Cotterell claims each spider-chamber encodes knowledge about sunspot activity. The spider's legs, he says, symbolise 8 intervals = 1 microcycle. As the spider has antennae and 3 body parts, though, it's more like an insect; 6 legs = 6 microcycles = a minicycle or "fundamental cycle" of 11/11.5 years. And so forth. He also argues that 3 spheres in each chamber are associated with the "three aspects of the sun" [light], equating them with the Holy Trinity. [In Chapter Nine of my E-Book I discuss the "three stages of sunlight", according to the Greeks.] Interestingly, the maths - 9 x 10 + 7 [each chamber has 7 rings, each spider has 7 gold pieces making up the body] = 97, the number of microcycles in a 187-year cycle of solar "magnetic activity". Yet, you could also speculate that, if the Old Lord is the Sun, the fact the 7 rings are concentric could denote the 6 then known planets [Mercury to Jupiter], and the Moon.
According to Cotterell, the number 9 had particular significance in the Ancient World. The Greeks had 9 Muses, while the early Ptolemaic model of the universe had 9 spheres, and the Hindu yantra [see "mandala" below] has 9 linked triangles. Appearing in conjunction with the burial of a king, such as the Old Lord [9 "eggs" on each spider face, which bear his features], and Tutankhamun [9 bound captives on the door seals], it denotes they were venerated as "Supergods".
Cotterell equates spider eggs being "wrapped in silk" with the bandages of mummification. Significantly, the Egyptians regarded the innermost pharaonic coffin [nearest the mummy] to be the "egg" of "rebirth" in the "afterlife". Primeval gods, such as Ra and Prajapati ["Lord of Creation" in the Rig-Veda], emerged from "cosmic eggs". The Phoenicians, Hindus, Egyptians and Japanese all maintained the world was "hatched" in a "cosmic egg" by their Creator gods. [Returning to the spider for a moment, in Christian iconography the number 8 [some fonts are octagonal] symbolises the Resurrection and new life.]
The spider's "silk" brings me to the "web" itself. The "Web of Life" was an analogy of an individual's destiny from birth to death. It alluded to the 3 Fates, who, according to Roman mythology, spun the thread of life, the pattern woven being events yet to unfold. In Chapter Twelve of my E-Book I mentioned the "Grace" or "Web" in Terry Goodkind's Debt of Bones, another emblem depicting "life's journey", as well as the boundaries between life, death, and the afterlife or spirit world. As with one of the spider-chamber spheres [if Cotterell's assumption is right], the Grace's central star [light] signifies The Creator.
Note the similarities between the images. You're probably wondering what Jung's depicts! Well, it shows the sound waves "given off by a vibrating steel disk". This hints at another aspect of the "web". Spiders, after all, are alerted to the presence of their potential next meal by vibrations along the threads. If the two are indeed analogous, this would indicate that the ancient Peruvians had a good knowledge of acoustics. Jung likened the pattern created to a mandala [Sanskrit: "cycle"], an aid to religious meditation
"meant to bring an inner peace, a feeling that life again has found meaning and order".
To Jung the mandala symbolised "the 'nuclear atom' of the human psyche", one in tune [equilibrium] with the cosmos. In Hinduism and Buddhism it is an emblem of universal harmony. In Christian art [especially Romanesque and Medieval] there appears the mandorla [aka vesica and aureola] and the mandala-like Rose Window. The former is an elliptical frame usually enclosing Christ in Glory or the Virgin Mary. Although the latter occurs in a variety of forms, there is a definite web-like structure in the tracery. The centre circle of the Notre Dame Rose depicts the Virgin Mary, one of whose titles, incidentally, was "The Mystic[al] Rose". Like the mandala, the mandorla and Rose, to the Medieval mind, was a physical representation of the Divine Order ordained by The Creator.
See also:
Through A Glass, darkly
Was Atlantis in Peru?
Return to Ancient Mysteries Articles
Return to Ancient Mysteries Index
