Journey to talk with the Spider People

I’ve had some significant experiences lately while coming into contact with spiders. Having recently completed a course in Shamanism for self healing and daily life, I knew that these encounters were likely very important and trying to show me something.

Over the Summer and early Fall I was making a point to go outdoors on my breaks for little “nature walks” around my yard. I am working remotely so I was worried about my mental health if I didn’t get away for a moment. It was amazing to watch all the subtle changes that all the creatures and plant life go through. I probably wouldn’t have noticed all these little details if I had not taken the course. I found myself cheering on the bees when I could see their speed increase to try to get as much work in during the last summer months as they were able.

During my course in shamanism, we each held our own ceremonial fire to connect to All Our Relations. The best place I had for a fire at my current home was a burning barrel. I had a great fire and some experiences that perhaps I will share another time. Anyway, over the summer I would throw more sticks in as they fell from the trees thinking maybe I would have another fire. I built the sticks into a pyramid shape. I had cleaned the whole thing out before the fire and filled the bottom half with sand so that my fire would not be too hot on the grass.

That was how I met the first Spider teacher. I was drawn to peek into the barrel one day to see if any creatures may be in there. Sure enough, a funnel weaver spider had made her home down in the base of my pyramid. My kids had also thrown in some cotton fluff, which actually seemed to shield and protect the spider quite nicely. Upon seeing my shadow, she darted into her tunnel. We had just moved from Utah and even though I grew up here in Michigan, a lot of the wildlife has been new to me or at least seen with fresh eyes. I wasn’t very familiar with funnel weaving spiders and I was quite impressed with her work. I told her “Don’t worry, I just want to look at your house, I am not going to hurt you”. I took to going out to see her every day and slowly over time, instead of hiding, she would come out to look at me and we would be together in some form of communication. Then, unfortunately, we had a huge rain and when I went to check on her later, she was gone. I was happy to have created a shelter for her. I told my teacher about it and she said maybe include re-weaving connections into the next ceremony.

Some weeks later on a warm fall day, I felt a strong urge to go check the barrel again. It had been cold for awhile so I didn’t expect to see my spider friend again but what I saw had me in complete awe.

My spider home in the sticks had become a spider nursery! I saw a handful of tiny yellow and brown babies with a web built at the top of the barrel in more of a canopy shape strung along from stick to stick, still utilizing what I had set up there. They moved around a little clumsily and carefully. I was so proud that I created such a nice sanctuary for the little spiders. I wondered if they were my first spiders babies but then I saw a smaller black spider with an iridescent abdomen watching me from the rim of the barrel and when I moved, she would move until maybe she felt I was not going to harm anything and ran up a tall stick hanging outside of the barrel. There was another black spider on the stick too. The babies would run past them and I thought “Oh no! They will be eaten!” but they weren’t.

Then I saw something that has me dazzled and completely puzzled. I saw the babies on strings hanging from the stick and I was so worried they would fall but then I realized that the larger spider was shooting webs out from her abdomen and the babies seemed to grab ahold one by one. I saw her kick her leg back and the babies would fall to the ground on the web strand. I am still unsure if she was a mom trying to help them or a murderous spider trying to drop them to their doom. I went out the next day and there were still a lot of the baby spiders moving around the web canopy. I watched a in between size spider stand on the edge of the barrel, put its abdomen into the air and launch itself into the breeze. It was the coolest thing ever!

I talked to my teacher about this other event and she suggested I ask my power animal to help me talk to the spiders and ask them what was happening.

Shortly after, Yet another spider moved into my awareness. Another Funnel weaver spider built quite the elaborate web in our window. This was another shy spider but my whole family took to watching it, until recently it seems to have disappeared. There is a shell of it in the corner so I am hoping that it is just moulting and didn’t die.

That was when I finally decided a journey to talk to the Spider People was long overdue. I took my power animal and began my journey to the other world. I asked bear where to find the spider and he took me. The spider was about the size of a cat, so a little frightening but we walked right up to its web where it scrutinized me for awhile. She reached her leg out gently and climbed up my body, over my head and down and back up to her web as if assessing my energy.

She said she wanted to teach me something. I was shown to put my hand out flat and feel around my energy field and was told to “smooth over” my web. I heard “web of protection”. I moved my open hand around in front of me a few times. Other words and images rolled around in my head for a little while. Spider then offered a gift. It was a tightly wound webbing and she said to “eat it”. I opened it to find something black and it reminded me almost of teeth”. I didn’t think she meant for me to really eat it but to address the darkness or it would consume me instead. I thanked her and left her behind. She followed for awhile and I thought she meant to come with me but she didn’t follow all the way back.

Once I finished the journey and was in reality again I experimented with the web of protection and saw more images of pulling strands of light from up past the crown and weaving them into a protective structure around myself, pulling some up from the earth and smoothing out areas as Spider showed me. I looked for dark patches in my field and rolled into webbing and imagined the darkness being captured and sucked out of my energy space, out and placing it outside of my web of protection. I mentally created a trapdoor as spiders do to put the dark back outside and sealed and smoothed it when i was finished.

I reflected on all the teachings from the spiders. I think these are the main lessons:

• Webs of protection and making sure our inner and outer energies are cleansed with light energy and making sure we are working through capturing and healing the heavier energies.

• Lessons of timing

• Knowing when to move and when to be still

• Seasons changes/lifes changes

• Preparation

• Seeking shelter

• Knowing when to go inward

• Knowing when to sever ties

• Knowing when to trust or when to be suspicious and how to handle those situations.

• Leaps of faith when needed

• Family Sacrifices

• Motherhood

And general lessons of wisdom, delicate touches, strength, craftsmanship and precision.

As spirit messengers, Spiders represent creativity and weaving of fate. From Ted Andrews book, Animal Speak, page 347: "If spider has come into your life, ask yourself some important questions. Are you not weaving your dreams and imaginings into reality? Are you not using your creative opportunities? Are you feeling closed in or stuck as if in a web? Do you need to pay attention to your balance and where you are walking in life? Are others out of balance around you? Do you need to write? Are you inspired to write or draw and not following through?"

Here are some sort of hard to see photos of all the spider experiences: