We weave the fabric of life together in a grand process of shifting pattern, color, and design.
Included in this pattern are all the ways in which we affect one another: humans, animals, ancestors, plants, microbes, stars, Goddesses, Gods, birds, fish, germs. We affect each other whether we can be seen with eyes, measured with instruments or not seen or measured at all. Some things are only sensed by the pricking at the back of the neck, or by the space they leave between things. Some beings are measured by presence, and some by absence. All of these – large or small, measured or unmeasurable – weave with us.
Then again, some things exist only in our heads. These things affect surroundings too, as our shifting psychology and emotional content shifts our choices, our energy, and our relationship to humans, animals, plants, and even what we call linear time.
We can forget this and project out that we are all part of some huge cosmic battle, or project that the only battles are within. We can forget this and say that we are pawns of stars, or Gods, or the slow decay of matter, or we can say that we are centers of the universe and our decisions are the only things that matter.
The truth is in between. It is not psychology vs substance. It is not grandiosity vs shame. It is recognizing that we don’t know all the answers but we can do our best, each day, to weave our thread into the fabric and make space for others to weave theirs into a pattern that is as beautiful and harmonious as we can possibly make it. We can do our best, each day, to ensure that patterns of discord and snarled knots of greed do not take over the scheme of our weaving. We do our best, knowing that we cannot control the whole, knowing that the pattern is far too large and complex to be seen, knowing that the pattern creates itself as it is woven, knowing that today is just another day, and yet, today is.
Tomorrow is what we – and a billion trillion other beings – make it. Let us not get caught in grandiosity or shame. Let us also not get caught in thinking things are simply as they seem. They never are. Let’s keep our minds and fingers nimble, watching for gradations in texture and color, seeking out chance meetings of complementary weavings, even when they come at angles to our own. These nexus points of things we could not plan set our work into the larger whole. We are not just living our lives, ordinary and small, we are weaving part of a vast cloth of which we can see neither beginning nor end, nor even the glorious now. However, we can see the immediate pattern, feel the warp and weft, and help create the cosmos as we go.
Find what feels helpful, and remember: magick, life, and art are all in process, and you are not alone.
Tags: cosmology, life, responsibility, theology, weaving

Thisis beautiful, Thorn. As a weaver myself, I valued your understanding of what goes into creation of a weaving. I have often thought that the process of weaving, especially tapestry, is an apt metaphor for the process of life. Each day we lay down another thread in the tapestry of our lives–we have no choice about that. But we can choose whether to show up and lay down that thread with joy and intention or not show up and allow distractedness to lay down a thread with carelessness and greed. Every thread becomes part of the pattern even though that may be difficult to see on a daily basis.
Very wonderful. Thank you~
The fiber crafter in me loves the metaphor of weaving my narrative thread into the tapestry of all where we connect to the warp and weave of human experience. I feel there is much to learn when we get knotted or tangled and have to slow down, change technique to figure out how to continue — even if that means leaving a “flaw” in the fabric.
I love hearing from actual fiber artists. I am not one, but love the metaphor nonetheless!
. . . and along with this, I think of the Norns at the well, weaving wyrd.
Indeed, much is not seen and I like the idea that I am not alone.
I love this description. It reminds me that if we go too far into our own heads and stop contributing to the communities around us then we are missing the point of this life. Or to use your beautiful metaphor…no matter how pretty my thread is, it will never be more beautiful on its own than when it is woven into a perfect place in the larger pattern with everyone else.