Types Of Dream Catcher
- Dream catchers are webbed and beaded circles hung with feathers from the base of the circle. As one might suspect, the purpose of a dream catcher is to catch dreams—that is, to trap bad or evil dreams and channel good dreams to the sleeper. Dream catchers are usually placed in a window or above the bed, allowing the good dreams to drip down.
- A dream catcher is usually placed over a place you would sleep where the morning light can hit it. As you sleep all dreams from the spirit world have to pass through the dream catcher. Only good dreams can pass through to the dreamer while the bad dreams are caught in the webbing and are destroyed by the first rays of the morning light.
Not many know in depth about the beautiful, mystical and intriguing world of dream catchers. These pretty little hangings have more to them then just enhancing the aesthetic beauty of your house. They are associated with an interesting legend. People say that good dreams surely come along if you hang a dream catcher above your bed before sleeping. While there is no scientific proof regarding dream catchers, many of us love to believe in them. The mere thought of catching beautiful dreams for your loved ones fills one with tenderness. Many mothers sing sweet lullabys and hang pretty little dream catchers above their children's cradles to ensure a good night's sleep with sweet dreams.
Dream catchers are often hanged to keep little children from having nightmares. It is also believed that dream catchers are intended to slowly dry out and come apart as your child grows older. According to the belief, it is said that the air is filled with all kinds of dreams. These dreams are either good or bad. There are different types of dream catchers. Every dream catcher has a hole in its center. The bad dreams get caught in the web in the center while the good dreams flow down the feathers to the person on which it is hanged. There are many theories for dream catchers. One theory says that good dreams get filtered through the net in the center. Yet another theory explains that the good dreams get caught in the center while the bad ones flow away from the central hole.
Macrame Cord DIY Kit Handmade Cotton DIY Dream Catcher Kit for Adults Craft, Includes Dream Catcher Hoop, Macrame Cord, Dream Catcher Macrame Wall Hanging Decor for Bedroom. 4.0 out of 5 stars 3. 5% coupon applied at checkout Save 5% with coupon. The name 'dream catcher' was published in mainstream, non-Native media in the 1970s and became widely known as a 'Native crafts item' by the 1980s, by the early 1990s 'one of the most popular and marketable' ones. Most people get dreamcatcher tattoos but are not aware of its origins. A dreamcatcher is commonly associated with American Indian culture. It was during the ’60s and ’70’s that dreamcatchers became an American Indian symbol. The dreamcatcher was an original creation of the Canadian Ojibwa tribe and the American Anishinabe tribe.
Whatever the theory, one thing is sure about dream catchers; they surely do no harm. The very idea of preventing nightmares is quite compelling. They are also very beautiful and that is why they have become very popular.
Throughout time, dreams have had a high importance for people. Our nightly visits to another world are peculiar, often unexplained, pleasant at times and really scary at times. Whether these dreams actually happen in reality or not, we do get some satisfaction hanging a dream catcher above our beds before sleeping.
In some Native American and First Nations cultures, a dreamcatcher or dream catcher (Ojibwe: asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word for 'spider')[1] is a handmade willow hoop, on which is woven a net or web. The dreamcatcher may also include sacred items such as certain feathers or beads. Traditionally they are often hung over a cradle as protection.[2] It originates in Anishinaabe culture as the 'spider web charm' (Anishinaabe: asubakacin 'net-like', White Earth Band; bwaajige ngwaagan 'dream snare', Curve Lake Band[3]), a hoop with woven string or sinew meant to replicate a spider's web, used as a protective charm for infants.[2]
Dreamcatchers were adopted in the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and gained popularity as a widely marketed 'Native crafts items' in the 1980s. [4]
Dream Catcher Explanation For Kids
Ojibwe origin[edit]
Ethnographer Frances Densmore in 1929 recorded an Ojibwe legend according to which the 'spiderwebs' protective charms originate with Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children.[2] So the mothers and grandmothers weave webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The purpose of these charms is apotropaic and not explicitly connected with dreams:
Even infants were provided with protective charms. Examples of these are the 'spiderwebs' hung on the hoop of a cradle board. In old times this netting was made of nettle fiber. Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they 'caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and holds whatever comes in contact with it.'[2]
Basil Johnston, an elder from Neyaashiinigmiing, in his Ojibway Heritage (1976) gives the story of Spider (Ojibwe: asabikeshiinh, 'little net maker') as a trickster figure catching Snake in his web.[5][clarification needed]
Modern uses[edit]
While Dreamcatchers continue to be used in a traditional manner in their communities and cultures of origin, a derivative form of 'dreamcatchers' were also adopted into the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s as a symbol of unity among the various Native American cultures, or a general symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures.[4]
The name 'dream catcher' was published in mainstream, non-Native media in the 1970s[6] and became widely known as a 'Native crafts item' by the 1980s,[7]by the early 1990s 'one of the most popular and marketable' ones.[8]
Spiritual Meaning Of Dream Catchers
In the course of becoming popular outside the Ojibwe Nation during the Pan-Native movement in the '60s, various types of 'dreamcatchers', many of which bear little resemblance to traditional styles, and that incorporate materials that would not be traditionally used, are now made, exhibited, and sold by New age groups and individuals. Some Native Americans have come to see these 'dreamcatchers' as over-commercialized, like 'sort of the Indian equivalent of a tacky plastic Jesus hanging in your truck,' while others find it a loving tradition or symbol of native unity. [4]
A mounted and framed dreamcatcher is being used as a shared symbol of hope and healing by the Little Thunderbirds Drum and Dance Troupe from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. In recognition of the shared trauma and loss experienced, both at their school during the Red Lake shootings, and by other students who have survived similar school shootings, they have traveled to other schools to meet with students, share songs and stories, and gift them with the dreamcatcher. The dreamcatcher has now been passed from Red Lake to students at Columbine CO, to Sandy Hook CT, to Marysville WA, to Townville SC, to Parkland FL.[9][10][11]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Different Types Of Dream
- ^'Free English-Ojibwe dictionary and translator - FREELANG'. www.freelang.net.
- ^ abcdDensmore, Frances (1929, 1979) Chippewa Customs. Minn. Hist. Soc. Press; pg. 113.
- ^Jim Great Elk Waters, View from the Medicine Lodge (2002), p. 111.
- ^ abc'During the pan-Indian movement in the 60's and 70's, Ojibway dreamcatchers started to get popular in other Native American tribes, even those in disparate places like the Cherokee, Lakota, and Navajo.' 'Native American Dream catchers', Native-Languages
- ^John Borrows, 'Foreword' to Françoise Dussart, Sylvie Poirier, Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in australia and Canada, University of Toronto Press, 2017.
- ^'a hoop laced to resemble a cobweb is one of Andrea Petersen's prize possessions. It is a 'dream catcher'—hung over a Chippewa Indian infant's cradle to keep bad dreams from passing through. 'I hope I can help my students become dream catchers,' she says of the 16 children in her class. In a two-room log cabin elementary school on a Chippewa reservation in Grand Portage' The Ladies' Home Journal 94 (1977), p. 14.
- ^'Audrey Speich will be showing Indian Beading, Birch Bark Work, and Quill Work. She will also demonstrate the making of Dream Catchers and Medicine Bags.' The Society Newsletter (1985), p. 31.
- ^Terry Lusty (2001). 'Where did the Ojibwe dream catcher come from? Windspeaker - AMMSA'. www.ammsa.com. Sweetgrass; volume 8, issue 4: The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. p. 19.CS1 maint: location (link)
- ^Marysville School District receives dreamcatcher given to Columbine survivors By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News. Posted on November 7, 2014
- ^'Showing Newtown they're not alone - CNN Video' – via edition.cnn.com.
- ^Dreamcatcher for school shooting survivors (paywall)
External links[edit]
Where To Purchase Dream Catchers
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dreamcatcher. |