Spider Woman

On this Halloween day, I share this Native American myth of Spider Woman - a goddess or deity. This beautiful meditation from Madonna Gauding's, The Meditation Bible, introduces you to the power of myth to invoke spiritual understanding of our interconnectedness.

Long before the universe existed, lonely Spider Woman sat down to think. Suddenly she had an idea. She was the weaver, so she set up her loom and began to weave. As she wove, a star appeared each time one thread crossed another. Before long she had woven thousands of stars. Each one was tied to every other one in the web. She stopped and looked at it, but it was not quite what she wanted.


She chose one star that had planets circling around it. She chose one of those planets that had bright blue oceans and sparkling white clouds, and she set up her loom on that planet. This time as she wove, a living thing appeared whenever one thread crossed another. She wove plants, birds, fish and insects into her web. She wove all of the animals. And every one of these living things was connected to everything on her web. 


Then she stopped weaving to look at it. There was still something missing.


She started to weave again, and this time human beings -- men, women and children -- appeared at the crossing threads. And each human being that she wove into her Great Web was connected to every other thing: to other animals, to the plants, to the mountains, to the seas and deserts...even to the distant stars. Every human being -- and indeed everything that Spider Woman wove into her Great Web -- is connected to every other thing.


Spider Woman was pleased, and she continues to weave to this day.

Meditation
1) Read the Spider Woman myth.
2) Sit on a cushion or chair and think about the myth for 10 minutes.
3) Write a paragraph about what the myth taught you.

It is easy to forget, but whether we like it or not, we are all connected. If people could really embrace that concept on a more frequent and consistent basis, so much negativity could be erased from our lives.

Do you have any myths that you would like to share?