Alex Clark: Landscapes of the Sacred 2: spider

From p. 229-232. This section of the book begins with a short story about a spider and a student that I found interesting. The student had been instructed to pay close attention to what happened in a two foot diameter for about forty five minutes. The student bored quickly and began to doze, only to have a spider crawl up a stake and shoot her thread to his motionless hand. The spider continued its work, creating its web using its surroundings, including the student (even his face). Engrossed in the process, the student began to think and realized a desire for “quiet and deliberate action in his life”, discovered through the spider’s actions. The student was very happy and impressed with his experience, as well as surprised and grateful for the thoughts in him it had provoked. Turner goes on to discuss the symbolism of the spider in this situation, the typical role of spiders, and a little bit about Jonathan Edwards. “The metaphor of the spider offers a fine image of the web-spinning, interdisciplinary character of spirituality, as it connects various historical, anthropological, psychological, and myth-and-symbol concerns in exploring the human search for self-transcendence.” I thought that the story was really cool, and the connection displayed between man and nature very interesting. This simple experience with nature allowed a college student to find something within himself, about himself, a clear example of the power of the relationship between man and nature, as well as nature and spirituality or deeper thought.