{"id":15728,"date":"2014-06-25T23:17:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T06:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/?p=15728"},"modified":"2014-07-19T11:04:50","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T18:04:50","slug":"the-worldwide-web-a-common-thread-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thunderbolts.info\/wp\/2014\/06\/25\/the-worldwide-web-a-common-thread-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worldwide Web\u2014A Common Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A \u2018Spider Gorget\u2019 from a mound of the Mississippian Culture 7 miles from St. Louis (St. Clair County, Illinois, United States of America) (C. 800-1500 CE).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jun\u00a026, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shell gorgets were found in mounds of the prehistoric Mississippian culture, often still reposing on the chest of the wearer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The spider is a recurrent theme on gorgets in mounds in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. The early anthropologist William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) observed that the above specimen is \u201cdrawn with considerable fidelity to nature and covers nearly the entire disk, the legs, mandibles, and abdomen reaching to the outer marginal line.\u201d Its thorax is \u201cplaced in the center of the disk, and is represented by a circle; within this a cross has been engraved\u201d. Apparently, the spider, the cross \u2013 which is \u201cidentical with forms found upon many other objects\u201d \u2013 and other variable elements such as concentric rings and a ring of 24 triangular notches were \u201cnot a mere fanciful invention, but had some symbolic meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

An initial hint is provided by the Cherokee myth of Kanane\u00b4ski Amai\u00b4y\u011bhi (\u201cWater Spider\u201d), who \u201cspun a thread from her body and wove it into a\u00a0tusti<\/em>\u00a0bowl which she fastened on her back\u201d and used to retrieve the first fire from \u201ca hollow sycamore tree which grew on an island\u201d. But this explanation hangs by a thread: spiders do not weave bowls or procure fire for the benefit of others. The myth must be part of a wider web of spider mythology which needs to be addressed as a whole.<\/p>\n

Creation myths around the world feature an arachnid demiurge or cosmic spider webs. The natives of Kiribati (Micronesia) named the creator Na Areau te Moa-ni-bai (\u2018Sir Spider the First-of-Things\u2019), who \u201csat alone in space as \u2018a cloud that floats in nothingness\u2019.\u201d On Nauru, his cognate Areop e\u1e45ap was also identified as \u2018the old spider\u2019. A third Micronesian group, of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, relayed that the world with the plants and animals was created before a sea-gull \u2018formed the dome of the sky while a spider weaves its web.\u2019 Chiefs of the Pima (Arizona) \u201csay that the earth was made by a certain Chiowotmahke, that is to say Earth-prophet. It appeared in the beginning like a spider\u2019s web, stretching far and fragile across the nothingness that was.\u201d And the Karen (Myanmar) alleged: \u201cThere was a spider in the sky, and he was able to pass to and fro between heaven and earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Involvement of a form of\u00a0axis mundi<\/em>\u00a0in such traditions points to their original nature. The Cherokee tale receives a different spin when the classic description of the cosmic axis as a primaeval repository of light and fire is recognised in the tree from which \u201cWater Spider\u201d collected the fire. The Ashanti (Ghana) likewise pictured Ananse Kokrok\u014d (\u201cthe Great Spider\u201d) with a receptacle on its back, relating that he once \u201ccollected all the wisdom of the world and shut it up in a gourd, and was climbing up a tree to deposit it on the top. He got into difficulties, however, before he reached half-way up, as he had tied the gourd on to his belly, and it hindered him from climbing properly. \u2026 It broke, and the wisdom it contained became scattered \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Many a yarn was spun around the conception that the\u00a0axis mundi<\/em>\u00a0was itself a spider\u2019s thread \u2013 a metaphor in the same category as \u2018ropes\u2019, \u2018snares\u2019, \u2018strands of hair\u2019 and the like \u2013 along which mythical beings used to pass. According to the Chukchi (northeastern Siberia), \u201cthe supreme being in the upper world \u2026 lets down by means of a strong rope the human visitor and his wife, after supplying them with provisions. Sometimes his rope is only a spider\u2019s thread, but is capable of sustaining twenty reindeer-loads without snapping.\u201d The Ojibway (straddling the borders of Canada and the United States of America) supposed their ancestors to have descended from the moon on a web woven by a giant spider. The Yor\u00f9b\u00e1 (Nigeria) told that \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 in the beginning the world was all marshy and watery, a waste place. Above it was the sky where Ol-orun, the Owner of the Sky, lived with other divinities. The gods came down sometimes to play in the marshy waste, coming down spider\u2019s webs which hung across great gaps like fairy bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a story from the Blackfeet (southern Alberta and northern Montana), Spider Man \u201cspun the web, upon which Soatsaki was let down from the sky\u201d, \u201cdown through the hole to the earth.\u201d Among the Aztec (Mexico), some said that \u2018Tezcatlipoca \u2026 had descended from the sky sliding down a rope he had made of spider web\u2019. The tribes of the M\u0101ori (New Zealand) passed on several versions of Ta-whaki\u2019s ascent to heaven, of which that of the Ng\u0101ti Hau (Wanganui, North Island) is as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cTa-whaki at one period lived on earth, and was in appearance like a man. \u2026 He went up to the top of a mountain and sat down, where he put off his earthly garments and clothed himself in lightning. \u2026 He now climbed into a\u00a0ti<\/em>-tree (Cordyline<\/em>), from the top of which a spider\u2019s web reached up to heaven. Up this he ascended, but, having gone some distance, his female ancestor chanted her incantations to herself. The web broke, and he fell back to the earth. He made a second attempt, but failed. On the third he gained the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Variants of the myth underline the ten \u2018heavens\u2019 through which Ta-whaki passed in succession along the cord. Meanwhile, the Chorote (southern Gran Chaco) narrate how \u201cS\u00e9n, the hummingbird\u201d and other heroes in avian form wished to ascend to heaven, but found the chain of arrows they had produced inadequate:<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they sent Siw\u00e1lak, the spider, up on it. \u2026 Siw\u00e1lak began to spin a web and reached the sky. Then a rope appeared that Siw\u00e1lak made up above. When the rope was finished, the birds began to jump, grabbing the rope to go up to heaven. The last one to climb up was S\u00e9n \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

A variant of this myth involved a \u201cladder\u201d, which \u201cwas of chaguar fiber and in the form of a spider\u2019s web, but elongated rather than round.\u201d Furthermore, the Rotse (western Zambia) claimed that the principal deity originally \u201clived here below among men\u201d, but, as he was stalked, \u201cat the order of God the spider spun a thread which reached right up to the sky, and God and his family climbed up there and have stayed above ever since.\u201d In the mythology of the Yao (south of Lake Malawi), Mulungu (\u2018God\u2019) \u201cwas staying down here, before he went away to heaven\u201d, but was offended when the first pair of humans destroyed his animals:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the Chameleon ran away, and Mlungu [sic! MAS] ran away. The Chameleon ran for a tree. Mlungu was on the ground, and he said, \u2018I cannot climb a tree\u2019. Then Mlungu set off and went to call the spider. The spider went on high and returned again, and said, \u2018I have gone on high nicely\u2019, and he said, \u2018you now, Mlungu, go on high\u2019. Mlungu then went with the spider on high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mindful not to lose the thread, one finally notes that spiders and their webs feature in myths regarding the downfall or the doomed construction of the world axis. For example, the Louyi (Upper Zambesi river) viewed Nyamb\u00e9 as the sun who used to live on Earth: \u2018When Nyamb\u00e9 returned to the sky, he mounted on a spider web.\u2019 The remainder of the story epitomises the familiar motifs of the\u00a0axis mundi<\/em>\u00a0formed of concatenated units and tragically disintegrating:<\/p>\n

\u2018(The people) said: Let\u2019s make masts to arrive in the sky. They planted (long) poles, they added (other) poles attached to these (to each other). When they were (arrived) far (by mounting along these poles), the poles collapsed.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to the Mohawk (originally New York State), Takw\u0103\u00b7\u0103\u00b7\u00b4sa\u00b7r (\u2018Spider\u2019) played a decisive part in the levelling of the cosmic tree which used to hold the sun in place:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then Sapling said: \u2018Thou, Beaver, do thou cut down the tree; and thou, Spider, shalt climb the tree, and at the top of the tree thou shalt fasten thy cord. Then thou shalt descend, hanging by thy cord, until thou reachest the ground.\u2019 \u2026 All this, then, came to pass. Beaver, of course, worked there, biting out pieces from the tree; and Spider, for his part, climbed to the tree top, and having reached the top, he then, verily, fastened his cord about it. Thereupon he let himself down, and again alighted on the earth. So then, when there was, of course, little to cut, and the prospect was encouraging that it would be possible to fell the tree, then Spider pulled on the cord. Then, in fact, the tree toppled over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the Huaorani (Ecuadorian Amazonia) transmitted a similar account in which Spider and Squirrel razed the bobehu\u00e8 or giant Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra), which was the first object to exist and allegedly contained all forms of life at the time: \u201cSquirrel and Spider decided to take action \u2026 they climbed up to the very top of the tree \u2026 Spider wove a tight and intricate web \u2026 But the manoeuvre went wrong. Instead of cutting the web off the branch, Squirrel\u2019s teeth incised the vine that linked up the tree to the sky. While the vine sprang up, with Squirrel still biting on its end, the giant tree crashed onto the ground, westward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many have sought to explain creation myths in terms of meaningless fantasy, the folly of primitive minds or hyperbolic symbolism derived from inner workings of the human mind or to express nature\u2019s most mundane manifestations. Clearing the cobwebs of such inadequate theories, the various strands of myth identified above find a compelling solution in geomagnetism.<\/p>\n

The earth\u2019s magnetosphere shields it from dangerous radiation and particles. At times when the field is impaired, such as geomagnetic reversals and excursions, incoming charged particles can penetrate deeper and more broadly than under quiescent conditions. Arguably, the aurora then transforms into a global phenomenon of greater intensity than usual. The shape of the aurora is at all times determined by the delicate structure of the geomagnetic field. Though field lines are just a conceptual tool to visualise this fine system, the inflowing plasma does organise itself into the filaments seen in auroral rays, arcs, coronas and other features. If such events occurred within human memory, traditions of gossamer networks in the atmosphere, of which the celebrated\u00a0axis mundi<\/em>\u00a0formed part and parcel, could testify to the auroral illumination of stringy patterns in an enfeebled geomagnetic field.<\/p>\n

Nor does the hypothesis leave the spider stranded \u2013 the intense aurora is expected to form plasmoids not unlike ball lightning, which eventually detach themselves from the columns. The Spanish researchers Ra\u00f1ada, Soler & Trueba noted: \u201cIn some cases, filaments are observed trailing a ball; they must be streamers which break open and follow behind \u2026\u201d To na\u00efve observers lost for words, the filaments could well have resembled the legs and pedipalps of a spider. The spider\u2019s intimate association with the \u2018sun\u2019, the delivery of \u2018fire\u2019 or an outfit of \u2018lightning\u2019 is easily seen in the same auroral light.<\/p>\n

With thanks to Robert J. Johnson for the reference to Ra\u00f1ada, Soler & Trueba.<\/p>\n

Rens Van Der Sluijs<\/p>\n

Mythopedia.info<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for a Spanish translation<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Jun\u00a026, 2014 Shell gorgets were found in mounds of the prehistoric Mississippian culture, often still reposing on the chest of the wearer. The spider is a recurrent theme on gorgets in mounds in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee. The early anthropologist William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) observed that the above specimen…<\/p>\n

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