We address Slug first here, as this article was originally written concerning only Slug. Snail was written after, on the late evening into wee hours of the 4th to 5th of December (12 Men) 2022. The Moon in early Taurus in the 3rd Mansion on Lunar Day 12.
Snail is addressed after the original text for Slug.
I was at my altar outside and a slug showed himself to me in my garden. He was moving so slowly and she (note the switched gender pronoun and upcoming gender-neutral pronouns – slugs are hermaphrodites, so, along with all plants, they are essentially intersex and/or genderless) elongated as I watched her. As I studied hir body, I realized that slugs do not have eyes. They only have feelers. So they reach out their feelers and sense. If they feel safe, they stretch out. And so they represent using our sense of feeling, trusting our feelings rather than what we see with our eye-balls. This can also have an effect of getting us “out of our head and into our body.” Slugs don’t have brains, after all: their neurological development is pre-brain. We are reminded to trust our body.
Slugs can even lift part of their body so part of it is in contact with the earth or whatever they are crawling on, and part suspended. Like a snake. And there is no weight in the part suspended up. The lesson here is one of leveraged flexibility, both physically and metaphorically. Practicing backbend Yoga asanas would be a good way to get some of this medicine into your body. Sphinx, Cobra, and Locust poses are all beneficial.
It is almost as though Slug is not a solid but a liquid, or some sort of otherworld material. Watching Slug move is like watching magic form, or life form itself out of wet ground. Its body is fluid, and reflects the soft undulating energy of the earth’s relaxed state. You will never see Slug in a chaotic, fast-paced scenario. If for some reason Slug encounters an even remotely aggressive or quick motion, it will contract and shorten greatly.
Slug can go from a centimeter or inch up to many inches, almost a foot (or maybe more!) depending on its size. If you settle down and observe Slug you will find that when it contracts, it seems to actually decrease in size, and when it elongates, somehow it grows visual volume. Slug even leaves a trail of liquid in its path that comes from the bottom of its body – where does the Slug and its state-of-matter-defying body come from? It seems to come from a realm “in between.” Perhaps Slug appears when we are so in tune with the natural slow flow of our surroundings that we can see the more subtle motions of movement that happen all the time around us anyway. We are in tune with a natural, conscious grace and fascination, and the beings that resonate with that feeling just appear in our view. Thus we learn that just being in one spot and slowly shifting along, we can reach great states of peace, presence, and stillness that can and will allow us to reset at where we are at in life. From there, we can find a deeper appreciation, a deeper breath, and a deeper stretch as we embrace life, trusting our feelings, as they are all we can ever really have!
If you come into contact with Slug, it wants to teach you something: to be so slow and steady that we can embrace being where we are and not having much chance of getting very far too fast. Once we accept our top speed, we can relax, and progress, and enjoy the ride, and truly take in life while leaving our mark.
If Slug does encounter a threat, hii can move pretty quickly and change course, but zir preference is always to slowly meander, extending feelers out in the dark, making way through the world silently and peacefully, oozing and leaving a trail to fertilize the ground and soil from which it manifests from. It doesn’t get much more down to earth than Slug.
…and what about Snail?
It’s apropos that this addendum is coming over 5 years after the first part was written; well, true to metaform, anyway! Snail 🐌 is one who takes hir time. What’s the difference, though? Well, let’s goo (get it? Like slime?) gle the biological/taxonomical difference first.
Well, according to https://carnegiemnh.org/whats-so-good-about-being-a-slug/, the external shell is the difference. In fact, slugs are an evolution of the snail, but the shell becoming internal provides as much detriment as it does advantage. So, it’s a bit crapshooty as far as evolution goes. Anyway, a snail can’t be made into a slug just by removing the shell, as they’re different organisms.
It is also important to note that if you see a snail and want to pick it up to move it to somewhere safer, never pick them by the shell unless they are retracted inside!!! This is because doing so causes them extreme pain and could even cause death, due to their “mantle” (muscle that connects the body to the shell and protects vital organs) being harmed by such an action. Here is a reddit thread explaining it in more detail.
If you keep pet snails or are rescuing them from a pavement for example, you should either slide them and get lift them off a smooth surface, or poke the shell gently until they retreat then lift them that way. Pulling them directly up when the foot is attached to the surface can cause mantle collapse.
https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/g1r4kb/ysk_that_youre_probably_picking_snails_up_wrong/
And here is a demonstration of how to pick up a Giant Snail, if you happen to encounter one…
Spiritually speaking, a Snail appearance, recurrence, or position as a long term Guide or Ally would indicate all of the above plus the following:
1. More protection/less vulnerability: you exhibit more of a “hard shell.” Perhaps you appear with more confidence because you stand out more but can easily deflect more predators with no acute effort besides retreat.
2. This protection comes at a price, though. You carry more weight and volume, and doing so takes more resources (energy and building blocks, which in huper terms could be seen as physical items, food, or money). You also can’t hide as quickly or as in many places.
3. Snail is a “vagabond” or “backpacker’s” spirit ally. Carrying their house on their backs, quite literally. Whether you carry your actual house, or just all of your possessions, you know that doing so is physically exhausting and requires great stamina. Therefore, folks in this position must move slowly. They’ll never be able to keep up with folks who aren’t carrying the same weight. But that’s okay. What’s important is being here, now, at your own pace.
Seeing Snail reminds us to BE like Snail. It’s more cute and beautiful, well put together than Slug. Sorry! Isn’t it much more enjoyable to be be one with those beautiful spiral shells? And not trying to find a hiding place? You got one!
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