Spider Woman

BOO!

I have been looking into some material on the Spider Woman in Native American thought.  Now, I know, for many of us a spider is not considered a positive image.  Not so for many American tribes. This is a nice little wrap up from the Tony Hillerman website:

Spider Woman

Also known as Grandmother Spider, Spider Woman is a powerful figure in various Native American mythologies. In many creation and migration stories she appears as a helpful teacher, guide, and protector. In the Acoma emergence account, for example, she gave the People seeds and showed them how to grow food. According to Zuni legend she helped the warrior twins destroy the Cloud Swallower monster, and in Cherokee and Choctaw tradition she is considered an important hero who taught the People how to make pottery and brought them fire. In Hopi lore Spider Woman assumes the role of the creator of all living things, including humans. In the Navajo tradition, Spider Woman appears in many tales as a heroic helper and wise adviser who protects the innocent and restores harmony. She taught the Navajo People the art of weaving and agriculture. Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona is considered the sacred, legendary home of Spider Woman.

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She seems to be an all around positive character!

Spider Rock in Chelly Canyon AZ, figures a lot in Navajo storytelling.

As you know, I like to dream dreams and imagine how things might have gotten the way they are in the world. I am trying to put myself in the mind of early inhabitants of this continent. I am aware that the study of myths and tradition are their own whole scholarly pursuit.  I'm just wondering a bit here.

   Why would they look at a spider and seeing  how busy she was, look to a deity with those characteristics somewhere in  the magical spiritual world?  They would know it was a mother because she tended the egg ball.  They would see her work and how she hunted and provided.

   I suppose with each telling of a myth it becomes more ornate and more real to those telling and those who hear. She would become bigger and stronger and more compelling and beneficent as time went on!

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   I have a little bit of a thing about Spider Woman. I have no antipathy to spiders at all.  At one time, when Noah, the tattooist, was around, I thought about having a tattoo made on my left hand of a Navajo style spider.  But he was such a stinker, though a fantastic artist, that I never did it and thank God he has left my daughter's life!  

   I relate to Spider Woman a bit.  God gave me inventiveness, not glamour.  I guess that's ok.  He knows best.

Navajo Rug with Spider Woman Cross and Whirling Logs, 1900 at 1stDibs

Navajo Spiderwoman Cross Chiefs Pattern Blanket , Collected 6/89 Nora Young

Besides pottery and blankets and rugs, there are things like this engraved gorget from Illinois. 

File:Woolaroc Spiro Mounds spider shell gorget.jpg - Wikimedia Commons