There is a youtube recording of the composer, Carolyn McDade, leading this song here. During 25 years of singing it, I have inadvertantly changed a note or two, and a bit of the timing, so please check this out for accuracy and to hear the feeling and timing of Carolyn leading the song.
I learned this powerful and healing song at a workshop with Carolyn McDade in North Carolina many years ago...probably 1995 or thereabouts. As I recall, the workshop consisted mostly of gathering around a piano and singing together for two or three days. A beautiful experience. Carolyn told us the story of when this Serpent of Life song arrived. She was at a meditation retreat on Cape Cod, and one day had not been comfortable sitting for a session. Instead Carolyn walked her meditation through the silence of a very foggy misty day. I have a vivid memory of imagining the scrub oaks and pines of Cape Cod brushing her face, and that she could barely stay on the path, it was so hard to see the ground. And suddenly she found herself singing this song, which arrived with no conscious work on her part. It came whole, out of the mist. At least that's the way I remember it these 25 years later; but of course I was not there in the mist with her. But that is the power of a story and a song! To learn more about Carolyn's work in spiritual feminist community song, please check out her website. I love moving as a snake or panther moves as I sing this song, and for me "her only garment" is fear.
I just found a recording of this song from 7 years ago, with Carolyn playing the keyboard and a group of women singing it. I realize listening that I had made some errors in a couple of notes...I sang it for so many years, I can understand how that could happen. But do listen to these women if you'd like to hear the subtle difference in the notes from my recording. The song is labeled
Serpent Song on that recording, but I am keeping the name
that I love for the song too.
Serpent Song
(Serpent of Life)
© Carolyn McDade
In the places that reek of impossiblity
The Serpent of Life coils
She crawls upon the swollen stone
Crawls upon the swollen stone
Crawls upon the swollen stone
And loosens her only garment
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