August Is Spiders
Lord help me, I think we should embrace them!
Look around, see them? Behind you on the ceiling, down in the far corner of the room, or popping up from your bathroom drain. August is their power month, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
I used to be someone who hated and feared spiders. Their bites swelled and itched, and I could never catch a little buggers in the act. But when I encountered spiders face-to-face in the house I would trap and squish them with relish, especially in August, when their ranks seemed to swell. But then I learned about Arachne.
The scene: it’s ancient Rome, the realm of gods and mortals, and Arachne is a lowly shepherd’s daughter, with nothing much going for her except a gift for weaving. Her shit is dope! She gets so good at it that she can afford to brag. Eventually her bragging gets back to the goddess Minerva, a legendary power weaver.
Things could have gone on indefinitely, with Minerva chuckling at the audacity of a tiny mortal to toot her own horn. But Arachne makes the fatal mistake of bragging that her weavings are way better than Minerva’s. So Minerva disguises herself as an old woman and warns Arachne to dial it back. She also tells her to plead for forgiveness for her transgression from the goddess herself.
Arachne’s like, Nuh-uh! And proclaims that if Minerva wants her to stop weaving, she should come down and make her.
Minerva removes her disguise and throws down a challenge: IT’S A WEAVE-OFF!! The two women, one mortal and one goddess, grab their looms and get busy. Minerva makes a piece that depicts gods punishing mortals for daring to claim equality with them. Then Arachne makes one that shows the ways that gods, Zeus in particular, had tricked and abused mortals, including the seduction and abandonment of many women.
Hoo boy, don’t piss off a goddess! Minerva is enraged that Arachne has insulted the gods, but if she’s being honest, it’s also that Arachne’s weaving is far more gorgeous than her own. Minerva rips up Arachne’s work and whacks her on the noggin. Arachne is terribly ashamed and takes her own life. But wait! Minerva suddenly feels terrible about that, so she transforms Arachne into a spider, who can weave delicate and gorgeous webs forever.
Did you know that this myth was written by the poet Ovid, who lived under the autocratic regime of Emperor Augustus? Ovid was exiled by the tyrant, but he kept working diligently on his poetry while in exile. Yep, the myth of Arachne can be seen as an allegory for the role of the artist living under autocracy.
So let’s not be too hasty, shall we, when a spider strolls into our space. Let’s pause a moment, and remember all those who are being oppressed by regimes all over the world, including here at home. And beyond that, let’s consider that a spider might be a visit from our own unconscious power, the weaver inside us who can create beauty, connection and magic under any circumstances. We’ve done it all along. The more we tune into it, the more we can weave into each other and feel the massive strength of our collective power.
I love spiders but had not considered the artistic metaphor. Thank you for that insight.
Years ago, we were sailing in the Sacramento Delta, east of San Francisco, and one day we saw all these strands of spider silk on our boat. Within days we had a million tiny spiders on the outside of the boat. Not many survived but it was enough that we have always had plenty of small spiders since then. And NO mosquitoes. Coincidence? I think not!
Such a juicy one!