Freud seems like a solid enough starting point. Old Siggy was a vocal advocate for dream analysis, writing about the subject at great length. And speaking of great length, he’s also the figure in psychiatry most easily dismissed by many as a pervy old Austrian who couldn’t keep his mind out of the gutter. In the case of dreaming about snakes, however, he managed to subvert expectations, not interpreting the long, tube-like creatures as anything crass or obscene, but rather… no, nevermind. According to Psychology Today, he thought they represented the phallus. What were the odds?

Carl Jung, on the other hand, saw the slithering reptiles in multiple hues. On the one hand, he mentioned in The Red Book that they represented ancient wisdom, but he also called it “an adversary and a symbol of enmity.” In other writings, he brought up the fact that snakes are naturally feared by human beings, going back to prehistory. And, yes, he also stated that “The daimon of sexuality approaches our soul as a serpent.”

New Age interpretations of snake dreams, meanwhile, run the gamut from “there’s something sinister sneaking up on you” to “you’re undergoing a personal transformation like a snake shedding its skin” to, yes, more sex stuff.

Basically, dream interpretation is still a choose-your-own-adventure novel. It’s just a highly erotic one.