Introduction to Dreamcatchers
Dreamcatchers: beautiful and intricate displays of art which have been around for the better part of seemingly forever.
Whether you are native to the States or know much about America’s Indigenous People, there is a good chance you’ve seen a dreamcatcher in some form.
These forms could be as simple as seeing one on a broadly produced poster or t-shirt or as exquisite as seeing an authentic dreamcatcher being created.
A spiritual tool that has been in utilization for centuries, it has become common to see cheap reproductions of them on markets all around the world.
Crafting dreamcatchers can be traced back to Native American cultures, particularly one tribe known as the Ojibwe People, and hold deep meaning to Native Americans.
The overexploitation of dreamcatchers and other Native American philosophies has always been insensitive, but it continues to this day.
This is why it is vital to know the true value behind these respected items, so you know how to respect the true power and story behind them.
Diving into dreamcatchers and the beliefs surrounding them, let’s go ahead and establish just what a dreamcatcher is.
What Are Dreamcatchers?
When searching for a culturally accurate depiction of a dreamcatcher and not a cheap reproduction you can find just about anywhere, you can determine the right choice by the difference in material.
For example, if you are purchasing a dreamcatcher made of plastic, this will not be the proper dreamcatcher for culturally accurate representations.
A true dreamcatcher is made from a wood base, generally the wood of a willow tree. This willow wood will be fashioned into a hoop.
To fill the open space of the hoop, a thread or thin fabric will be wrapped around the hoop and woven into the empty hole.
This woven material will form a fabric web that represents the web of a spider. At times, hanging from the dreamcatcher are beads or feathers attached to dangling threads of the fabric on the base.
Each of these elements represent factors of the dreamcatcher, each manifesting positive energy towards you.
This webbing, or netting if you prefer, is woven in the open space of the hoop as a method of capturing troublesome nightmares.
It is human to have dreams and perhaps just as human to have nightmares, but some people are plagued heavily by nightmares.
The dreamcatcher’s threads are said to intervene with the negative energies of the nightmares.
The chaotic forces of the nightmares get caught up in the netting of the dreamcatcher while the gentle movements of pleasant dreams can simply slip through.
From the netting of the dreamcatcher, if you have feathers hanging from the base, the pleasant dream will travel down the soft down of the feathers.
This will gentle the dream further, allowing it to slowly float wherever the sleeping being is without any abrupt motion
s. The beads attached to the dreamcatcher represent the pleasant dreams that never quite made it down to the sleeping being.
Despite not making it to the dreamer, the dreams wanted to provide their positive energies as a shield against the future nightmares that will attempt to invade.
What Are Dreamcatchers For?
Dreamcatchers are a type of talisman used to protect people, usually children, from bad dreams, thoughts and nightmares. It is believed that it can catch the bad dreams and only allow good dreams to pass through them.
Dreamcatchers: Origination/Spirituality/Beliefs
The history of the dreamcatcher can be traced back to the areas of the Great Lakes in North America.
In a day where there were no borders, the Ojibwe People occupied modern-day Ontario and states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Ojibwe People were incredibly talented in woodworking, being well known for the birch canoes they produced.
The dreamcatchers were simply another work to show respect for their beliefs and protect their loved ones, an idea that expanded to other tribes and cultures over time.
The idea for the dreamcatcher came from tales told by the Ojibwe tribe.
In this tale, it speaks of how a Spider-Woman known as Asibikasshi. She was a protector of people and helped bring the day, or Grandfather Sun.
During the night, she kept an eye on her people. However, when her people began to spread further across the nation, she struggled to protect them all.
Instead, she called upon the women in the families to make their own webs from willow and sinew to protect their loved ones during the night.
Over time and with the invasion of different cultures, which overtook their own, dreamcatchers overall lost their meaning, abandoning the beliefs of Native tribes as they quickly became commercialized.
Today, dreamcatchers are incredibly desired for their aesthetic appeal, and cheap-made renditions can be found in knick-knack shops as well as some supermarkets.
As it is easy to imagine, their cheap reproductions do not hold any amount of the energy their authentic counterparts are known for.
Because of their popularity amongst tourists and non-native cultures, they have become a symbol of controversy for some.
The once-respected tool and symbol of their beliefs have become culturally appropriated over time, being used for its pleasing look rather than with the reverence for the story and icon it symbolizes.
To have a symbol that represents your beliefs utilized as a prop is insulting, to say the least.
Do Dreamcatchers Really Work?
Dreamcatchers rely heavily on the owner’s faith for its success rate. They may work on a subconscious level similar to a good luck charm.
Nobody can say for sure if they work or not, however, the dreamcatcher is much more likely to work if you surround it with positive energy.
To enter into a situation where you are using a dreamcatcher with the full belief the item is a hoax or a phony will undoubtedly lead to a failure in the case.
Nothing with authenticity will want to work for someone who fully believes they are a fraud. The energy you are supplying to your item is inviting failure because of its negative forces.
The item provides enough energy to sustain its own vibration. If you are not connecting to its vibration, you will not experience its positive effects.
To connect properly with the dreamcatcher, you must believe it will protect you and encourage it to watch over you as you sleep.
With your trust and energy in the dreamcatcher, it will thrive against all opponents.
The Color of Your Dreamcatcher
When you are looking at a dreamcatcher, it is essential to remember each detail that mattered in the lives and beliefs of Native Americans.
This includes color. While color meant more when displayed on the face during battle or important rituals, it could impact the overall success of your dreamcatcher if it means a lot to you.
Does the Color Matter?
While the color of your dreamcatcher isn’t the most crucial aspect, like mentioned previously, you may want to keep it in mind.
How you feel about your dreamcatcher overall will have just as much impact on your success rate as the dreamcatcher itself.
Below, here are what the colors may represent on an authentic dreamcatcher for you to consider as well.
If you focus your energies towards a specific area of your concerns, you may also be able to overflow some positives from your dreamcatcher into your aura.
Black Dreamcatcher Meaning
Black Dreamcatchers are associated with death, evil, power, strength, and mystery. They are said to be the strongest color for dreamcatchers to stop negative energy.
When considering the color black, because of our modern use of black for funerals, you may think of it as a negative color. However, realign your thinking and consider the color black for what it is: a color of strength and power.
This is what it was meant to represent in Native American crafts and rituals, and for good reason; there is something profound about the darkest of colors.
To have a black dreamcatcher may help to have power against even the strongest of nightmares, noting the durable strength of negative energies.
If you are someone who experiences night terrors or otherwise awful reoccurring dreams, this may be something for you to consider.
White Dreamcatcher Meaning
White dreamcatchers are associated with hope, pureness, light, simplicity, and goodness. It will invite forward even softer energies, which can create an overall gentler sleep.
In just about every culture, the color white has been viewed as a pure color. Something about its soft appearance is endless and represents peace and innocence.
The color calls for a calmness even in the most trying times, reminding us that even the messiest of endings can have clean, crisp beginnings.
White dreamcatchers may be utilized when you are encouraging new beginnings or perhaps if you are protecting a child from nightmares.
Red Dreamcatcher Meaning
Red is the color of blood and therefore is the color associated with life itself.
There is an inexplicable power behind the beating of a heart, an organ that pumps blood and is found in even the most powerful beasts. There is also a certain passion in the color red which could be translated into your dreamcatcher.
When utilizing this in a dreamcatcher, you can help produce the energy required to chase your desires. There is a fire behind the color red that may translate into how you dream and, therefore, into the way you sleep.
Blue Dreamcatcher Meaning
There is something significantly calming about the color blue, an attribute that has been noted for many centuries, including by Indigenous People.
Blue has been a color used to represent water in many forms, from the water of the river to the water droplets of the rain. It is also the color of the sky to the human eye.
All of these natural elements add to its importance, as water is needed to sustain life in all forms – whether it be a human, animal, or plant.
To utilize blue in a dreamcatcher is to yearn for the energy of not only the gods but of the life-sustaining water.
Channeling your energy into this while you sleep will reach for the sky while also keeping your toes in the water, engaging both air and water energies.
Yellow Dreamcatcher Meaning
Yellow is the color most associated with the sun, which is the center of the universe and power unlike any other. The significance of the sun was another aspect represented in Indigenous cultures.
As it is known now, it was known that their crops would not grow without the sun, nor would they be able to see to hunt. They represented this importance in their beliefs and rituals.
Utilizing the color yellow in your dreamcatcher calls upon the dawn of a new time, perhaps, and you may be asking the higher powers to give you the power of the sun. You want to nourish yourself and the crops of your own, even if you are not an actual gardener or farmer. You want to grow into the next phase of your life, and to focus your energies on this through your dreamcatcher may be beneficial.
Green Dreamcatcher Meaning
Green is the color that is the most often used to represent the Earth itself and the crops grown to prevent starvation.
Due to its connection with the space in which we live as well as the food we use to sustain ourselves, green is perhaps one of the most important colors in Native American tribes.
When farming began, civilization began, as people had to stay in one place long enough for their crops to grow. The formation of societies and towns led to more extraordinary accomplishments and was a blessing from Mother Earth.
Using green in your dreamcatcher may represent thanks for what you have already been given by the higher powers. The Earth we live on sustains us and offers us what we need to keep going, which is an incredible feat.
To display gratitude before asking for more protection may add more certainty to success.
Multicolor Dreamcatcher Meaning
Having more than one color on your dreamcatcher is common and could represent special meanings based on the individual.
For many, they want to call for help in multiple areas. This is perfectly okay, as you are being watched over by these certain beings and they want to answer your needs.
By utilizing more than one color, you allow the focus of energy to sweep over these multiple issues. This may mean it will take longer to see an effect fully throughout your problems, as the energy is focused on more than one area.
Still, it will be worth it when it is effective in the end.
Dreamcatchers: The Conclusion
When considering utilizing a dreamcatcher, remember to show the proper respect for the tool. It is not simply a means of decoration and should be viewed as the powerful spiritual item it is.
While it is all too easy to enjoy things simply for the sight of them, treat these with the same respect you’d want your own spiritual items to be treated with.
If you plan to use a dreamcatcher, try to purchase from Indigenous tribes, who are more likely to care about the power and energies being homed in their materials. Choose what you feel calls to you, and remember to be thankful.
If you are not of Native blood, remember to treat the dreamcatcher with the proper respect.
While you may simply enjoy the aesthetic of it, after all of the dismay Indigenous People have gone through, the least we can do is respect their crafts and beliefs.
From here on out, it is up to you.
