Snakes & Bells: Totem Challenge

[Teresa]

Behind a glass case were smooth rocks bearing totem animals painted in black ink, "Choose with your instincts," the woman behind the counter said, so I chose the snake without thinking.  I walked out of the shop with the same cheerful peeling of a bell cluster at the top of the door that had also announced my arrival.  I put the snake in my jeans pocket and stood next to a totem pole capped with white snow where my photo was taken, a timeless image of girl who lived twenty years ago -- straight auburn hair past her shoulders and a green Colorado tshirt, a carved bear taller than she was in the background.  The snake totem represented birth and death, sexuality, higher knowledge, wisdom, transition and spiritual awakening; it was linked to Scorpio and felt powerful deep in my pocket, a feared belly crawler without limbs who could swallow larger prey headfirst and whole.  I remembered my grandfathers, Sebourne and Levy, dark-skinned and untamed, fond of liquid fire and passionate rages; one was raised on a Choctaw reservation in 1918, the other by a full Comanche mother who in her own black and white photo appears as a frowning Indian doll wearing long black braids and a traditional western house dress.  I wondered if prayers could reach the dead, if symbolic ink on a lifeless rock could assist spirits back over the eternal threshold, swallow death headfirst and whole as bells announce their arrival from the top of an ancient door.          

[Edward Dean]

Let me tell you T, when you can get Bill L and Mike to post more than one sentence, it MUST be good!:)

IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gita]

The truth is so wonderful, especially when you tell it. I have walked into many a store with door-bells, myself, to find talismans and scents and tarot readers. I still do, much to the dismay of my more agnostic travel companions. This read like a postcard from the past. Delightful.

[Mike Handley]

Wow, T. The detail about the bells is awesome. That sound is now imprinted on my brain like ink on a rock.

[Kristine_ES]

"i wondered...if symbolic ink on a lifeless rock could assist spirits back over the eternal threshold"

way deep down we knew the answer to that, and that's why we make totems and hold them and write them as you do. 

[Bonnie]

OH! and "choose with your instincts.."  We should..always.  Damn this is good!!!

[Bonnie]

Teresa; Superb! I am in awe of this deep, rich article full of creativity and angst and love. "...swallow larger prey headfirst and whole."  "...as bells announce their arrival from the top of an ancient door."  You got me, full and complete with this one. Extraordinary!! Write On!!

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

Calls up spirits and power above and below the earth. 

[Bill Floyd]

The prose here is fluid & striking, almost serpentine...? (Sorry. :-))

[Teresa]

Here's my Aspie boyfriend at the time (14 yrs my senior, eh-hem Cita and CJT) and in the background is the store where I bought the rock - Mountain Magic.

[Angela]

Thanks for sharing the picture of the rock with us.  I think it is significant that you still have it, and could find it.  Your non-fiction is as vivid and poetic as anyone's fiction any day.