About the "dream catchers" that one often sees in car windows, etc. - Are they a true part of Native spirituality, or a made up gimmick? If genuine, is it disrespectful for a non-Native to display one?
2007-09-17 14:13:58 · 14 answers · asked by Im_So_Confused 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I know they can trace the dream catcher back before 1800. Many tribes use it to "catch" the bad dreams and allow the good to pass. It is traditionally placed above the bed. Some tribes believe that they represent the circle of life. With birth starting at the outer circle, the web represents the cycles of life with old age returning a person back to an infant life state, completing the circle.
2007-09-17 14:21:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Dream catchers are a true part of Native spirituality, but when they are hung anywhere other than above a person's bed, in otherwords, not being used as they are spiritually meant to be, then they are just a gimmick and disrespectful.
2007-09-17 21:34:55 · answer #2 · answered by BlueManticore 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They are a true part of Native American spirituality, and the belief is that the bad dreams are trapped in the web, allowing the good dreams to flow to the sleeping person lying below.
I don't believe it's disrespectful to use them if you are not a Native American. I always hung one above the cribs of my sleeping babies, and they hang above their beds to this day.
2007-09-17 21:19:27 · answer #3 · answered by iamnoone 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
They are a part of Native spirituality. As to being disrespectful. No one is treating them disrespectful by displaying them, so I think not.
2007-09-17 21:19:12 · answer #4 · answered by punch 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am Cherokee Indian (well part) and from what I know it is part of our custom. The dream catcher catches the bad dreams and lets the good ones go.
I have nothing against someone who is non-native to display one. If you like the way it looks than that is your choice.
2007-09-17 21:17:57 · answer #5 · answered by Nikki 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
"Dream catchers are not just things, arts and crafts of Native American people. The original spider web dream catchers of the Ojibwe were intended to teach natural wisdom. Nature is a profound teacher. I learned to listen. Listen as these dream catchers whisper the Original Instructions and the wisdom of the Seventh Fire. These dream catchers teach the natural wisdom of the Seventh Fire--spiral dream catchers, double spirals, butterflies, dolphins, angels, father sun.and we have a few of the designs in dream catcher weaving kits. See with eyes of spirit, listen with your heart and soar with the White Eagles.
Many Native American prophecies say NOW is a pivotal time on Mother Earth. Some are ready to make the quantum leap to the next level of human evolution. It's to those people that these dream catchers speak, the new people described as the Osh-ki-bi-mah-di-zig led by spirit warriors, the Ogichidaag'. By the light of the Seventh Fire come those who will use their power and strength with gentleness and wisdom to walk in balance, to follow the path of spirit.
I am White Eagle Soaring of the Little Shell Pembina Band, a Treaty Tribe, Native American and of European descent, bridging the worlds of spirit and science, a teacher and learner. I didn't choose dream catchers. They chose me. I didn't plan to leave my comfortable job teaching science and history in the public schools. I didn't plan to listen to the sissagwad, the soft wind of spirit in the trees, to weave dream catchers and tell their stories. Instead they wove me, revealing my Native American heritage, changing a skeptic into a shaman, and showing me powers and wonders beyond imagination. The Dream Catchers wove me. See The Stories Dream Catchers Weave."
-White Eagle Soaring ( From Dream Catches of the Seventh Fire )
Namaste
Peace and Love
Edit: If you interested in this, check out my latest 369 blog on The Seventh Fire
2007-09-17 21:35:54 · answer #6 · answered by digilook 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I have many native friends and live 3 miles from a rez.
It was a practice in some cultures. I've never met one who found it disrespectful. There are SOOOO many other things that would be ahead of that in a line of disrespect that it just never comes up in conversation. Quick overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_catcher
2007-09-17 21:18:16 · answer #7 · answered by Laptop Jesus 3.9 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is a true part of native spirtuality, and is often found, not necessarily disrespectful, but undesirable for non-Native American's to display one as they feel their culture has been appropriated by other cultures.
2007-09-17 21:19:45 · answer #8 · answered by :) 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
IT is NOT disrespectful to them at all.
In fact I have a Friend that taught me to make them...I even sold them at a fair last year...
but since coming to R & S I kinda forgot
about it...some of them are so beautiful...
some can be very cheap, but also very expensive...some of my bigger ones, I weaved in a arrow head or feathers...its really a nice thing to have for yourself or your children...put them in the window's
and the "bad dreams" will be caught in the
web and the "good" dreams will pass through.....
2007-09-17 21:22:12 · answer #9 · answered by Kerilyn 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Putting them in a car is GOOFY! They belong hanging near the place you sleep to block the bad dreams and allow the good dreams to pass through to you as you sleep.
2007-09-17 21:19:35 · answer #10 · answered by dddbbb 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋