In Search of Witches, Part 3

Seems every time I try to write this 3rd part, I’m getting interrupted…

Now having spent 2 years on studying various witches, from Greek and Scandinavian mythology, through fairy tales throughout Europe, and into Russian folklore, I had thought I had covered it all.

Little did I know, the Teotihuacan, Navajo, and Pueblo had a witch of their own…

Spider Woman

I had actually put the whole witch idea on the backburner. Having in my mind this idea to bring something new to the world of Halloween, and spiders.

Disappointed that no one could see my webs from last year in the dark, I was determined to remedy that situation at some point in the future. And, what better way than making them the focus? But, as with everything, I couldn’t just go about COPYING the normal ways to do this.

I had been formulating designs when something on TV caught my attention.

Monster Quest is a SUPERB series. They find some cryptid critters to research that I haven’t heard of before on occasion (quite a feat, actually). But, one morning, I saw they were going to do a show on Giant Spiders.

Who knows, maybe they’ll find something I can use, I thought. So, I recorded it and forgot about it as I went about my chores. A few days later, with nothing on to watch, I saw it in my recorded list.

The show started in the typical over dramatic fashion: “From the dawn of time, man has told stories of giant spiders.” Yeah, yeah, blah, blah…it lists a bunch of creatures “…and the Navajo had the Spider Woman”.

Wait, What?

Rewinding, I had heard correctly. And there on the screen was a picture so remarkably similar to Yaga Baba. Wild hair, red cloths, carrying away a child.

It struck me instantly. I had to research this.

Spider Woman

To the Pueblo, she was the goddess of weaving and creation. As she thought of stories, they came into being. In fact, she is thinking of this story now, and I am telling you what she is thinking…The threads of her stories connected us all together in this story that is life.

From Halloween buildup 09

To the Teotihuacan, she was the goddess of Darkness, the Underworld, and war, shown with spiders on her body, hair, and servants with shields made of spiderwebs. Keeping company with the Jaguar and Owl in addition to spiders. She guarded the portal to usher the honored dead into the underworld.

From Halloween buildup 09

One might find objection at the suggestion this goddess was a witch. Yet, at the end of the day, here we are seeing the story of the Norn retold. A woman weaving the threads of destiny, both at birth, and at death…

It was the Navajo who pulled everything together for me.

The Navajo Spider woman is surely something special.

Playing roles in creation, and the formation of society, her influence is everywhere. Yet, not satisfied with just weaving the threads of fate, the Navajo Spider Woman takes on the aspects of Yaga Baba in the stories.

As with Yaga Baba, Spider Woman will often eat her victims. While Yaga Baba is typically partial to cooking them, Spider Woman, as the name suggests, simply drinks the blood.

Yaga Baba lives in a mysterious house that only opens when a password is spoken. Similarly, Spider Woman’s den has a door whose door will enlarge or shrink to allow passage when a password is spoken.

Yaga Baba chooses to decorate with the bones of those she’s eaten in the form of a fence. Spider Woman decorates her walls with the leftover bones of those she has eaten.

Yet, as clearly DANGEROUS as these characters are, the heroes and heroines of the stories always survive by being virtuous, courteous, and kind to Yaga Baba/Spider Woman and/or her servants that they end up HELPING.

From hiding children away, to consuming enemies, Spider Woman comes with a rich tapestry of lore that re-affirms my views that all these stories are connected. And, all these witches are connected. In Europe, we had the Norn. In Russia, Yaga Baba. In the Americas, we had Spider Woman.

THIS is the witch of witches…

The challenge now is to bring her to life.