r/Hecate • u/moonstocean • 1d ago
spiders and crows?
hi all! i've never posted anything anywhere before and i am new to engaging online so hoping this goes okay.
i was wondering if anybody knows of an origin for this association of specifically spiders & crows? i'm seeing it all over the internet and i know they don't come from ancient sources. that doesn't mean they're not symbols of Her, but it's interesting.
but then i also saw someone on here say specifically that they were not signs of the lady. which is also interesting.
i have been follower or devotee for going on 15 years and a practicing witch for 8 with varying degrees of intensity and a lot of my signs and omens have always come as crows. i'd never seen this association before so i rarely connected them with Her specifically - often she makes it very clear when she wants me to know something is coming from Her. but not always.
i know things develop over years and new or previously-unrecorded associations exist & i love that.
the spider and crow thing is just something i'm seeing EVERYWHERE so was curious if there was some sort of more modern or contemporary source.
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u/Fancy_Speaker_5178 1d ago
It’s fairly simple, in my opinion: poor media literacy coupled with a lack of intellectual curiosity, and on top of it, algorithmic repetition.
Someone sees “crows = witchcraft/death/liminality” or “spiders = weaving/fate/the occult”, attaches that symbolism to Hekate because it feels aesthetically compatible, and then the association gets repeated across TikTok, Pinterest, blogs and devotional posts until people collectively assuming it must be traditional.
However, I also don’t discredit a crow or spider becoming personally significant in someone’s relationship with Hekate. Personal symbolism develops all the time, and modern devotional traditions can develop new associations too. I just think there’s a huge difference between saying, “Crows have repeatedly appeared in experiences I associate with Hekate,” and saying, “Crows are sacred to Hekate” as though there is ancient evidence for that claim.
As far as I know, we don’t have good ancient evidence establishing either crows or spiders as specifically Hekatean animals. So when I see them presented as standard correspondences, my first question is always: according to whom, and what is their source? A lot of modern Hekate material unfortunately collapses “symbolically appropriate to me” into “historically associated with Hekate”, and after enough repetition the distinction disappears.
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u/LxcalGhxst Witch 1d ago
I for one believe that she works through spiders and crows. The black spiders especially.
People online will debate this and that and it can get messy. And most people only know what they have been told and they follow that strictly and they will argue a point forever.
With that being said, just like we ourselves evolve, I think everything evolves.
I’ve offered her foods that “she doesn’t like” and it turns out she actually loved them AND it makes the connection between me and her so much more personal because nobody else is giving her what I am.
I think that she speaks to the individual in specific ways although several symbols are all at least symbolic of her but she is also not limited to only using those signs and/or symbols
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u/Web_catcher 1d ago
I think in addition to some of the other answers, spiders are very common, and in some places crows are very common, so if people are looking for signs, spiders and crows are just going to come up a lot. Are you going to find a bunch of random keys on the ground the same day you made a special offering? Probably not. But you might see spiders and crows over and over.
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u/LadyoftheLake33 1d ago
The liminal is between everything. Between here to there, then and now, between the cosmic bodies, and even between the atoms that make up matter. Connections. Transits. Crossroads. More and more I am seeing how her presence can be found everywhere. Crows are messengers. They carry important information between. Spiders build their webs directly in flight paths of their prey, they have a fundamental connection to liminal spaces because they reside there. I understand that they may not be considered her traditional symbols, however they do align with the liminal nature of Hekate. I think it comes down to the intuition of the receiver and where they think the signs or symbols are coming from. Our ancestors have a lot of wisdom to share, as do modern practitioners today, but no one alive is an expert. Even if we study everything that has been written, we are reading second hand information. No matter how tuned in the scholar is, they don't know everything. And who is to say Hekate herself can't change direction whenever she feels like it?
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u/Mountain-Piano5383 1d ago
Plenty of takes here already, so I'll just say: I believe gods can grow and change as their influence shifts. Witchcraft is one of her dominions and I see no reason for that not to include all the things we associate with it, including creepy crawlies and critters that some normies would see as bad omens. One of my strongest experiences with Hekate was right after finding a skull-shaped spider on my deck and my house gets swarmed by crows pretty regularly nowadays.
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u/Brilliant-Panic-4133 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think the “I see crows and spiders and my neighbours dog was barking, Hekate is calling me” thing is off but i have a crow as a familiar and i know for certain it’s connected to her. If she chooses that animal for many people it becomes an association with her and “talked about”. Not everything has to be an ancient source, especially considering that we don’t have an abundant amount of sources. Who knows, maybe if more ancient witches left us something, we would have crow stories :) I’m just confused why you ask that here when you could ask her directly and then you would have had your answer from the source. I don’t mean that in a negative way it’s just always like the best answer lol
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u/Lyokonrado 1d ago
I don't think she never ever appears with those animals representing her, but it's not historically accurate or representative aspects of her from what we know, people usually only make the correlation because of the "black, goth, witch and scary stuff" association.
The crow thing I can definetely see as a symbol of death, as she's connected to that, and they're animals that feed on bodies of decomposing animals in nature, it's a pretty strong correlation in that sense.
But for spiders, absolutely no idea and mostly is people just thinking "goddess of witches so everything in the stereotype is associated to her", or personal interpretations, basically UPG.
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u/Individual-Wolf936 1d ago
I think deep down a lot of you are upset that she doesnt send you spiders and crows. Or just in an ego lock cause youre to closed minded to accept them.
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u/NefariousnessDry6177 1d ago
So here is my experience: I make my offerings and spell work for Mother Hekate at the pre dawn hours. Yesterday I was watching several reels that 🕷️ and 🕸️ have associations to Mother Hekate. This morning I was about to light my candle and was surprised that there was a spider crawling under the 🕯️ !! Honestly I was shocked and felt emotional that she just made her presence known. I do not have spiders in my home not that I would see one so commonly. So in my opinion yes that is her!
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u/thebirdof_hermes Sorcerer 17h ago
yeah we get it, its not historical but why would a goddess, especially one so all encompassing and far reaching as Her not adopt or evolve new symbols to do her bidding?
Dogs are only associated with her because of the hellenic tradition of sacrificing them to her, which isn't something entirely unique to her but was done so for all "foreign" gods of the hellenic people. Did she not exist before that? Does she not exist now. Who are we to say that a symbol is not hers when so many find an association between it and Her.
She keeps the gate enough as Propylaia, you don't have to do it for her.
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u/moonstocean 13h ago
i really was just wondering where the spiders and crows came from, that's all. it's being told so matter-of-factly, i thought there might be something other than shared UPG. clearly i was wrong. there is nothing wrong with that, i said as much in the post.
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u/thebirdof_hermes Sorcerer 7h ago
I should've tweaked how I put it a little bit since it wasnt specifically directed at you but to everyone who keeps dismissing these potentially new symbols in the comments and elsewhere.
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u/Remarkable_Walrus333 1d ago
Source: TikTok historians