"The spider has shown up in myth and lore throughout the world. Usually its symbolism has been very similar wherever it is used. In India it was associated with Maya, the weaver of illusion. It has had connections to the Fates in Greek mythology and the Norns in Scandinavian lore - women who would weave, measure, and cut the threads of life. To the Native Americans, spider is grandmother, the link to the past and the future. Spider teaches you to maintain a balance - between past and future, physical and spiritual, male and female. Spider teaches you that everything you now do is weaving what you will encounter in the future. In the tarot deck is a card - The Wheel of Fortune. This is a card that has to do with rhythms - the rise and fall, the flow and flux. It is linked to the energies of honor and fame, and the sensitivities necessary to place ourselves within the rhythm of Nature. Meditation upon this card would be beneficial for anyone with the spider as a totem. The spider awakens creative sensibilities. It weaves a web of intricate and subtle fabric, as if to remind us that the past always subtly influences the present and future. Often the webs will take a spiral shape, the traditional form of creativity and development. The spider found within the web reminds us that we are the center of our own world. The ancient mystery schools had one precept inscribed above their portals: "Know Thyself and Thou Shalt Know The Universe!" Spider reminds us that the world is woven around us. We are the keepers and the writers of our own destiny, weaving it like a web by our thoughts, feelings and actions. The spider, because of its characteristics, has come to be associated by mystics and in mythology in three predominant expressions of magic. The first is magic and energy of creation. It is a symbol of creative power, reflected in its ability to spin a silken web. It is also associated with assertiveness of that creative force, of keeping the feminine energies of creation alive and strong. The third predominant magic of the spider is associated with its spiral energy, the links with the past and the future. The spiral of the web, converging at a central point, is something to be meditated upon by those with this totem. Are you moving toward a central goal or are you scattered and going in multiple directions? Is everything staying focused? Are you becoming too involved and/or self-absorbed? Are you focusing on others' accomplishments and not on your own? Are you developing resentment because of it - for yourself or them? Spider is the guardian of the ancient languages and alphabets. Every society has had myths about how the different languages and alphabets were formed. The Chinese alphabet is attributed to Ts'ang Chien, the god with the dragon face and four eyes. He formed it from the patterns of the stars, the marks on the back of the turtle and the footprints of birds in the sand. The Norse god Odin created the Runic alphabet after hanging upon the great tree of life for nine days and nights. After this time, the twigs fell off and spelled our certain formulas and words. To many, there was an alphabet even more primordial. It was formed by the geometric patterns found within spider's web. To many this was the first true alphabet. This is why spider is considered the teacher of language and the magic of writing. Those who weave magic with the written word probably have a spider totem. If spider has come into your life, ask yourself some important questions. Are you not weaving your dreams and imaginings into reality? Are you not using your creative opportunities? Are you feeling closed in or stuck as if in a web? Do you need to pay attention to your balance and where you are walking in life? Are others out of balance around you? Do you need to write? Are you inspired to write or draw and not following through? Remember that spider is the keeper of knowledge of the primordial alphabet. Spider can teach how to use the written language with power and creativity so that your words weave a web around those who would read them.

"Spider"
Excerpt from Animal Speak
by Ted Andrews



The Miraculous Spinning Of A Spider's Web...


What a time it has been for me. As I am the Phoenix crashing and burning, and just beginning the inevitable rise that comes afterwards, a time when doors are closing and windows are opening, Nature's smallest creatures are coming to me to teach me, to guide me on my path. First, the tiniest of tree frogs, so tiny they could sit on my big fingernail, spoke to me and told me their secrets. I wrote about the frog as totem several entries back.

Now, the spider has come. Several times a day I go outside to look at Bella (I first called her Betty but came to feel that that did not honor her beautiful, mystical place in this Universe. Now, when I leave her to come in, I whisper, 'Ciao Bella,' and I think she understands that I am honoring her, that I love her, that I am trying to protect her, and that I bow to her in gratitude as she has come to me as teaching.
Grandmother Spiderwoman spun the web of the world. Ted Andrews tells us that spiders as totems teach us to spin the web of our own destiny. It's time for me to weave again.

A few years back I was going through a very painful time, a learning time, a metamorphosis. I got out a small hexagonal loom (... smooth worn wood from much use, made in the 40's or 50's. They were made to be potholder looms...). For me, weaving one is part of the spiral journey that leads me into the center of myself and back out again with the answers I seek. Every night I would weave until 2 or 4 a.m. I sang, softly, sacred weaving songs from the Dine (Navajo) from centuries ago. It was a very hard piece to weave, tightly woven and going round and round in a spiral pattern, and by the time I got to the middle my fingers hurt from working the weaving needle in and out and round and round. But as we get closer to our center, the place where the mystery of our being lies, is it not harder and harder the closer we get?

I called this piece Ariadne's Web, and have had many people who wanted to buy it, and while I do sell my weaving, it has become more and more personal to me, so that the lessons I learn with each piece are part of the map of my journey, and the legacy I will leave my children and grandchildren. A story woven for them, how one imperfect woman could make her way through life, acquiring belief in herself, and as she begins the journey into Cronehood, comes to realize all that she is as a woman. I will leave my children, grandchildren and their children the knowledge that it is never too late, and that the effort to achieve your dreams is a thousand fold more mysterious and miraculous than you could ever dream at the outset.

I meditate upon Ariadne's Web, and Bella, my spider guide, right outside my front door, is leading me back into my writing and art after a long dry spell, when I was so frozen by life and grief that I was caught in a web of my own making and could not move. I will cherish this small piece of weaving for the rest of my days. It will have been one of the greatest teachings of my life...





Now, I am working on another kind of fiber work. It is freeform crochet, crocheted with my amazing set of hand-carved and hand-painted crochet hooks by the amazing artist, designer and writer, Noreen Crone-Findlay. These are magical tools, and in it's own way, crocheting in this manner feels very like a kind of weaving to me.








The piece I am working on I started many months ago, but when the gloom descended I was not able to create, and it caused me great pain. This piece is so big it could take me 2 or 3 years because much of my other work will be done alongside it as I create things to sell and write the book I am working on. The piece is 10' wide and will be 10' long. It is enormous, bright, colorful, and it is telling me a story as I go, and helping me working my way, with fibers and wooden tools, into the next phase of my life. It will be felted which will shrink it some, and I call it "The Magic Carpet." It will be part of the new life I will be creating in the little old cottage I am hunting down now. I will have begun it here and end it in the cottage I will spend the rest of my life in, in a tiny sea town on the coast of the Carolinas. It sits folded in a very large, very heavy, Mary Poppins-ish carpet bag. Here are a few pictures of The Magic Carpet in process...










And so the weaver weaves, and the dreamer dreams, and I weave my web where I will sit at the center and plan my new life. Look in your garden. Surely you will find me there.

Ciao Bella...

"The golden silk orb-weavers (genus Nephila) are a genus of spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous individual species found around the world. They are also commonly called golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders or banana spiders. In North America, the golden silk orb-weavers (see also Nephila clavipes) are sometimes referred to as writing spiders due to occasional zigzag patterns (stabilimenta) built into their webs, though these occur much more frequently in the webs of Argiope..."

~ From Wikipedia ~




My favorite summer spider, the Argiope, which I've always called "Zipper Spiders" because of the distinctive zipper down the middle of her web. I just cannot imagine how she makes that and it is so astonishing beautiful if you see them in person, you will never forget it. I have these all over my garden in the late summer and we co-exist quite happily and I'm honored that she finds safety and solace in my garden. To see the babies emerge later is precious beyond compare...

If you had told me a spider was ANYWHERE near me when I was little, I would have gone into a screaming fit running for my life. As a young married woman if a teensy little spider was walking across the ceiling, I could not go to bed and would shriek wildly for my husband to come and get it. I would be near hysterical saying, "It's going to fall on me, it's going to FALL on me."

My husband was good about getting them, but he'd always kind of chuckle as he left the room saying, "Spiders don't just FALL on you..." Perhaps it was just taking an evening stroll, but to this day I don't like a spider creeping across the ceiling over my bed.

I've never seen, thank God, a brown recluse spider and may have seen a black widow outside once, but they've no interest in me and try to hide from me. I think I heard one say, "Dear Lord, stay away from that woman, she's a big freaking idiot and will break your eardrums just before you are caught in a jar and put out. It's just not worth it..."

I have gained a bad reputation with spiders.

Then came the day, after putter-gardening (You know, a little flat of pansies or something stuck in a barrel), that I became a REAL gardener. I have spent 2 decades studying horticulture, botany and outdoor creatures. In one quarter acre garden where I planted 60 roses and every kind of annual, perennial, flowering bush and tree, I became quite used to finding very large garden spiders. I must admit to being a little alarmed at first but they weren't bothering me and I wasn't bothering them. They were just living their Garden Spider-ish life and I was just sitting in my chair studying up on planting rare seeds and where the best place would be, micro-climate wise. Then, came the day I first saw the Argiope (zipper) spider. Well, I mean they are BIG. Quite large indeed. And instead of running I stood mesmerized by her beauty. A black and yellow spider, with very long legs, building not just a very large web but one with a zipper, plain as day, going straight down the middle of her web (see picture above.). From that day forward I fell in love with them and looked for their summer arrival. We've had them all over the place and stood entranced as she worked on her web, a true work of art.

Well, the last couple of years here in the Carolinas everyone has been all abuzz about "The Banana Spider." My daughter, who has always been terrified of spiders, said, with a shudder, "Ew, they are all over the neighbor's yard." Well, that got me, I was fascinated. I kept meaning to come home and look them up to see and read about them, but when I get home from anywhere I am met by a big black dog and 4 puggish little people hurling themselves at me like they were sure I had left them FOREVER and they were CERTAIN that they weren't going to survive, and then 6 parrots all start chattering and screeching and by the time I get 11 little hooligans taken care of, dogs out and in, all I can manage is to flop in the chair and breathe.

A couple of days ago I found, in my yard, and slanting backwards away from me, the largest spider web I have ever seen. Attached to a big bush, a little bush, and a tree, many feet away. That is the most beautiful and intricately woven web I have ever seen. I stood absolutely still without so much as breathing and just gawked. I am a weaver, you see, and I will never get over the spider's web, a truly beautiful won. And of course the Native American weavers from centuries back have told stories about Grandmother Spider, also Grandmother Spiderwoman, who wove the web of the world, and is sort of the patron saint of weavers. Now, when I see a spider out of doors I feel very protective.

So I've been going out to watch her progress and I imagine she's gearing up for babies, because she eats like a horse. Yesterday I watched her catch a bumble bee, do him in, and this morning he is rolled in the white filament that insects, too busy bumbling about to realize what is about to seal their fate, fly right into a spider's web. I swear, I think a lot of them need glasses with the predicament they get themselve into. That bee is supper and it's too bad, but the big spider looked quite pleased with herself. And yes, she is a Banana Spider.

I love that they are also called "Golden Silk Orb Weavers," and when I read that they are also called "Writing Spiders" I just giggled like a ten year old. I am a weaver and a writer. This spider and I are somehow related. And watching her build that giant web is just utterly fascinating.

So here I've been, communing with my Banana Spider whom I call Betty, and there were workmen outside yesterday and I caught one of them throwing something in Betty's direction. I rushed out the door like a madwoman (People just love to ruin their carefully woven webs, preparing for their babies, and woebetide the person who makes the mistake of doing it in front of me, and to Betty of all things!) flailing my arms about in a ridiculous manner and said, "Did you throw something at her??? YOU LEAVE MY SPIDER ALONE!!!" I think I'da jumped one of them and smashed him on the ground if he'd have hurt her or her web. Luckily, my crazy act scared the men so badly they left in a hurry, with Betty and I chuckling in the dust they left behind them. I told Betty she was doing just fine and I'd run the hooligans off.

Now I keep checking on her. I have become fiercely protective of all the creatures outside who inhabit my little corner of the world. When I moved in here I was warned about working outside making my garden because there was a BIG TERRIBLE SNAKE OUT THERE and all of the neighbors were terrified of it. Everyone had seen it and it apparently liked living around my place. Well, I gardened in ever nook and cranny and never saw this BIG SCARY SNAKE anywhere. I kept getting warned. They were a-feared for my very life. So I started asking questions, "What does it look like, how big is it, etc?") By now, I was imagining horrific poisonous snakes dangling from trees like in the amazon jungle. Turns out, I realized, after talking at length to my neighbors, that it was just a common black snake who not only is not poisonous, they do good things out there, and them don't come chasing you down to kill you at the first opportunity.

Now, mind, I still don't want a spider to "fall" on me, but I've said this outside and heard spiders laughing at me everywhere. I think I heard one particularly rude spider say something along the lines of, "Does she really think we'd want to fall on HER?" I think it shuddered.

In any event, you'd better stay out of my yard and away from my spiders or I shall have to TAKE STEPS. You don't want me to TAKE STEPS because with my feet taking a step has often propelled me through space and I'd probably fall on YOU and flatten you. Spiders don't fall, people do...

Maitri, spider protector and champion of other outside creatures, even the fire ants that we have here in the south which you surely want to stay clear of, but you've got to admire their diligence...