Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatchers are one of the most fascinating traditions of Native Americans. The traditional Dreamcatcher was intended to protect the sleeping individual from negative dreams, while letting positive dreams through. The positive dreams would slip through the hole in the center of the Dreamcatcher, and glide down the feathers to the sleeping person below. The negative dreams would get caught up in the web, and expire when the first rays of the sun struck them. The Dreamcatcher has been a part of Native American culture for generations. One element of Native American Dreamcatcher relates to the tradition of the hoop. Some Native Americans of North America held the hoop in the highest esteem, because it symbolized strength and unity. Many symbols started around the hoop, and one of these symbols is the Dreamcatcher.

Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The Dreamcatcher when hung over or near your bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the Dreamcatcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the Dreamcatcher and perish with the first light of the new day.

How the Dream Catcher is made:

Using a hoop of willow, and decorating it with findings, bits and pieces of everyday life, (feathers, arrow heads, beads, etc) the Dreamcatcher is believed to have the power to catch all of a person's dreams, trapping the bad ones, and letting only the good dreams pass through the Dreamcatcher.