Spider Mama in my Halloween display playing hockey with her babies.
People have been fascinated with—or repelled by—spiders for thousands of years. These deft weavers and deadly predators animate our stories, our dreams and our imaginations. Just this week, PhD candidate, Catherine Scott, in Toronto garnered many new followers by tweeting her observations of three male black widow spiders attempting to mate with three females.
Spiders, Spiders Everywhere
Last month, I had more encounters than usual with spiders. My nights were filled with dreams of spiders. In one dream, I had to help a very frightened friend through a doorway with many daddy long-legs in the top left corner. In other dreams, I entered rooms enveloped in webs with spiders everywhere. In none of my dreams was I afraid of the spiders but I was certainly hoping they wouldn’t fall on me!
I also found more spiders than usual in the house and promptly placed them outside before my daughter or husband saw them and panicked. One day as I was working on my computer in the kitchen, I just happened to look up and noticed a large cluster of teeny-weeny, black thingies on the end of one of the blades on the ceiling fan above my head. On closer inspection, I realized they were probably newly hatched spiderlings. They were so very tiny though that I couldn’t put them outside without squishing them; I couldn’t save them so I had to wipe them with a towel.
A couple of days later, as I was once again working at my computer, a tiny baby spider peeked at me from behind my laptop’s monitor. It was so adorable I decided to let it be. (Yes, as you can tell, I love spiders…)
Why all of these spiders in my life all of a sudden? And in these unusual ways? (A cluster of hatchlings above my head, seriously??) I didn’t believe it was just a coincidence so I decided to look into it. (If you do believe these things are just coincidences, that’s okay too; you can view them as opportunities to review what’s happening in your life.)
Spiders in World Lore
Spiders are featured in lore around the world. In many Native American tribes, Spider Woman or Spider Grandmother is a creator of the world or a helper with the emergence of life. She teaches people to make pottery, to plant trees and to weave. She creates the stars by lacing a web with dew and throwing it into the sky.
Great Goddess of Teotihuacan. Photo by Thomas Aleto from Riverside, PA – Tepantitla Mural. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via WikiCommons.
In many pre-Colombian Teotihuacan murals discovered in what is now Mexico, the Great Goddess has a world tree covered with spiders and butterflies growing from her head. Other murals of the Great Goddess include arachnids scurrying in the background, on her clothing, or hanging from her arms.
In ancient Egypt, Babylon and Greece, the spider is the weaver of destiny and is symbolized as Princess Arachne or the goddess Athena.
In the Vedic philosophy of India, the spider veils ultimate reality with an illusion. In West Africa, Anansi the spider was originally a creator of the world and a messenger between humans and the sky god, Nyame. But in the majority of stories, Anansi is a cunning trickster who loves to fool people and animals, and even gods.
Spiders as Spirit Guides
As a spirit animal or animal guide, Spider often represents creativity because of her skill in building delicate yet intricate webs. She is also a symbol of Mother and strong feminine energy, again related to creation. Spider is patient; she must wait patiently for her prey to come by her web.
Spider weaves net by kadavoor © 2009 Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
As a creator of intricate webs, Spider brings together all parts of life to create a strong whole. She helps you to see a part of your life and to integrate it into a coherent whole. As a skillful weaver, she encourages us to show mental flexibility in viewing a situation from many different angles.
Fear of Spiders
If spiders inspired fear in me (which they don’t), I would be encouraged to explore and to face the shadow side of my personality. Her presence brings fear and unease so that we can examine their causes in our daily life.
Spiders in Dreams
When spider appears in your dreams, she asks that you consider the feminine energy in your life: creativity, patience, receptivity. Also consider how you felt and reacted in the dream: scared, stressed, curious, powerful, adventurous, etc.
In life, you weave your own web, you create your own reality. Spider says if you’re not happy with your web, change it.
Spider Totem
Spider Mama’s baby in my Halloween display
A spider totem shows you balance between your past and your future, the physical and the spiritual, the male and female aspects. Strength and gentleness, like a web that is both strong and delicate.
The past is always interwoven with the future. Spider’s body is shaped like the number eight and she has eight legs; the number eight is the symbol for infinity or infinite potential, infinite creative potential.
Lots to consider as I ponder Spider’s presence in my life.
Touchy Subjects 
I love spider
Me too, Nweduabraham! As a matter of fact, I just took a baby spider from my bathroom and placed it outside. Thanks for stopping by.
My own is that a very large spider is always come to my secret room or praying room
That’s good company to have (keeps everyone else out, too ;).
OMG, I just did that from my bedroom (crawling on the floor) to out it outside my toilet window!
Last night I dreamt of a spider that was talking to me, and the conversation was about my kidneys, I get kidney stones a lot, and have an awful FEAR of the pain they cause me. I wasn’t afraid of the spider but I was fascinated about her talking to me, what is that all about?
Hi Tonia. I’m sorry to hear about your kidney stones. When spider appears in our dreams, she often wants us to face our fears or change something in the web of our life. Out of curiosity, I looked up kidney stones in the book Your Body Speaks Your Mind by Deb Shapiro. As you probably know, kidney stones are condensed substances–uric acid and minerals–that would normally be passed in urine but that have gathered and formed small ‘stones.’ Deb Shapiro suggests that condensed matter represents condensed thought patterns and emotions, particularly those related to fear and grief. They are like unshed tears that have solidified. They should be released, but instead we hold on to them, and they grow. It’s a blockage of energy that may be connected to these issues in our life: Do you need more balance in your life? Are you able to let go of past difficulties? Have you experienced difficulty in a relationship? If so, have you released your feelings or are they bottled up? Are you repressing negative feelings like fear, anger, resentment or bitterness? Is fear a predominant issue in your life? Are you worried or anxious about something/someone? Do you easily get panicked? Thing about everything going on in your life right now and recurring thoughts/feelings. Write them all down if it helps. Think about past situations that relate to these thoughts/feelings. Have you been repressing any? If so, how could you work through them and release them? Most importantly, be compassionate with yourself, forgive yourself if needed, and give it time. I hope this helps.
hello,
i have had a bad ‘break up’ with my ex.
he talked to me normally and the next day for a whole week been ignoring me and not talking to me..
since then, i have been seeing spiders anywhere i go, such as toilet, bathroom, my room..
i look at the spider, let it be while continuing my thing then after a min or two i turn around and the spider is gone.
is there any meaning for it?
because i am having insane hard time of “moving on” , i dont want to move on because i want my ex back, i forgive him and love him..
but he has blocked me and unreachable..
Hi Gal Ex – I apologize for the great delay in replying. I hope things have improved for you in the past few months. All the best, Brenda
I keep getting a lot of spiders in my home all-of-a-sudden. Like an infestation of them. I actually don’t like spiders, I can only cope with tiny ones like money spiders and slightly bigger. They were building nests in-between my secondary glazing and I thought I got rid of it all, then 6 days later the nests were back again and they keep showing up mostly in my bedroom.
The other day I was feeling relieve that there are no more but just picked up a huge cuddly toy Eeyore that hangs down in-between my bed and wall to check its bum for spiders, no, all was okay. The suddenly at that exact moment, after I put the cuddly toy back down, a huge spider came up in-between my headboard and bed and starts walking across the pillow before my Eeyore, I quickly leapt into action and managed to gets my other cuddly toys out of the way and keep it on the pillow and put it out the window. This was rare for me as I usually have to kill most of them, most are way too high up on my tall ceilings to ever get near to them to capture them and I do get scared of them. Ever since then I have slept on top of my bed and not in it so far. I am scared more will come back and so long as they don’t come near me, I can cope for a while. I had one in my home for weeks, above my bed, I named him Eric and kept asking him to leave otherwise I would have to kill him, and I wish he would have just left, but he didn’t and more kept coming – that is why it felt like an infestation. Today a small one ran across my floor that had kitchen roll on it from something I spilt last night, so I was able to also put that one outside the window. My insect totem is a moth, although an online test said it’s a butterfly, I know it’s a moth. But since the last moths went, spiders keep coming. I know this means something and I am reflecting on my life a lot at the moment, including fears, and I know I am not in the place in lots of areas of my life I should be but I try my best and will keep trying. I experienced sickness and burnout recently and playing catch up right now. I have achieved a lot in my life in personal growth especially, I just need to achieve more in certain areas, like financially, but money isn’t a motivating factor to a lot of what I do, happiness and changing people’s lives is. I know I need to go back to writing more books, but I also have other avenues I can pursue and under lots of financial pressure as in the sense I need to earn more money from what I do to help others.
Hi Quirky Books – I apologize for the great delay in replying to you. Hopefully, your spider infestation has been taken care of; even for a spider lover, that is just too many spiders! I also hope you’ve managed to find what you needed to move forward. All the best, Brenda
i dreamed of walking into a number of unavoidable spider webs full of spiders while looking at the outside of a potential property with my husband who i am separated from at the moment. Help.
also the web wrapped around my whole body and the spiders were crawling all over and i was terrified begging my husband to help me!
Hi Crystal – I’m no expert, but I wonder if your dream reflects your concerns around the separation. Spider is a weaver of our life stories and, since your story is going through some profound changes, it’s natural to feel anxiety and uncertainty. If you like, you could find a method to enhance calm and relaxation to help get you through this difficult time. All the best, Brenda
I feel connected to spiders
Hi Greg – Me too! Thanks for taking the time to post your comment.