Totem Tuesday: Spider Medicine

Spider Medicine

by Felina Lune Kavi

“When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” –Ethiopian Proverb

Keywords: Creativity, Receptivity, Patience, Storyteller Archetype, Shadow Self, Integration, Perspective, Adaptability, Feminine Wisdom, Intricacy, Patterns, Weaving, Engineering, Illusion, Entanglements

Of all our creature teachers, Spider connects with the most fear and aversion from humans.  Even as it is a personal totem for me (my above totem), and I respect it as an amazing creature, there is still a part of me that is that little girl calling for her dad when she sees a spider.  To my surprise, while picking cherries in my parents’ backyard on Father’s Day, my dad admitted that if he had a phobia it would be being in a room full of spiders.  IF he HAD one, that is…because I think he’d still like to be considered fearless.  But it made me realize that even while he was the one his wife and kids would call to swoop in and ‘save the day’ when we would see a spider, he was, in a way, facing his own shadow fears at the same time.

There are some totems that serve as shadow totems, and they represent those parts of ourselves that we repress or deny.  Though one of the most common shadow totems is Spider, for some people it is snakes, wasps, bats, etc.  Or, sometimes the shadow totem is an animal that we have had a traumatic experience with in our past…such as being bit by a dog or, in my case, attacked by a rooster.  With a shadow totem, the medicine of that totem is inherent in us, but we have a much harder time embracing it and utilizing it to our best advantage.  The Shadow Spider is there to teach us how to conquer our own fears and accept those parts of ourselves that we might rather eliminate than openly allow others to see.

Like many things that illicit fear from humans, Spider represents feminine wisdom.  As is the trend in a patriarchal society, the wisdom of the Feminine Mysteries is often repressed and we are taught to fear it or discount it in some way…much like the way we have been taught as a society, over time, to fear witches.  But spider is a very useful creature to have around us as it preys upon many of the insects that are not as beneficial to have around us. 

Spider Medicine has a lot to do with the creative skill they use to weave their intricate webs, the receptivity to any changes in their environment, and the patience they employ in catching their prey.  A spider’s web is a symbol of the balance between being delicate and being strong, and it is also a symbol of the story of creation and fate…weaving past, present and future events together with deliberate links and the ability to quickly adapt the ‘story’ to sudden changes.  Spider provides the wisdom to see from different perspectives the many possibilities our lives hold, and how certain patterns of behavior might get us tangled up in illusions. 

In India, Spider is associated with Maya, the Weaver of Illusions.  Spider is Grandmother, however, to the Native Americans and is in many of their creation stories as the weaver of the threads of life.  Or, to the Lakota, Spider is a trickster and shapeshifter who teaches, through our trial and error, the best way to walk along our journey.  Spider Medicine inspires us to weave our dreams into our own destiny and use our creativity to come up with solutions to our problems.  Spider’s Medicine also gives us the ability to see the patterns of good and bad fortune that entangle us in illusions so that we realize we can change our own fate.  Essentially, you can choose to be like the spider, or you can choose to be like the prey caught in her web.

Spider holds the archetypal energy of the Engineer, the Storyteller, and the Creatrix.  Depending upon the type of spider, other archetypal energies may color your medicine with specific gifts (such as the Weaver energy of the orb-weavers, the Caretaker energy of the Wolf Spider, the Networker of the more social spiders, or the Writer energy for those that scribble their stabilimentum across their web like the Garden Spider).

Spider also holds the energy of the number 8 as its body is in the shape of an 8, it has 8 legs, it has up to 8 eyes, and it has up to 8 spinnerettes.  In numerology, the number 8 is on the soul plane and represents wisdom and prosperity.  The shape of the number represents an infinite balance of giving and receiving.  As with the spider in the house who receives shelter and warmth while ridding the house of pests…Spider aims to live in a balance of reciprocity with its environment, and teaches us the wisdom of giving as equally as we receive.

If Spider is one of your totems, these and many other lessons will be prevalent in your life.  Spider will encourage you to refine your mastery of this medicine.  If you see a spider, but it is not one of your totems, respect it as a messenger for that time.  You may need its medicine for what is happening then or what is coming up in the near future.  Spider may be contacting you to show how patience is key in trying to manifest something in your life, and reminding you to take action when opportunities arise.  Or perhaps you are getting too close to a situation of entanglement and must retrace a few steps and take an alternative route.  For many, Spider appears to face us with our fears, reminding us to embrace our shadow self.  However Spider chooses to share its medicine, it is an intricate web of wisdom that connects us to all things.