Beginnings: New Narratives
Like all beings on the planet, we’re all on some kind of a journey. Well, that’s the story/belief held by many types of people. No matter how we want to add spicy meaning to life, we tend to create stories and realities together no matter what we call it - a journey, a vacation, or random chaos. We also inherit it since we’re born into social groups. Of course, how I express that journey/story thang is uniquely human. One simply doesn’t see a pride of lions sitting around looking at their claws and meditating on the contours of their existence. They are usually having much more fun romping, sleeping, eating, and carving out personal and group boundaries. Only humans, probably anyway, stress out about the so called “bigger” questions in life. I’ve started to notice too many of those “bigger” questions are asked because of an intrinsic sense of separation from the entanglement of the cosmos. The bigger the separation, often the more dysregulated are the stories - which tend to reflect that separation - rather than providing a healthier set of stories that bear better fruit. I’m of the belief that ideologues don’t want scientifically measured fruit because there could be a real crisis of “faith” in the social construct that is desired.
For instance, social dominance types like many conservative Christians I am familiar with, can point to the fruit of blessings found in the bible if their desired “biblical” social order is constructed. They interpret the meaning and stories of the text in light of what is usually already in their hearts. It’s not hard to confirm social domination and hierarchy in the bible. Christianity didn’t invent it but it tracks contours of human story making and unmet needs. In this version of Christianity, however, it does not matter that the social order preferred produces poor health outcomes due to the structure of that desired “social order.” The construct, having a very well made series of rationalizations, points to its own theological conclusions [e.g. It’s sin dummy]. The belief is the social organization is divine and therefore good and that it’s just the execution of that blessed social order is being created and enforced by sinners. It does not matter that happily subjugated people are STILL subjugated people. The notion that slaves would be happy without the sin “issue” seems rather incredulous and at best, fairly naive. It’s not even the most basic of common sense. The rationalizations win out because it’s the construction of the society that is the true god, so the fruit it produces must be rationalized in other ways to maintain that alleged divine order. That divine order, by the way, has a tendency to meet a lot of internalized needs that didn’t get met somewhere else. It cannot occur to these types of Christians the text may be in error or their god, unfortunately, is a creation of dysregulated humans with inter-generational family trauma.[1]
It’s this type of example that I derive the Twisted Serpent. It’s the notion that an abusive person is a healing person. It reflects a trauma bond and it generally marries violence with love whereby some acts, no matter how micro or macro, are seen as necessary, good, even righteous, when they are actually just what our body’s tell us - wrong, shaming, violation, evil. It’s a twisted form of “healing.” In old parlance I’m familiar with, there was a swath of Christians I used to wander around with who possessed an extensive demonology. They had come to be so deceived and in love with their demonology [ergo - the life of their mind] that demons could heal other people. But it was a false healing even if the healing looked identical to a Jesus healing. That rationalization and nuance found in those conclusions could be both creative and startling. What I describe in the Twisted Serpent is metaphorically similar only I prefer to use fruit, usually associated with some reliable science, to determine some aspects of the twist in the serpent. I also use my body - it doesn’t lie to me like humans who need to dominate others tend to do. Demons by the way, don’t heal. One person’s demon is another person’s healer, but in the Christian world, it’s important to remember that Jesus explicitly said that he did not cast out demons by the power of the evil one [Matthew 12.23-26]. There is no record of demons healing [that I can find anyway]- good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit- it’s black and white in the world of Jesus [Matthew 7.16-18].[2]
What I find in the Twisted Serpent is entire groupings of stories and shared experiences through communal lenses that appear to be healing but are actually extraordinarily harmful. We are usually pretty wedded to our narratives. We get our needs met through the stories we tell. It’s hard to let go of those stories when they justify so much of the world to bodies that may tell another story.
For me, it’s simply time for new narratives.
How did I get here?
There are a lot of voices out there already. In some ways, I hate adding mine. Not because I don’t think I may have nothing relevant to add to the discourse, but mainly because what I offer comes from another set of motivations. I’m not looking to be right. I’m not looking to be an expert. I AM looking for growth in the nuance of uncertainty. I have recognized a number of issues that I experience inter-personally that by and large, appear as complicated, albeit nuanced, manifestations within communities. I don’t approach this place from a position of academic understanding, although I read academic research. I don’t even necessarily come at it from a full blown understanding of my own credentials and training. The more I’ve learned in life, the more I realize I don’t know a lot more than I know, or at least think I know. There are so many other “experts” out there that are doing a fantastic job asking and researching serious questions that I don’t really feel compelled to compete with or be one of them. I will make mistakes - passionately.
I’m simply interested in the stories I’m hearing, how they are experienced by my person, and how they appear to be experienced in more communal spaces.
I’m a boots on the ground person. I look at relationships all over and wonder openly, how do we walk in healthier ways for all of life on this planet? I like the practical places. And for me, that’s my type of salty “wisdom.” It’s not lofty. It’s not so high above anyone’s head they can’t grasp it. It’s not confusing parables meant to offend the mind. Why bother then? Most people are just trying to put their shoes on and tie them properly instead of taking their time wondering about semantics. Too many people appear to be in survival brain. I like to condense what I read and share the journey here - mixed with my own journey/story. How things can work for you with the tools of your choosing is functionally up to you. A lot of what I write about on the Twisted Serpent and Salty Wisdom, comes from my own observations mixed with research, reading, and training. At the end of the day, it’s more about me not being some kind of expert, and more about anyone who flits here trusting themselves and taking or leaving what makes sense to you. Above all, intuition and discernment are key in the realm of relating. Stories impact how all that relating happens or doesn’t happen.
I’m just someone walking around with food for thought in my head. You’re going to have to be the one to figure out if the recipe works for you or not or whether the twisted serpent applies to you enough to do something about it. Part of this is me doing something about it in my own life. That’s your journey job. I have my journey job.
At any rate, I got here by working on a cat arting project. Something a bit weird happened and I ended up realizing it was probably time to “say” something about the stories we tell. It was time to start making up some new ones.
Notations
[1] There are other possibilities rather a humble two options. We’re pretty creative as a species. Some conclude there is no god. I don’t think it has to end at that point. It’s not for me to decide so I leave it to the reader. It’s your journey.
[2] I know, I know, it’s out of context. Matthew 7 is talking about prophet types. But here is the thing, the charismatic prophets I know are usually teaching on demons, demonology, and deliverance. It seems like a principle to me in the wake of the construct of what and how demons are understood by these people. They describe these various spirits that drive humans to do evil things found in the bible and in their own sense of morality. If a demon heals someone from some particular situation so that they are no longer acting in a particular way - would they call that a demon or a false healing? Well, the latter, because at this point in time, and in my own experience of this group, the inability to explain healing of a supernatural variety outside of Jesus creates cognitive dissonance. For instance, if they see people who speak in tongues but are not Christians, it’s “false” tongues. It doesn’t occur to them that religious and ritual space might have similar activity and if it does, because Christianity tends to construct anything that isn’t itself as Satan and his minions, well, they can literally practice witchcraft in Jesus name while not calling it witchcraft.
Another twist in the serpent is about healing. If these ministries heal someone and that healing doesn’t stick they don’t call it a “false healing.” Instead, it’s a “lost” healing. They can’t even bring themselves to call it a “failed” healing. There are some teachers who actually sell teaching about how to hold on to your miracle healing. I’m not sure Jesus had that problem with people “losing” their healings. It’s fun how the life of the mind works when it comes to rationalizing behavior and defending the ego from cognitive dissonance.