How not to be stuck in your own web
Published: Thu, 09/08/16
It is one of those completely still and misty autumn mornings. All the spiders webs which are usually pretty much invisible suddenly look like mini art installations made from intricate strings of crystal. The invisible traps now clearly visible until the sun dries them off in an hour or so. I watched one spider moving around on her web as if she was realising that it wasn’t going to be much use as a trap until later in the day. Even the most myopic fly would have difficulty missing seeing a web adorned with microscopic water droplets.
Most of the time the spiders web is a highly effective means of catching unfortunate flying insects. Practically invisible, yet incredibly strong. So sticky that any unlucky creature (of appropriate size) that crashes into it is immediately stuck and held there until the spider arrives and finishes them off. I have even seen a very small bird, a wren, get wrapped up in a spiders web so that it could hardly move. (It had broken free of the web and the spider was wisely leaving it well alone. But the poor creature was unable to fly again until I had unwrapped the remains of the web from around its legs and wings.) Yet the spider can easily walk around its own web as easily as you or I can walk around our own home and garden.
Apparently spiders are not actually immune from sticking to their own webs. The main reason that they can move around in their own webs is that they can produce two kinds of silk, sticky and non-sticky. Some of the strands of the web are spun with the non-sticky silk and these are the lines that the spider mainly uses to move around on. Yes, their feet and hairs are adapted to be less prone to sticking than, say, the wings of a fly, but they would still have to be very careful on the sticky strands. When I observed my spider this morning I noticed that she had two positions in her web, right at the centre and, when I came too close, another position right at the edge. I noticed that she took a very specific route to and from each position every time she moved. I realise now that she was using a pathway constructed for the purpose. How does the spider know she is extruding sticky or none sticky silk when she needs it? I guess
you would have to ask the spider that.
The spider is symbolic of Verdandi, the Norn who spins the web of our reality. Our life is a web of vast choices in terms of directions and possibilities. But, maybe some strands are there to support us but are not necessarily meant to be travelled along. The lines we are going to navigate most successfully have perhaps been spun to be non-sticky so these are the ones to identify and follow. Just a thought and, like any metaphor for life, don’t push it too far.
For the next few days my thread is fairly clear and it is going to take me to Illinois in the USA and back next week. Catching up with Allen and Miki and training with some other people I have not met before. It will be fun. If anyone still hasn’t made up their mind about coming I don’t think it is too late to get involved http://stavcamp.org/usasept16.html Or just wish me a safe journey in the capable hands of American Airlines.
Regards
Graham
PS I had scheduled a course for this month in Crewkerne on the 17th. No one has actually signed up for it yet and I realise that I already have far too much on this month. It is better that I concentrate on preparing for Ivar’s visit at the end of the month http://stavcamp.org/index.html and I will hold a course on Staff training on the 15th of October http://somersetstav.co.uk/staff.html instead. Please check out my calendar page at http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html for the list of courses up to the end of the year.