Mithologies, Stories, Movies of the World

"In the beginning, there was the dark purple light at the dawn of being. Spider Woman spun a line to form the east, west, north, and south. Breath entered man at the time of the yellow light. At the time of the red light, man proudly faced his creator. Spider Woman used the clay of the earth, red, yellow, white, and black, to create people. To each she attached a thread of her web which came from the doorway at the top of her head. This thread was the gift of creative wisdom. Three times she sent a great flood to destroy those who had forgotten the gift of her thread. Those who remembered floated to the new world and climbed to safety through the Sipapu Pole the womb of Mother Earth." (Southwestern Native American creation story)

Mithologies, Legends

Native American's "Spider Woman" stories

North American Realm of the Forgotten Goddesses:
Spider Woman is an important goddess among many southwestern Native American tribes. Though occasionally destructive, she is nearly alwys portrayed as beneficent. The Keresan Spider Woman created everything there is by thinking, dreaming, or naming; she thaugt the people how to plant seeds.
Cherokee Grandmother spider brought people the sun and fire. She taught them pottery, weaving, and how to make ceremonial blessings. Spider Woman is responsible for bringing fire amoung the Pueblo, Tewa and Kiwa tribes. A spider woman called Biliku, found in the Indian subcontinent, also brought fire and light.
For the Hopi, Spider Woman is a creator who helped the people during their emergence, created the moon, has the power to give and take life, and is connected to hunting and agriculture.
(Text: Michael Babcock, Picture: Susan Boulet, from the Goddess Knowledge Cards)

SPIDER OLD WOMAN: TALES FROM THE HOPI:
This Hartwick Classic Leadership Case Study(R) is based upon a collection of stories that describe how a leader must be a facilitator, nurturer, and developer who trusts others and desires to help them achieve their potential. The case study raises the possibility of a "female" approach to leadership that is in important respects different from "masculine" approaches. The tales focus on the leadership style of Spider Old Woman and its distinctiveness from the style employed by men in a neighboring village.

Hopi Creation story

West African "Anansi" Stories

Anansi the Webside Stories Greedy Anansi List of Anansi books Anansi, the Spider

Miep O'brien wrote:
"What one perceives is ... the spider being in two places at the same time - i.e., in the cage, and eight feet across the room. " (O'Brien, 1997)

I believe that this is actually a very subtle and sophisticated predator-defense mechanism. I am working on unraveling the mechanisms behind mental projection that these Old World spiders appear to be capable of. Because they have co-evolved with Old World primates, which may prey on them, they may be pre-adapted to interfacing with the neural pathways and cognitive processes which mediate subjective visual perception in humans (which are also basically Old World primates). Thus, their ability to project the transubstantiated corporeal gestalt of their physicality onto the mind of arachnoculturists, placing them in various apparent locations at once, the risk of pseudo-perception (or lack of a precise ability to localize the phenomenon we so jauntily call "tarantula") may lead to escapes. You should be warned that if too many of these spiders escape in your home and aggregate in seclusion, and thus join together into a group mind, forming a mental-matrix, all reality will fly out the window as the group of "tarantulas" practice transcorporeal projection 'appearing' here, then there, at will. This could be an explanation of why these spiders tend to occur in aggregations, or colonies, in the wild. Their aggregate mind is a formidable weapon. It is also easy to imagine that this could explain how arachnophobia could have had an evolutionary basis for humans. Imagine, if you will, early anthropoids on the savannahs of east Africa foraging for plump baboon spiders with pointed, fire-hardened sticks, digging at burrows in the hard soil. Suddenly, they see a spider here, then there in the hundreds, stridulating and clicking their fangs. The early hominoid troupe flees in terror!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I further believe that this is the true function of the horn of certain Harpactirinae. It acts as a suprasensory antennae to better project the image of themselves away from what we so carelessly call their 'true' location. Please also note that these horns are situated just above the sub- and supra-esophageal ganglion, which is the central nervous system of the spider. This, I believe, confirms my suspicions. Furthermore, these horned species occur in arid scrub land habitats in regions of Africa where baboons (Papio anubis) are common. Baboons of course consider these large spiders to be a tasty treat and eat them eagerly. So, we have an agent of natural selection. An evolutionary smoking gun, as it were. Because of large the size to their horn, Ceratogyrus cornuatum may be the most dangerous of all in this regard. I strongly recommend keeping the species carefully locked up, and certainly in small numbers, and only by people with a firm grasp on reality.

Not me, in other words.

Look! There's one now! Samuel D. Marshall Department of Zoology Miami University

"Watarfall of Jouren" folk story picture show

Novels, Comics

Movies

Arachnophobia (1990)

Arachnophobia II

>Do you have any more info of the movie "Tarantulas, the deadly cargo" ?
>Could it be the same as "Tarantula" from the ´50s ?

Look at the Internet Movie Database at http://us.imdb.com/search

   Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) (made for TV)
   (no summary available, I remember it as having a plane carrying deadly spiders 
   crashing near an unsuspecting town.)
   Produced by: Alan Landsburg Productions 
   Directed by Stuart Hagmann
   Cast: Claude Akins,  Charles Frank (I), Deborah Winters, Bert Remsen 
      Sandy McPeak, Pat Hinglem, Tom Atkins, Howard Hesseman
   Written by John Groves and Guerdon Trueblood
   Cinematography by Robert L. Morrison

You're thinking of:
   
Tarantula (1955)
   When a tarantula which has been injected with a special nutrient formula escapes
   from a scientist's laboratory it grows into a 100-foot beast that menaces the Arizona
   countryside. 
   Produced by: Universal International Pictures
   Directed by Jack Arnold (I) and W. Donn Hayes
   Cast: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Clint Eastwood
   Written by Jack Arnold (I), Martin Berkeley and  Robert M. Fresco
   Cinematography by George Robinson (I)

And don't forget:

   Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) (made for TV)
   Investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of farm animals, vet Rack Hansen
   discovers that his town lies in the path of hoards of migrating tarantulas. Before he
   can take action, the streets are overrun by killer spiders, trapping a small group of 
   towns folk in a remote hotel. 
   Directed by John 'Bud' Cardos
   Cast: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode
   Written by Alan Caillou and Richard Robinson (II)
   Cinematography by John Arthur Morrill

Giant Spider Invasion, The (1975)

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