Went in to the bathroom to have a cool bath after watering herbs all round the garden, and found a large young lizard trapped inside the bath tub. I stood back and looked at the lizard and the lizard looked at me.
I don’t like picking up lizards in the heat because they are vulnerable to shock. I don’t want the lizard to drop its tail. And once out of the bath, I do not want the lizard to have a mouthy encounter with my small puppies.
So I threw an old bathrobe over the side of the bath and closed the bathroom door. I am hoping the lizard can clamber out and find a nook or cranny to escape through.
When I was a child I was enthralled by salamanders, those fiery lizards that live in mythical flame.
The lizard makes its appearance on the male court cards in the suite of rods or wands of the Tarot. The lizard (or salamander in older traditions) basks in the light of these cards to signify the importance of vision in the midst of action. In fact, in alchemical lore, it was believed that the lizard renewed its sight by looking into the sun.
EE Rhemus of The Magician’s Dictionary notes that the Persian word for lizard is samander and says:
“Fire elemental. A small salamander manages hearth and furnace and a larger one deals with volcanoes, earthly holocausts and the like. Its emblem is the Lamp. It is, supposedly, drawn by energy and strength but repelled by temperament, irascibility and violence. This powerful nature spirit, however, does not easily communicate with man and is the most difficult for us to understand. Its etymology, of course, is the Persian word for any lizard, samandar.”
Reptilian energies may be associated with fire, but they are cold-blooded and alien. I have great ambivalence about snakes and scorpions, the more so because they are not abstract symbols but live in my garden. Last week a large frog or toad leapt out of a pot of agapanthus I was about to water and I gasped with fright. This is the second visitation of an unexpected nature.
It is hot and dry, very arid all around the garden and fields right now and the lizard was looking for water. Probably the common sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), about eight inches long and the exact shade of a grey-green olive with some silver and a creamy underbelly. Alert but not frantic, just watching me with caution.
I live with tiny jewel-like geckos that drop from the old beamed ceilings every now and again with small thuds. I have shared rooms at game lodges with iguanas. One of my great joys is to know I have chameleons in a tall black-gold clump of restios. And I have a garden alive with lizards that thrive on the abundant insect life because I do not use pesticides.
So I shall wait for the lizard to make its escape and hope the bath will be empty of reptile life so that I can take a bath. And tonight I shall think about the salamander and the living flame that does not burn.
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