Year of Female Wood Snake (sBrul / སྦྲུལ་)

In the Snake Year, dragons of the old year must begin by shedding the useless skin of self-image. If this proves possible, their new temporary patterns become wondrous to behold. Shedding one’s skin is a good metaphor for entering the snake year.

Snakes are capable of destruction. They can destroy themselves – if they, themselves, need to be destroyed. Snakes however, are good hearted and their destructiveness is never incited or obscured by hatred.

Snakes are optimistic with regard to the future – and their entirely pragmatic ‘anger’ is extremely short-lived. Both anger and forgiveness are instant with snakes. The snake is similar to the dragon, inasmuch as no other creature has the power to quash its dynamism. Once a snake makes a decision it cannot be reversed. It is resolute, indomitable, indefatigable, implacable, and invincible.

The snake never prevaricates or dissembles.

The snake only entertains doubt as momentary wariness before acting with utter certainty. Snakes have an innate wisdom which is not duped by the ploys and stratagems of mundanity. No one can lie to a snake. Snakes seem mysterious and secretive. They are not secretive because they have something to hide – merely because they have nothing they need to explain. Snakes hide nothing and they reveal nothing. They do not exchange information as a mode of social intercourse. “And what do you do for a living?” is not a question a snake would ask. Snakes never bore others with ‘fascinating’ titbits of ‘information’ about this-or-that celebrity. Snakes never purvey ‘news’ or regurgitate the expert opinions – in order that they appear expert. Snakes are not impressed by experts – and are incredulous as to why anyone would wish to define themselves as ‘expert’. They reason that their expertise is either known or not – simply according to how they appear at any one time. Other creatures always seem to want to tell you about themselves – as if you needed to be informed as to who they are often informing you of their astrological sign.

Snakes never display their education or erudition in terms of specific knowledge. Snakes are highly knowledgeable – but see no reason to display it or make it evident.
Snakes neither offer information nor do they withhold it. They do not see information as a tool of social leverage. They are unimpressed by displays of informational knowledge – tending to see it as vulgar and socially gauche.

Snakes could be seen as sardonically aloof – but they merely have standards that others often fail to meet. Although others do not meet their standards, they never patronise people – as they would see that as being even more vulgar. Snakes are best seen as kindly yet disciplined adults in a world of petulant attention-seeking children.

Snakes are not self-effacing or unduly modest – but they have no need to impress. They are influential – but they have no need to influence. They do not need to be the centre of attention – although they do not object to finding themselves so placed if they can act beneficially from that position.

Snakes do not tell others about their political opinions or give their opinion of the journalistic information. They do not explain why such-and-such is good and such-and-such is bad.

Snakes do educate others as to their personal history – and neither will they seek such information form others. They have no need to know anything about others: not due to disinterest – but because they see all there is to see, simply in seeing people as they are. They have no interest in the nature of anyone’s employment or where they lived as children. They do not need to compare-and-contrast in respect of comparative likes and dislikes. They have no desire to schmooze. One word from a snake is worth a thousand pictures.

Snakes are not humble, modest, or shy. Some might find them aloof or imperious – but they are simply self-contained and unassuming. They rely solely on their own judgement – and whilst this is not a quality in terms of openness, neither are they closed-minded.
Snakes rely on their own judgement because they research fastidiously – never coming to a decision of judgement until they have seen situations clearly. Because they are silent – they possess greater time for research than other creatures.

Snakes are never swayed from their purpose. Snakes can thus appear intractable, obstinate, and obdurate – but they are determined, tireless, assiduous, stalwart, persevering and resolute.

Snakes are vengeful. Vengefulness is not an attribute associated with Buddhism – unless we look to the protector practices. There we find—much to the horror of the politically and spiritually correct—that Chö-kyong and Srungma make an art of vengeance. Their vengeance is ultimate in respect of those who break Vajrayana vows — but it is a form of vengeance that is seriously and positively requested by practitioners. This vengeance is requested because serious practitioners know the nature of their own slipperiness in terms of the tendency to become ‘comfort-seeking missiles’. To put comfort before the determination to excel is to fail. To put comfort before generosity is to fail. To put comfort before kindness is to fail.

Practitioners who have had their gZi གཟི་ stones authenticated will familiar with the Poison Lightning Noose of gZa’ Rahula. When practitioners ask for this authentication on their gZi stones they are requesting that the chain on which their gZi is strung will turn into a poison lightning noose if they ever recalcitrantly break their vows. The chain becomes the ultimate snake – which is why protectors and wrathful yidams often have armlets, wristlets, and anklets formed of snakes (dKris sBrul དཀྲིས་སྦྲུལ་). These are included within the tröwo kurdül gyi gyanpa nga (khro bo’i sKur sBrul gyis brGyan pa lNga / ཁྲོ་བོའི་སྐུར་སྦྲུལ་གྱིས་བརྒྱན་པ་ལྔ་) – the five snake ornaments.

gZa’ Rahula is the definitively extreme kLu (ཀླུ་/ naga) – and the snake of his being both encircles and permeates the nature of time. There is no hiding from this colossal all-pervasive snake – because gZa’ is made of our own veins and arteries. gZa’ is made of our nerves and lymphatic system. When that vast snake constricts its coils, death is both immediate and far-reaching. gZa’ is known as the Lé-drül (las sBrul / ལས་སྦྱུལ་) — the snake of karma — the snake which causes us to manifest as our own executioners.

The snake is a weapon in itself, as displayed by the drül-nag (sBrul nags / སྦྲུལ་ནགས་) the noose of snakes and the drül-zhag (sBrul zhags / སྦྲུལ་ཞགས་) the snake lasso. The way in which the snake takes vengeance is extremely personal and devoid of action – other than allowing reality to be what it is. The guilty always punish themselves.

Snakes take no satisfaction in vengeance – and their actions resemble natural forces rather than calculated acts. When a leather falls apart from lack of care vis-à-vis oiling and polishing – that is in itself the vengeance meted out against the neglect. There is no one to express satisfaction in the vengeance thus manifested.

When we consider the snake we need to forget the Judæo-Christian notions of deceit and treachery.

Snakes may be dangerous but snakes are kLu – and kLu are more associated with wisdom. The Biblical snake offers knowledge of good and evil – and it is unclear exactly why that is not useful information. From our point of view (deluded though it may be) discovering that you are naked—with a similarly naked and rather attractive other person—in a rather fine garden, sounds, well . . . what else could you want apart from rhythm and music?

To call someone a snake, in Western parlance, is to say a person is an informer, betrayer, traitor, defector, deserter, turncoat, or double-dealer. Snake oil is fake medicine – but all these ideas arise from the Biblical snake. The Buddhist snake is not of that stripe. Snakes simply see problems immediately. Being able to distinguish good from bad is vital in terms of Vajrayana.

kLu and kLu-mo (ཀླུ་ and ཀླུ་པོ་ / naga and nagini) are generally a highly positive beings. The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna was so named for having received the sNying mDo—the Heart Sutra—as gTerma from the nagas. Nagarjuna (kLu sGrub / ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ / 150–250 AD) founded the Madhyamaka school by developing the philosophy of the Prajnaparamita Sutras. Nagarjuna composed several treatises on alchemy – a further fact which reveals his connection with the kLu. In Tibet, kLu dwell in lakes or underground streams and guard treasure. Mucalinda—a powerful kLu—was one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s protectors. He protected Shakyamuni Buddha from a violent storm by rearing up his nine hooded cobra heads above him consequent to his final realisation. In thangkas, kLu are mainly portrayed in human form. In the Mahasiddha traditions kLu often give transmissions and aid Lamas in the discovery of gTérma.

Dorje kLu-mo is a yidam whose arms and legs are patterned with the markings of a snake. In this case the pattern is that of the gZi stone. Seng-gé Dradog—each armlet, wristlet, and anklet snake is patterned like a gZi stone.