On my front porch this afternoon I saw one of those nasty white spotted hornets caught up in a spider’s fishing line. The superfine strand that held the hornet captive by his legs was nearly invisible.  How something so delicate could hold with such strength is beyond me.

The spider began crawling up and down the strand from the hornet to the web intersecting soffit and porch brace. After a few passes the strand became thick enough to see. I marveled at such a small bug taking over another more than twice its size.

I called Izabella out to watch and grabbed my new Macro lens to see if I could capture it.

The best shot was surprisingly the first shot at 1/1250 of a second with the aperture as wide as it could go at f2.8. It was so hard to keep them in focus with all the swinging and blowing in the wind.

Through the lens I saw that the hornets legs had been tied up like a pig hanging from a stick between two shoulders on the tribes journey back to camp. He buzzed and twisted and spun with such a fight that I didn’t know who to cheer for. It seemed pretty sure that the hornet was doomed as the spider worked steady and fast to secure his prey.

As the hornet began to slow down and even take breaks not moving at all the spider began reeling him in. Pulling the strand up towards the web like a lazy fisherman just bringing in the catch. By the time the spider had the hornet up at base camp he had given up the fight, he was still alive, but awaiting his death with surrender. I left them to their business.

 I picked up my book on Medicine Cards knowing the Native American wisdom surely has something to say about spiders and it did. (pg. 209)

The body of a spider is shaped like the number 8 and its eight legs symbolize the four winds of change and the four directions on the medicine wheel. They call the web they weave the “web of fate” and it is usually depicted as a perfect circle in reference to the “wheel of life”.

The wheel of life doesn’t include any alternatives or solutions it just is.

It is human nature to get caught up in fate’s web and assume the position of victim.

The Medicine Cards had this to say about the Weaving Wisdom of the Spider:

“It is typically human to get caught in the polarity of good and bad fortune without realizing that we can change it at any time. If we are not decisive enough about changing our lots in life, we may end up being consumed by our fears and limitations.”

The spider’s wisdom speaks of a female energy of creation. The many patterns she weaves are like the many choices we make in life and the many directions we will go.

If the web is not anchored evenly it will fail. Finding balance always being the center of success.

That balance meaning there will be just as much loss along the way.

In the spider’s fight for life we learn that it is up to us to create our own solutions and design our own paths.

The fight and the reward being equally important.