Some say spiders are from Mars, so weird and unlike any other creature that they must have landed with a meteorite, millions of years ago.
Others think that they’re magical, their webs mirroring a mandela or a far greater cosmic web; one of the most ancient deities of all time was a spider goddess of Mesoamerica.
Oh and there is a (sort of) Spider Asteroid – Number 407 Arachne: the classic telling of her story is that she was a talented spinner who challenged/annoyed Athene who turned her into a spider. So the asteroid supposedly indicates talent great enough to attract envy.
The myth never resonated with me and recently I read this, from Barbara Walker:
Arachne the Spider was a totemic form of the Fate-spinner, other- wise known as Clotho or Athene or the Virgin Moera. The classic myth of Athene’s jealousy of the maiden Arachne, which caused her to turn Arachne into a spider who continued to practice her incomparable skill in spinning and weaving, was mistakenly deduced from an icon showning Athene with her totemic spider spinning the web of Fate, from which the future could be foretold.
This is both fascinating and more plausible. The conventional interpretation seems like a sexist overlay – a goddess flying into a snit over a spinner, mean-girls, female rivalry etc.
Given this, I think asteroid Arachne is more likely to represent the ability to tap into unsung genius – knowledge that’s hush-hush or contravenes the ‘sacred cows’ of our culture. You’d know things – or be interested in finding out about them – that had been varnished over with shitty shellac, a tawdry faux tale to conceal a far richer scenario.
Anyway, I was raised with the vaguely Celtic concept that it’s bad luck to kill spiders and so I don’t. Ever. If I’ve ever do it by mistake, I’m mortified. Even if a tarantula was menacing me, I would probably try to pick it up on a magazine and carry it outside.
This morning I saw two spiders – one real and a baby, hanging off a loo roll in front of me – the other a huge plastic one discarded on the footpath post-Halloween. In my opinion, they’re good omens, signalling wisdom, craft and growth. The webs, when we have time to look at them, really do reflect a myriad of esoteric patterns and geometry.
Thoughts?
Aww noo!
Not long ago there was a huge web on a tree around a place i go running. The spider was not very big, but it was bright green and in the middle of the web, like a drawing. It was really beautiful. I loved seeing that it was still there everyday. I forgot about it and one day I leaned on a tree to stretch and suddenly felt something sticky on my face and something scratching my ear.
I destroyed the spider web!! *tears* with my head! (ok, now i laugh about it)
The spider just stayed on a string, I felt so bad! 🙁
Aw, year of the fox, those captions make me sad. (Maybe they’re hitting some long-ago Charlotte’s Web nerve.)
Kudos to you for posting the link after your horrible brown recluse experience. That breed is one of the few I’m really frightened of, due to my aunt sending me some horrific photos of the damage their venom can cause. I hope you made a full & quick recovery!
There were lots of spiders in all my Georgia apartments. One summer, a large garden spider planted herself right in my line of vision on the window behind my computer. I watched her build her web and her egg sac, and catch insects (that only bothered me when she caught a bee – I like bees).
By the end of the summer, I knew what kind of spider she was (an Argiope aurantia, also known as a garden orbweaver or writing spider), that she was harmless to humans and had bad eyesight. I posted photos of her on fb, called her “spider-girl” and I was genuinely sad when the winter cold killed her.
I think spiders are a little like cats – elegant predators. I’ve killed some, but almost always accidentally in the process of trying to bring them outside. I talk to them in a soothing voice when I’m trying to coax them into a container for transporting. I honestly think I’ve noticed it’s easier to do it when I talk to them – maybe my scent or something else the spiders can detect changes when I’m saying calming things.
p.s. I have Arachne 407 in Leo in the 4th house.
I have Arachne in Libra in the 8th house – any ideas what that means?
When I was young my sister collected spiders in jars and kept them in our bedroom – so I was always paranoid they would escape – we also had the large tarantulas in our house all the time – no fly screens! But I don’t kill them either.
I had an amazing series of dreams once that a HUGE hairy spider was zooming towards my face at lightening speed and I would always wake up just before “it” happened. Finally I let it happen and the moment it glommed onto my face my whole body exploded in bliss and the spider disappeared. So now I am very respectful of spiders and feel that they are symbols of initiation and female shakti energy. very cool little creatures. Snakes too. well pythons anyway………..
Tarantulas make me nostalgic for the time when I was younger and would ride around with my German grandfather (my Opa) along dusty country roads in Central Texas, coming back from checking on his cattle. This region is unique because there are several distinct geographic types that all converge here, including desert. So there are a lot of trantulas around, and if he saw one crossing the road while we were driving, he would stop, we would get out of his truck, he would pick up a stick, and let the tarantula climb around on it so I could watch. He was the one who instilled in me a love of nature. Then we would get back in the truck and drive into town, with him waving to everyone passing from the other direction. He was a Libra, after all. 🙂
Lovely memory and experience. Thanks for sharing it.
Sweet! My grandpa was a Libra too, I relate (except he didn’t care for nature so much as electronics, pyramids and ham radio – probably Aqua Asc).
I’ve come to love spiders and was taught to never kill them by my uncle’s mistress Myrtis. Arachne is 30 seconds from an exact conjunction with my Pisces Ascendant, tight conjunction to my Chiron and tight trine to my Neptune. I’ve never seen greater numbers and varieties of spiders, everywhere I went, in a short period of time than I have this autumn – very good sign for me.
Alright sorry but I have killed spiders. I try not to because I know they eat other bugs and generally I have no problem with spiders (they’re actually kinda cool and cute), but whenever I see one I just think of an article I read a long time ago about the amount of spiders people end up swallowing in their sleep.
NO!! The prospect terrifies me more than the spider darting across the floor. And I also have a guinea pig, and have had guinea pigs over the years, that get really distressed when things get into their cage (have had everything from spiders to bees getting in there). Can’t tell you how wide-eyed I get when there’s a spider in the living room, and then the next time I look it’s vanished. Where the hell did it go?! Better not be in my bedroom… But that’s what I get for leaving it alone.
So it’s a Celtic thing – didn’t know where my tolerance of spiders came from, though I don’t like to kill anything. If I have to destroy a web and move them (because they wove a web overnight across the front doorway say, then I apologise as I remove them with a straw broom to the nearest tree. If they aren’t in the way I leave their webs alone – great pest control.
Oh and Arachne 1 deg conjunct Pan (!) in my packed 5th house of Kataka – yes I get it – my awesome talents with my children, and quite separately, in the bedroom :eyeroll:
I used to be scared of spiders when I was a kid, but once when I was going through a depressive, lonely phase, a spider moved into my room and kept me company, so I’ve been a friend of spiders ever since. A good thing as my current house is full of them. Arachne in the 12th house conjunct Pluto, and trine Pallas which is odd given the myth.
Arachne! Cool! Grandmother Spider is supposed to have woven reality or something, the web of life, no? I think she is the original creator, a Titan of sorts in lots of myths, native american etc. I believe her to be very sacred and her minions too.
I like the idea that they are so unique they could be from very elsewhere!
And I would never kill a spider either, they eat mosquito’s and flies, which is really helpful. Unless there was nest of them next to my baby’s bed or something…
We had a tarantula visit from deep in the jungle, it came down in the El Nino on a log in the river. Usually you only see them young, with a purple back and black legs. This one had thick hair that ranged from purple, red, then firey orange and gold. It was magnificent!
We caught it and had a friend escort it back to the jungle. It was like meeting a very intelligent creature.
I have been shocked a few times meeting animals in the wild – meeting kookaburras that just were so incredibly present and predatory, or manta rays with eyes as big as tea cups that stare into your soul with incredible intensity.
My Arachne is in Libra, 4th house (square Merc/Saturn). I like that, I would make that a Grandmother Spider who is judicious and home-loving, I feel it!
Dunno, I think the asteroids are all growing on me? I used to find them a little exasperating, but I think they are fabulous now.
that tarantula sounds amazing Andro, where was that ? how big ??
I saw a huge spider, guess it was a tarantula, huge & hairy, would’v been more than 2 inches across its legs, its abdomen as big as my thumbpad, enormous !!!
My arachne in aqua 2nd house, hmmm some sort of skill in values & stuff ??
I’m so not into stuff, my belongings packed up in a small shed, few bit of furniture loaned to friends, travelling with small suitcases, lol Maybe thats spider values, minimal stuff !!!
It was in Ecuador. It must have been nearly as big as a head! It’s body alone was a bit smaller than my palm, we had trouble finding something comfy for it’s journey home I remember.
Arachne in the 2nd, hm, 2nd is about possessions that travel as well as values. Good at massage? Underwater basket weaving?
I reckon spider values is about the bigger picture too, I read somewhere that the Spider Woman weaves the song lines that the Aborigines walk. Maybe she weaves the web of the internet too… 😉
Ah that tarantula sounds awesome !!! So glad you sent her home xx
Interesting comment about possessions & values that travel, must think some more about that …
And yes of course the World Wide Web, thats some mighty big grandmama spider spinning !!
Help! Could anybody tell me what Arachne in Aquarius means, specifically what Mystic was discussing re: enviable skill? My Virgoan inclination to research for hours has reaped zero results. 🙁
i squash the venomous spiders (redbacks, white tails, funnel-eys) but all other others even giant wooly huntsmen spiders get scooped up and shaken off into a shrub outside, or just left where they are, depending the outcome of an on-the-spot a threat assessment.
oh those funnel webs and camel spiders really scare me. 🙁
On the weekend I discovered a huntsman spider has moved into one of my spare toilet rolls… (double story apartment with toilet bowl views). I wonder if there’s a toilet paper asteroid transiting with arachne at the moment?
My nephew got really sick from a redback that bit him. He takes after me and my sis who loved any creepy crawlies and picked one up. We collected a huge jar of redback eggs at his age. Lord knows how we didn’t get bitten.
But in my old age I admit I am scared of them and killed a few redbacks in my house. Please forgive me as my cats eat spiders and I didn’t want them to get bitten.
Don’t worry, you’re not alone! I hate redbacks and am terrified that they might bite my dogs. If I see a redback, it has to go. I’ll keep daddy long legs around though cause they kill the mozzies!
Redback does have a nasty bite, but they are not at all aggressive & usually curl up in a ball & roll away.
Kids need to be taught not to touch things that might bite them …
My mum says I used to eat spiders when I was crawling, daddy-long-legs only I’m guessing
Nup me neither never kill spiders. Also love crabs (they have 8 legs dont they). I could never eat crabs, Im a vegetarian eats fish and seafood, but never ever crabs. to me they are so funny and sweet and smiling. I get sad when I see them in tanks. I wuv them. Back to spiders – have a smiliar feeling. I used to be scared of them till Ifound out they were kind of sacred and special.
there’s a spider living in the corner of my bathroom. has been there for about 2 years now. i keep to myself and it seems to be happy to reside there… until a few nights ago, whilst having a shower it zigzagged along the wall (like a drunk, lol neptune) right next to my nose. it was trying to climb down the wall, onto tub and cross to other side. no no no noooo!!!! i screamed like a banshee (waking up my housemate and probs most of the neighbourhood) and it seemed to get that i was more frightened of it than it was of me. it fled up the wall, went across the ceiling and over the other side. smart spider 😀
i hate spiders. would prefer to have the housemate get rid of it (not RID, just erm, get it out of the house). i also have one in my room that i can’t bring myself to get rid of either. it’s a wee little one that doesn’t bother me either. sometimes i clean its web for it 😀
I actually love the Arachne myth, probably because Athena is one of my archetype goddess. to me, it taught me about humility.
Archne in Cancer, 4th house. I actually do make a decent homemaker. It squares my Venus Aries, conj Jupiter, and opposes Neptune.
maybe that Jupiter conjunction means that killing spiders would be doubly bad luck for me? It’s a shame that I’m always surrounded by people who are arachnophobia and have me do the dirty work. :/
I have a a spider as a totem and when she turned up (we were living in Cobweb Cottage at the time) all the spiders came out to greet her. It was amazing, even my husband noticed. I love spiders, I protect them and think they are so creative and industrious. I have a huge spider brooch on one of my paintings, and a giant spider painted on my drum. I did have a bit of a close encounter I could have done without though. When we lived up a mountain in S-E Qld, I got up one night to go to the loo, switched on the light and found a dirty great huntsman right beside the switch. If I’d been 1cm further over, I’d have poked the spider. As it was, I screeched, the spider jumped a mile and then it went hurtling around the walls of the loo like it was on speed. I was trying to use the loo while keeping an eye on the mad spider. Took a while to get back to sleep!
Scorpionic Excalibur forever 🙂
😯
I have Arachne in the 1st house… 😯
Spiders make me scream and run like a little girl. Once when I was little and living in the country, a giant spider climbed onto my knee as I sat at the table to do my homework. I slowly turned to my dad who was at the sink and asked him to help me. The spider literally covered my entire knee… My dad – a beautiful gentle Pisces man – just picked it up and put it outside. Meanwhile I screamed and ran outside and up the road… yep just like a little girl.
Dr Aqua deals with spiders – doesn’t kill any of them, Vegemite jar and a bit of cardboard and takes me them outside. I deal with everything else… 😯
*pushes back from the table and checks knee*
😯 😯 😯
I have Arachne in my Scorpio 1st House.
I like spiders but not on me without my permission either. 😉
I admire their ability to weave webs and love tarantulas because they look so velvety and cute.
Spiders make me shudder, panic and scream but after all the excellent PR they have from above, I’ll learn to like them more.
Ooh, I have Arachne conjunct my Sun in Scorpio. Both the Sun and Arachne are at 2 degrees in the 10th house. Arachne is also opposite Chiron in Taurus and square Jupiter in Leo. So my natural Scorpy talents, maybe of research and indepth analysis should be enviable in the work place. Hopefully those talents will be enough to get me an enviable job sometime soon!
The spider in the loo at the yard died a few months back, naturally, not by the hand of any of the heathens that wanted to waste her. Her little empire of empty eggs, saved dinners and web is still there, I don’t have the heart to destroy it since I fought for her survival. Actually can I share that I shed a tear for her when I realised she hadn’t moved for a few days?
407 in Cap in 7th.
Have never understood or condoned squishing spiders.
🙁
– especially here in Oz where they are SO huge and hairy, it’d be like trying to take to a mouse with your shoe.
EEK!
I don my super spider saving apparatus, and set them free outside.
Then I run around the house going “eiw…eiw…eiw…eiw…eiw…!”
RESPECT.
When I was living in Oz there was a beautiful spider who shared the bathroom of my apartment. She was huge and had bold yellow stripes across her belly. I was alright with her being there so long as we stuck to our respective corners. Luckily she preferred to stay up high and didn’t sneak about the sink or tiptoe round the toilet. 😉
I don’t have issues with spiders. I am sun scorp plus 2 other planets in scorp. The insects are like my cousins, lol. Spiders are the good ones- they eat other annoying bugs, are very crafty, hardworking and good mothers. Their webs are also beautiful. I once saw a spider make it’s web 4 times til it was perfect. You know only an excellent mother would let the offspring eat her. For all that, and the fact that I like them, I think of them as having Virgo juju.
I’ve seen lots of money spiders lately, and change on the ground, so maybe I’ll be winning lotto soon? Here’s hoping!!!
I saw a spider eat a firefly once. I noticed the fly blinking in the web and was going to free it but it was too late as the spider was spinning it up. My daughter noticed and got mad. I said the spider was just eating. She said fireflies are special. I agreed and said that’s how life goes. It was a powerful experience. Spiders are creator-destroyers. I never kill them either.
As for the myth, I think about the Muslim story of spiders building webs outside of a cave where the Prophet was hiding. Sanctuary. I also think of Fates spinning their webs. Really, spiders are transcendent. They tell the story of the telling of stories.
… tell the story of the telling of stories …. love that !!!
Mine is 1 degree different from my moon in Sag, 12th house. So presuming that makes it conjunct. Which means it’s also conjunct my neptune.
Please tell me this doesn’t give even further credence to the idea that I should avoid coffee/wine etc. Couldn’t stand it.
And don’t like spiders. Don’t kill them because have ridiculous conscience. But really not a fan AT ALL.
Me too FB. wish I could weave a project prop web as beautiful as a spider’s web. I hate breaking a web up as it is a sacred home. espesh in the rainforest where they glimmer with dew.
My A in Libra in 8th. Financial partnerships are my ‘talent’ which is surprising however I wouldn’t be writing said prop if it wasn’t for the support of my boss.
I’m about to embark on a “financial/biz revolution if i can stop crowing about it and start writing more.
I never kill spiders either! I’ve always believed they’re clever little things and know stuff, just sitting there in their webs, observing, cleaning, wrapping up bugs, etc. Maybe I read Charlotte’s Web too young and that affected my thinking.
I usually protect the huge spiders that build webs out on the deck. Ppl come over and go ‘Eww! Aren’t you going to kill it?” Why? It’s beautiful, it patiently re-creates its web whenever a section is damaged and it catches bugs, preventing them coming in the house.
I had an honorary ‘pet’ spider out there last year. He was majestic and had a huge golden web that would capture the afternoon sun. But during one ferocious summer storm, a stick speared through his abdomen and killed him. I discovered him when the storm had passed. He was hanging lifeless by one leg, his beautiful web all torn and battered. I bawled and bawled. I twirled up his web with a stick, collected him in it and buried him out in the garden. So sad.
Yeah, I know, he was just a spider but to watch him work, silently patching up his web or wrapping up a bug was mesmerising.
Arachne is in 2nd house Sagg, conjunct Mars. Nothing there that’s particularly enviable… I can save money really well??
oh…I would have done the same….I too have had special spiders.
probably she – the big ones are, & the males usually much smaller … sad to here of her demise in the storm, what an amazing thing, getting speared in the storm !! I love how y can have a special connection like that with a spider or some other creature, sharing the space … probably one of her decendants will soon move into the spot
Sounds like a golden orb, are you in australia ?? I love them, beautiful, in the garden or bush they build huge ‘condiminiums’, lol
I love all spiders too, I’m in Chile now, & was out walking in the bush last week & saw the HUGEST spidey I’v ever seen, it was just walking across the road
spiderwebs glistening in the morning dew is beautiful, I agree. I love to watch them weave. 😉
Native Americans consider her like Mother Earth The Creator The Weaver of life. The Great Creator Artist.
my talking to spiders may now be explained … saggi arachne in the first house … never quite understood the fear reaction ppl can have … but i live with quite a collection of redbacks and was pleased to recently learn that, altho their bite hurts a shit load it doesn’t kill us … they do appreciate their old dusty webs being removed for them … creates fresh space for their works … i guess that is my empathy with them, their artistry, making beautiful weaponry in order to eat and survive … very taurean … very scorpio … if only job applications wrote themselves like i can waffle on about spiders … x
Went to the loo with one in the cabin i haved moved into in the hills
big huntsman….felt very evolved to let it share my space
I leave spiders alone unless they’re black widows. Sorry but it’s them or me getting a nasty reaction, no thank you. Arachne in Sagg in the 12th. Yikes! I do have a real talent for my own undoing. Lol!
Isn’t 12th also imagination?
Killing spiders just pisses me off. The only ones I have ever intentionally killed were black widows living in our house. And even them I try to relocate.
Arachne as a great talent….ran it in charts real quick and don’t see it.
Mine was in capicorn in the 5th. Well, I was a great breeder. And others would look at how I manifested things during my 20s as very capicorn/saturn together.
so maybe. But I don’t think I was ever envied for the breeder part.
I try not to smash spiders when i see them as i know they are good for the environment. But it is hard sometimes as I survived a brown recluse bite.
They are not my fave creatures. Let’s put it that way. If it gives bad luck to kill them, it’s no wonder that I am full of bad luck.
Arachne in the 7th house. Supposedly good at things 7th house. LOL. yeah the house that Saturn resides natally? ummm. no. not even.
# 407 is in taurus for me opposition my jupiter in the ninth…I always make sure the spyders leave my space going upward on their silk threads, keeps my luck always rising….
url for asteroid emphermis please!
I held a tarantula once and she was light as a feather- was so cool how she was checking me out I was checking her out. UPCLOSE&PERSONAL
She had such lovely delicate fine hairs. Really was a lovely moment.
oops, my Arach in Pisces.
HAHA- check this out – LotR freaks ! SoOo cool !
Sean Astin- Samwise Gamgee in LotR – has Arach conjunct Venus both at 23 Capricorn- Venus (friends, love, art) has only 3 major aspects:
Venus trine Saturn (rules spiders)
Venus trine Pluto (he killed Shelob)
Venus trine ASC 🙂
heehee love ! ok, back to work
I’m less freaked out by tarantulas than I am the little spiders that dart around unseen. Tarantulas also have cool sticky feet.