Spiders

After my recent experience with a doe, who seemed to be telling me I was on the right path exploring animal spirit guides, I've started remembering more animal connections I had while growing up.  Another similar encounter was with a manatee in Florida.   I bought a book about animal spirit guides and was more than a little surprised to find spider as an entry!

I've been terrified of spiders since I was little.  I was sitting on the porch minding my own business when, in true little Miss Muffet fashion, one dropped down from his web, landed on my back and proceeded to bite me.  I tried to run away screaming while my parents tried to get me to stop so they could get it off of me.  This problem has continued for some bizarre reason, unknown to me.  More often than I care to remember, out of the blue a spider will drop down on his thread from the ceiling, but from then on, right in front of my face.  This happens at home, at other people's houses, and it even happened once while I was on a treadmill at the gym!  It's very uncanny.  My family and friends are amazed at how often this happens to me…  It's never happened to anyone else I know.

On top of that, I have spider nightmares.  It's amazing sometimes that no matter how well you think you may know another person there is always something new to discover.  Somehow one evening about a year ago my sister-in-law (we've been very close for 32 years!) and I got to talking about dreams and made the very startling discovery that we both have had the same recurring spider dreams!  While having this dream we are both convinced that we are awake and keep pointing (sleep-pointing?) to the spider as it moves across the ceiling, and then drops down, trying to convince whoever is in the room with us that it is actually there and being frustrated that the other person can't see it.  If alone in the room, a blood-curdling scream brings someone in soon enough.  Jokingly I theorized that in past lives we must have both been eaten by a spider and were somehow destined to be linked in this life by marrying two brothers.  Fran decided that we must have been flies.

I looked at the spider entry in the book I just got and it says many nice things about what a spider means, but I'm stumped.  If a spider is an animal spirit guide delivering these positive message and good advice, why does it frighten me so much?  Does anyone else have a connection to spiders?  Or a similar experience?

Re: Spiders

Hi Barbara, writing from the library while my computer is down. I too have a spider phobia. I am specifically afraid one will bite me on the eye while I am in bed and leave me blind. So, to me, it is obvious this happened in some past life, because it is so very specific.

Also, to keep a long story VERY short, I have also been tortured by humans using spiders for that purpose.

I am dealing with it as most phobias are best dealt with: by EFT or any of its cousins (meridian tapping) or other techniques. It isn't gone yet but it's much less irrational…..

It does seem as if it's something you need to deal with somehow, to understand fully, because the universe keeps calling your attention to spiders. Sorry your sister-in-law's theory you were both flies doesn't quite cut it, for me, haha. But I don't know what to make of the shared dream.

I just encourage you to decide to fully understand everything this matter has to offer you for your spiritual growth. You are looking at a goldmine of useful information.

Blessings, OM

Re: Spiders

OM, The thought of being bit on the eye by a spider is truly terrifying.  I've got chills just reading about it.  How can you sleep at night?  I can't say that I've heard of EFT or meridian tapping before.

When I was thumbing through the animal spirit guide book and saw the picture of a spider I flinched.  I've been making myself look at the picture a couple of times a day and then reading some of what it says about spiders.  Most surprising:

You have a knack for writing, with the ability to weave words together in new and creative ways, often affecting others profoundly with their magic.

I do love to write and had been encouraged to be a writer by many of my English teachers, but…   I just wonder how a bunch of spiders could be trying to encourage me in that direction.  Connections keep coming, though.  One of my favorite folk songs as a child had these lyrics:

There's a web like a spider's web
Made of silver light and shadows
Spun by the moon in my room last night
It's a web made to catch a dream
Hold it tight 'til I awaken
As if to tell me my dream is all right

Somehow the moon spinning the web was what made it all magical to me!  Didn't connect the spider in there!

Sitting down here at Gaia has been such an eye-opening experience!  Thanks for taking the time to comment on my post!

Blessings and best wishes,   Barbara

Re: Spiders

Hi - just been having a read about spider - here's what I found in brief:-

Spider can facilitate inner connection and integration.  It allows one to contact one's deepest wisdom. 
Spider medicine can be called on when one feels “trapped”
Spider is the creative force, she wove the web which brough humans their first alphabet - the letters were inherent in the angles of the web.
If spider drops from the ceiling onto someone's face, then good luck and money will follow.
Spider was associated with the thunderbeings, so a web could be used for protection.  Also spider represents, for some, the 4 directions on the medicine wheel.


Hope this sheds some light - will post some pics of spider webs
Taikunping

Re: Spiders

Hi Tai,  To think I've been killing just about every spider that crosses my path or drops down in front of me - all these spiders trying to tell me something.  Thanks for the insight, the light.  The creativity has been squelched for many years but it seems to be coming back.  And I do love letters and words, the way they look, too.  I'll never look at a cobweb in quite the same way again.

Oh my, another memory just popped into my head - when I was quite small my grandmother threw what she called a cobweb party for me.  She unrolled a big ball of string for each guest, before they arrived, of course.  She wove the strings all over her house so that the place looked like you were stepping into a giant cobweb.  She gave each little guest the end of a string and he or she had to roll the string back up to find the end of it, where a well-hidden prize would be waiting.  I was so enchanted with the process that I don't even remember what the prize was!  I threw one for Larisa when she was little, too, and she seemed to enjoy it, but some of the other mothers seemed to think I had lost my mind.  Wish I had taken pictures!

Wonder if anyone else has had a cobweb party?

Re: Spiders

I wonder if the cobweb party has its roots in Native American customs - sounds magical - think I would have enjoyed a party like that when I was a child.  It would be fun done in the woods too!
Think I'm getting carried away now….
I've never heard of a cobweb party in england….
Could you write a book on Native American customs, and do research. 

Tai

Re: Spiders

A cobweb party!

OMG if that isn't just the cutest and coolest family tradition! :-D
That sounds like so much fun, I'm going to do it with my little ones! I think they'd 'have a ball' (LOL) even without anything at the end of the rainbow, but of course there will be!

Thanks for sharing this! Sweeeeet!~~~<3

Re: Spiders

Did a quick Google and found a book called Victorian Crazy Christmas Cobweb Party Kit - recommended for 8-11 year olds.  Had no idea it was associated with Christmas.  Apparently the Victorians used different colored ribbons and did it on the winter solstice, but I think if the strings are all white it makes it more fun because you don't know which string is yours.

I love your idea, Tai, of having one in the woods!  At dusk or dawn - wonderful!

Re: Spiders

Hi Ingebrita!

I laughed reading your post…Guess what! You finally found someone who has the same spider experiences! I blogged about it a while back, because, like you…it drives me batty as to how often it occurs and asked for some wisdom…and got some….read my blog and see if you find anything helpful as well~~~<3

http://resurrectedone.gaia.com/blog/2007/7/a_spider_question

~Ariela, spider magnet :-D

Re: Spiders

Well, hello there, fellow spider magnet!  I am amazed to meet you, Ariela!!  I wasn't on Gaia in 2007 - looks like I really missed something!  I'm going to read your thread in a little bit - looking forward to it!  I like the term “spider magnet.”  I think I'll be using it from now on!

~ Barbara

Re: Spiders

Hi Barbara!

I'm glad that you posted this…and that's how we find people who are going through similar experiences…by sharing and opening up =)
And Thank You for doing so, as it brought me back to my own blog entry and the Wisdom and Advice given…

I've just had another spider appearance, and this one wasn't as nice. (you'll be amazed at how we said almost the same thing about the spiders!) THIS one was on my wall next to where I'm sitting now, typing away…and it was the UGLIEST spider I have ever seen in my life!!! Really, really scary looking! It was white, with almost a Face on it…just scary, ewww…gives me the creepy crawlies just thinking about it. Worst of all, is that I knocked it off the wall and I don't know where it went!!! I have two little younguns running around so I'm upset that this thing is on the loose!

Anyhow, very nice to meet you. You are also the first I've met who's had spiders dangle in front of their eyes :-D

Ohhhh….and as far as the interpretation you were discussing with OM, yes, that could go for me too as a message…about writing. I am working on it through blogging for now :-D

Hugs,
~Ariela
PS….I just made up that term 'spider magnet' writing to you LOL.

Re: Spiders

Hi Ariela,

(Ariela is such a pretty name, by the way.)  I had a chance to read the entry and the responses - so much food for thought.  I wrote down the names of the two books that were recommended and will hopefully get them soon.  Maybe I'll get Charlotte's Web while I'm at it!  The next time I get a spider “visit” I'm going to try and think of it as Grandmother Spider.  We'll see what happens.  Thanks for shedding some light on this mystery - I'm still amazed that we said almost the same things about the spiders!

When I met my husband he had a spider friend living in the ceiling corner of his bedroom.  And I've been insisting that the poor man kill spiders for me for 33 years now!  My sister refuses to be coerced, however.  She gently captures them and escorts them outside.  (If I'm home alone I suck them up with the vacuum cleaner.)  Feeling badly about it now.  I can't even tell you what happens in the car when one dangles down from the ceiling in front of my face.  Twice while I was driving and many more times as a passenger.

The white spider you described sounds terrible!  Are your kids afraid of spiders?  Mine never were, in spite of my poor example.  They seem to delight in sending and showing each other pictures of the biggest or ugliest they come across, and tell each other, “Don't show this to Mom!”  Well, I hope the white spider you whacked found its way back out from where it came and will think twice before coming around again!

Yes, I'm pretty happy blogging here at Gaia for now, too.  It feels like I'm warming up for something, but I feel peaceful and patient to learn what it is that I'm warming up for (or to)!

Thanks for sharing!
Blessings and best wishes,  Barbara

Re: Spiders

…call me weird …

…but I like spiders !…

…there are very good spiders…only 2 in North America that we have to worry about…the Black Widow…and Brown Recluse…


…all the others are our buddies …

Re: Spiders

In my long life I HAVE had one or two dangle in front of my face….

Yeah, there have been times that fear re the eye kept me awake. But the need for sleep won out…… And the reminder to myself, constantly, that that was a PAST experience and need not be repeated.

Sorry to put anyone through that experience by talking about it. That is a subtle form of psychic attack, and I apologize ! But glad to call attention to that form of attack. What is the media news, but such psychic attack on all of us !!? What is a lot of what others are doing as they relate their unpleasant experiences to us?

Wow, that is mindblowing. Writing is my life, my ecstasy, one of my greatest gifts !!! Wow !!!

I shall be pondering all the info shared here. Thank you all for sharing! Maybe it's time to move on further from my fear.

I do realize, Will, only two kinds are very poisonous, here in the USA (not so in Australia, my God, I could never live there.) But I wouldn't call a bite from ANY spider trivial, can be very bad…. and VERY bad depending on WHERE the bite happens…. OK, nuff about that !!

Oh, a psychologist friend of mine who has researched spider fears, not spiders, says they represent the perception of mother as harmful. Which we all have to one degree or another. So working with that inner perception, bringing forgiveness and the highest level of understanding, can cure the spider fear. That has actually worked pretty well for me. Whenever I find a spider that is sitting there very obvious in my life at a particular moment, easy to squash, I think “Oh, this is an indication I no longer have a malevolent mother image going on inside me !”

I have an agreement with them that inside my place (house or car) they are toast, suicidal, but I don't harm any that are outside. It seems to work pretty well. There are fewer and fewer in my house, that I can see anyway. Still lotta spider webs on the ceilings, haha.

Blessings,
OM

Re: Spiders

I have always had a strong connections to insects of al kinds. Dragonflies and beetles mostly, but I generally like the little things. I'll only kill mosquitos, flies and roaches. I'm scared of bees and wasps but that's only my own fear of being hurt. They'd rather not sting us. I once slammed my car head on into a tree because a small bumblee had flown into the grocery bag next to me. As I stood there, bloodied, watching steam rise from my crumpled car, the bee simply flew out of the bag, out of the window. I learned a lot about bees and fear that day.

Having spent so much time in nature, I understand insect consciousness and follow native american beliefs about insect totems. The spider is considered the grandmother, a link to the past and future. It's also a totem of creativity, and reminds us we are the center of our own world. It asks us to keep a balance in our lives between past and future, male and female, physical and spiritual. It's also a great totem to call on when you're scattered and need to get focused. A spider can be a great teacher if it enters your life.

Re: Spiders

Bugs, Bugs, and more Bugs - I find them fascinating - I'm with Will and Glynnda on this one.

To me spiders represent wisdom and learning.  Sometimes I will have dreams of great importance to me or I have an out of body experience and upon waking I see what I call metaphysical spiders floating in my room.  They are not always the same color and range in size from 8 to 12 inches in diameter.  I have had these spider energy spheres move toward me as if they were making sure they had my attention.  I have never felt fear and quite enjoy watching them and knowing at the same time that I need to remember the dream or the experience. 

My mother has a fascination with spiders.  A couple of years ago I was at her home and she was so completely amazed with this garden spider that had spun a web in the dining room window.  She took her spray bottle outside to mist the web so I could see all the intricate details of this web.  Yes, it was truly beautiful. 

I often find myself wondering how different insects navigate without all the senses us as humans enjoy.  At one point I did some reading about millipedes because they seem to make it around just fine without the luxury of sight or hearing.  After doing some reading it occurred to me maybe some of us “hear” similarly to the millipede in the aspect of when we hear from a metaphysical basis…  kind of like hearing with your body and not with your ears.

I did have a brief dislike of moths… and then I spent a summer in the dessert where they seem to be on steroids and grow to 2 to 3 inches long… I got over that fear really quick… LOL

My experience has been when fear arises - EMBRACE IT… and the fear will dissapate.

Light & Love,
Kris

Re: Spiders

i had a lucid dream a couple of years ago that i was in a place where people of my “frequency” went when they dreamed. to make a long, wild story short, during my time in this place I was occasionally chased by silver metallic spiders. I started complaining to the guide I was with, asking him what they were and why they were chasing me. He simple said, “They are your worries. If you stop running, they'll stop chasing you.”

Re: Spiders

Glynnda
What a great story!
That is so fascinating… so my question is did you stop running?

Re: Spiders

Reply to post: Glynnda, that is waycool. Great “metaphor” for worries, metallic spiders. And great advice about them !!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugs, OM

Re: Spiders

Kris,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the spider energy spheres and the story about your mom using her spray bottle to mist a web so you could see all the intricate details.  Webs are very pretty, especially when covered with dew.

I, too, am fascinated with the senses and how we do or don't perceive things with what senses we have or have not yet developed.  How can we experience something as being there if we don't have the sense needed to perceive it?  If some people are color blind they can't see the colors others are seeing.  Dogs can hear noises that we cannot pick up in our hearing range.  But they're there.  They're very real to the dog!  It's all pretty mind-boggling…

Re: Spiders

I adore dragonflies, too.
My grandmother was an amateur entomologist/photographer - she had aquariums full of caterpillars in her back yard so she could take pictures of them when they made cocoons or when they emerged as moths or butterflies.  She used to look in the woods for just the right leaves for each species.  We'd visit about once a month and she would show me how each “bug” was coming along and introduce me to any new ones.  Sometimes the family dinner would be put on hold because someone was emerging from a cocoon and she needed to capture the moment on film.  She always let the butterflies go afterwards.  This is the same grandmother who gave me the cobweb party.  She made everything magical.
I appreciate your story about the bee and the car crash.  What a wonderful illustration about fear and our perceptions!  I hope you weren't too seriously hurt.

Hopefully next time I encounter a spider I will think of my delightfully creative grandmother (she painted and drew, too) and have a less hysterical and more thoughtful reaction.  Anything is possible…

Re: Spiders

Kris,

I concur completely on the method of processing fear.

Here's a little spider story for you guys - not quite a psychic “attack” like OM's eye bite …but, um, creepy nonetheless

One day on the homestead in Alaska we noticed a taste in the well water.  Squeezing into the log cabin's crawl space and over to the open well casing that dropped 20 feet to the water, I looked down the 2 ft. wide tube with my flashlight and could see the water glittering below.  It seemed to shimmer and vibrate which was odd as the pump was off and no other activity could have accounted for the water's movement until I allowed the light to play off to the side of the casing which at first looked fuzzy and out of focus.   As my eyes came to bear on the truth of it, I could see that the entire casing from my chin which was perched on its upper edge, all the way to the water 20 ft below, was covered 2-3” thick with a bazillion daddy longlegs spiders  writhing and dripping in bunches into the water. 

I have had some other spider experiences which I may share from time to time.  Generally, I let 'em be in the house as well as wherever else I find them.  I do have a bit of a phobia though, imagining them crawling on me, in my ears … up my pants … (heh heh)

michael

Re: Spiders

Michael, what a fascinating sight those daddy long legs must have been!  Do you think they were thirsty?  I wonder why they were all there?

Re: Spiders

Michael, I must(?) conclude you did that deliberately to get to me, and succeeded – the last paragraph. LOL !!!!

But guess what !! I really LIKE Daddy Longlegs spiders, now that you mention them in particular. They seem to be an exception for me. Maybe because I don't think of them as bitey.

I've been fascinated with all the perspectives and stories here. And yes, Kris, indeed, fear is to be embraced, or at least regarded as potentially useful information. Yeah yeah I know all that….. Better to practice on spiders than some other things that might happen, but haven't — and really won't……..

Other insects, some I like, and some I don't (millipedes, some of them are deadly….), there is no generalization for me. None others I am terrified of, go into panic attacks over the mere thought of…. I can't tell the really bad millipedes from the OK ones, but I think my response to them is only “normal” fear, not fed by something ELSE.

Thanks for all the iiiiiiiinput  and sharings, we are enriching one another !!

Blessings, OM

Re: Spiders

…yeah !…Daddy Longlegs are cool…

…being a carpenter I am partial to Wood Spiders…especially the big fuzzy light brown ones…

…they never hurt anyone…just got a bad rap…

…anyone remember the story of Robert the Bruce ?…

…a Scot nobleman that was fighting the Saxon dogs as they were usurping the Scottish North…
  …exhausted from battle ,he took refuge in an old shack…and watched as a spider tried over and over to swing up to attach it's web…finally being successful…
  …this inspired him to go back and continue the battle…

…and we have much to learn from our 8-legged friends…

…a group called the Bioneers are doing research on the webs they weave…stronger than most fibers we are aware of…

…NO FEAR !…

…just keep things in perspective…

Re: Spiders

As for me, I don't like anything that crawls on it's legs or slithers for that matter but don't mind flying insects. Weird, huh?

I like dragonflies and butterflies and normally don't mind other flying insects. As long as they don't bother me, I won't bother them. This is with exception. If they are those Japanese or Asian beetles then that's another story as they are so destructive to my plants. Those I purposely go out of my way to kill…. and of course pests like flies or mosquitos….but I don't have any fear of bees. I just don't like the feeling of anything crawling on me.

It is so weird because I really enjoy digging in the dirt and gardening but I don't like worms at all either. And forget about snakes.