I was in some sort of place, like a rental house or a place that was not my house. It was kind of like in Thailand or some tropical place that was not where I live in real life. A friend of my mother-in-law came to visit us and, while she was carrying my youngest (3 month old) in her arms, she saw a snake on one of the windowsills, on the inside of the house. My mother-in-law was there and she said that her friend was an expert with snakes and we shouldn't worry. The friend proceeded to obtain a metal poker and with that teased the snake from where it was hiding and then grabbed it. It was done in an unceremonious way but I could tell she was being careful. And all of this was done while holding my son in her arms, not worried at all.

She grabbed the snake with her other hand and laughed at our scared faces. The snake was indeed scary looking. When she first pulled it out it looked dark brown, almost black. But as she brought it closer to me the snake started changing to a more reddish color, until it was patterned with red and yellow, and had little horns of the same color.

She came straight towards me. Proffering the snake for me to take, saying not to worry and laughing at my fear. I was terrified, but her laughter made me feel a temporary bout of bravery. I tried to reach out but then my fear took over and I recoiled back, all the while telling her that I would grab it if she just gave me a second to talk myself through it. But she insisted, always laughing, pressing forward and giving me no space nor time to ground myself. I didn't perceive any malice in her, though I did think her mannerism was strange.

After a while she gave up and gave a big belly laugh. She started playing with the snake by teasing it's mouth with her arm (still holding my son) and then teasing it with my son's head. The snake would make as if to bite but just opened its mouth and then closed it without actually biting anything. It looked more slightly annoyed than angry.

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This is a very interesting dream. I have no idea who this lady was. I like to think it was a Neem Karoli Baba-figure.

The immediate interpretation that comes to mind is that this person was showing me that the fear I have of the things inside my mind are completely baseless, and I shouldn't fear them. I think the dream broke the 4th wall in the sense that it's full meaning could only be grasped after waking up, after seeing the dream as a whole, and was not immediately visible inside the dream itself. And this is important.

Most telling is the act of myself fearing the snake. The fear I felt was totally real to me, at the time. And yet, on waking up I had but to agree with the laughing lady and feel that indeed I had no reason to fear the snake as it was a dream snake.

I feel this aspect is making a parallel with real life. I've been thinking a lot lately about what they say of "real life" being but another dream, another illusion. Could it be that the lady was so sharp?

This interpretation hit me as soon as a woke up, which was as soon as my alarm sounded. At the time I felt a sense of awe for the holographicness of it all.

The snake represented my subconscious thoughts, but most importantly my fears. It was both the embodiment and the source of my fears. And yet, it was itself a thought inside my mind (an aspect of my dreaming mind) and so was my fear, and so was I as the dreamer.