A Very Old Ojibway Legend
A long long time ago elders of the Ojibway tribe crafted beautiful circles out of Night Whispering Willow with intricate netting filling the void space inside the circle leaving but one tiny hole in the middle of it. The belief was all bad Dreams would be caught in the web and the good Dreams would continue on through the hole, a Night Seeing Owl's Feather then would dangle from the circle catching and guiding the good Dreams.
It was seventh grade when M was in History class and her teacher had invited a Native to tell the Legend of the Dream Catcher. I'm not sure which one of the Native Legends she was taught but she explained to me it was something to do with dew drops and sun and a spider and so this is the one I chose to tell.
"A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother.
Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it.
"No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him."
"Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy.
The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life.
He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went.
Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web."
>A_A< Forgive me for the bad pictures...just took them tonight so I could place her ad on Etsy this evening.They'll have to do until morning....they really don't do any justice to her work....I'm a terribly photographer and need desperately to take a class....hint hint Stan, kids...haha! Morning light will definitely be better....until then look at these shots just to give you an idea.
Emma asked me if I would be interested in selling some of her work on my Etsy store and of course without hesitation said yes. I really love when my kids show some interest in art, I think it's wonderful and I adore helping out. I truly hope she succeeds for I do believe she has made a beautiful art piece that anyone would be happy to own. Silly me I never knew the legend, I liked Dream Catchers because they reminded me of the Spider's Web, well it goes without saying one more reason why now I really, really love them….I adore Spider's Webs and Dreams, Crystals and Feathers and all together…wow just amazing!
So here is the rest of her ad for Etsy.....
Night Whispering Willow Spider Dream Catcher
Wherever you hang a dream catcher be sure it is positioned near a space where there is light and air for it will whimsically sway when caressed by the breeze and inevitably will bring you drops of golden sun beautifully reflected in the gorgeous crystals caught in it's delicate spider like web.
In the midnight muse of your sleepy slumber you are well protected by the watchful dream catcher for it catches all the dreams both bad and good but it has the magic powers to snare the bad and all the good dreams pretty well know the secret door and softly slip through the key->hole sliding down a downy feather so quietly even the mouse in the house wouldn't know he was dreaming. And like the dissolving of a vampire caught in the sun's rising so do the bad dreams caught in the web turn into nothingness leaving behind a fairy dusted sparkling spidery lace silhouette upon your wall.You wake from a deep restful sleep, maybe lucky to recall some of those intriguing dreams ,fuelling your imagination with the coming of day.
Although this Dream Catcher is made with copper wire Emma informs me that she doesn't enjoy working with the material too much for it happens to be very hard on the hands but hopefully I will entice her into making more of this sort, they are truly lovely! I adore the gorgeous Spider she made from solder and glass crystals and when she completed it I had to laugh for it reminded me of Eight Legged Freaks; you know, the Arachnophobia movie about Spiders...haha the large goggly eyes she created, you can't miss them and are perfectly suited ...very whimsical.
Presently M is now working on another beautiful design which I promise will be just as capturing.
This Dream Catcher is approximately 4" in diameter and has a several dew drops of gorgeous grey crystals. All made with copper wire.
