Long ago, while apprenticing on a vision quest, one of the guides gave me this medicine task: “Go out into the woods and find a web; Apprentice yourself to Spider.”
With emergency supplies and bug spray in pack, I traipsed off into the brush, to find a web (and to show off my awesome arachnid tracking skills). Hours later, arms scratched and feet sore, having found not a single silvery thread, I returned to camp, defeated. I crawled under my tarp and went to sleep.
At sunrise the next morning, I sat up in my sleeping bag, and noticed something glittering across the entire opening of the A-framed tarp. It was a huge, sparkling, spider web! Spider had come to me.
A few hours later, I was sitting in a circle with the Questers, who had just crossed back over the threshold and returned from their solos in the wilderness. I asked the Creator for a sign if I was ready to become a guide, myself. (Of course, the sign I had gotten that morning was not enough!) A moment later, I felt something tickle my hand. There was something teensy and black on it... I squinted to make out the details, and held my hand up to the sun... it was a spider. I stared at it, in shock. Then, it began weaving the most delicate strands of silk around my fingers.
That was the day I became a vision quest guide. And an initiate into the Clan of the Spider. If you are reading this, it is likely because YOU are a member of this clan, whether or not you are yet aware of it.
The Hopi have an important story about Grandmother Spider:
In the beginning, God created the Sky very close to the Earth. All beings could both walk and fly: they were grounded, and yet their spirits soared all the time. Then one day the Sky began to separate from the Earth. All the animals tried to make it stop, but even the bears and tigers were not strong enough. Grandmother Spider had a plan. She tied a silver strand to the edge of the Sky and one to the Earth. She spun and spun, up and down and all across, mimicking the rays of the sun. She made millions of webs to hold the earth and sky together. But the sky went higher and higher. Grandmother Spider was a good grandmother and promised never to abandon her family of humans and animals and plants, so she kept on spinning, and tried to anchor the sky to the trees and the houses. She couldn’t keep them together, but she created glistening rope bridges from the Earth to the Sky.
These strands are so fragile they never last very long, so Spider continues to keep her promise by weaving more webs. This is why every house, human or animal, in all places on earth, will have spider webs in them.
Grandmother Spider is the great Weaver of Worlds. She is a totem for those who are involved in conscious acts of creation: artists, healers, dream tenders, builders of material goods, communities and nations. Indigenous peoples everywhere honor Spider because their elders know the truth that all life is interconnected in one giant, vibrating web. Movement on one part of it can be felt on all others. Synchronicities and miracles, like my own spider stories, initially shock or scare us if we have been moving through life unconsciously, with our “spiritual eyes” closed. But there is a level of reality where like-attracts-like; where no boundaries between living creatures exist, and time spirals back into itself. The Web is a manifestation of the interweaving divine energy that runs through every intention and desire of every being, from grasshopper to human to leaf to giraffe.
Grandmother Spider is the Guardian of the web. She mends it, protects it and brings it to the attention of those who need to gain awareness of it. She is a mirror for each of us.
The Choctaw tribe of Tennessee and Mississippi have another story about Grandmother Spider:
In this one, she steals Fire from the Gods and shows the people how to rub sticks together to bring forth the flame. This teaches us that Spider people must learn how to collaborate with the wood of the trees. We must teach those who are in need of warmth that the divine spark is accessible to all.
Modern day Scientists revere the spider as much as our spiritual ancestors, and their stories are vital too. Spiders are ancient Arthropods that have differentiated body segments. This is called “Tagmatization”, and it allows each segment of the arachnid’s body to behave in a unique and practical way. For example, according to Jon Houseman, “cuticular appendages can be delicate sensory antennae, shovels, scissors, grinding stones, walking legs, defensive pincers, and paddles for swimming. The possibilities are almost endless, and it's one of the reasons why arthropods are such a successful group.”
Spiders have mastered the evolutionary process and they teach us about longevity and innovation. Also, while most spiders are known to have eight legs, many don’t. A study printed by National Geographic showed that a huge number of spiders actually only have six or seven legs and can still build webs that are as perfect as those woven by their eight legged brothers and sisters.
At times we may feel some handicap is preventing us from weaving our dreams into reality, but this is only an illusion in Grandmother Spider’s reality. “Where ever there is a will, there is a way.” If you ever doubt this, go out and destroy a spider’s web. (She won’t like it, but destruction is as important and as natural as creation.) Then, apologize. Then, see what Spider does. Does she sit there and weep? Perhaps. But, almost immediately, she will begin to weave again.
And this time, with even more life and crafter’s experience behind her, the web will most likely shine even bigger and brighter in the light of the rising sun!
Exerpted from Backyard Shaman’s Guide to Power Animals and Healing Totems, In Press, Amy Beth Katz
