Snake Medicine At Earth Sanctuary

Wolfling and I had a wonderful time at the Earth Sanctuary yesterday. The weather was perfect, and the site was as powerful as ever.

Unless there is reason to do otherwise, I always go to the dolman first, stopping to chime the bell on the way. As Wolfling and I were going back up the path after visiting the dolman, a garter snake crossed the path in front of us and wriggled into a fern. This is the first time I'd seen a snake at the sanctuary, so I made a point of asking Wolfling if she knew what Snake's medicine was. "I haven't read that far," was her response. I talked about how the shedding of a snake's skin symbolically relates to transformation and new life -- and then started talking to her about my own efforts in that regard right now.

I told her that being laid off has given me a golden opportunity to create the life I really want, that the last time I was this free was when I graduated from college -- but at that time I had no idea what I wanted to do.

As I was talking we headed toward the labyrinth. About halfway down that path there was a lot of rustling in the plants to the side of the path. Wolfling pointed out another snake: this one larger than the first, with different markings. "I think the message is for you," she said.

On reflection, Snake medicine for me is also about daring my edges and facing my fears. I have a great deal of respect for snakes, and I'm not phobic about them, but they do make me very uncomfortable: just like my own dreams of living the life I'm meant to lead. Embracing Snake's message of transformation means facing my fears as well.

Star Wars Geekery

(Because it's been far too long since I've had any Star Wars posts. . .)

The webcomic Darths and Droids is doing a frame-by-frame re-telling of the Star Wars prequels as a gaming session. The players aren't aware of Star Wars as a cultural phenomenon; they're just running around in their GM's made-up world. As both a gamer and a Star Wars geek, I find the juxtaposition consistently amusing.

Equally amusing, if not more so, is the commentary at the bottom of each installment, in which the writer reflects on the events of that day's episode from a meta context. I particularly enjoyed today's observations.

Zam Wessel is a shapeshifter. She's shown quite explicitly to be a shapeshifter in the movie. Anakin even warns Obi-Wan to be careful when going into the bar in the scenes preceding this one because they are following a shapeshifter.

You'd expect some cool plot-related points to revolve around the undeniably interesting fact that Zam is a shapeshifter.

Except when Zam sneaks up behind Obi-Wan in the bar, she's in the exact same human-like shape she was in when they were chasing her, and that Anakin saw. She completely fails to use her shapeshifting ability in any sort of attempt to disguise herself.

And then she dies in this scene, and quite clearly reveals her shapeshifting capability. Wow, there are shapeshifters in the Star Wars universe! We've been shown that fact quite explicitly. Surely this will become important later in the plot.

Only it never does. It's never mentioned again anywhere else in any of the movies. I think Anton Chekhov just committed suicide with his gun.

If you're not familiar with "Chekhov's Gun", The TV Tropes and Idioms site has a full explanation. If you've never visited this site you should click the link even if you do know the reference. It's an amazing compilation.