The snake in the grass - shame & veils

At the beginning of this summer, I had a healing day with magic truffles.

During a journey like this, parts of me often come to the surface that have been constricting me in my life - and that slowly begin to find more peace afterwards. This time, I became more aware of the role of shame. And with it came the image of a snake.

The next day, I went for a walk in the woods. And there, in the green grass, a snake was slithering by.

The veils

As human beings, we live behind layers of veils, often without being aware of them, that make life heavier and greyer than it could be. For me, this summer, it was shame: a feeling deep inside that I am not good enough - with a hefty dose of perfectionism thrown in to cope with it.

Other familiar veils are, for example, the feeling that we always need to be in control, or that life is fundamentally unsafe.

As young children, we are often still free of these veils: fully alive, pure, ourselves. Everything flows, and it feels good. The way sunlight sparkles on paving stones can be enough to bring great happiness.

Returning to freedom

Can the veils dissolve?

Yes, they can. The veils have had their time. What keeps striking me is how precisely they latch onto my vulnerabilities. Our bodies remember what we have been through, and this is where the veils find their grip: in old wounds that, at first, we may not even consciously remember.

For me, it was the wound of rejection, carried since I was twelve - deeply afraid because my mother had been seriously ill at an earlier point in my life. During that period, my parents weren't able to be there for me emotionally. Not because they didn't want to be, but because they had never learned how to truly be there for themselves.

How the veils shape our lives

If we want to become freer, it is important to carefully look at what has a grip on us, and what exactly it is telling us. It often operates very intelligently, under the radar, without us realising it - year after year. And it reflects itself back to us, everywhere in our lives.

For example, it can create the illusion that other people are judging us for something we actually reject in ourselves: “He thinks I’m too anxious,” or “They look down on me because I’m insecure.”

The veils also operate within our collective consciousness, which gives them even more power. Like the story that we are only valuable when we work hard and do something useful. An afternoon nap, which our dogs and cats enjoy so much, doesn't quite fit into that story.

The snake is not a snake

The veils are powerful and have many faces.

When we learn to compassionately explore what is going on in our subconscious, we discover that the snake is not a snake - but a rope that we never needed to be afraid of.

And so we can move through life more freely and lightly again, true to ourselves.

September 2026

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