Autumn is a time of spiders. Not that they aren't there in the Summer. But at this time of year they always seem more visible. The orb weavers, with their anchored webs - better seen because beaded with moisture or lit in the low, slanting rays of the Sun - are taking their last chances to catch prey before the Winter, and some of them are huge now with feasting through the months of plenty. And at the same time. too, the large house spiders, like Tegenaria gigantea, with their huge splayed legs, are more likely to be seen as the males go roaming in search of a mate before winter (you can tell the males because they have 'palps' on the end of the antennae at their front end - these are what they mate with).
So Autumn, as well as being a time of fading colour and mist, and the slow slippage into Winter, is also a time for gathering in, of both material and spiritual resources. For soon the veil between the worlds will thin to transparency, like the gossamer in a spider's web, though the way through might be as difficult as for a small insect caught on a silky thread on its way to oblivion.
And as for what is beyond ...
... this is the Spider's song:
"I sit like and old crone
Under the yellow leaves
weaving it all in
Flesh, skin and bone."
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