What To Know About The Spiritual Meaning Of Spiders + What To Do If You're Seeing Them

Spiders may elicit fear in many people, but these creatures actually represent positive messages. As animal communicator, psychic medium, and clairvoyant Nancy Mello tells mindbodygreen, "The spider symbolizes curiosity, wonder, and growth."

And according to animal symbolism coach and podcast host Maggie Wilson, "The spider symbolizes creativity in the weaving of fate, [and] spider teaches you to maintain balance. It can be between past and future, physical, and spiritual."

While many of us may be frightened by these eight-legged arthropods, they often appear with a message for us. "Seeing a spider in your home can be creepy at best, or if it's a poisonous one, downright terrifying, says Kathy Harmon-Luber, author of Suffering to Thriving: Your Toolkit for Navigating Your Healing Journey, adding, "Yet if spiders show up in your life repeatedly—or if you're dreaming of them—take a moment to consider Spider as an oracle with a possibly deep, personally relevant message for your life." 

In spiritual groups, it's believed that when we start noticing specific critters or animals, or they seem to come into our lives inexplicably, it's a way to transmit messages. Spider may be communicating that you need to be patient and observant, for instance.

"Observe how patient a spider is with whatever it is doing," Mello suggests. "Allow yourself to see where you need to be patient or maybe where you need to complete something you haven't yet completed." 

Another message Spider may be wanting to share with you is to allow yourself to connect with the side of you that you hide and don't normally want to acknowledge.

Or as Wilson puts it, "It's time to go into the dark areas—don't be afraid to go into the shadow yourself and peek into the tiny corners where something might be hiding within."

Dreaming is an opportunity to connect with your subconscious and receive messages, and when we're receptive and pay attention, dreams can offer important clues and information to what's going on in your world under the surface.

Colors, emotions, and symbols are also all critical components in deciphering your dream and understanding possible interpretations. "Pay attention to how you feel in the dream, what the spider is doing, and how you're reacting to the spider," Wilson suggests. 

Spider symbolism in dreams can provide messages about changes you may need to create in your waking life, though according to Wilson, spiders dreams are generally a lucky sign. "It can mean your wish or dream is going to be fulfilled," she says.

One interpretation of spider dreams is that you need to let something go, for example. "When a spider appears in your dream, it means you are growing but may be struggling with either letting go of a person or feeling, or you have finished with something but maybe not ready to accept it," Mello adds. 

If you're dreaming more specifically about a spiderweb, reflect on what spider symbolism may be trying to convey. "If you're repeatedly dreaming of Spider in a web, or just the web alone, ask yourself, Where in my life am I feeling trapped or stuck?" Harmon-Luber says.

"The web is a symbol of balance, and spiders are a vitally needed contributor to ecological balance," she says, adding that dreaming of a spider's web could indicate a need for balance in our personal lives, such as work-life balance or an inner need for balance and reconnection with nature.