The Navajo have their own version of Spider-Woman. As with all metaphors, Spider-Woman is a bridge that allows a certain kind of knowledge to be transmitted from the mundane to the sacred dimension... They believe that an individual must undergo an initiation before he or she can be fully receptive to this kind of knowledge. Thus, to the eyes of the uninitiated, Spider-Woman, appears mere as an insect, and her words go unheard. But to the initiated whose mind has been opened, the voice of this creature can be heard. This is the nature of the wisdom conveyed through the medicine of Spider-Woman.

 

Cultural Anthropologist Carol Patterson Rudolph