presentation at the International Association for
the Study of Dreams' Thirteenth PsiberDreaming
Conference, available online.

5. Eliot, T.S., Collected Poems 1909-1962 (1963). Faber &

Faber, London, p. 201"-2.

Chapter 14 Creative Dreams

1. Sheliey, M. W (1818). Frankenstein. London: Lackington,

Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones.