Meet the Spirit of Snake: A Shamanic Cacao Ceremony to Shed Your Skin and Transform
Snake has always held a very special place in my practice. There is something about this medicine — ancient, fluid, utterly uncompromising — that calls to us when we are ready for real change. Not the gradual, tentative kind of change, but the full shedding: the old skin coming away in one clean, complete release.
In this ceremony, I invite you to sit with cacao, open the sacred directions, and journey down into the lower realms to meet the Spirit of Snake directly. Whether you come to this for the first time or return again and again, the medicine is always alive and always personal. Snake will show you exactly what needs to shift — and offer you the grace and ease to do it.
This ceremony works at any time of year. Whenever you feel ready to let go of a pattern, a behaviour, or an old way of being, Snake is here.
Why Snake? The Medicine of Shedding and Transformation
Snake holds a unique position in the South American shamanic medicine wheel — she lives in the South, the direction of water, flow, and the warmth of the noon sun. She teaches us how to move through life: not by forcing, but by feeling for the path of least resistance and following it with complete commitment.
What I love most about snake medicine is that it is not about gradual change. When a snake sheds its skin, it does not ease out of it one scale at a time. It releases the whole thing at once. That is the invitation here: to identify what no longer serves you — a behaviour, a belief, an old story — and release it completely, in the snake way.
Snake also teaches us perception. In this journey, I guide you to step inside the body of Snake and look back at yourself through her eyes. Seeing yourself from that low, close-to-the-earth perspective can reveal things that your ordinary human gaze misses entirely. It is one of the most powerful practices I know for honest self-reflection.
The Lower World: Your Subconscious as Sacred Space
In shamanic tradition, we work across three realms: the middle world (ordinary reality), the upper world (higher consciousness and the angelic realms), and the lower world, where we are going today. The lower world is not a dark or frightening place. It is your inner realm, your subconscious — what I sometimes call the mega conscious, the vast 90% of the mind that runs beneath our surface awareness.
As a hypnotherapist as well as a shamanic practitioner, I find these worlds map beautifully onto one another. Whether I call it the subconscious, the inner realm, or the lower world, we are always talking about the same place: the part of you that holds your deepest programmes, your oldest patterns, and your most potent capacity for transformation.
Some of those programmes are gifts — the ones that help you walk without thinking, breathe without effort, love without analysis. Others have outlived their purpose. Snake is the perfect guide for identifying which is which, and for releasing what is ready to go.
Cacao, Gong Sound Healing, and the Shamanic Journey State
This ceremony weaves three powerful elements together: ceremonial cacao, shamanic journeying, and live gong sound healing. Each one opens the doors of perception in its own way — and together, they create something extraordinary.
Ceremonial cacao brings deep relaxation through its magnesium content, raises dopamine and serotonin levels naturally, and floods the body with oxytocin — the hormone of love and connection. It also opens the neural pathways of the brain, allowing the kind of free-flowing, associative thinking that makes shamanic journeying so vivid and alive.
The gongs work by generating a wash of complex sound — each gong produces around 12 to 13 separate tones simultaneously, which is enough to gently confuse the left brain (the part that narrates and labels everything) and allow the right brain to come forward. In right-brain consciousness, you lose the rigid edges of self. You expand. You can feel into the energy of other beings. This is your shamanic brain — and we all have it.
Together, these elements bring you into a trance state: the same state accessed by meditation, hypnosis, and deep shamanic work. Not unconsciousness — a heightened, receptive awareness, perfectly suited to meeting the Spirit of Snake.
The Path of Grace and Ease: What Snake Taught Me
When I did my own journey to prepare for this ceremony, Snake reminded me of something I believe deeply but sometimes forget in the busyness of life: there are always two paths available to us. Both lead to the same destination. One is the path of trauma and struggle. The other is the path of grace and ease. We get to choose.
If you watch how a snake moves — that beautiful, sinuous, unhurried flexibility — you start to understand the teaching. The snake does not force its way through the undergrowth. It feels for openings. It shifts direction without drama when the path closes. It arrives exactly where it needs to be, having expended far less energy than a creature that fights every obstacle.
That is the invitation Snake offers you in this ceremony. Where in your life are you pushing against something that simply wants you to go around it? Where are you still wearing a skin that stopped fitting years ago? What would it feel like to let it all fall away?
Integrating Your Snake Journey
When the gong bath ends and I bring you back to ordinary consciousness, I always encourage you to journal immediately. Like a dream, the details of a shamanic journey can fade quickly. Write down everything — the images, the feelings, the words that came through, even the things that seemed random or unclear in the moment.
Then read that journal entry tomorrow. And again in a week. A month. The wisdom of the lower world often reveals itself slowly, layer by layer. What seemed like a simple image during the journey can unfold into a complete teaching over time. Trust the process. Trust what came through for you.
If nothing came through visually during the journey — if you simply experienced a beautiful, deep gong bath — that is equally valid. The sound healing will have moved and released energy, whether or not your conscious mind received imagery. Come back to the ceremony again whenever you feel ready. Snake will wait.
How to Prepare for This Ceremony
Prepare your ceremonial cacao — or a cup of herbal tea or water if cacao isn't right for you. Lemon balm (melissa) is particularly resonant with snake medicine: it supports letting go and going with the flow.
Smudge your space if you have a smudge stick, working through the chakras from head to feet. Alternatively, use the energy cleanse practice guided at the start of the video.
Set up a comfortable, supported space — lying down or sitting up with your back supported. You will be in ceremony for the duration of the gong bath.
Light candles if you have them, to mark the opening of sacred space.
Set an intention before you begin: Is there something you are ready to let go of? A behaviour, a pattern, a story? Hold that lightly as you enter the journey.
Have a journal and pen close by for when the ceremony ends.
If you are new to cacao, drink slowly and mindfully — feel the warmth spreading through you as you offer it to the directions alongside me.
Continue Your Journey
If this ceremony resonated with you and you want to go deeper into shamanic work, plant spirit medicine, or sound healing, here are some ways to work with me:
Cacao Ceremonies — join a live ceremony or explore the practice: plantspiritmedicinewoman.com/cacaoceremonies
Shamanic Healing — one-to-one sessions exploring your personal medicine: plantspiritmedicinewoman.com/shamanic-healing
Gong Sound Healing — immersive sound baths with the gongs: plantspiritmedicinewoman.com/gong
The Shaman's Way — my core training programme for those called to walk this path: plantspiritmedicinewoman.com/theshamansway
Free Resources — free meditations, recipes, and more: plantspiritmedicinewoman.com/free-resources
