Overview: The article is divided into six sections:

1. Two dreams, the first Latrodectus and the other Atrax, which capture most closely the spirit of the experience.
2. A summary of the major themes expressed in the proving, illustrated with representative dream material.
3. Abstracts from the dreams grouped in categories.
4. Mental and physical symptoms produced in the waking state.
5. Comments regarding the entymology and symbolism of spiders.
6. The original records from which the above material was drawn.

(Note from the Web Mistress: For layout purposes, several of these sections were put on the same page.)

Two Telling Dreams

Latrodectus mactans dream:
She is in a group of people separated from another group who they have to join in order to plan a revolution. Anarchistic fight for freedom. Underground, illegal. She is with an old girlfriend of hers, who was in reality an anarchist in Berlin. They are trying to reach the others from whom they are separated by a concrete wall. The wall can be scaled by using the branch of an overhanging tree. She climbs down the branch, but her feet do not actually step on the wood. It is as if she is floating and landing softly on the ground. At last, finally, finally they are together. Happiness and joy about this. Then there develops a tension and a struggle for power between her friend and herself. Friend is angry and upset.

It is as if she is surrounded by a circle, like a magic circle which cannot be penetrated, "I cannot communicate with her because of the anger. I want the contact, I try and try but it doesn't work. Cannot get through to her. Suddenly the whole mood of the group changes. There is anger in the air. They look at me in a strange way, I am surrounded. Like I am in the middle of a pack of wolves. They use no words. It is a mind connection. They use their thought power. They don't have to speak out aloud. I can hear their thoughts in my head. I knew immediately it was life or death The danger coming towards me was absolutely clear. They could kill me. Like wolves, if one starts to attack the others will follow. I thought we were all part of one group; now I am outside, no longer a member."

Commentary: This dream touches on many of the central features of spiders. Not only the feeling of being an outcast, but the suddenness with which it takes place. The relationship with the group, the suddenness and inexplicability of the rejection and the terrible feelings consequent upon this have been clearly verified in a cured case. The sensitivity to danger, the psychic awareness of its presence and psychic sensitivity in general are also strong currents. The imagery associated with anarchy, with lawlessness, with what is underground, below the surface, about to break loose in revolution speaks to the power and nature of the psychic forces at work. The currents of deceit and manipulation in their deeper aspects.

Atrax dream:
The dreamer is a female. This dream is one of a long cycle of repetitious dreams but slightly different from all the others. In reality her aunt died one year ago. This aunt was almost like her mother, they were so close. Before her death, the aunt had had many strokes and had become severely paranoid and very mean. She did nothing but sit in her chair the whole day watching what went on. She was extremely suspicious and hostile. Accused dreamer of stealing her things. If dreamer spent too much time in toilet, aunt accused her of doing some thing underhand. "Visiting her it was as if I had to put on armor. Like preparing for a battle. Such a turmoil. I was so full of hatred I wished her dead. Each time she would nearly die, I would rush to the hospital then have a resurrection just to spite me. She was venomous. She could destroy people. She sat in her chair and waited for people to come to her. Had lots of money and spent nothing.

"Since my aunt's death I have had this recurrent dream. In the dream I am sorting through the house and setting things in order. I go into her room to sort out and arrange her papers and affairs, and find her in her bed watching me even though she is dead. There is this terrible feeling of invading her space. She is just watching. Never says a word. Her eyes just follow me. After taking the remedy, I had this same dream except that my aunt was not in any of the beds or in any of the chairs. When I woke from this last dream, I felt as if the war was over. Awoke crying. The dream stayed with me all day. I could not concentrate in the seminar as dream was still affecting me.

Commentary: The precise neutralization of the "aunt vibration" in this dream strongly suggests a close relationship between the aunt and the spider venom. This personalizes the poisonous energies of hatred, suspicion, avarice and manipulation and speaks to the family dynamic in which the ground for spider pathology is laid: the classic image of the aged matriarch controlling her children and grandchildren with any means necessary. Here we may find a powerful aetiological influence; one bitten by the vampire becomes in turn a vampire.

Themes Brought Out in the Spider Dreams

Four themes are evident in the dreams recounted above: Life and Death, The Outcast, Deceit and Crime, and Intrigue and Politics.

Life and Death: A recurrent theme in many dreams, which has been clinically verified, is a feeling of great danger and the possibility of death. This aspect of Latrodectus is already well described [1]:

Death: Agony before. {0. 1. 11} (P. Schmidt)
Death: Sensation of. {0. 1. 25} (P. Schmidt)
Death: thoughts of. {16. 37. 0} (Stephenson)
Fear: death, of. {51. 101. 0} (P. Schmidt)

It is important to understand that the sense that one is about to die may be connected with a wide variety of situational experiences, not only cardiac pain. A further development of this theme is a test or challenge which has to be undergone. The test is so severe that one might suffer and die in the attempt.

The Outcast: The sense of being an outsider, of being rejected by the group, is very strong. This rejection may occur with a suddenness which takes the victim quite by surprise and leaves him feeling very much alone.

Intrigue and Politics: As expected the characteristics which animate all animal remedies are present in some degree: a dynamism, a vividness, and an engagement with the activities of life and the interpersonal relationships which form the web of human societal consciousness. There is a definite emphasis on, and a sensitivity to, human interaction. Allowing poetic imagination to dwell a little on the image of the spider sitting in its web provides a starting point for this line of investigation. The combination of an extensive web of influence, of the ability to know what is going on at any particular moment in one's realm, combined with patience, greed and a gift for deception constitute the essential components of political power. All these elements are well represented in the dream material. What can be said of political power may be applied just as well to the world of business, of corporate wheeling and dealing. The predator instinct, the sense of danger and life and death struggle, of the challenge or test; all these are to be found in the entrepreneur, in the one who thrives (or dies) on the dangerous edge. There is a strong intellectual component here as well, a use of the energies of thought as in strategic planning, as of a mental chess game. The more deteriorated states of the remedy show the opposite polarity of dullness, confusion and disorientation.

Deceit and Crime: This theme is the essential support of the one above, the foundation or underground current which makes political intrigue possible. The energies of deceit, secrecy, and hiding play a definite part in the case histories, and the cunning of Tarentula is well recognized.