After dancing around the plaza each dancer gently puts the snake on the ground and then he and his guide go back for another snake. The Snake- Gatherer picks up the snakes the dancers have put down and hands them to the Antelope Society dancers singing in the long line. The Antelopes song is describing the clouds coming from the four directions and the rain falling.

The rain that comes with the Snake Dance is the consummation of the union of the two universal polarities, the release of the mystic rain which recharges all the psychic centers of the body and renews the whole stream of life in man and earth.

After the last of the snakes are danced with a group of women make a circle of cornmeal besides the Kiva. The Antelope Society members bring their armloads of snakes and place them inside the cornmeal circle.

Each of the Snake Society members pick up as many snakes as they can carry until all the snakes are gathered. The Snake Society members take the snakes back out into the desert where the snakes are distributed to the west, the south, the east and the north where the snakes are blessed again and released to carry to the four corners of the earth the message of the renewal of life.

When the men come back they drink a bowl of strong emetic called naneyoya. They then stand on the edge of the cliff and throw up. This is so their bellies won’t swell up with the power like the clouds and burst.

The women help the dancers to clean the paint off the dancers’ bodies after which the men return to the Kiva for purification.

The Snake – Antelope is the last major ceremony in the annual cycle. The Snake – Antelope ceremony shows how the interplay of the universal forces within man can be controlled and made manifest in the physical world.

The Snake – Antelope Ceremony is the physical representation of the two universal forces that are the roots of all levels of manifestation.

The Snake is the symbol of kundalini, the Female, Earth/Lunar, Fire Energy that is hidden deep within man and earth. The kundalini must be raised through the energy centers of man and earth to join with the Male Solar Fire Energy. It is only when the two energies are joined as one that man and the earth are complete.

The Antelope is a symbol of air, freedom, action, strength of mind and heart, and represents the highest center in man and earth that the Snake must rise to.

The Mystic Marriage of the Snake Maiden and Antelope Youth is a symbol of the joining of the two universal forces.

The snake hunt symbolizes the inner search for the kundalini force. The searching for the snakes in the four directions is symbolic of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and of the shape of the root chakra where the serpent lies asleep coiled three and a half times. The shape of the root chakra is a circle divided into four sections.

The race shows how the Snake, the kundalini, rises up to join with the Antelope. The crisscross pattern of the race shows the pattern of kundalini as it rises up through the chakras. The racing itself is symbolic of how fast the kundalini rises. The water jug carried by the fastest racer is symbolic of the Female Lunar Fire. The dance is the climax of the ceremony where the energy that has been raised and is now usable is released to do the work assigned to it: the bringing of the rain.

The Snake – Antelope Ceremony is fascinating. It is a very graphic description of kundalini and its rise through the chakras. It is not the handiwork of a primitive people. It was developed by a people of a very high knowledge of the universe and its operation. This one ceremony alone gives credibility to their myth of coming from another world and going to another as long as they perform their ceremonies.

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