According to the French saying ‘a spider in the evening brings hope.’ How comforting to utter these words on seeing a spider one evening. But there are many more omens relating to spiders. All spiders except tarantulas are an omen of good luck - the larger the spider, the bigger the rewards. If you see a spider climbing the wall you will have your dearest wish come true. If you see a spider spinning a web you will have an increase in your income due to hard work. Seeing a spider run down a web in the afternoon means you’ll take a trip. A spider was also considered a repellent against plague when worn around the neck in a walnut shell.
If the Latin origin of its name is to be believed, the spider is only of interest to us because of its web. In fact aranea, from which the French word araignee (spider) is derived, originally meant ‘web of spiders’. The arachnids got their name from the Greek arahkne, spider, perhaps coming from arkus, and the net belonging to Greek fishermen.
Arachne
The myth of Arakhne (or Arachne) tells of a girl from Lydia, a land famous for its weavers and for the purple dye they used for much of their cloth. According to the legend Arachne was famous for her skills as a weaver and embroiderer. Her work was so beautiful that all the nymphs round about came to admire it.
As her skill grew, Arachne became more ambitious. She conceived a plan to weave a huge tapestry, which would be her masterpiece. Into it she wove scenes from the stories of the gods, of Poseidon riding the waves in his chariot, of Demeter weeping for Persephone, of Prometheus chained to his rock with the terrible eagle’s wing casting a shadow over him, of the beautiful Aphrodite, and of Artemis and her silver bow. These and many more of the immortals seemed to move across the tapestry as if they had a life of their own. People came from all over to stare in wonder at the tapestry and word of its beauty soon spread. Arachne, already confident of her skill, grew proud and vain with all this admiration. People praised her work and said that she had been initiated in the art of spinning and tapestry by Athena herself, who is well known for being a formidable warrior goddess, but less well known for also being the patron of spinners and embroiderers. However Arachne did not see it like this. She would say to anyone who wanted to listen that she had a gift and that she owed nothing to Athena.
The idea came to her to challenge the goddess, who then appeared to her is the guise of an old woman, to prove her good faith, advising her to show more humility and not boast of her talents in front of such a touchy person as Athena. But not content to listen to anything, Arachne started pouring out insults about the goddess. Enraged, Athena then appeared with her true face and wove a superb tapestry in front of Arachne depicting all the twelve gods of Olympus, emphasising their supremacy over all the mortals who had wanted to challenge them. But Arachne did not allow herself to be intimidated and wove another, no less superb tapestry showing the adulterous love affairs of the twelve gods of Olympus, thus wishing for her part to underline their weaknesses.
Furious, Athena destroyed the work of Arachne, who, out of despair, hanged herself by her girdle from a branch of one of the nearby trees, a sad white robed figure who had lost everything she valued. But Athena followed her, half regretting her jealous rage, she touched the dying girl just before she passed from life to death. Athena, prevented her from dying by turning her into a spider, condemned to spin her web for all eternity, saying: ‘Weave on, little girl, but weave now for yourself alone. Your thread will now be a thousand times finer, your work a thousand times more delicate, but only a few people will stoop to notice it, and no one, I think, will compare your work with the immortals.” As she spoke Arachne’s body dwindled and shrivelled, until her white dress hung like an empty shell from the tree branch. From its folds a tiny spider dropped soundlessly to the ground and immediately began unreeling its silken thread. From that day to this, Arachne the spider has woven her webs. Many lie dusty and forgotten in hidden corners, but in the early Summer mornings you can see them sparkling and dancing in the sun, as fine as any garment of the gods.
If people were more familiar with this myth, perhaps they would have more compassion for this cold blooded animal with eight legs.
Instinctive fear
Scientific observations of this animal tend to prove that, although the habits of its love life are sometimes dubious (the female of certain species having a propensity for devouring the male after mating), there is no doubt about her maternal qualities, and the spinning of its web is a true wonder of nature.
So, where does the instinctive terror, and ancestral revulsion and disgust come from, which many men and women feel when they see a spider? No one knows, but one thing is for sure the spider has had an undeserved, bad reputation. If one consults the omens, you realise that this was not always the case, for a number of them bode well and the spider frequently played a protecting and beneficial role in the minds of our ancestors. For example the famous gossamer, of Virgin’s threads, were seen to be hairs of the Virgin by Christians in the Middle Ages, and considered to be a very happy omen.
‘A spider in the evening means hope; a spider in the morning means sorrow.’ These omens are very often connected with thoughts, feelings and desires which spin and weave themselves in people’s minds and hearts when we see the spider in the evening. It is a sign of seeing the desire, wish or plan that is occupying our minds at that moment fulfilled. Why should the evening spider be more favourable to hope than the morning or midday ones, who have a more unfortunate reputation? Because evening is the time for rest and relaxation and is therefore right for reflection and meditation while morning is the time of the day in which we begin our working mode, and midday, where we gather the fruit of our actions.
However, seeing a spider’s web in the morning, in the doorway for example, which was not in that spot the evening before, is a sign of luck or a very good omen for the day in store. When you discover it in the evening under the same conditions, it is the omen of good news or a pleasure trip.
Seeing a spider spinning its web is the omen of good or evil thoughts, as the case may be, which someone close is harbouring about you. A surprise, which is being prepared for you, or a plot, which is brewing behind your back. Furthermore, do you know that finding a spider on you is often a sign of luck, happiness and providential protection?
Just as killing a swallow, the bird of springtime, renewal and joy, was considered to be sacrilege in ancient times and in the Middle Ages; crushing a Spider was, and still is, unlucky if the omens are to be believed, so beware of killing them.
Perseverance
We can learn a lot from Robert the Bruce’s encounter with a Spider, it is said that Robert the Bruce hid out in a cave after his defeat by the British and that as he sat despondent he watched a spider trying to make a web over the cave entrance. The spider kept falling, 12 times it fell, but each time it went back and started again until eventually it had spun its web over the entrance. The Scottish king was inspired by this spider’s tenacity to go back to his troops and say ‘we must try again, and persevere if we are to gain our freedom.’
There is a great deal of ambivalence in the image of the spider. On a very mundane level it is disliked by many, Perhaps because if its scuttling movement but also because of its association with dirt. In dreams it can also suggest deviousness. In psychological terms the spider connects with the Mandala (a symbolic circular figure representing the universe in various religions, such a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer’s search for completeness and self unity) in its ability to create a perfect pattern, which both nurtures and protects us at the same time. Spiritually the spider represents the Great Mother in her role as the weaver. She weaves destiny from the body of herself, and is therefore the Creator. In coming to terms with this aspect, we become weavers of our own destiny. In general to dream of a spider is lucky, they symbolize luck and great prosperity through industry. You will soon achieve your ambitions. If the spider is on a web then the good fortune will come from a number of different sources.
If a big black spider comes into the house it is a sign of death or illness according to an old Somerset superstition, but most superstitions are positive. For example if a very tiny spider lands on your arm it was considered very good luck and that you would come into money. Spiders are sometimes called ‘money spinners.’ When a spider is found upon your clothes, some folklore would say ‘some money is coming toward us.’ A spider descending upon you from the roof is a token that you will soon have a legacy from a friend.
If you catch the spider known as a ‘money spinner’, wave it round your head three times and then let it crawl on the top of your head so that it will bring you money. Other folklore requires you to swallow it to bring you money(I would not recommend this). Some mystics claim to read the future from the spider’s web, by gazing into a web at midnight they will see the future. The poison from some spiders are used to give a hypnotic trance in some parts of the world and shamans and mystics will sometimes go to near death to experience the euphoria and prophetic trance this can give. A spider put into a walnut shell, and worn on the person, can cure fevers according to some stories. The amulet of the spider is recorded throughout history and spiders have also been put into a plaster and laid to the wrist and temples as cures or in bags and worn about the neck. Sometimes the spider and/or the web is made into a pill and swallowed as a cure for agues or a live spider could be swallowed with water as a cure for fever. Cobwebs too are used as a cure for whooping cough. Catch a common house spider, tie it up in muslin and pin it over the mantelpiece, allegedly when it dies the cough does too.
Spiders ought not to be killed one quote goes ‘If you wish to live and thrive, let a spider run alive.’ Thus I hope that you will now look at the spider in a new light asthey can be very useful little chaps!
London Zoo run a Friendly Spider Programme to remove one’s fear of spiders. The course is based around hypnosis and costs £110, half price for senior citizens and under 16s. Call 01322 553159 for more info |
