A Navajo Tales and a good example of a spinning Goddess,
akin to the Norns or the Moirae.
A long time ago, times were bad for the Navajo. Food was scarce and the people were often cold.
One winter day a Navajo girl was walking through the barren land, shivering through her thin dress. Near her she saw a thin wisp of smoke rising from a small hole in the ground. She knelt down and peered into the hole and there she saw an ancient, old woman. It was spider woman; she who helped create the world and the people in it. Spider Woman looked up and told the girl, “Come down and see what I am doing.” The girl chanted to the four winds and the hole opened up so that she could crawl through.
For three days, the girl watched Spider Woman pass a wooden stick in and out of threads tied to a loom to make a blanket. She taught the girl how to work the loom and how to make the traditional patterns. Then she told the girl to go home and share this sacred skill with her people. But she also gave the girl a warning: Always leave a hole in the blanket or your weaving thoughts will get caught into the blanket and you will go mad.
The girl did as she was told. Soon everyone in her village was making blankets and soon this new skill traveled to all the other villages. Life was soon better for the Navajo people and they never forget the warning of the Spider Woman. That is why to this day, you can always find a spider’s hole in a Navajo blanket.
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