The Weavers were not strong believers in Fate, and instead believed each individual was a weaver of their own destiny, their goal being to disentangle themselves from snares of materialism, power and ego.
Because they strongly believed the one should live by the work of one’s own hands, they stood against the industrialisation and materialism of Western Culture and instead specialised in ‘hand-crafts’ such as weaving. Weaving had a power religious significance for them, as it does for many cultures. For them, the Primordial Great Weaver, or God, is the creator the universe, weaving on his Loom Of Destiny the fates of all that exists. The thread of the Great Weaver is the umbilical cord that connects man with his Creator and his own fate, intertwining him into the design and fabric of Creation
On a loom, the vertical warp threads represent a vertical view of Creation, connecting all levels of existence, the quantitative essence of things, the unchanging and permanent, the masculine, the active and straightforward, the light of the sun. The horizontal weft represents nature itself, time and space and all that is changing, the accidental and temporary, the ever-changing and impermanent, the feminine, the receptive, the reflected light of the moon.
Across all cultures, young and old, the tools and elements connected with weaving - cloth, thread, loom, spindle, skein - are symbols for our future and destiny. Weaving is a universal symbol, threaded through the mystical traditions and beliefs of many world cultures.
• Ariadne, the one of the Greek Fates, spins skeins of fate with a loom and controls destiny.
• In ancient Egypt the word for ‘weaving’ and ‘being’ are the same: "nnt".
• In the Western folklore, fairy tales, princess and goddess holding spindles or spinning wheels controlling fate. Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on a spindle. Rumpelstiltskin is a weaver.
• For the Maori, weaving is all about symbolism and hidden meanings and the cloths a carrier for the spiritual values and beliefs of the Maori people. The artist is a vehicle through whom the gods create.
• In Masonry, female orders are commonly known as The Order Of The Weavers
• Upanishads are made up of sutras or ‘threads’ that ‘link this world to the other world and all beings’
• Hindu ‘Tantra’ mean literally ‘thread’ or ‘continuity’ in Sanskrit
• For the Chinese, weaving is the motion between ying (feminine) and yang (masculine) on the cosmic spinning wheel (Yuan Xiang Hun)
• In Greek mythology, Ariadne’s ball of twine or rope leads Theseus from the unconscious darkness of the labyrinth out into the conscious light of the world.
Read on about the fate of The Weavers
