There are hidden worlds within worlds. Take this spirit, for example – a spirit of a country garden, a small, observant, mild-mannered being. Some think it odd that a much-loved, well-kept, flower-festooned garden would take the form of a snake, instead assuming it would be a garden bird, or a deer, perhaps. A bunny. Sometimes people are disappointed to find this snake spirit, as if it’s not right, as if nature somehow got it wrong, but a snake has just as much of a place in a garden as the birds, or the bunnies, or the deer.

Creatures like snakes, the ones not so cute and fluffy, not so twee and endearing, are everywhere. They always have been and always will be. They are just as much a part of the natural balance as the bunnies or the deer. If anything, the garden is the one that is out of place, and perhaps the spirit is just bring a little balance back to the wide, barren lawns and neat, sparse hedges.