Current read - Snake Talk: How the World’s Ancient Serpent Stories Can Guide Us

I was shopping for a gift recently when this cover caught my eye from a little corner table at the book store.

I'm not familiar with the authors, although I've since discovered that this title follows a similarly devised earlier book "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World" (you can read a review of that title here).

I'm so glad I purchased it on a bit of a whim, because I've been immediately drawn into the story, and its expansive view. The authors bring together ancient Lore of The Serpent, in its many guises, from all across the globe, weaving together stories of the Basilisk, Wyvern, Quetzalcoatl and many other mystical and mythical serpents, demonstrating the universality of this foundation story across Indigenous cultures and "...(inviting) us to see the world through the eyes of the Serpent."

Snake Talk: How the World's Ancient Serpent Stories Can Guide Us, published 2025 by The Text Publishing Company

Co-author Tyson Yunkaporta describes his work as focussed "...on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve complex issues and explore global crises..." and this rings through Snake Talk, with a focus on taking traditionally held cultural knowledge and applying it through a contemporary lens.

It's a fantastically well written book, with a lively, authentic voice and it's peppered throughout with little anecdotes from both authors' lives and families. As someone with Irish heritage, I particularly enjoyed the chapter "Deadly Wyrms" which explores the Celtic and Gaelic stories of two serpent beings, the Wyrm and the Great Wyrm and their dual roles as powerful supernatural forces of both destruction and regeneration. The Wyrms are the keepers of tradition, embodying the consequences of failing to observe cultural protocols or protective customs, and they guard sacred places and waterholes.

Over and again the authors weave together the stories, showing corresponding elements of this traditional knowledge from regions as diverse as China, Northern Europe, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the Himalayas.

I'm enjoying this book enormously, and looking forward to picking up a copy of "Sand Talk" once I'm done. I'll leave you with the final words of the book, titled "What the Snake Says," which distill the enormous wisdom contained in the pages, and remind me broadly of the all encompassing permaculture principles (but that's a blog for another day...).