In The End, It's All Just A Game Of Snakes & Ladders

From Moksha To Making Moulah ~

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“In the end it’s all just a game of snakes and ladders.”

I was on my yoga mat, post-solstice, cross-legged, meditating in front of my infrared panel. I took a moment to proverbially pats myself on the back for slowing down since finishing my historic book Operation George Floyd.

My mind was still at the zero point, and then I heard:

“In the end, it’s all just a game of snakes and ladders.”

I’d never heard of that saying before. Was it a saying, I wondered? I played Snakes and Ladders as a chubby child in Montreal, Canada.

I was blown away by what I discovered. If you are an old soul and are tapped in, you will find that your Higher Self —not your Hurt Self — is very wise.

Origins of Ancient Hindu Dharma

The game Snakes and Ladders originated in ancient India and was created by Saint Gyandev, also known as Sant Dnyaneshwar, a Marathi saint and philosopher. It wasn’t just about fun, but as a teaching tool for Hindu dharma, designed to illustrate the path to moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth). It was known as "Moksha Patam" and dates back as early as the 2nd century BCE, though some sources place its development later, around the 10th to 13th centuries CE.

Wild, right?

Moksha is what I am after. The game is a spiritual allegory for samsara. The fact that it popped into my mind no longer felt random at all. Maybe it was my subconscious nudging me, "Hey, you’re on the board."

I was becoming more aware of what lifts me up… and what pulls me down.

The game was designed to teach children critical moral lessons.

Ladders represented virtues, such as faith, generosity, humility, and knowledge, while snakes symbolized vices, including anger, lust, greed, and pride. The idea was that good deeds (virtues) take you up the board toward liberation, while evil deeds (vices) send you down into suffering and rebirth.

The board initially had 72 or 100 squares. Each square showed either a good value or a bad one. Players moved their tokens based on the results of dice rolls or cowrie shells. When they landed on a ladder, they moved up. If they landed on a snake, they went down. The goal was to reach the top of the board, which stood for spiritual freedom or “Moksha.”

The ladders were rare—fewer paths up—but the snakes were many. Just like life. Just like now.

Some even suggest that the number of squares (often 100) corresponds to stages of consciousness, with the top square representing enlightenment or liberation. The original versions even had squares labeled with Sanskrit terms, such as Krodha (anger) or Daya (compassion).

The whole game is a metaphor — your soul climbing toward freedom, or sliding back into loops.

Families often used this game to teach children the value of good actions. The simple is an easy way to introduce someone to the fact that life is full of ups and downs. The game made these lessons fun and easy to understand.

There is no shortage of loops, yet weak mortals refuse to sit with their shadows and clear the trauma responses. This life and your hurts don’t define you.

How about soul lineage because your soul IS eternal, and everything is energy.

Victorian Times || The Devolution

British colonial rulers brought to Victorian England in the late 19th century. English virtues and vices replaced the Indian in an effort to reflect Victorian doctrines of morality better.

Ladders appear in squares of good deeds, such as Thrift, Penitence, and Industry, and snakes appear in squares of evil deeds, such as Dishonesty, Cruelty, and Indolence.

They also balanced out the number of snakes and ladders. There was no more specific meaning for the squares. The focus shifted to recreational gameplay and family entertainment. There used to be 14 snakes and five virtues, and now it’s six and six. Nice!

Sanitization of Symbolism: From Snakes To Chutes

Social engineering happens through well-intended education. Milton Bradley’s influence helped shape generations through seemingly harmless games that encoded moralistic success-failure structures.

Just before the American Civil War, Bradley was printing lithographs, but when designs of a clean-shaven Abraham Lincoln became outdated, he pivoted to games as a survival move.

He was described as a progressive educator aligned with the “Kindergarten movement,” which emphasized learning through structured play. His first game was Candy Land. His first and most famous creation was The Checkered Game of Life, published in 1860, which was initially steeped in Masonic symbolism, starting with the checkered board.

Milton died in 1911.

When I told my friend about my download, he told me he had never heard of the snakes. So I looked into it. Milton Bradley, the company, introduced the game to the United States in 1943, retaining the snakes, which were reasonably close to the British version. The game was rebranded and de-snaked in 1952. Snakes were now too scary. Chutes were innocent and marketable to 1950s American families.

Stripped of its spiritual and moral themes and became more secular and child-friendly. It became more of a game of “fun.” The game has taken on many new forms, including digital versions. Now, you don’t even need a physical board to enjoy the game, and it’s not about virtues but cash! How apropos.

From Sacred to Satan. From liberation to making money in the never-ending loop of the material with no true liberation—no Moksha, no spiritual meaning. Just dopamine hits.

Regardless, in the end, it is all a game of snakes and ladders. Liberation is not some esoteric fantasy. You came here with a divine blueprint not to become, but to remember. You don’t ascend by becoming more. You escape by remembering you were never stuck.

Just consider, the matrix will taunt you. And when you say “no”, it throws a tantrum.

Let it.

Do not react. Respond instead.