Spiders

Archetypal Dimensions

Mythology and Symbolism

Mythology

Myth is the primordial language of psychic processes and is made up of “figurative speech”

which is the language of symbol, the original language of the unconscious and of humanity.

The Weaving Goddesses

• Grandmother spider (Native American)

• Athena -(Greek)

• Norns - (Norse)

• Moirae- (Greek)

• Neith- (Egypt)

Grandmother Spider

• Native American mythology - she who weaves the world.

• Teaches humans survival skills

Norns(Norse mythology

• Rule the destiny of gods and humans

• Seen spinning the threads of fate beneath the tree of life.

Moirae(Greek Mythology)

• Controlled the thread of life for every mortal from birth to death

• Clotho (present), Lachesis (past), & Atropos (future)

• Spin, draw out, and cut the thread of life

Neith(Ancient Egypt)

• Her name means weaver.

• She wove the world into existence on her loom.

• Mummy wrappings were her gift.

• Associated with funereal rites.

Aracne

The figures in these myths are almost always feminine and associated with the theme of fate, destiny, and time.

“Thus the Great Goddesses are

weavers, in Egypt as in Greece, among the Germanic peoples and the Mayans. And because “reality” is wrought by the Great Weavers, all such activities as plaiting, weaving, and knotting belong to the fate-governing activity of the woman who is a spinner and weaver in her

natural aspect.” Eric Neumann The Great Goddess

The Goddess of Fate and Her Relationship to time.

“Since she governs growth, the Great Mother is goddess of time. That is why she is a moon goddess, for the moon and the night sky are the visible manifestations of the temporal process in the cosmos, and the moon, not the sun, is the true chronometer of the primordial era. From menstruation, with its supposed relation to the moon, pregnancy, and beyond, the woman is regulated by and dependent on time; so it is she who determines time – to a far greater extent than the male, with his tendency towards the conquest of time, towards timelessness and eternity.” Erich Neumann

Spider Tricksters

West Africa- Ananasi -

Japan - Tsuchigumo

Native American (Lakota) - Iktomi

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Jorogumo

Jung on the Succubus/Incubus

In referring to the development of an autonomous aspect of the anima/animus. Due to its remaining unconscious, it takes overthe individual in spite of any conscious action.

“The woman’s incubus consists of a host of masculine demons; the man’s succubus is a vampire.”

The Spider and the Witch

• Fear of feminine power

• Shadow of the Goddess

• The Negative Mother/Anima