The Spider

A while back a group of us gathered in a local park and did a guided meditation. The point of the meditation was to get in touch with our spirit guides. I figured this would be no problem because I was already familiar with my guide, who happened to be a lion who has been with me for quite some time. We were instructed to leave all preconceptions behind and see what happened. On our guided journey we were taken through a forest and then flew to our safe place. We were then told to close our eyes and when they were opened we would be face to face with our spirit guide. I mentally did as instructed, however when I opened my eyes, nothing was there. I could only see across the field to the other row of trees. I was not amused and wondered if this was my own self giving me a lesson for preconceiving what I would find on this "journey." I looked around a bit more, and then noticed a little shiny black spider had dropped down on his silk (I've always referred to the little guy as male). This surprised me, if anything I expected my lion to show, so this was a new experience. There was no conversation, but I did feel comforted by the spiders presence. Upon leaving I did see my lion briefly behind some trees, but did not correspond with him other than the brief view.

Since that time I have not done the research that I should have for the experience. I do know that was the same year that there was a garden spider living in my garden. She held her ground to that garden, wasn't afraid of me, and stayed in view until the very last vine had been pulled for the season before going into hiding in the grass. I felt bad taking her home, but knew I had to get the area cleaned up before it got too cold. I am also aware of some basic symbolism and mythology with the spider such as the web weaver as a creator and connector for all things in this world, a loving mother and a Goddess symbol. Additionally I know the benefits of having spiders near, as well as the saying there is always a spider within five feet of you at any given time. I'm not a person who is scared of spiders, but I'll jump a mile if a cricket or grasshopper jumps my way. This is really an area I want and need to do more research in. I've got a strange fondness for spiders and having one show up unexpectedly in my meditation must mean something. Possibly the Goddess saying to start focusing more, or maybe I'm being told to focus on more details, or possibly even to get out of my blinders and see what I'm missing. There's lots of interpretations to my meditation, and even though it was six months in the past, there's still significance to it. I remembered it in vivid detail for this long; it definitely made an impact on me. I have a bad habit of having those good intentions to research these things, but then never get around to actually looking into them. At this point I need to practice what I preach and pay attention to what my mind is trying to tell me. Maybe I'll never get the point, maybe there never was one. Who knows, I just want to learn more regardless; it can't hurt.