“’Is it back in the deep?' 'Is it eating our sheep?'/ 'I think,' I said, 'that the serpent is playing.' " – from The Serpent Came to Gloucester by M.T. Anderson
Being fully vaccinated, we attended a reception in person – with real live people – at the Cape Ann Museum Friday night. Yes masks, no I did not get a drink, yes I talked to real people - one I did not know and to another I did, both connected to the Manship Artists Residency and Studios. We watched an artist brush lovely contour paintings of the Gloucester Sea Serpent on the walls to kick off programing focused on the sea serpent that was sighted in the harbor by dozens of people in 1817.
I have long been friends with that Sea Serpent. It entered my dreams more than once in the early 1980’s when we lived, worked, made art and raised our children in Gloucester, in-between the sculptor Paul Manship’s home and studio and Lanes Cove. At that time, I had been a sculptor and art educator for more than 10 years. In the first dream I was on the public bus that circles the island with my 5-year-old son. Sitting on the bus were all the famous artists from Lanesville living and dead, including Paul Manship, his son John and daughter-in-law Margaret, Walker Hancock, George Demetrius, Virginia Lee Burton and George Grafley. As the bus drove by the Manship’s, I rang the bell to get off, saying to my son “We have to go back and deal with the snake.” We walked back a block almost to the playground where a little green garter snake was crawling. As we leaned in to look at the snake more closely it grew almost instantly into a huge serpent. Just as instantly it became a fully saturated bright green. Its tail reached two blocks down into the ocean and its head reached far into the woods. This was no snake!
That bright green Sea Serpent sat like a mystery in the forefront of my consciousness until it returned about a year later with some of its friends. In this second dream I was walking across the Cut Bridge that connects downtown to Stage Fort Park on the mainland, when the bridge started shaking. Frightened, I thought ‘Earthquake!!!!!’ Turning towards the harbor, I saw what was causing the quaking. Scary bright green Sea Serpents, a bunch of them. Only they didn’t look scary. They were jumping up and making loop-de-loops in the air, then diving back into the water. They were playing.
I made a clay tile relief of the Sea Serpent and filled out forms for a grant to make a big relief of it for the High School which looks out over the bridge. The relief was so disappointing. It just couldn’t compete with the dream. I ripped up the grant application. A year later I stopped making art. I had simply made everything I wanted to make. I quit my job as an art educator at a museum. I realized that I had gotten off the art bus, just like in the dream. But I still didn’t know how to deal with the serpent. It took another year before I realized that I was called to the ministry. It required I cross the bridge for 35 years. I grieved leaving that island more than I can say. Instead, I choose to deal with the sea serpent. Sometimes it was scary. I lived through more than one earthquake. But I also got to make loop-de-loops in the air, jump back into deep waters and play with others.
The children’s book The Serpent Came to Gloucester is narrated by an old man who is telling about seeing the sea serpent as a child. The adults drive the serpent away by trying to catch it. The story ends on a melancholy note as the old man tells the story of his youth. It makes me cry every time. I have not had any more dreams about the serpent, but I have lots of memories of where it took me. It is my turn to tell those stories. I don’t feel sad though, because I know the Sea Serpent is alive and well, leading people all over the world to live vivid green, playful lives.
Have you had dreams that changed your life? What are their stories? Are there symbols that have guided your life’s journey? What are they? How has the land where you live affected those dreams and/or symbols? Does the land have its own stories to tell you? Do they show up in your dreams?