Dreaming of spiders in the Akan tradition: meaning
Among the Akan the spider is not a creepy creature but a hero: Kwaku Ananse, the clever spider of the stories. A spider in a dream is therefore often read in an Akan reading as cleverness, resourcefulness or a story that wants to be told.
Within this tradition
Kwaku Ananse is the most famous figure in Akan stories. He is small and weak, but so clever that he outwits stronger animals and even Nyame, the sky god. In the best-known story he buys all the stories in the world from Nyame, by cunningly catching a python, a leopard, hornets and a forest spirit. Since then stories among the Akan are called anansesem, spider stories.
Along those lines a spider in a dream is rarely seen only as a threat in an Akan reading. A spider weaving a web can be read as a plan you build with patience and intelligence. A spider showing you something, as a solution you must find by cunning, not by force. And a dream in which a spider speaks or tells a story can point to a story in your family or your life that wants to be heard.
Ananse is an ambiguous hero, though. He also deceives, is greedy and often falls into his own trap. That is why a spider dream can also ask who is spinning a web in your life, or where your own cleverness threatens to tip into deceit. The stories often end with a lesson, and a good reading looks for that lesson.
For Surinamese readers this image is familiar: through slavery Ananse travelled along and became Anansi, known from the Anansi-tori. The same spider who owns the stories in Ghana tells them in Paramaribo and Amsterdam.
Common variations
A spider weaving a web
A plan you build with patience and intelligence, like Ananse's schemes.
A talking spider
A story that wants to be told, or wisdom arriving by a detour.
Caught in a web
The question of who is spinning a web in your life. Be alert, not afraid.
Chasing a spider away
Seeing through a scheme or deceit, or taking back your own cleverness.
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Write your dream in the appFrequently asked questions
Who is Kwaku Ananse?
The clever spider of Akan stories, who according to the myth bought all the stories of the sky god Nyame. In Suriname we know him as Anansi.
Is a spider in a dream a bad sign among the Akan?
Usually not. Because of Ananse the spider stands above all for cleverness and stories. Sometimes the dream does ask for alertness to deceit.
Why are stories called anansesem?
Because according to the myth Ananse bought all the stories in the world. Anansesem means spider stories.