Spider (Poem for Water Archetype)

By Jillian Fiore

Spider

She weaves

Practiced at crafting translucent threads

Barely visible to the distracted eye

Spellbinding to the ones who can see

She works

Quietly, without complaint

Building bonds with the trees, the walls, the energies around her  

She sees

That her shapes can only exist 

When she is intertwined with others 

Not always close knit 

But always iridescently related  

She holds 

Unrelenting Faith in the power of connection

Even when her own Presence  

Feels like nothing more than a whisper 

She waits 

She watches

She strikes 

When the moment is right

Some say she’s mad 

Moving in mystery 

Threatened by her magic  

Unsure of what she’s up to, over there 

But She knows 

She knows 

That when the wind howls

And the rain falls

Pounding her web and

Blowing it every which way 

That when those who fear her

Clumsily sweep away her beautiful,

gossamer threads  

they don’t destroy her 

And even in her rage 

All she must do is Hold on

Not by grasping to her strings with all of her might

But by releasing her grip on the tangible 

She surrenders 

Believing in those connections that she’s crafted  

Because even when the edges of her web don’t hold

She’s not alone 

She trusts 

That there will always be shelter in the strength of the trees or the leaves, or the spirits,  

or somewhere she hasn’t even begun to imagine yet 

She remembers

That she can always build another web,

And try again

Because her power lies in weaving beyond just material threads

The heart of her loom beats in spiritual entanglements 

kindred constellations 

Greater than physical ties could ever be 

She dares 

to fracture the fixity of the walls 

That separate us 

Each time she falls

And even in those moments of painful collapse 

She reminds herself 

of the expansion in diffraction

That Sunlight comes through the cracks

Glistening on the magical strings that tie us together

And so here she is, hopeful, patient, ready. 

From Jillian:

I've been working with the spider as a Water Archetype - dark, magical, mysterious, alluring, draws you in.  It's a guiding figure for me at this time.

(image from Reddit, showing a spider web photo taken with flash)

Created as a unit project for the In Our Element 2021-22 course