Double card. On the one hand, he advises to be patient and finish what you started; on the other hand, you risk finding yourself in a web.
Card symbolism:
The spider is an ancient symbol of creation, creativity and hard work. The ancient Indian tradition allegorically calls Brahma, the creator of all things, the spider who weaves the world from the web of matter. On the one hand, the spider acts as a protector of people, a miraculous savior, and a guardian of the hearth. However, it is associated with cruelty, greed, and deceit. The positive meaning of this creature is reflected in the myths about spiders, which taught people the craft and art of weaving. According to legend, the spider saved David, Jesus Christ, and the Prophet Muhammad from ill-wishers. A widespread motif is the transformation of a spider's web into a saving thread that takes the hero out of a dangerous place or helps him climb into the sky and then descend safely. The negative meaning of the spider refers to the image of the spider-sorcerer, the werewolf. The spider was widely used in black and white magic. Amulets and amulets with spider symbols protected the owner from the interference of dark forces in his life.The spinner Arachne challenged the goddess Athena herself to a duel, who recognized the skill of her rival, but destroyed her creation. Arachne committed suicide, but the goddess turned her into a spider. This Greek myth traces the motif of the werewolf of a man into a spider, characteristic of many cultures.
Tarantula dance
According to legend, in the Middle Ages, a terrible disaster befell the Italian city of Taranto - tarantulas, or wolf spiders, simply exterminated the townspeople and residents of the city's environs. It was believed that the bite of this spider causes a terrible disease - tarantism, which quickly leads to madness. You can recover from madness only by dancing a fast, fast dance - the tarantella. Soon this dance became an integral part of weddings in southern Italy.
Card meaning:
The spider spins a thread, the thread of fate, he always finishes his work unless someone interferes with him. A card that shows that what is happening in your life is what should happen, what is destined to happen. The spider is unhurried, he knows what he is doing, the spider always completes its work unless someone interferes with it. The card advises to bring what you started to the end, to complete the process, regardless of whether you like it or not.The spider is not chasing anyone, the spider weaves a web and waits for the victim. Patiently, calmly. He is sure that his food will arrive, and since he did the job well, it will definitely fall into his net and will not be able to escape.
Beware of deception, traps, look at nearby cards - perhaps you are not a spider, but its victim? Maybe you don’t need to sit quietly and patiently while the spider finishes weaving its web to close your exits?
In order to see the web, you need light, advice from someone who can shed light on the situation. Who would you contact? Think about it, now you are playing with fate. Any sudden movement can either break the web and set you free, or entangle you, making it impossible to move and maneuver.
Words expressed by this card:
financial luck, everything goes as it should be, you need advice, stop and listen to advice, do not make sudden movements, thoroughness in business, mistakes must be excluded, calmness and self-control, wait-and-see attitude, thoughtfulness, logic, multi-move combination, deception , lies, closed roads if a wrong decision is made.The origin of this incendiary dance is due to spiders and the Italian city of Taranto; it was in this way that tarantism was treated here in the 15th century. The bites of tarantula spiders, which are found in these places, led to strange things, accompanied by convulsions, spasms and inarticulate sounds made by the unfortunates. The fast dance was supposed to heal the soul and body of the bitten people.
Nowadays, the tarantella is a folk dance that is performed alone, in pairs or by a group of people. In Italy, the tarantella is performed by lovers, confessing their feelings to their partner in this way. Musical accompaniment - castanets, tambourine and guitar. During the tarantella, musicians must maintain a certain rhythm, which rapidly increases.
Dark Age of the Middle Ages
However, in the 15th century everything was not so rosy. Severe superstitions and religious delusions caused real mental epidemics among the population of Europe. This usually happened at charismatic meetings and Christian services. Charismatic meetings are distinguished by their brightness, emotionality, and are often accompanied by rhythmic music.
The most expansive individuals, susceptible to strong emotions, often experience a desire at such meetings to “reunite with the divine power.” This is expressed in bouts of causeless laughter (“divine laughter”), involuntary twitching movements of the whole body and falling into hysteria.
In the Middle Ages, such a state of mind was by no means uncommon. Usually young girls suffering from nervous disorders were subjected to seizures. They began to fall to the ground, roll on it, bang their heads and make sounds similar to a dog barking or a rooster crowing (signs). However, this behavior turned out to be extremely contagious to those around them, and after a short time they were accompanied by much more mature people, and in large numbers.
When in Italy people bitten by a tarantula began to experience exactly the same symptoms, the disease was called “tarantism”, and the treatment prescribed to the unfortunate was dance - tarantella. The patient had to jump and dance in one place, pretending to trample a spider. An interesting fact is that the longer the “patient” danced, the greater his chance of recovery. Subsequently, the tarantella was performed to prevent disease, believing that in this way one could protect oneself from the bite of a dangerous insect.
This was in the 15th century and continued until the end of the 19th century. A wave of tarantism swept across Europe. Modern doctors would easily recognize in the disease the signs of a mental disorder - hysteria. However, in those early years, illness was almost a sacred rite. Hysteria and mass psychosis had the status of “the greatest spiritual awakening of Christianity.”
Scientists who study the phenomenon of obsession with dancing declare that tarantism is nothing more than a certain form of depravity of consciousness. Putting on the mask of “bitten by a tarantula,” people began to dance furiously, making obscene gestures. During the dance, all daily activities were abandoned, the dancers did not care about their relatives and friends, the children were left without the supervision of their mothers and fathers.
In a fit of madness
In addition to the mad dancing, no less strange things happened to people: they swallowed 
small pebbles, pieces of broken glass and even burning coal. Women and men stood on their heads, took bizarre poses and convulsed. It was in France in the 18th century in the very center of Paris! The government, in order to stop mass abnormal phenomena, issued a decree banning such “”, and anyone who tried to dance was put in prison. (from the book by Louis Figuier - French naturalist and writer).
America has also suffered from epidemics of mental disorders. The Great American Renaissance began in 1832 in both New York and New Haven. Men and women gathered on the shores of Lake Ontario to listen to numerous preachers who proclaimed themselves “children of God” and called for cleansing from sin. How was purification supposed to take place?
During a frantic dance, otherwise called the “Dance of St. Vitus.” Sinners, frantically performing unimaginable movements, felt themselves to be born again and began to look for “their Eden and their Eve.” Own houses and wives could not live up to the idea of higher goods, so searches took place on the side. Marital ties were broken, new ones were created, at first only spiritual, heavenly unions.
However, soon the spiritual unity was considered incomplete and the relationship eventually took on the nature of a sexual relationship. Complete chaos began among people - other people's wives were getting closer to other people's husbands... But, realizing that such relationships were wrong, new unions fell apart, only to be reborn with the third, fourth, fifth chosen ones. As the chroniclers note, “the doctrine of spirituality was destroyed by dissipation.” (from the book by Albert S. Rhodes).
Tarantella is the most famous Italian dance, which has become a real symbol of the country and the Italian nation.
This bright and lively dance is shrouded in centuries-old legends and myths, one way or another connected with poisonous tarantula spiders. Legend has it that in the 14th and 15th centuries, in the southern regions near the city of Taranto, tarantulas multiplied and bit women. Of course, only commoners who worked in the fields were bitten. Under the influence of tarantula poison, poor women fell ill with tarantism (tarantism is a medical term for one of the forms of hysterical behavior). There was talk of a real epidemic. A method was proposed for treating those who fell into a trance using dance. The musicians surrounded the woman and played music at a fast pace, forcing the patient to dance. Sometimes this dance was called the spider dance.
One of the older legends says that the tarantella arose during the times of sacrifice, when the beauty sacrificed to spiders, making quick movements, tried to avoid being bitten.
There is also a version that in the old days the consequences of a tarantula bite, of which there are plenty in southern Italy today, were eliminated by profuse sweating. Dancing until you sweat was the tarantella. Traveling musicians were always ready to come to the aid of someone bitten by a spider. Everyone who was nearby also rushed to help. So the dance became pairs and groups. Later, the tarantella began to be considered the personification of lust, because wildly dancing women always attracted increased male attention.
The noble lords also liked Tarantella. In the 17th century, the tarantella began to be danced even at balls. By that time, the epidemic of tarantism had ceased.
Tarantella music is always improvisation with large sound expansions and cadence additions. They perform the tarantella on various musical instruments- mandolin, accordion, guitar, but always to the accompaniment of tambourine and castanets.
Tarantella has become a classic. This dance can be seen in theater and cinema, it has penetrated into literature and painting. We can safely say that the tarantella is part of the soul of a true Italian. Today the tarantella is played throughout Italy, but is still more popular in the southern regions. Not a single holiday is complete without this fiery dance. In different regions of Italy, tarantella has its own characteristics, and sometimes even a special name. Tarantellas differ in different regions and in the degree of frenzy of the dance; in some places it can even look somewhat sedate.
No one is complete without a tarantella!
Tarantella Naples:
Tarantella of Naples on accordion:
Tarantella of Naples performed by orchestra. Vocals by Renzo Arbore:
Neapolitan Tarantella performed by Mario Lanza:
Neapolitan Tarantella Pulcinella:
Tarantella of the Apulia region:
Tarantella Sicilian:
Tarantella of the Calabria region:
And this is for those who want to learn how to dance the tarantella:
In August 2017, the twentieth anniversary festival takes place in Salento (the south of the Puglia region, the heel of the Italian “boot”) "La Notte della Taranta" ("The Night of the Tarantula"). This one of the largest Italian music festivals: it lasts two weeks, covers a couple of dozen settlements, and attracts the attention of hundreds of thousands of tourists. In this post we will start a story about tarantelle - a genre of southern Italian folk song, the fate of which is quite unusual.
But let's first listen to the Apulian variety of tarantella (it's called pizzica) from the final concert “La Notte della Taranta” 2011, performed by a full orchestra and with a theatrical dance performance:
The word “tarantella” goes back to the name of the tarantula spider, which, in turn, is named after its place of origin - the Apulian city of Taranto (ancient Tarentum). The connection with the spider is no coincidence: such music has been used for centuries as a medical ritual designed to cure the effects of a tarantula bite.
The first evidence of this disease and its treatment with music therapy dates back to the 13th century, and the last cases of the disease were recorded in the first half of the 20th century. Tarantism coverage area ( tarantismo; the patients were called tarantato/a or tarantolato/a listen)) includes southern Italy and the Mediterranean coast beyond 1) See, for example,.
It was believed that the poisonous spider bites people working in the fields in the summer- as a rule, women of reproductive age (we will talk about why this is a little lower) - and that the patient can “remove poison from the blood” through dance
.
For this purposeThey hired musicians who played rhythmic melodies, accompanying them with poems and spells. This could last for several hours or even days. The dance had the character of a magical action: the patient imitated either the movements of the spider itself or the fight with it. Based on the nature of the patient’s behavior, they judged the “character” and even the color of the biting spider, and depending on this, certain melodies were played: fast, melancholic, with a certain rhythm, etc.
Illustration for the 1627 edition of the New Testament. The shipwreck and miraculous rescue of St. Paul from the snake.
Since the XVII-XVIII centuries. treatment of tarantism finds a “divine protector” - St. Paul. Popular legend according to which St. Pavel turns out healer against bites of poisonous snakes and insects, is based on an episode from the Acts of the Apostles (28.3-6). The ship on which Paul is being taken to Caesar's trial in Rome is shipwrecked off the coast of Malta, and there the apostle is miraculously saved from a poisonous snake, which does not cause him any harm.
Chapel of St. Paul in Galatina with a well inside. Fonte: tripadvisor.it
June 29, the day of veneration of the apostle, in the chapel of St. Paul in the city of Galatina (according to local legend - one of Paul’s stops during his trip to Rome), crowds of sick people and their relatives flocked. They drank water from the holy spring inside the chapel, danced and prayed for recovery.
In the texts of the tarantellas there are often requests addressed to Paul:
E Santu Paulu miu de le tarante
famme na grazia a mie e a tutte quante.
Do a good deed for me and everyone else.
Santu Paulu meu de Galatina,
Facitece ‘na grazia, ‘sta mattina.
Saint Paul of Galatina,
Do a good deed this morning.
True, sometimes these texts can be confusing:
E Santu Paulu miu de le tarante,
Pizzichi le caruse tutte quante.
Saint Paul, (patron of) spiders,
You bite all the girls.
Santu Paulu meu de le tarante,
Pizzichi le caruse a 'mmenzu ll'anche.
Saint Paul (patron saint) of spiders,
Which stings girls between the legs.
From these examples it is clear that Saint Paul in the southern Italian folk Christian tradition was perceived as a trickster - a supernatural being who is completely “responsible” for the disease - that is, he can both send it and cure it 2) See Madonnas That Maim: Popular Catholicism in Italy Since the Fifteenth Century
Authors: Michael P. Carroll, p. 80 – 88.. And the expression “to sting”, “bite” (pizziccare - hence the name of the Apulian version of the tarantella - pizzica) is a euphemism that has clear erotic connotations:
A ddhu te pizzicau ca nu te scerne?
Sutta ‘llu giru giru de la suttana.
Where did it [the tarantula] bite you that you can’t see?
Under the frill of the dress.
Balla, beddha mia ca sai ballare,
Quistu è lu ballu de lu primu amore.
Dance, my beauty, because you know how to dance,
This is the dance of first love.
Thus, “tarantism” turns out to be a disease that has little to do with the bite of a real spider. Read more about the causes and consequences of “tarantism” in the next publication, but for now, listen tarantella - invocation to Saint Paul: