dream catcher?

Answer 1

Dreamcatchers
In Native American culture, a dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a hoop (traditionally of willow), incorporating a loose net, and decorated with items unique to the particular dreamcatcher. There is a traditional belief that a dreamcatcher filters a person's dreams, letting through only the good ones.

Answer 2

http://www.staciwilson.com/Dreamcatcher/Dreamcatch_a.jpg go to this site for image.


In Ojibwa (Chippewa) culture, a dreamcatcher (or dream catcher; Ojibwe asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word for "spider") is a handmade object based on a willow hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web. The dreamcatcher is then decorated with personal and sacred items such as feathers and beads.

While dreamcatchers originated in the Ojibwa Nation, during the pan-Indian movement of the 1960s and 1970s they were adopted by Native Americans of a number of different Nations. They came to be seen by some as a symbol of unity among the various Indian Nations, and as a general symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures. However, other Native Americans have come to see them as "tacky" and over-commercialized.

Traditionally, the Ojibwa construct dreamcatchers by tying sinew strands in a web around a small round or tear-shaped frame (in a way roughly similar to their method for making snowshoe webbing). The resulting "dream-catcher", hung above the bed, is then used as a charm to protect sleeping children from nightmares.

The Ojibwa believe that a dreamcatcher filters a person's dreams. According to Terri J. Andrews in the article "Legend of the Dream Catcher," about the Ojibwa nation in the magazine World & I, Nov. 1998 page 204, "Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through . . . Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day."

Another legend (Lakota), according to St. Joseph's Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota, "Good dreams pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The bad dreams are trapped in the web, where they perish in the light of dawn."

In the course of becoming popular outside of the Ojibwa Nation, and then outside of the pan-Indian communities, "dreamcatchers" are now made, exhibited and sold by some New age groups and individuals. According to Philip Jenkins, this is considered by most traditional Native peoples and their supporters to be an undesirable form of cultural appropriation.

Answer 3

made in honor of the great spider webs and the webs of dreamthreads. A Dream Catcher is suppossed to catch dreams and store the "bad" scary dreams in the beads so only the good dreams come back to the dreamer. Hang one up over the bed and sleep well. They are not that hard to make yourself, but if you'd rather you cand find them at any flea market made by local craftspeople and artisans.

Answer 4

Dream catchers use to be only used by Native Americans the believed they would filter out bad dreams leaving only the good ones. I actually own one, it doesn't filter out my bad dreams. Its really for those who truly believe in it power.

Answer 5

Some dreamcatchers work well, if one believes in them--for example, the asabikeshiinh; however, a dream catcher could have numerous meanings--
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher_%28disambiguation%29
--please specify--I hope it helps.

Answer 6

American Indian device hung over your bed at night to catch bad dreams...normally look like a spider web with devices attached to them, like an arrow head, a bead, each with a meaning.

Answer 7

DREAMCATCHERS click on link below
http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamcatcher.html

Love & Blessings
Milly

Answer 8

i have one by my bed i still have bad dreams but not like i did before.......i made it w/ my brother too and made 1 for our mom.u have to beileve in it thoguh