WEBS AND NETS. In general symbology, the act of weaving is usually understood to represent processes of creation and growth. Cognate symbols such as net, web, rope, fabric, and the like are frequently employed to suggest the unfolding of individual human lives and of the universe as a whole. These symbols bear also negative connotations as instruments of binding or tools of entrapment. Included in the symbolism of the net, for instance, are those negative forces that interact with positive ones to make of life the ambiguous reality that it is, a condition composed of pleasure and pain, health and disease, life and death, and so on.

In ancient Greece, the net of life and death is said to have been fashioned by the Moirai, personifications of the abstract concept moira ("fate, destiny"). These three stern, grim-faced women spin the web of destiny for...