Timely wisdom from Spider-Man

Although I’ve mentioned that Spider is one of the three major divinities that I honor – along with Dionysos and Hermes – I haven’t really delved too deeply into that here at The House of Vines. Partly that’s because I’ve already told most of the story over at livejournal and partly because there hasn’t really been any significant developments in our relationship since I started this blog for me to write about. One of the most important festivals that I celebrate in her honor, however, takes place over today and tomorrow so she is very much on my mind. Most of the serious ecstatic stuff I plan to do is scheduled for later in the evening. Right now I’m just doing some spider-related reading, listening to appropriate music, and thinking back on our time together in order to help set the mood.

Part of that reading involves going back through some old Spider-Man comics. Don’t laugh! Back when they had J. Michael Straczynski on board they were doing some really interesting story arcs – including one that gave Spidey a host of new powers and involved this wild shamanic subplot where he died, encountered his totem-spirit and was reborn. I actually read these at a very significant time in my life – and what made it even weirder is that some of the stuff that found its way into the stories was the same stuff that Spider herself had been telling me. Almost a year later, these themes are becoming even more significant for me. So I’d like to share some of that with you today – and preserve this as a reminder to myself.

The first quotes I’d like to share are from the Spider-Man: The Other trade paper back.
Dr Strange: My intention is not to scare you, Peter. Indeed, I’m not convinced there’s any reason to be scared. Basically, Peter, you’re in the center of a web … a cosmic web that you can’t feel physically, but that is very real nonetheless.
Spider-Man: Am I the spider? Am I the meal? Which am I?
Dr Strange: That’s the odd part. Depending on your perspective, well … you could be either … or both.

Then, a little later on, after Peter has died and meets the spirit of the spider that originally gave him his powers, he is told:

Little spider … little man … doesn’t understand …. never understood … what you were. What you are. What you are becoming. You were bitten. The venom was inside you. The spider … was inside you. But you couldn’t face that … couldn’t accept that … and what do we do with those parts of us we cannot face, cannot accept? We take that which is inside … and move it outside … because then it is safe …

You treated the gift that you had been given as though it were a toy. You did not look too deeply into what you had become or what you could do. You committed the crime of superficiality.

You … were dead. The spider … was not. The spider …. refused to die. The spider fed … and the spider slept. And dreamt of being a man. As the man slept … and dreamt … of being a spider. Until at last … the spider awoke. Awoke … to be reborn … but the question remains … reborn as what? And perhaps just as important … why? What emerges from the healing … may be more man than spider … or more spider than man. Because what is suppressed for too long … must sooner or later become apparent for all to see.

Once in it’s life … a spider may shed its skin … shed its past … and begin anew. Every wound, healed. Every injury, repaired. Every muscle, renewed. A lifetime of pain … cleansed. This is … the second gift of the spider. But this time … the spider must not be denied. We … the voice of evolution. The weavers of the web of time … the voice of history, speaking through you … must not be suppressed again. Accept us. Accept who we are. Accept who you are. The man who dreamed of becoming a spider … and the spider who dreamed of being a man. Find within us the gifts you do not know you possess … the strengths you were afraid to call your own. Be the man you are … but now at last … embrace the Other. Embrace the Spider.

Here are some more. This one is from the Coming Home graphic novel by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr. Spidey is talking with this strange older man named Ezekiel who apparently has the same powers that he does. Throughout the arc Ezekiel instructs Peter on how to use the powers to their fullest, including powers that Peter was never aware he possessed. He also tells him of the true origin of their power, how it’s totemic and shamanic and what implications that has for Spidey’s rogues gallery. Eventually Ezekiel betrays him and Spidey has to battle his mentor, which of course is a common theme in these sorts of mythical tales. But anyway, onto the awesomeness:

Peter Parker: So, what do you think you know about my powers that I don’t? I mean, what, can I talk to spiders or something?

Ezekiel: How do you know you can’t? Have you ever tried?

P: No.

E: So give it a shot.

P: So … how’s it going? Eat any good flies today?

P: Nothing.

E: Of course not. Because individually spiders are morons.

P: Then why …

E: I said individually spiders are morons. But collectively they form one singular thought.

P: And that’s what?

E: Well … that’s the mystery, isn’t it?

P: Ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer …

E: No, Peter, it’s not stupid at all. You asked me to tell you what I know about your powers that you don’t. But it’s not as simple as telling you where the right button is on the dashboard of a new car. You have to reconsider how you’ve looked at your life. Who and what you are bridges the gap between spider and man. But you’re not the first. There are totemistic powers that go back to the dawn of time. Their presence remains with us, almost like a race memory. Ask a shaman or an Egyptian priest … ask Eve when the snake spoke to her and offered her a great deal on produce. We tell stories, put on masks, build statues and say prayers to a memory. The memory that once, when the world was new, great forces walked the earth. Forces that bridged the gap between humans and other species.

This quote is from The Life and Death of Spiders by J. Michael Straczynski. It’s the myth of Anansi, which Ezekiel tells to Peter on his death-bed.

Let me tell you about the first spider-man. His name was Kwaku Anansi, and centuries ago he lived in the West African country called Ghana. They said sometimes he looked like a wise old man. Other times, they said, he looked more like a spider and traveled across Africa on strong web string learning the ways of distant people. Soon he had seen all there was to see, had traveled the land from shore to shore and climbed and webbed his way to the highest point. But he yearned to see more, to learn more, to see past the horizon, to the world beyond the one he knows. So he resolved to climb beyond where any had gone before, into the sky itself, where Nyame, the sky-god lived, because Nyame was the keeper of all the stories of the world, past, present and future. He climbed higher than any man had ever climbed before. He climbed far longer than there are words to describe it. He climbed until he disappeared, passing beyond the edge of the mortal world. When he reached the end of his journey he asked the sky-god for his stories and his wisdom of the mortal world and the world beyond. And Nyame said, “My stories and my wisdom come with a fearful cost, little spider. What price are you willing to pay?” And Anansi said, “There is no price I will not pay.”

N: Will you serve my cause throughout time?

A: I will.

N: Will you capture with your web those I ask you to capture?

A: I will.

N: Will you turn your face only to me, forsaking all those you knew before?

And Anansi hesitated.

A: I cannot abandon those who turned to me in need, those I love, those I revere.

And Nyame said, “The price is sufficient. Enter into my secrets and know my stories.” And with that Anansi passed forever from the eyes of the waking world. But his knowledge was passed to his children who spun his story, and the stories he learned from the sky-god, into webs of their own. From that day until this, the webs of spider tell stories learned from Nyame, stories of the world we know and the world beyond, stories of what is, what was, and what is yet to be. The stores are all around us, for those who know how to read them. While Anansi, who was both spider and man, became ever more the spider in his service to the sky-god, both father and mother of the spiders of the world. There they walk, he walks, and through their eyes he sees the world he left behind. So there is little that he does not see. And less that happens by accident.

And these last quotes are from The Book of Ezekiel.

#1

You believe you stand upon solid ground, that the earth is firm beneath your feet. You are wrong. The ground moves beneath you, it swarms and flexes and flows, like water through sand, like muscle beneath tissue. In constant motion. Put your hand to the ground and feel the heartbeat of the earth. Hear the whisper of builders and shapers. Eaters and destroyers. And hunters. The spider hunts because that is its nature. And because it knows the secret. That the blood of its prey is the milk of the world. And it is sweet. That is the answer to the question you ask in the middle of the night, in the darkness of your heart where you think no one can see, or hear. The one, singular question that is the core of your being. And that question is … why me? There were so many others on that day, in that room together, there with the spider. The hunter. Wounded. Irradiated. Dying. Why you? Given the power, what would they have done with it? They would have sought renown, perhaps. Sought riches. They were soft, especially the one who thought themselves so hard. They would have crumbled under the weight of the gift. They would not have known what to do with it. Because they were hunters. Why you? Because you were a hunter without teeth, you were chosen for your rage. You were chosen for every casual wound you suffered. Chosen for every time you were tripped, trampled, struck, beaten and humiliated before others. Chosen for the fury you were forced to hold in check, for the words you could not speak. Chosen for the blind rage that gripped your heart like a vice at every fist and foot and rock that hit and kicked and cut you. And for the greatest rage of all, the one you reserve for yourself, for unable to fight back, because there were always more of them, and they were always bigger and they were always stronger. But what if that changed? Who could be a better hunter then one who had been prey? Someone who would be driven to fight back against the dark forces sent by the world, who would never stop, even though they were bigger and more and perhaps even stronger than he was. Because once having been prey, he would never allow himself to become such again. Would never surrender. Would take death before submission. Why you? Because of all those who were there that day, there was only one hunter.

#2

The blood calls to the magic.

And this last is spoken about Ezekiel after he tried to sacrifice Peter and had a change of heart at the last moment, dying in his place.

#3

Many times when he came to this place he spoke of being a hero someday. But that day was always the next day, never this day. He wanted the power to change the world, but he never used it because he was too busy … and because he did not understand. Didn’t understand that he had that power long before he ever came here. We think we cannot change things. We are wrong. We do not lack for power or influence or money. All we ever miss … is the moment of decision.

All of this is pretty heavy stuff, and particularly relevant considering what I’m going through right now.

Thank you Spider for your wisdom and guidance – even if it comes in decidedly unconventional ways!