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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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 over
the 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