Good Morning! All this week I will be sharing grimoires relating to all things weaving! From recipes to rituals, silk worms to spider spirits, free will and The Moirae!
Tapestries and threads make apt metaphors for life, destiny, and legacy. Across cultures, rich mythologies have been woven with the loom and its weavers at their core. One such myth is that of the sisters Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.
The Fates ruled over the birth, life, death, and fate of each human being. According to some philosophers, the sisters looped each individual into an inextricable destiny. Others believed that the Moirai gave everyone a thread, and with their free will, they could weave it until Atropos clipped its end.
Each Moirai had a unique role presiding over people as theywove their fate. Clotho was the spinner. Mothers often petitioned Clotho during pregnancy; she spun raw fiber into the yarn that would become a lifetime. As she spun, Clotho accounted for the person’s free will.
The three Moirai, or the Triumph of death, Flemish tapestry, c. 1520 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
Lachesis was the allotter; she was responsible for the trials and triumphs each soul faced. Lachesis allotted all the knots and snares, and at the end of their life, people would be judged on how they navigated these tribulations. Finally, Atropos, “the inflexible,” had the solemn duty of cutting the thread, deciding when and how each soul’s life would end.
Moirai is associated with the Greek word μοίρα (moíra),meaning both doom and destiny. Consequently, the sisters weresaid to be both the merciless daughters of Nyx and the righteous daughters of Themis, the Goddess of Divine Balance and order. Who we believe they are may say less about the sisters and more about how we view our destiny.
Needlepoint, weft on a loom, or by hand, ancestral tapestries often hold a special place in our homes and hearts. A memory of an ancestor’s life memorialized, the legacy they have left behind. And when we sit at the loom, hold the needles, or knit the quilt ourselves, we carry on the tradition while also birthing something new…
Given a thread at birth, the Moirai teach us that we cannot change our fate, but we can pull from it or dovetail into it, adding somber colors or vibrant tones. Because our destiny is given to us, it is not what we will be judged by; it is what we do with it that will define us, the life we have lived, and the legacy we leave behind.
Atropos waits, scissors in hand, when she will use them; no one knows. It begs the question, did we let useful fil fall to the floor? Did we choose a pattern just because it was safe? Did we try to block our design to fit into someone else’s pattern? Or did we weave a colorful tapestry of fibers gathered by our resourcefulness to keep us, and future generations, warm and fortified?
Clotho spins, Lachesis rations, and Atropos trims. There is no Sister of Fate to unspin. Illustrating for Priestesses of the Moirai both the triumph and trail of fate; whether we do something or nothing, the tapestry will not unravel; We all leave a legacy by which we are remembered. And so, we must weave when we struggle to conceive of a design, when we lose sight of the pattern, when we have given up because the work may never be done, and when we despair because the tapestry may never be as beautiful or expansive as we had hoped. Still…we…weave!
The Moirae embody the potential spun in the womb, theinterconnectedness of the present, and the vibrant tapestry of our future legacy. The Sisters are Maiden, Mother, and Crone, knitting the fabric of our lives with possibility, creative power, and the prudence of age. Petition the Moirae with the following epithets, weaving the strands of time with medicine and magick.