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The Rescue Of The Rainbow Serpent
Last night I had a dream of rescuing a rainbow serpent. It was full of magic and powerful poisons, an expert defender of itself. It held its secrets like winter holds its hibernation. As I ran to replace it, I realised that it might be the last rainbow serpent existing in the whole of North America. My dreams were spent running to nowhere with sore, tired and bloody feet. My arms and shoulders heavy from carrying its coils. All the while the rainbow serpent was wanting to bite me and waiting for any opportunity. It wanted to infect me with deep magic and wildness. I wanted to relieve us both of each others presence. But there was no wilderness left in order to let it down safely. The whole of North America was just one huge urban industrial wasteland. I thought of the way in which their film-makers came to Australia, New Zealand and Canada in order to film the plains and valleys that weren't polluted with fences and wires. The producers called these 'unbroken scenes.' I thought of the group of scientists in Sweden, Europe who stood around the last ring-tailed-lemur in a cage after Madagascar had fallen to pollution, and how a few of them had broken down. All the science in the world hadn't saved this creature. You know there was really nothing any of them could do about it, once it had reached this point. I thought of the five thousand tigers still left, as the serpent turned to orange and black stripes in my hands. It appeared that this was a Dreamtime serpent, and that all the thoughts I was having were coming through its skin into mine. Or was it the other way around? The serpent was telling me all the things that must pass from the earth and disappear into the world of dreams, where they would only be accessed by shamans. The snake was about to bite me because it was dying. I had taken it from someone who had wrapped bandages around its jaw. I held its fangs gently closed with my fingers. It's magic was dripping to bite me and its mind was speaking up for me to loosen my grip. In the end I found a small clearing with frogs and birds amongst the rubble. I was able to release the serpent and move back quickly in case it turned to chase me. But it was too weak and only slithered off into the dell, half dead into some small refuge. |
