seven
The Weaver
Spinning the World into Being
What occurs around you and within you reflects your own mind and shows you the dream you are weaving.
–Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, Etowah Cherokee
Imagine sitting in your garden, suffused with love and power. Light and energy radiate out of you effortlessly and embrace the entire world with their glowing beauty and strength. There is a feeling of immense love as you experience the connectedness of all things. Your own body and mind and heart are intricately woven into your garden, your canyon, the people in your life, the entire earth. All that you are is simply a microcosm of the entire universe and thus, you are filled with a loving power that unlocks the sacred feminine wisdom within. As you continue to sit on your rock, focusing on your breath in and out, you see strands of light emerging from your heart and connecting with people, places, and events in your life. These strands are your specific connections to your own path in this lifetime. You send each of the connections a measure of love, acting as the wise Weaver and holding space for creating the most powerful and loving life possible.
Our inner garden is infused with love as well as power as we come into the realm of wisdom. As we connect with our gifts, we learn to use them through wise action by calling on the Weaver archetype. The Weaver is more than a woman who weaves cloth; she is one who weaves energy, ideas, and wisdom into manifestation. The Weaver has deep roots in the sacred feminine and inspires us to activate our inner connections as well as our community. We are multidimensional beings, and the inner Weaver helps us bring those parts together to honor them as a whole woman. When we weave our gifts, powers, and love into our daily lives, we become more in touch with the wisdom of the sacred feminine.
The inner Weaver understands that her life is one small strand in the great web of human and earthly existence; that she is simultaneously a multidimensional being and a tiny speck in the infinite vastness of the universe. The Weaver also has the capability to see the small details as well as the larger picture. Thus the Weaver challenges us to recognize the wisdom that we are not only connected, but together responsible for our communities and our world. When we activate our wise inner Weaver, we better understand our place in the universe manifest as a thread in the web, rather than an isolated, separate person.
All over the world, women weave traditional cloth that shows the group they belong to, which people they came from, what part of the earth they resonate with. Stories abound with spinners and weavers, and this archetype is often linked to the spinners of fate, the creators of the universe, and the markers of time. Countless myths speak of a weaver of time, a dancer, a creator, a being that spins the world into being. The Weaver comes to us in the form of Spider Woman in the myth below, carrying the wisdom of creating in balance and harmony.
Women naturally weave in a variety of ways of “multitasking,” bringing together different activities, conversations, and insights when in a group. If we sit back and watch the way women network, exchange recipes and ideas, helping with the children, we can see how language developed from these very intimate relationships. This is also seen when we observe the biological differences in men’s and women’s brains. Dean Falk, a specialist in brain evolution, “took note of the smaller (by 10 percent on average) size of the human female brain today, as opposed to the male, but pointed out that the female brain is larger in proportion to body size than is the male brain and has just as many neurons. In addition, the female brain is differently ‘wired’ than the male brain. For example, three pathways that connect the two hemispheres of the brain, especially the larger pathway called the corpus callosum, are proportionately larger in the female brain.” 21 Women link many more ideas, thoughts, emotions, and memories together simultaneously; they tend to knit ideas together when circling, adding to the mix rather than competing for attention.
Weaving Womb, Heart, and Head
This exercise enables you to connect your heart with your womb. This helps to release tension and connect the deeper, sacred feminine within your body to your heart center. This can also be done with a group of women, using visualization to weave wombs and hearts together around the circle. Even if women have had their wombs and/or ovaries removed, they can still sit envisioning the space where their womb once was, honoring that part of her, feeling the space still held by the vagina and cervix. The description that follows is for a group; you can adapt it as necessary for solo work.
Sit in a circle, relaxed with eyes closed. One woman should verbally lead the group through the exercise. Focus on the breath for several moments, allowing tension to spiral away, down into the earth. After some time, begin to visualize your womb, or the area of the second chakra. Imagine it filling up with golden, brilliant, warm, healing light. As you breathe in, the light becomes brighter and more energizing. As you breathe out, it radiates outward from your center into the circle. Focus on this image with breathing for several minutes. Then imagine filaments of light extending out from your womb into the other women’s wombs in the room. Imagine you are braiding these strings of light together, weaving one another with light and love. Continue focusing on your breathing as well, imagining the light brilliant with each inhale and extending out and around the circle with each exhale. When you are doing this, you may want to also add sound to the exercise, allowing the sound to come from your womb, the tone that it resonates with. Let this sound come naturally, without thinking about it, just up and out from the center of your being as a woman. Continue womb-weaving for several minutes, imagining the room filled with woven threads of light, hearing and delighting in the sound of women giving a voice to their wombs.
Then shift your awareness into your heart. Just as you did with the womb, imagine a brilliant light emanating from your heart center. As you do this, the sound will naturally change into the openness of the heart space. Again, imagine threads of light emerging from your heart and weaving around the circle and merging with the other women’s hearts. Allow the sound and light and breath to continue here for several minutes.
Then bring the awareness up into your head, repeating the exercise with threads of light emerging from your third eye. Shift the sound into one tone that is more concentrated. Envision the light weaving around the circle and joining with the other women’s third eyes, connecting one another in a powerful space of wombs, hearts, and minds. Spend several minutes toning and visualizing the brilliant, warm light. Then extend the threads outward, encompassing the entire circle with brilliant strings of light. Finally, together, all chant one sound, such as the Aum or the Ah sound. This helps to connect the energy simultaneously and ground it. When you are finished, you may choose to put your hands and/or head on the floor or ground where you are sitting to help bring yourself back into ordinary awareness.
The Sacred Weaver
The goddess as the Weaver—weaver of cloth, fates, destiny, the universe, the very fabric of life—is found in countless myths, fairy tales, and stories. In pre-dynastic Egypt, Neith was the goddess of weaving, and her emblem was the loom shuttle that is often figured above her head. The Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu works at her weaving loom in the sky, as does Saule, the life-affirming sun goddess of the Baltic peoples. She is believed to spin the sunbeams into being. The Celtic goddess Brigid is, among other things, a weaver. Frigg, the goddess of the Norse, spins in Scandinavian skies, and her distaff is the constellation of Orion’s Belt. These goddesses all figure strongly in ancient myth, weaving the world into being.
The Weaver is able to weave the stories of not only humans, but all living things in her loom. Sjöö and Mor point out the importance of weaving and storytelling through the use of ancient textiles, stating that “a highly charged symbol language was used to communicate herstory and myth. Spinning and weaving were imbued with magic powers, and inscribed spindle-whorls are found in innumerable Neolithic sacrificial pits sacred to the Goddess.”22 Today, in Mayan cultures in Guatemala, women still weave the creation story into their woolen ponchos. Using brilliant colored threads, they depict images of the first life on earth, water, trees, animals, and people to show where they came from, who they belong to, what part of the earth they connect with. Then they wear it! How beautiful to not only wear what we have created, but to wear the story from which we came. In other parts of the world, the tradition of weaving is still essential to a myriad of cultures.
To spin a yarn is indeed to spin a tale, a story of good and evil, of lovers, of how things came to be. Thus, stories, art, weaving, and spinning are intricately entwined and inseparable from each other. Many of us have lost our connection to the woven cloth, the weaving or dance of life, and I encourage you to explore that further within your women’s circle and in your community. Each time people get together they weave, and honoring diversity means honoring all the strands, all the aspects of the web.
The story below tells how Wandering Girl became Weaving Woman. This story, as well as many others from Native American myth, figures Spider Woman, the great weaver of the world. She gives Wandering Girl not only the knowledge of how to weave, but the wisdom of how to keep harmony and balance in life.
The Story of Weaving Woman23
The old ones tell a story of Wandering Girl who became Weaving Woman and what happened when she did not follow Spider Woman’s warning. From the beginning of time, Spider Woman knew the secret of spinning and weaving.
Among the people, there was one girl called Wandering Girl because she was a shepherd and wandered all over the hills letting her flocks graze. She was strong-willed and stubborn as well. Boy with a Dream loved her very much and secretly hoped to make her his wife one day.
Then the great Spirit Being came to the world one summer and taught the people how to hunt, grow crops, and build shelters. Spirit Being also taught them the ceremonial chants and songs so they could bless all of their work and live in harmony with the earth.
Meanwhile, Wandering Girl spent the summer grazing her flocks in the hills, oblivious to the teachings given by Spirit Being. When the leaves began to fall from the branches and the cold winds began to blow, Wandering Girl returned to her people, but found they were all snug in their homes keeping warm by the fire. Wandering Girl called to Spirit Being for help, shivering and alone in the cold. Spirit Being did not respond, but Spider Woman heard her cries.
Spider Woman said, “I can teach you to make blankets from the wool of your sheep. Then you will stay warm.” Spider Woman showed her how to shear the sheep and spin the wool into thread. Then Spider Woman told her, “Now you will no longer be called Wandering Girl, but Weaving Woman, and you will weave warm blankets for your people. This will benefit your people greatly. But you must promise one thing,” cautioned Spider Woman. “Living on earth you must always remember that you are learning to walk the Middle Way. This means honoring the path of balance and not doing too much of one thing. So, remember to never weave too much or too long.”
Weaving Woman agreed to Spider Woman’s words. It grew even colder, and she wondered how she would weave in such frigid snowy weather. Boy with a Dream saw her standing in the cold and offered his home to her, and they became husband and wife. So Boy with a Dream became Man Who Is Happy.
All winter, Weaving Woman wove the blankets that were the colors of winter: black and gray drab tones. She often put aside her work, honoring Spider Woman’s caution. But when spring came, the world exploded into green leaves and glorious colored flowers. Inspired, Weaving Woman began to make dyes to enrich her blankets with beautiful colors. She wove in the beautiful colors of the sky, the sunset, and the rainbow. Her blankets began to tell stories of the birds and animals filled with radiance and song.
Overjoyed by color, she decided to weave a special blanket for Spirit Being using every color of the world. She set to work on this special blanket, so impassioned by her ideas that she wove and wove, without stopping. She awoke at sunrise and wove until sundown day after day.
Her husband grew worried and reminded her of Spider Woman’s warning. As he watched his wife, Man Who Is Happy became Man Who Is Frightened. Yet Weaving Woman did not listen and continued to weave her gorgeous blanket, saying she was almost finished. But that evening, when her husband returned from the hunt, he found his beautiful wife on the floor, unable to move.
He covered her with blankets and called for Hand Trembler, the shaman, to help. Hand Trembler made offerings and said prayers to ask Spirit Being for help. Then a voice rose out of the blanket that was still on the loom. “I am here,” called Weaving Woman, “my spirit is here, trapped in the blanket.”
Hand Trembler said, “She has broken her promise to Spider Woman and woven herself into her own blanket.” He made more offerings to determine how to help Weaving Woman.
Man Who Is Frightened saw his wife stuck in the blanket, the spirit of her face in terror, trapped by her own creative work. “We must help her!” he cried to the shaman. “How can we set her free?”
“We can help her only if Spider Woman makes the blanket less than perfect. Spider Woman must have permission to make a flaw in the blanket,” said the shaman.
Weaving Woman called from the blanket, “Yes, Spider Woman, you have my permission to make the blanket less than perfect.” Spider Woman reached out and pulled a long thread from the blanket, creating a spirit pathway for Weaving Woman. Weaving Woman came rushing out of the blanket and returned to her body. She leapt up and embraced her husband.
“I have learned my lesson!” she cried. “Never again will I weave too long.” After that she called all the weaver women together and told them her story. “We must honor Spider Woman’s wise words and never become too proud or obsessed by our own making. Let us always make one flaw in our blankets to serve as a reminder to keep humble with our work,” she told the women. Since then, every blanket of the Navajo people has a flaw in it so that the weaver’s beauty and spirit will not remain with the blanket.
Keys to the Tale24
The story begins with Wandering Girl tending to her flocks. In Native American traditions, people are named for the way they relate to each other, with the tribe, and/or with the land. The name is not a fixed thing and changes as the way the person relates to the world changes. This kind of name describes oneself as a strand in the web of life and names the expression we are offering to the world. In Western culture, we can be inspired by this view that is needed to weave our world into a place of harmony. When we see ourselves as separate from the earth, we destroy and consume too much without staying in balance. We can relate this interconnectedness to our own daily lives by witnessing people, our house, and our land as part of ourselves. Perhaps we can think of a name that describes the way we relate to people or the world around us. This name is changeable as well—just as Wandering Girl’s name changes, so can our own way of relating to the world. This gives us immense freedom. We do not have to stay fixed to one way of being; we can actively choose to transform or change our way of relating to the world just as we can choose how we want to weave the tapestry of our lives.
In the story, the people receive special gifts from Great Spirit, learning how to build their homes, plant and harvest foods, and, most importantly, how to stay balanced and in harmony with the earth. Wandering Girl misses out on these lessons, though, and is literally left out in the cold, unsure what to do next. Many of us have times in our lives when we feel like Wandering Girl, feeling that we have missed out on something, that we are not sure what our role is in our society or in the world web as a whole. This is especially common in a culture that places less emphasis on community and more on maintaining a middle-class lifestyle. When we feel lost or displaced, our vital life force suffers and we can be overwhelmed with coldness in the form of depression, illness, fatigue, or apathy. In these times, we must open to the gifts of those around us, to receive guidance from people, nature, and spirit.
Spider Woman comes to Wandering Girl and teaches her a special skill: how to spin wool and weave using the wool from her own flock. She is given a gift of how to make use of her own resources. This is a key to finding what nourishes our spirit and how we can contribute to our community. Things we have in our possession, are drawn to, or love are usually clear indications of our own natural gifts and ways to work in the world web. This is our personal, unique wisdom that we have to offer to the whole.
Spider Woman is a reflection of the Weaver as the harbinger of culture. In many myths around the world, it is a woman or a goddess who gives the gifts of culture and civilization to human beings. Inanna brought the culture Mes from the underworld; Spider Woman brought the light to the earth by capturing the sun in a woven bag. We must ask ourselves, what is our special gift? Who might we open to for learning new ways of being or relating to the world? In Exercise 7.2 below, you can begin to discover and cultivate your special skills and talents and what you have to offer to the world. Sometimes, simply being receptive allows for gifts to emerge; other times we can actively seek out groups, classes, or ideas that inspire us and work to incorporate more of that in our own lives.
Wandering Girl needs a home and one is offered by Boy with a Dream, who becomes Man Who Is Happy. This event symbolizes the shift from girlhood to womanhood. Wandering Girl has found her inner gifts and is then offered the support of a home and a man to allow those gifts to come forth. Man Who Is Happy represents the part of us that has been transformed and anchored into power and love, as discussed in the previous chapters. When our inner selves can open up to honor our gifts, happiness and wisdom naturally arise.
Weaving Woman begins her life’s work as a weaver. This is both an archetype, such as the ones explored in other parts of the book, as well as a very real and practical role in traditional communities. Sjöö and Mor note that weavers in the Navajo tradition “experience themselves as being directly inspired by the Great Spider Woman, the original weaver of the universe. They use no set patterns and feel no separation between art (sacred) and craft (secular, profane). The woven blankets are valued as organic expressions of the special powers of the makers. Each blanket with its inspired design has a spiritual significance, and is thought of as giving power and protection to the person who wears it.”25 This is similar to the way women in Africa make pots. Malidoma Patrice Somé discusses pottery-making events where women sing and chant and converse all day long over their blocks of clay. Then in a sudden flurry of activity several pots are born out of the clay toward the end of the day. By connecting in with the spirit of the pots, the wisdom of the clay and earth can be heard and utilized in creation. This process is an extension of their own song, connectedness, and storytelling, just as traditional weaving is a way of telling the stories of one’s people and their relation to the land.
Similarly, in Laos, the women weave their own skirts, each village with its unique pattern and way of expressing itself. The women wear these gorgeous hand-woven skirts as normal day wear, to harvest rice, clean the home, and tend the babies. To spend such care and time on one’s own garments holds the wisdom of honoring the earth. How different this is from today’s world of mass production and uniform products! Instead of using things that have been literally made and woven with love, we are wearing mechanization. This extends to include not only our clothing or pots but our music, our art, and even our food, the very things that should deeply nourish us. Weaver Woman inspires us to reexamine our relations to our world and all of the creations that are produced.
Weaver Woman is thrilled by the arrival of spring and delights in using its colors to dye her blankets, creating new patterns and stories. Spider Woman warned her to stay in balance and walk the middle way, yet in her excitement to weave the most beautiful blanket, she is overtaken by the blanket itself, losing her soul to it. This is a reminder to stay grounded and balanced even when we are doing something we passionately adore. This helps us to stay in harmony with our world. Overconsumption and overworking can drain us of our energy and leave us for dead, just as they do to Weaver Woman.
Also, this is a good reminder of the cycles of life. There are natural ebbs and flows in all aspects of life: with money, in creative process, with family and friends, while working, and so on. When in right balance, our bodies follow a natural process of activity, then rest, activity, then rest. Our society values production over anything else, and inaction is seen as devoid of value. But to honor both ourselves and our earth, we must have times of rest, just as the fields need to lay fallow. These times are when we gather for the next cycle of production and activity. If we do not take time for rest, nourishment, and renewal, we will become overworked.
In the final words of the story, we find that even today Navajo weavers always leave a flaw in their blankets, to let the soul escape. Besides reminding us to stay in right balance, this also advises us with the wisdom that we do not have to be perfect all the time. If we find ourselves tirelessly striving to create the perfect life, product, company, or project, we will often disappoint ourselves. Our pride can get the best of us in these situations, which will inevitably lead to feelings of inadequacy. Remembering that not everything must be exact; the house does not have to be perfectly clean; our art can contain flaws or even mistakes keeps us anchored in wisdom. This is part of spirit just as much as perfection. When I sing, I have a tendency to waver on the tune or fall out of rhythm. I am reminded of the ocean waves, which do not follow a precise mechanic rhythm. This is an essential wisdom of the Weaver, that we are part of the great whole, flaws and all.
Preparing Your Vision
This exercise is done in preparation for the ceremony below where you will create a sacred braid. The purpose of the sacred braid is to manifest a vision through holding clear intention and weaving it in a form. This is an act of power, created with love in response to your inner wisdom. This is a symbolic ritual to dream your world into being. You are cultivating your inner Weaver and enabling your truth to energetically be spun out and into the world. This vision is not a mantra or a basic intention, it is a bigger dream of a life and incorporates several intentions all at once. For example, you may want to envision yourself joyfully expressing art, filled with health, owning a new car, and letting go of a negative habit all at once. The Weaver challenges us to hold our multidimensional dream as wise counsel enabling us to live a bigger dream.
Spend an entire month really thinking about your intentions, special dreams, and heart wisdom. I encourage you to take time to explore deeper into your inner wisdom and come up with a powerful and loving intention. To do this, use your time over the course of the month writing lists, making a collage, and/or envisioning what you would like to call into your life. Use the powers that you have learned so far walking the path of the sacred feminine. Think symbolically about your talents, essences, gifts, and personal wisdom. Perhaps you want to use symbols from your guardian spirits, ancestors, goddesses you have discovered, or myths you are working with. As you do this, collect nine small items you wish to represent the deeper aspects of this intention, sacred things that have been given to you or things you have found over the years. These should be small enough to tie into a braid (about a foot long) in the weaving ceremony. Perhaps collect nine for the archetypes in this book or, more simply, three for power, three for love, and three for wisdom. Once you have a clear sense of your vision, you are ready to perform the ceremony.
Weaving Ceremony: Sacred Braid
This simple, but powerful ceremony is done to dream your self more firmly into being. By creating a sacred art piece such as a braid, you are symbolically allowing your soul to speak to you its longings and inner dreams. The intention for this exercise is to name your unique sacred feminine qualities and celebrate them in a sacred braid. You can also do this with any kind of weaving activity such as making a dream catcher, hair wrap, blanket, or scarf, but be sure you have enough time to begin and complete the entire object during your ceremony.
Make sure there is enough light to work by. Prepare your altar with images that speak to you of your vision—your collage and lists as well as symbols or goddesses that represent weaving and interconnectedness. Gather the following items
- Offerings and candles for all seven directions
- Three colors of yarn (perhaps black, red, and white, the colors of the triple goddess) or more; use colors you feel coonected to
- Nine sacred items that you can attach to your braid of yarn, each one representing an intention or aspect of your intentions and sacred dream work
Create sacred space as you have done in the previous ceremonies, calling in the directions and giving offerings.
Begin to weave your sacred braid or create your woven vision. As you weave your braid, add in your special objects. Envision your intentions and clear heart dream while you do this process. You may want to sing a song or chant a mantra as you weave, using the sacred power of words and music to enhance your braid. Take your time, really invest your energy into your work. Do not worry about making the object perfect; this is an act of power and should be held with love as you make it, knowing it will serve as a wise reminder of your sacred feminine being. As you create your braid, be open to feelings and images that arise in your mind, which will also be infused in your spirit gift.
When you are finished weaving the braid with the objects, hold it to your heart and imagine it filling with light. This weaving is a representation of your power, your love, and your wisdom on your path of the sacred feminine. It is symbolic of your ability to begin to dream your life into being, a life that is based in courage, compassion, and clarity, all qualities of the goddess, yourself in the shape of a woman. You can use this sacred braid as the starter of a mesa, or sacred pouch, to be used in healing sessions, during initiatory work, or to manifest more strongly your own power and desires. Traditionally, a mesa is a bundle of potent objects used by healers and shamans to enhance their work. This is also a good place to store any oracle you might use such as tarot cards, as well as crystals, power objects given to you, and pictures of teachers or deities that inspire you. When you travel, it is helpful to bring your mesa with you for enhanced connections to others, healing, and clarity of your purpose. Whenever you do ceremony, keep your sacred braid on your altar and it will be charged by the energy and power raised up during the ceremony. During healing sessions for yourself, you may wish to lay the braid across an area that needs more healing. You may also use it to enhance dreams by placing it under your pillow at night. I have often found that my dreams slow down and become more clear when I use power objects I have made that live in my mesa. This braid also works as protection and can be placed on your altar to provide protection and guidance as you move more deeply into the sacred feminine path.
21. J. M. Adovasio, Olga Soffer, and Jake Page, The Invisible Sex, p. 111.
22. Sjöö and Mor, p. 51.
23. This story by Lois Duncan is adapted here with her permission from the following source: Lois Duncan and Shonto Bigay (illustrator), The Magic of Spider Woman. New York: Scholastic, 1996.
24. These are some keys to the myths upon which Lois Duncan based her story about Weaving Woman.
25. Sjöö and Mor, p. 51.