Beyond the Threads: Ancient Women's Mysteries

I have done a blog on knitting before, but this one is a bit different. When I first got into loom knitting I read about the elusive "Serenity Loom" which is a large loom shaped rather like the infinity symbol, or a laying down figure eight if you are unfamiliar with that symbol. I searched high and low, all over the Internet, but was unable to find one. I recently went on an excursion through Austin with my sister and our niece and nephew. We stopped in a Hobby Lobby store and of course I had to go look at the yarn! Lo and behold on an end cap was my long sought Serenity loom! I was so excited I snatched it up before I even had a chance to process the thought!

 So on the ride home, I of course was looking over my new toy and examining the box with patterns on it and the insert that came with it. And here is where I was so pleasantly shocked. You see, I have always found loom knitting incredibly therapeutic. I let my mind just kind of float and I relax. So I really should not have been surprised that someone else had figured this out. The insert for my loom went into great detail of how the loom was not just a tool for creating beautiful knit blankets, but a wonderful Meditation tool! And that of course got me thinking through mythology and history and even some of my favorite books and stories. If one were to look back through the ages they would find countless deities and heroines centered around the arts of spinning and weaving. Loom knitting is essentially a form of weaving when you get down to the mechanics of it and all weaving starts with yarn and thread made from spinning. Long ago these were known as Women's Mysteries. These arts belonged primarily to women and were known for bringing about meditative or trance like states that opened the third eye and permitted them to utilize the second sight.

Tales as old as time itself tell of how weaving made the world spin or the universe operate. The Norns and the Fates were the great weavers of destiny, spinning the thread of one's life and determining when it should be cut. Even the Valkyries of Nordic legend were great weavers, though their shuttles were arrows, their frames the guts of the fallen, and the weights severed heads, and they sang songs of carnage as they worked. In ancient Egypt the goddess Nit was the goddess of weaving, with a shuttle upon her crown. In the ancient Egyptian language the root word for being and weaving were the same: nnt. As mighty warriors were buried and depicted with their weapons, so too was a woman with her distaff, which also proved to be a weapon in itself if ever a woman encountered a brigand on the road. He soon learned not to mess with a woman when she carried one!



Arachne, the acolyte of the weaving goddess Athene learned that it is not wise to challenge your divine mistress in her own craft and was doomed to become a spider. But look how beautifully Miss Spider weaves her web, as though all the wonders of the universe were caught in her silken threads. Have you ever watched a spider spin a web? Or seen one sparkle in the rising sun, covered with dew that shines like diamonds? Creepy as our eight legged friends may be, they make beautiful webs, and watching them work is something quite serene.




Stories are told of women who weaved the very fabric of reality, or their own undoing at times. The poem The Lady of Shallot by Alfred Tennyson tells of how the gentle lady sat before her magic mirror and wove by night and day before she at last couldn't take her solitude any longer, and cast herself adrift in a boat and died. Other tales, such as the Grimm's tale of Mother Holda tell of how a girl's fate was changed by the loss of her spindle, and how her industry was rewarded with gold. Her sister didn't fare so well in her laziness, as she finished out the tale covered in pitch! And still another tragic myth tells of a woman violated and then brutalized by having her tongue removed was unable to identify her assailant and gain justice, until she took to her loom and wove the attack into a fabric, thus condemning the man for his crime. Weaving and spinning feature quite strongly in Greek myth and in the Odessy and the Ilyad.



Whenever I knit a project, especially those for someone special, I let my mind drift, but I also work with my yarn and think of all the things I want for that person. Luck, love, protection. All these things I focus on with each stitch. When something is made with love and intent, it becomes so much more than just a scarf or a blanket. It becomes almost a talisman, a charm of sorts. Think of that next time you sew, or knit or whatever craft you do. Remember the mysteries of our foremothers, the power of our own selves. Magic is in everything around us, and we can find ways to imbue all we do with it for a greater good.

Brightest Blessings!