"Legend of the Dreamcatcher"

It is believed that dreams both good and bad float through the air all day and night  searching for their destination. As the dreamer wanders through the night. The Spirits send dreams to you. While sleeping under a Dreamcatcher, one may feel secure that bad dreams being confused and ill-intentioned get caught in the web and perish with the first light of day, while the good dreams, knowing the right way, easily slip through the center hole, work their way down the web catching all the good energies of the stones and adornment, floating down the feathers and onto the dreamers head. One never need fear bad dreams again while sleeping under a smudged, or blessed dreamcatcher

Sleep well sweet child Don't worry your head. Your Dreamcatcher is humming. Above your bed. Listen so softly. I know you can hear. The tone of beyond. Close to your ear. Love is alive in you. And living in you. Beyond all your troubles. Where good dreams are true.

There are many legends and stories that are pasted down about the dreamcatchers, how it 'came to be', why it is used, and how it should be made. My favorite is told by my people the Chippewa's.or may be known as Ojibwe. The word for dreamcatcher in Chippewa is Asubakacin meaning "net-like, looks like a net." Or Bwaajige Nagwaagan meaning "dream snare". The story told by the Chippewa, the old storytellers say how Asibikaashi (Spider Woman) helped bring giizis (sun) back to the people. To this day, Asibikaashi will build her special lodge before dawn. If you are awake at dawn, as you should be, look for her lodge and you will see this miracle of how she captured the sunrise as the light sparkles on the dew which is gathered there.      Asibikaashi took care of her children, the people of the land, and she continues to do so to this day. When the our people dispersed to the four corners of North America, to fill a prophecy, Asibikaashi had a difficult time making her journey to all those cradle boards, so the mothers sisters, and Nokomis (grandmothers) took up the practice of weaving the magical webs for the new babies using willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from plants. It is in the shape of a circle to represent how giizis (sun) travels each day across the sky. The dream catcher will filter out all the bad dreams and allow only good thoughts to enter into our minds when we are just asleep. You will see a small hole in the center of each dream catcher where those good dreams may come through. With the first ray of sunlight, the bad dreams would perish.       When we see little Asibikaashi, we should not fear her, but instead respect her and protect her. In honor of their origin, the number of points where the web connected to the hoop numbered 8 for the Spider Woman's eight legs or 7 for the Seven Prophecies.       The application and purpose of the dream catcher.   It was traditional to put a feather in the center of the dream catcher; it means breath, or air. It is essential for life. A baby watching the air playing with the feather on her cradle board was entertained while also being given a lesson on the impotance of good air. This lesson comes forward in a way that the feather of the owl is kept for wisdom ( a woman's feather) and the eagle  is kept for courage (a man feather). This is not to say that the use of each is restricted by gender, but that to use the feather each is aware of the gender properties she/he is invoking.  The use of gems stones so in the one we make today, is not something that was done by the old ones.Government laws have forbidden us to have in procession feathers from our sacred birds, so using four gem stones, to represent the four direction.

learn to make a dreamcatcher

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the music you hear is                 "Windeya". the cherokee morning song