Ashanana Washinawautauk
Ashanana Washinawautauk walks to the center of all who are gathered and holds up a beautifully decorated stick. The stick has a large crystal at the top. Along the body there is much beadwork and painted symbols. On the base of the stick are 3 buckskin ties, each with a feather attached. One White, one Black and one Gray.
I will ask that all remain quite while I talk, for this is the NA Tradition. When a storyteller shares there is silence till the end of the story for your question may be answered in the next statement! At the end of my time with the talking stick, I will lay it down and free exchange may begin.
I am going to speak of Spiderwoman. Spiderwoman has many names and many stories. I know her mostly as Grandmother Spider, but she is also know by Thinking Woman, Xmucane, Hatai Wugti, Tsitsicinako and the list goes on. Most of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (both North and South) share similar stories of Spiderwoman. I wish to share with you now the story I was taught and then how Grandmother Spider is in your life today.
I must also, before I start the story, define the word Dream in the NA concept. This is not only what happens when you fall asleep and stories are told to you. Dream or Dreamtime can happen when you are awake also. I t goes by many names, lucid dreaming, Shadow Dancing, Shamanistic Trance..... It is a point beyond normal meditation when you stand in the "Crack Between Two Worlds". The physical and the spirit world.
With this, let us hear of Grandmother Spider:
LISTEN!
Ooma-oo, long ago. Spider existed. Only Spider and the Sacred Void. She is a Great Wise Woman who's power is beyond our knowledge. No Shaman, or scientist or witch or medicine person could ever imagine her power. Her power sang to her, and she dreamed her power. She loved her power Dreamsong. She loved her dreamsong so much that she wanted to share it. Not because of loneliness, but because a love shared brings greater love, and her power told her this. This was her and her power's wish, for they were one.
From her dreamsong, she started spinning and weaving. She spun a thread and connected it East and West to make the horizon. Then she spun another thread and connected North and South. She had now created the 4 directions. She spun a circle around all these to make a Medicine Wheel. Where she sat in the center.
SIDENOTE: Very often you will see Grandmother Spider depicted sitting in the center of a Medicine Wheel, with a Medicine Wheel on her back, with Grandmother Spider in the center with a Medicine Wheel on her back............infinity! Grandmother Spider's body is like the symbol for infinity, and the # 8, which is the number of her legs, 4 for the winds of change and 4 for the 4 directions or points on the Medicine Wheel. She is the symbol for infinite change. Spider is the female energy of the creative force that weaves the web of life.
While Grandmother Spider sat in the Medicine Wheel dreaming her power Dreamsong, she spun 2 Medicine Bundles. As she sang her dreamsong the Medicine Bundles began to move and grow. 2 voices came from the Medicine Bundles and joined in Grandmother Spider's Dreamsong. Finally, out of the bundles came 2 daughters, the Corn Maiden and She With No Name. Each held a Medicine Bundle and as they sang their part of Grandmother Spider's dreamsong, their bundles twitched and writhed, and eventually burst open.
From She With No Name's bundle came the stars and the planets swirling into the Great Void. And from the Corn Maiden's bundle came the Standing People (trees and plants) and the Stone People and the 4 legged and the winged ones and the creepy crawlers.
Then Grandmother Spider took some of the 4 colors of clay from the earth - Red, Yellow, Black and White. She sang her power dreamsong over the clay and dreamed them into the 4 peoples of the earth, the 2 legged. Grandmother Spider then touched each person on their crown chakra (yes, NA tradition uses chakra points also!). We are each connected to Grandmother Spider by a Golden Spider filament from our crown chakra to her belly. She has told us to always keep this doorway to her open. There are many variations to this story, in some, Spiderwoman comes from the center of the earth, and in some, the 2 daughters dreamsing the 2 legged.
But what does this have to do with the dark aspect of the goddess? Her dark side is because Spider weaves the web of fate and those who become caught in it become her dinner!! This is similar to 2 leggeds who get caught in the web of illusion in the physical world, and never see beyond the horizon into the other dimensions.
The Web of Fate also represents a wheel of life, which does not include any alternatives or solutions. It is typically human to get caught in the polarity of good or bad fortune without realizing that we can change it at any time! If we are not decisive enough about changing our lots in life, we may end up being consumed by our fears and limitations!
Consumed by that which created us as we exist right now, Spiderwoman! This is the story of Grandmother Spider, may she weave the web of change into your life today.
Ashanana Washinawautauk lays down the Talking Stick and smiles.
