No one could understand why I wanted a snake massage. “That sounds like some kind of punishment, like ‘You’re sentenced to 30 minutes of snake massage,’” my father said when I told him I was getting one. So when I heard about a woman in Los Angeles who did some kind of ritualistic snake encounters, I wanted an appointment. But she was on maternity leave, so I started searching online to see if there was another modern-day snake priestess around. Which is how I found Serpentessa, a woman who lives outside of New Paltz, N.Y., and who offers massages with her 10 snakes.

Source: New York Times May 21, 2019 21:33 UTC