Deep in the darkness of despair, caught in the tendrils of not knowing, suspended in terrifying groundlessness  – right in the thick of hard times, when you feel fragmented and overwhelmed, and the whole world seems so utterly disconnected  – right here throbs the call into the power of our creativity. Weaving your life in uncertain times is not about finding clarity or forcing stability. It’s about learning to listen, listening to our dreams, finding the threads that pulse with aliveness in the dark, and pulling on them, tethering ourselves to meaning. 

When Dreams Begin to Weave Themselves

Dreams are both the messages that come to us from the unconscious, as well as the desires, the hopes, the visions, and the ideas that carry us through the process of making life meaningful. 

What we dream about tells us about where we are, about who we are, about what’s happening in the world, about the collective unconscious. 

There’s the effort of bringing something from the depths of the not yet manifest, and pulling it through, bringing it out into the open, calling it into the light, birthing it out of the night. 

There’s the despair we go through right now, as the world unravels and authoritarianism locks its jaws on the flesh of decency, as we bleed with the suffering of others, and grieve for the brokenness of dreams for something better for us all. Dreams now may feel like a privilege. Do we shut them down? 

There’s those gentle, rarely noticed threads that pull on themselves from the stream of the unconscious, jumping out of the water so that we can catch glimpses of their silvery, wet bodies, glistening in the light, encouraging us to not lose touch with what matters to us. 

The weaving sometimes happens in the space between waking and dreaming.

Dreams as Threads, Not Instructions

We feel untethered right now… it’s hard to stay engaged. 

But we matter. You matter. Our humanity matters. Our planet matters. People matter. The heart matters. Our soulfulness matters. Art matters. Life matters. 

Weaving the world with our vision of wonder – matters. It won’t fix the problems. But it will ground us in meaning. Meaning is made when we make Muse matter. 

What fills your heart with inspiration? Even while the world collapses – what makes your Muse sing? This very song could be the thread that helps you and your loved ones not drown in despair. And that matters!

Weaving in the Dark: Creation before Clarity

We often think that we need a clear vision before taking action, but in reality, our vision clarifies as we create. We think that we need confidence before we go for our dreams, and discover that going for it gives us confidence. 

Our culture is obsessed with clarity. But reality is filled with ambiguity. There’s a multitude of ways, a wide array of contradictions, a vastness of truths that stand in contrast to one another. The ability to see nuance is key to weaving this world together. Myopic views break the web.

Dream weaving is a sacred art of becoming. It is born out of unseen threads woven into patterns of possibility that can become the fabric of reality. 

Creation Before Creation: Sitting in the Web of Not Knowing

I am not a Native American person. I live in Los Angeles, which means I live on Tongva land. It is not my place to teach about Grandmother Spider, who is a mythic presence in several traditions of the indigenous people of the Southwest. But I feel her web when I have a difficult time seeing in the dark.

Grandmother Spider weaves the web of our interconnectedness. 

She is the patience that pulses within the vastness of not knowing. 

She is the void. The darkness. The power that throbs before spinning the threads that weave the world. 

When the threads are not seen, do you wait, or do you weave? 

In some stories, Grandmother Spider sits in the void and waits. For a very long time. As she waits, patterns appear. As she waits for the weaving, she sits in her own woven web of dreams. 

The paradox is not something to be solved.

The paradox is the invitation to sit in the interconnection of all things. The seen and the unseen. All the beings that have ever been. And all that hasn’t yet been born.

There’s a time to dream and a time to do. There’s incubation and waiting and not yet going. And there’s the sacred art of envisioning, allowing the unknown to weave a web that might be vague to the naked eye, obscured from those who aren’t yet ready to go there with you, but wildly alive in a translucent way. 

Can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you hold space for what hasn’t yet arrived? 

If you want to incubate more deeply, and further explore this sacred mythic waiting, read this essay. 

The Web as Orientation

Life feels scattered when the world falls apart. If you’re feeling all over the place, like you can’t really find the ground – you’re not alone! 

We’re not meant to always know. We’re not designed to go go go. We need to learn how to be held, how to listen, how to hold space, how to soften the edges and sit. And wait. 

Right now, in these chaotic times, it’s not comfortable to wait. We feel helpless. We feel lost. And we feel like the spider of fascism has caught us in its web. And we’re worried. We’re gonna get eaten. And there’s truth in that. And we have every reason to be afraid and devastated. 

And – it’s a both and kind of story – the web holds us all. The web is our interconnectedness. We’re all in this together. 

We are held in the web of belonging. Each with an important voice. 

In one of the stories, Grandmother Spider begins to sing – her thread spun of song. She sings us into being, weaves us out of her thread into her web, spins us as individual threads, each with our own song. Part of a community. Never not part of the whole. 

Our song must be sung. It doesn’t mean we all need to become big public figures. It’s not about social media presence. No, no, no! It is a creative call. It’s a reminder that we are the children of the cosmos. And what is this universe of not a creative act? 

Your thread and how you sing it is the expression of the soul of creation. 

Your dreams, your desires, your inspirations – they are the core of creativity. We may not know where we are, where to go, what our next step is. We may feel overwhelmed, fragmented, and scattered. But our dreams are like our compass. Our Muse is our North Star. 

Life is your greatest, most creative art, which you continuously weave together, co-creating it with other forces.

The Weavers of Fate – Moirai and Norns

The thread of your destiny is in your hands. But not only in your hands. Many threads of many forces weave this universe together. And we are all woven with more than just our own decisions. Yet the choices that we make, and the qualities we bring forth through our actions, shape much of how we live. 

What’s in our hands – our creative power – can be guided by inspiration, by artistry, by visions steeped in the magic of Muse, by the breath of dreams. 

In both Greek and Norse mythologies, there are three goddesses that weave the fate of people and gods. 

The Greeks called them the Moirai. One goddess spins the thread of life from her spindle (her name is Clotho). Another goddess measures the length of the thread of life, and determines destiny (Lachesis is her name). And then there’s a goddess who cuts the thread, bringing life to an end (known as Atropos). 

In Norse tradition they are known as the Norns. They weave the threads of fate for all beings, tending to the roots of the World Tree (Yggdrasil). Urd is the goddess of the past. Verdandi is the present. Skuld is the future goddess. 

Fate Is Woven, Not Dictated

This triple goddess of the fates can also be seen in the triadic heart of the Śakti – The Great Goddess of India, who unfolds into three expressions of power; Creation, preservation, and dissolution. You can think of it as Sarasvati, who is the river of creativity, Lakśmi, who sustains the world with nourishment and wealth, and Kali, who destroys the universe with her ferocity.

These three unfold into many more versions, many more goddesses, and express in many more ways, sometimes clearly as one, other times a commingled process, and a journey through the in-between. 

With this Indian version of the triple goddess, we are reminded that our fate is not decided the way that the Greeks told in their mythology. Here, we are players within Śakti’s universe, and we are expressions of her. We are power embodied. And we are invited to participate in the weaving of the web of existence. 

Fate is not predetermined. It is part what we’re born into, and part what we do with what we’re given, part the circumstances we find ourselves in, and part who we choose to become. Life is a creative endeavor. 

What do we want to do with the despair that we experience?

What do we want to create with our grief?

Who do we want to make of ourselves through the forest of beauty and bummer we walk through?

We don’t all get to live our dream, but we can weave our reality with threads of vision. 

Witches, Spiders, and the Fear of Women Who Weave 

The power of the visionary one – particularly in the form of the feminine – has been feared by systems that wanted to take hold of power. For the patriarchy, nothing is scarier than a femme with vision, a woman who goes for her dreams, and one who can sit in the middle of her web – the queen of her domain – and wait for her prey to get caught.  

The Web as Threat

Some female spiders eat their mate after sex. She’s been pleasured. She’s been fertilized. She got what she needed. And now she’s hungry. And so the spider, along with women who weave, have been demonized by the patriarchy. 

Weaving has come to symbolize the mystery of existence. The mystery of women weaves the web of life. Time and space. The seen and the unseen. The womb that hides in it the secret of life 

Spiders spin the thread with which they weave their web, out of a flexible and strong protein that is produced in the glands within their abdomen. This liquid firms up when it comes in touch with air. The spider silk is spun with her spinnerets. And with it she constructs the frame of her web with its spokes and sticky spirals that catches her prey. 

Weaving is the creativity of the goddess. She gives form to patterns. She makes something out of her own substance. She’s the creator; mysteriously and magically creates life, nourishes and nurtures it, sustains it. And she is a protector. A fierce destroyer. Mess with her creation, and you will meet your creator. 

She is dangerous. Because she’s powerful. She can make something out of her own body. She is autonomous. She is independent. Of course the patriarchy demonizes her, and diminishes her. Caught in a web of a temptress character, the hero will be devoured by her. Watch out! 

The archetypal wisdom of the spider anchors us at the center of her web, rooted in our power, remembering who we are. 

Spiders, Witches, and the Refusal to Simplify

Spiders are associated with witches because a witch weaves magic, weaves reality, creates something new, and both have been demonized. 

Is her venom dangerous? Yes! She is terrifying. And she is absolutely incredible! The spider and the witch have been misunderstood. And it is time that we spin the tale that tells of the beauty of complexity, of a cosmos created continuously by becoming more forms, more possibilities, adding variables, and expanding the web. 

Modern dominant culture still fears this archetype because it still threatens the status quo. Her threads are a threat because they weave the complexity of existence. There’s nothing simple about her. Nothing easy to digest. She is not here to make you comfortable. She is here to make you grow. She is here, at the center of her web, waiting for the patriarchy to get stuck in this silky, sticky substance that she made within her own body. She’s got time. Time is her thread and she knows how to stretch it. She is hungry. But she is not in a rush. 

A woman who is great, big, expressive, talented, is always exposed to criticism and scrutiny. If she is in the public eye, she’s either too much or not enough. If she’s hidden, it’s a waste. If she reveals herself she’s no longer wanted. 

It makes me think about the song Everybody Supports Women by Sofia Isella. 

We need her right now. We need YOU! We need you to not stop your becoming. To not stop following the threads of inspiration. We need you to keep dreaming! We need you! 

Arachne and the Cost of Skill

In the Greek myth about the talented weaver, Arachne, this young woman’s skill at the loom becomes renowned. Everyone speaks of what she can do with threads. The precision. The details. And the vision… 

The woman weaves not only an exquisite fabric, but an art piece that shimmers with nothing shorter than magic. 

Athena, the goddess of many things, hears of this maiden who is said to outdo the goddess herself with her skill. She does not like that at all. 

The goddess invites the maiden to participate in a contest at the loom, and Arachne, indeed, wins the battle of weaving. Oh! The wrath of the goddess is real! Athena is a goddess deeply rooted in the patriarchy. And she curses Arachne to become a spider, punishing her for having such divine mastery. Punishing her for being gifted and skilled. Punishing her for her magic. 

The story comes to warn you not to be better than the goddess. It tells you that being talented, and mastering your abilities can be dangerous. “Stay small,” we’re told. 

Don’t! Don’t sacrifice your immensity just to make others more comfortable. Don’t cut the thread of your creativity and skill.

This could get a little confused in today’s world, where we’re told to go for our dreams and end up on IG. I’m specifically talking about dreams woven with skill – with actually working and developing something of meaning, of value, of substance.

Your inspiration, your vision, your dream, your creativity, your talents – we need them! 

Living as a Weaver in Uncertain Times

We may not get to weave as much stability as we’d like right now. Our web might not be catching our dreams and making them into reality right now. We might need to learn new skills. We might need to shift our focus. There’s a lot of unknowns right now for many people. The overwhelm that so many of us feel – it’s real. 

And still, we have the capacity, the power, the Śakti – to spin the silky threads with which we can weave the web of our lives. We are not lacking power. We may just need to reorient ourselves. 

If you’re in a season of not knowing, I made this video for reorienting when life feels overwhelming. It’s here whenever you want a grounding, embodied, and mythic pathway into reconnection. 

If the threads feel tangled, you might want to create your own ritual. This free ritual guide will give you ideas for weaving your life into the sacred web of all beings. 

If you’re learning to move with inspiration as your compass, subscribe to my Muse Medicine substack, where mythic magic and archetypal alchemy support your creative life in these times of upheaval. 

Thank you so much for being here! 

Much love,

Hagar