Spider

Spider

NAME: Spider Grandmother or Spider Woman (Navajo, Pueblo, Tewa, Kiwa, Hopi & Cherokee), Areop-Enap (Micronesia), Biliku (India), Arachne (Greek), Anansi (African), Nareau (Gilbert Islands, current Kiribati), Tule (Sudan & Zaire), Uttu (Sumerian spider goddess of weaving and of clothing.)

SYMBOLS: Depends on the culture of the Goddess, God or folk hero. As would be expected in many the web, but also the loom is also common.

USUAL IMAGE: Again dependent on culture. Some show Spider to look like the more common eight legged creature, while many show her as a human female.

HOLY BOOKS: Ovid's Metamorphose, The Anasi Stories, Perdido Street Station by Chine Mieville, Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan.

HOLY DAYS: N/A

PLACE OF WORSHIP: N/A

MAJOR TABOOS: N/A

RELATIVES: Varies. Many, such as the African Anasi seem to be singular entities, while others have known relations. Spider Woman of some Native American tribes who invented weaving had a husband, Spider Man who invented the loom. In Micronesia there was Areop-Enap who was called one God but was also known as two known also as Old Spider & Young Spider, though what their exact relationship was I do not know.

SYNODEITIES: See Names Above

DETAILS: This month is a bit of a departure from the norm as the goddess of the month is not from a single culture but more of a try at a holistic overview of an image that is Spider as deity.

Many people will find it a bit hard to attribute divine attributes to a creature they find so intrinsically creepy. However many ancient people found much of the divine to admire in spiders.

While almost everything you can think of has at one time been given godly characteristics or at least some part to play in things divine. Just how much prominence they are given among different people however can be very interesting.

For instance while the sun, moon, fire, water, love, war and other such prominent forces are understandable when they show up as ether attributed to major deities or as outstanding gods/goddesses itself. It might be a surprise to we arachnophobics however to see some of the glories to which the little spider has climbed.

In the West the most famous divine spider is most likely Arachne of the Greek mythos (see links for details). She however might best be thought of as a cautionary tale. In other cultures however spider has played a more prominent role.

This has ranged from all plant life being said to have come from sex between the Mesopotamian god Enki and Spider, to the very important part played by Spider Grandmother among a large number of Native American tribes.

I think we might at least consider such things as Odin's eight-legged horse, or the large number of Hindu Gods and Goddesses who have 6 arms (with two legs making 8 limbs) while this is done as a visual form of the attributes of that god I have to wonder if at least on a subconscious level there might also be a link to Spider with this.

I would say that the main thing that draws more than average metaphysical attention to Spider is the web. Truly one of the most amazing things to be found in nature.

And speaking of webs lets not forget that is where you are reading this!

Mixing our metaphors here? I doubt it, after all if words have power. And it seems they do, and if we give any sympathy to sympathetic magick then somewhere, on some level there is more than a bit of a web to the Web we bounce around on most everyday.

If that is the case then what and where is the Spider here? I would think that the place to look might best be the minds of humans who built this web.

That being the case what do we find among those modern spinners of myth and folklore the writers of "fiction."

There are some very interesting works of fantastic Spider imagery to be found today.

In Big Time by Fritz Lieber a groups of humans spend most of their time in a place outside of Time and Space the pawns of a war between two powerful forces trying to change history for their own mysterious ends. While they are never shown they are referred to as the Spiders and the Snakes.

The hint is given that most people unbeknownst to themself work for them. The question being if you have a fear of one of the above symbols does that mean you work for the opposite team or just fear you own bosses? We have to also consider that at the time of writing this book Mr. Lieber was going through a very rough patch.

In China Mieville's Perdido Street Station we meet a very remarkable character called The Weaver. Appearing as a very large spider it is a creature that lives across a multiplicity of dimensions never wholly in one place at the same time. This is also one of the most alien of alien characters that I have ever meet in fiction.

There are also a number of other works that can be considered such as Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan and the series of "Spider Queen" novels by a variety of authors being published now.

Perhaps the strangest modern Spider book was one that was published in 1977 by "James Vogh" titled Arachne Rising, the theme of the book was that there were originally 13 signs in a lunar zodiac. The 13th being 'Arachne' the Spider for people born between May 16th and June 15th. A period covered from Taurus 26 to Gemini 23.

The book it turns out was a hoax written by British science fiction author John Sladek, first as a way to make fun of people who believe in astrology and then as a money making scheme at which it failed.

There are however a few people who have taken to Arachne as the 13th sign... and they know it was a hoax, saying that it might be a hoax but the man was still right.

I have to sympathise, I myself have always contended that just because something is not real don't mean it isn't true.

Terry Keith McCombs

magentashadow@webtv.net