 Hello, I'm Morgan with the Temple of Ascending Flame, and today we will explore the Spider Goddess, Arachna, Weaver of the Web in the Void. The Spider Goddess has numerous stefic masks throughout human cultures and history, for the Greeks, Arachna, for the Mayans, to Atahua Khan, for some Native American tribes, Grandmother, in West Africa a male mask, Anansi. The Nazca's of ancient Peru depicted spiders in their artwork and created the Nazca lines, one of which was a giant spider, only visible from airborne flight. You can see it in a picture here to the right. The spider is an ancient symbol of mystery and fate, poison and healing, growth and destruction, and thus, transformation. Spider magic generally corresponds to weaving, and depending on the tradition, can include weaving fate, destiny, spells and rituals. In modern times, spider magic also focuses on the manipulation of time and space, the transformation of the cells, the spelling illusion, and the manipulation of reality at its root. The story of Arachna is a tale that comes to us from Ovid, a Roman poet, from book six of his epic poem Metamorphosis. Arachna was a beautiful and talented Greek Weaver, very prideful of her weaving prowess. She challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving contest. Athena will have a tapestry depicting the folly of mortals, comparing themselves to the gods. Arachna will have a tapestry depicting the gods abuse and tricking of human kind. In particular, Zeus tricking and sexually abusing mortal women. Athena was outraged by this, yet could find not a single flaw in Arachna's weave so beautiful and perfect it was. In anger, Athena beat Arachna with her weaving shuttle, humiliated and shattered. Arachna hung herself in despair. Not satisfied with such an easy end, Athena brought Arachna back to life, using the blood of Hakate, turning her into a spider. Thus, Arachna and her children were fated to weave for all time. It is from this Greek word Arachna that we derive words for and related to spiders, such as arachnid and arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. Interestingly, the Babylonians likely dropped a 13th constellation in favor of 12, because 360 degrees divided by 12 comes out to a nice even 30-degree arc. At that time, there was a strong patriarchal push that helped influence the dropping of the 13th constellation, one representing female divinity. Some believe that the 13th dropped constellation was at representing Arachna, the spider goddess. James Woh has made the following interesting suggestion. The rightful place of Arachna, the spider goddess, and thus the missing 13th sign of the zodiac, is between Taurus and Gemini, from May 16 to June 13. It is also very interesting to note that the Native American Hopi tribe speaks of a spider deity and constellation that will dominate the starry sky someday, and whose presence will signal that the end times are at hand. Let's talk about Kenneth Grant in the new Isis Lodge. The lodge was instrumental in contributing to the modern gnosis of the spider goddess and her current. Started by Kenneth Grant in 1954, and after receiving a charter to open an OTO lodge in 1951, and continuing until the early 60s, the lodge was based on the Setian current, which was aligned with the star Sirius, also known to those on the left hand path is the Black Sun, or the Sun behind the Sun. It was during this time channeled information was received by several members of the lodge, producing the Book of the Spider, later published as part of the 9th Arch. Grant believed that this material came down to earth from a planet he identified with the thalamic goddess Nuit, and the entity delivering this information was Akbish, the spider goddess. Akbish is Kaldian for spider. Transmission was received in two parts, and each section comprised 29 verses. The 29th tunnel of Set, Golilephi corresponds to the tarot card, the moon, on the other side of the tree, the sign of Pisces, and the Hebrew letter Kulf, which corresponds to the back of a head, the subconscious mind, and the reptilian brain. We can concatenate 29 to 11, the number of the Klipov, and the number 58, that is, two parts, 29 verses each, concatenates to the power or shakti of 13, the red star of the lunar crescent. The two numbers 58 and 29 added together form 87, the number of the sphere of the moon, and a cup or chalice. For the temple of ascending flame, the power of the spider goddess Arachna is the magical venom that is deadly to mundane consciousness, but essential in the formula of initiation, as it triggers the process of transformation through the inner alchemy of the mind. Through successive injection and absorption of particular venoms, the initiate learns that all matter is illusion, and it can be poisoned, dissolved, molded, shaped, decomposed, and created anew. The world we live in is interconnected on various levels that work and interact with one another, thus weaving the web that forms the veil of illusion. What we perceive as reality is the outer picture of the whole process at a particular moment. We are in the center of this network, like a spider weaving and spreading its web across empty space. We pull strings, create new threads, and link particular points in the network, but it all happens in a random, uncontrolled way, as we can only see the outer picture, as the true structure behind it is hidden from our perception. Arachna's venom dissolves mundane consciousness and opens the way to clear seeing, showing us how to gaze through the veil of illusion and see the web itself, and how to change and manipulate the web at its roots. Her venom is deadly because it dissolves the world. All that makes up reality is revealed as illusion. Behind the outer picture, there is a web of correlations, interactions, mutual relationships between thoughts, emotions, perceptions, hopes, fears, and desires. All of them shape our personal universe, and all of them are interconnected. Most of us live as passive observers, enjoying the whole picture, or suffering from various circumstances of life, but never looking behind the illusion. The web, however, can be altered and molded, if we know the mechanisms that set all these events in motion. This is the core of the arachnian gnosis. Arachna shows us how to gaze straight into the void, behind all that we associate with reality, in its various aspects, both the day side and the night side of the capitalistic universe, into the abyss of non-manifestation, where nothing and everything exists at the same time. Why have a relationship and work with arachna? Arachna exposes us to the unknown, the unfamiliar, and shatters all perceptions of what we consider the safety zone, taking us to the root of all things. By ingesting arachna's venom and coming through painful realizations, we can live through the process changed and stronger. For the initiate whose consciousness has been poisoned with the venom of arachna, the illusion of the whole world falls apart piece by piece, revealing the truth that nothing is stable and nothing lasts. Everything changes and mutates in every single moment of existence. Each event depends on particular correlations between various acting elements. For the initiate, arachna opens the way to clear seeing, showing how to gaze through the veil of illusion and see the web itself, and how to change and manipulate it at its roots. It is not unlike neo appearing into the matrix and seeing the grand illusion of it all, and understanding how to manipulate it at its core. Arachna is the red pill that frees us from the comfortable illusion of our blue pill existence. For additional resources on arachna, or the temple of ascending flame, links are provided. For more information on arachna specifically, I recommend tree of plifoth by the temple of ascending flame. I also recommend the draconian ritual book by asinith mason, as well as her book necronomicon gnosis, which contains a large path working with the spider goddess. The intro track for this video is The Forbidden Elixir by the artist Emma Yaw. Emma Yaw's compositions are perfect for any ritual work, particularly left hand path workings. Please support his work. Check out his website and facebook page at the links provided. His music is available on apple music and Spotify. The background track for this video is Cothonos, book bish, composed by the youtube artist Call Samhara, who has graciously granted permission for use in this presentation. Please support Call Samhara by subscribing to his youtube channel at the link provided. Until next time, ho dracon, ho megas.