Dreaming of snakes in Santería: meaning

Within this tradition

The snake carries its own weight in Afro-Caribbean traditions. The animal is rarely seen as incidental, and attention goes to how it behaved and how you reacted.

A snake calmly present, without threat, is often read as power making itself known. Fear shifts the image: then it concerns something to stay alert to, possibly someone around you.

A snake shedding its skin is read favourably within the tradition: something old is being set down, and there is passage.

The tradition draws no quick conclusions about harm here. A threatening image need not mean something is working against you. What it does mean comes from divination, not from the image alone.

In the Yoruba tradition, and in Brazilian Candomblé, people know Oshumare, the orisha of the rainbow, depicted as a serpent coiling around the earth. Oshumare stands for cycles, movement between heaven and earth, and prosperity. In Cuban Santería this orisha is less known, but the image of the snake as a power of cycle and renewal lives there too. That is why a snake that sheds its skin or moves in a circle is read in Santería readings as renewal rather than threat.

Common variations