A Shrine is different from a Reliquary, in that it is a place to pray, and to request, in-voke, the presence and guidance of the divine. Perhaps the difference, to me, is that a Shrine is active, a Reliquary is reflective.

Gaia Shrine (2005)

Snake is, in the ancient world, almost always associated with the Earth Mother. Snakes are, like the moving energies of nature, serpentine, they flow, wind, and spiral.