Grandmother Spider - An Earth/Na'vi Story!

[Mika]

I found this story in a knitting book, yes the book is about knitting, no I’m not, but its filled with stories, and in particular this one was about Weaving ... don’t ask me, ask the author!

Anyways, as I was reading it I saw some parallels that I associated with symbolism in Avatar. To me it speaks of what Na’vi Stories and Songs, might be about in Pandora context, of course.

The Na’vi culture is considered to be 18,000 years old (according to Pandorapedia), and is passed on through Stories and Songs. Pandorapedia notes that “Storytelling is a part of the Na’vi weaving culture as well, and may have a role in recording history as well as myth. Xenoanthropologists have difficulty separating Na’vi myth from history, since all Na’vi stories are considered fact by the Na’vi, although many clearly have ... mythic elements.”

“Although their society is essentially Neolithic, they have developed a vibrant, complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection to their world and its natural order, to one another, and to the deity they call Eywa. They are superb artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through storytelling, song, dance and crafts.”

To clarify, in the following story, as it is related on Earth, Weaving is considered to be given a woman’s art, but on Pandora “Social roles are not necessarily determined by gender. Females are known to be active hunters and clan leaders, while males often choose to focus on child rearing or crafts, such as Na’vi weaving. The arts are of vital importance in Na’vi culture, with all individuals encouraged, even socially required, to be active in music, singing, ceramics, weaving, and dance.”

The following descriptions of the importance and significance of Weaving, is where at lot of the similarities to Grandmother Spider stories, parallel, and hence why I see the Grandmother Spider story, as a Na’vi story.

“While other Na'vi clans on Pandora organize themselves around carving or pottery, the Omaticaya are renowned for their brilliant textiles. Thus the loom plays a key role in the daily life of the clan. The largest of the Omaticaya looms is more massive than a Terran pipe organ. This mas'kit nivi sa'nok, or “mother loom” is given a place of honor in the common area of Hometree."

"The Na'vi word for loom, ulivi mari'tsey mak'dinio, translates roughly into “branches of the tree look to each other for strength,” or “many branches together are strong.” Depending on the type of textile produced, the loom can also be referred to as Eywa s'ilivi mas'kit nivi, (or just mas'kit nivi) which translates into “Eywa's wisdom is revealed to all of us.” This evocation of Eywa is a clear indication of the loom's importance in Na'vi culture. It is also a compelling description of Eywa, who, in this context, is depicted as a kind of cosmic weaver who brings the disparate elements of Pandora together into a harmonious whole.”

“The majority of Hometree songs pertain to weaving, since it is one of the principal communal activities of their daily lives. Weaving occurs in two ways: it may be done on an individual basis, on small looms, with a few men and women sitting in small clusters, or it may be done on one of the giant looms strung between floor and ceiling of the Hometree commons that are worked by six or seven Na’vi at a time. Most of the weaving songs are sung by the men and women working on their individual looms.”

“While weaving, the rhythm of the loom dictates the rhythm of the singing. Experienced weavers create the steadiest rhythms and can sing the most complex songs while weaving:”

Lyrics from a complex Na'vi weaving song,

Tompayä kato, tsawkeyä kato,
Trrä sì txonä
S(ì) ayzìsìtä kato,
Sì’ekong te’lanä,
Te’lanä le-Na’vi
Oeru teya si,
Oeru teya si.

Katot täftxu oel
Nìean nìrim,
Ayzìsìtä kato,
’Ìheyu sìreyä,
’Ìheyu sìreyä,
Sìreyä le-Na’vi
Oeru teya si,
Oeru teya si.


The rhythm of rain and sun
Of night and day,
The rhythm of the years,
And the beat of the hearts,
Hearts of the People
Fills me,
Fills me.

I weave the rhythm
In yellow and blue
The rhythm of the years,
The spiral of the lives,
The spiral of the lives,
Lives of the People
Fills me,
Fills me.

Spiral Song

Pamtseol ngop ayrenut
Mì ronsemä tìfnu
Tengfya ngop säftxuyul
Mì hifkey.
---------------------
Chorus:
Awnga rol fte kivame
Kame fte rivol
Rerol tengkr kerä
Ìlä fya’o avol
Ne kxamtseng.
---------------------
Aywayl yìm kifkeyä
’Ìheyut avomrr
Sìn tireafya’o avol
Na waytelemä hìng.
Chorus repeated

Music creates patterns
In the silence of the mind
As weavers do
In the physical world.
---------------------
Chorus:
We sing to See
We See to sing
We sing our way
Down the eight paths
To the center.
---------------------
The songs bind the thirteen spirals
Of the solid world
To the eight spirit paths
Like the threads of a Songcord.
Chorus repeated


Introduction

No one know exactly where Grandmother Spider, came from.
She apparently emerged on the North American continent with the mysterious Anasazi people,
Who may have brought her with them across the Bering Strait or from South America.
She spread through the Native American societies, where she helped create the people with language,
By singing and thinking them into life with words.
(reminiscent of Avatar's reference to the First Songs)

One way Grandmother Spider's power is conveyed,
Is through the tradition of her visual representation.
She is never drawn literally.
Instead, she is conveyed through words and symbols.
These symbols include pictographs, symbolic spiders, and the equal-armed cross,
That can sometimes be a symbol of emergence from one world to the next.

Once the First People are created,
She keeps her eye on them from some dark and quiet crevice or other.
And then, when they're in a jam, or confused, or dejected,
She leads them from those places,
That are cold and empty and dark,
Tto those places which are warm and light and quite wondrously full.
She finesses this transition with her magical and practical too, the web,
And her deep knowledge of reverence for the power and possibilities of matter.
In the Navajo tradition,
These magical qualities are also ascribed to the spiritual and practical art of weaving,
Which in turn creates the world and the patterns of the world.
(reminicent of the Spiral Song)

Just look at any spiderweb.
It's efficiency and its seductiveness lie in its near invisibility.
That just barely delineated wafer of patterning
That shows itself only when the sun blunders through
Its gossamer orbs and ladders is optimally functional.
Not only does the invisibility keep the spider safe while also luring prey,
But also the unassuming spider silk is itself brilliantly engineered.
Researchers have discovered that webs spun by individual spiders
are calibrated with ultraviolet light spectrums, which attract specific insects.
Weaving is like that.
Very unassuming. Lots of light insides.
Tailors itself to the individual weaver, and sustains her.

It also speaks to the importance of fiber arts to the survival of our species,
And how humans used yarn and weaving to overcome trial,
Since somewhere near the beginning of history,
And in climates that were not temperate,
Those humans who could spin and weave and keep themselves warm,
Were often those humans who survived.

Grandmother Spiders tools include her web,
And her specialties are creation and emergence -
In other words, she precides
Over the art of finessng that delicate yet uttertly essential threashold
Between one thing and the utterly impossible seeming thing
That will somehow, nonetheless, absolutely for sure,
And no doubt about it, happen next!

~'~



continued in next post .....

***