The Spider and the Path to God

A man who was very devout wanted to speak directly with the supreme being, Faro. He was told that the path to Faro was a single, thin thread that stretched from the earth to the sky. The man tried to climb the thread, but he kept slipping and falling. After many failed attempts, he was sitting in despair when he saw a Spider effortlessly climbing its own thread. "Spider," the man asked, "how can you climb such a thin path with no trouble?" The Spider replied, "You try to climb with your hands and feet, burdened by your body and your impatience. But I climb with my whole being. The thread comes from within me. The path is not something you find; it is something you must produce from your own spirit." The man understood. The path to God was not a physical road, but a spiritual one that required one to look inward. The Spider, in Bambara tradition, is often seen as a symbol of the connection between the heavens and the earth, and its web represents the intricate, predestined order of the universe.