Golden Phoenix: 

The Fruit That Nourishes By Day, And The Serpent That Guides By Night

"I grew up here, so it’s not really this crazy jungle to me, it’s just my backyard." - Solomon McCrackin

Solomon machete-ing his way through the midnight jungle

6th May 2025

One evening, on a full moon, Solomon invited my friend Diana, her brother Daniel and I on a night tour within the raw jungle terrain on his father David’s land. As we followed Solomon down into the dense and dark tunnel of green, it was his cadence and way of moving through the jungle, with a groundedness and calm, that served as a shield toward any element of fear. His body language spoke fluently of the familial bond he shared with the jungle. The night carried a current of ridiculous humor too, a kind of irreverent banter wove itself through clumsy steps, tangled in the jungle’s metaphors, punctuated by random side commentary and headlamps that had Diana swallowing bugs mid-sentence.

Solomon’s senses were extremely impressive, in his chill demeanor, he would crouch atop the forest floor, pointing to a spider so camouflaged it seemed conjured. One after another, no webs in sight, just earth-dwelling hunters revealed beneath his attentive gaze. Many of these were wandering spiders, active stalkers rather than weavers. Each one reflecting stillness and precision.  

Then came the moment that stilled us all entirely: as we walked, Solomon reached out and gently pulled down a single large plantain leaf along the edge of the path. There were countless others just like it, layered one after another in a green cascade, but that was the one. Coiled across it lay the eyelash pit viper, poised in stillness, yet fully alert and aware. With no visible signal, not even a whisper of movement to suggest its presence, Solomon had felt it. The act was so casual it felt like he was in communication with the snake, planning the revelation together. It was undeniably magical, like witnessing someone follow a storyline only they can sense. Because there it was, curled in silence, perched on defense, flashing its tongue at us, right there. 

Within the video, which shows a glimpse of the night tour, Solomon proceeds to jokingly yet calmly speak about the eyelash pit viper. He assesses its stance, its mood and its prowess. He does not speak about the snake, but with it. Translating its message in real time. We were not merely absorbing information about snakes that night, we were being introduced to them. Not as symbols of fear, or textbook specimens, but as spirits. As presences. He reassured us that the snake, regardless of the menacing position it was in, did not wish to attack us. And we wholeheartedly believed him, not simply because we were told, but because it was genuinely true. 

The snake still harbors its mystery, and there is beauty in that, but what it stirred in us was ease, a powerful undoing of the fears some of us have been taught to carry. These voices of fear, understandably, also come from lived realities. I do not dismiss the danger of a venomous bite. But fear that lives unexamined in the body, especially toward the living creatures we share this earth with, does not serve us. Each time we train to soften the conditioned walls between ourselves and the wild, we deepen our role in the ecology of this Earth. It is a process, but to begin is crucial in this day and age. Solomon may not name what he does as healing, but it is. His calm, his trust, his way of moving through the world… it transmits. He is a guide in the truest sense. A real bridge to return. There is something profound in meeting the jungle alongside his presence.

For anyone who wishes to book a night tour with Solomon, click here

Read more Golden Phoenix lore: Durian David