Spiders: A Symbol Of Hekate?
tw: suicide
In many online Hekate groups and in my own experience, I constantly see questions on spiders as an association with the goddess Hekate. Answers typically range from definitive no’s to emphatic yes’s so today I’d like further examine the connection between the goddess of the crossroads and spiders.
Historical evidence of Hekate’s connection to spiders is limited. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we see a small reference to Hekate in the story of Arachne, the maiden who dared challenge Pallas Athena at weaving. By the end of the duel, Athena has torn Arachne’s work to shreds and then struck the mortal repeatedly. Following the incident, Arachne sunk into a depression and ended herself.
Arachne's spirit, deigning not to brook such insult, brooded on it, till she tied a cord around her neck, and hung herself. Pallas moved to pity at the sight, sustained and saved her from that bitter death; but, angry still, pronounced another doom : ‘Although I grant you life, most wicked one, your fate shall be to dangle on a cord, and your posterity forever shall take your example, that your punishment may last forever!.’
Even as she spoke, before withdrawing from her victim's sight, she sprinkled her with juice--extract of herbs of Hecate. At once all hair fell off, her nose and ears remained not, and her head shrunk rapidly in size, as well as all her body, leaving her diminutive.--Her slender fingers gathered to her sides as long thin legs; and all her other parts were fast absorbed in her abdomen--whence she vented a fine thread;--and ever since, Arachne, as a spider, weaves her web.
In the passage above, Athena uses herbs of Hekate to transform Arachne into the form of a spider. What "herbs of Hekate" might be is not specified but Hekate is associated with both poisonous and healing herbs ranging from aconite and mandrake to the more benign saffron. The specific herbs being used isn’t the important part here, however, just the linking of Hekate to the transformation into the spider that many now wonder about its connection to her.
Hekate’s more traditional animal associations include the black dog linked with a transformation the goddess performed on the Trojan Queen Hecuba and the polecat which is again linked to a transformation but this time of the witch Gale and also the midwife Galinthias of Alkmene. While in our connected society we can commonly encounter black dogs across the globe, our ability to encounter wild polecats is limited to Eurasia though we may occasionally encounter its relative the domesticated ferret. The association of the weasel family with Hekate is not one commonly seen in modern witchcraft, however, seeming to have faded into obscurity behind more popular animal symbols like dogs and serpents.
All of this brings me back around to spiders and my own experience with the goddess. While the gods are greater than us, they are still working generally within the confines of our locality. While polecats were native to the regions where Hekate was initially worshipped, today their relatives are primarily indoor pets that haven’t maintained their historic connection with the goddess. Being a goddess of the crossroads and liminal areas, spiders are an easy connection to make with her then. They dwell at our thresholds when we exit our houses to find ourselves enwebbed at the door or peek into the corner of a room to find it glistening with spider silk. When I began to feel her call, I noticed spiders with increasing frequency.
Are spiders connected with Hekate then? Maybe not historically, but gods that stay in our modern lives learn to speak to the subconscious of their would-be practitioners and draw them in with the symbols of the modern day.