A snake may be a negative or a positive symbol in a dream, representing danger and evil or healing and transformation. Your reaction to a dream about snakes will depend upon how you feel about snakes in waking life. If you are afraid of snakes, your dream may be a nightmare. If you like snakes or even keep a snake as a pet, your dream may leave you with pleasant feelings.
If you dream that a snake tries to bite you or choke you, a situation in waking life may be causing you to feel threatened. A snake that chokes you in a dream can represent a person who suffocates you in waking life. A pit of snakes or a pile of snakes at your feet can represent fears and worries. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, a snake in your dream can symbolize someone who is trying to tempt you to do something wrong.
The snake’s ability to shed its skin and grow a new one has caused it to become a symbol of healing and rebirth. The Rod of Asclepius, a symbol of healing and medicine, consists of a snake entwined around a staff. If you dream of a snake that is calm and does not try to attack you, you may be undergoing a process of healing in waking life. If the snake sheds its skin, you may be letting go of your past.
According to Indian mysticism, Kundalini, an instinctive force that is responsible for sexual energy as well as intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, is symbolized by a coiled snake at the base of the spine.
Jung believed that snakes represent the dark, mysterious aspects of ourselves that we do not reveal in our waking lives.
Freud thought that snakes were phallic symbols and could symbolize fears of masculine energy and repressed sexual urges.