The Unusual Origin Of Dreamcatchers

According to legend, dreamcatchers filter our nocturnal sleep, and capture nightmares as well as bad sensations in their threads. Sweet and happy dreams descend from their feathers to us.

Do you have a dream catcher above your bed, at the entrance to your house or above a window? They are so pretty we love to hang them everywhere.

According to legend, they allow the dream world to be filtered and positive emotions to be channeled while locking up negative emotions, that is to say by catching our nightmares in their web.

In this article, we invite you to discover with us a popular belief that is based on a  most interesting myth.

The Ojibwe people and the dreamcatchers

The dream catchers or dream catchers originate from the Ojibwés, a native people of America who, in the early 1960s, began to sell this handcrafted object to tourists who visited their reserves.

These magnificent handicrafts are part of the culture and tradition of this people. The Ojibway are originally from North America, and live primarily in Ontario, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

To craft the dreamcatchers, they used nettle fibers that they tied in a circular or teardrop-shaped ring to make what looks like a spider’s web.

They also used willow wood, and dreamcatchers were usually small in size (a diameter of plus or minus 10 centimeters). They marketed them with the idea that thanks to them, people  would no longer have nightmares,  and would be protected from bad energies and evil spirits.

Oddly enough, many native tribes criticized the Ojibwa for selling these items. They said that the commercial act destroys the authentic, mystical and spiritual value of dreamcatchers because tourists only buy them for decorative reasons.

Despite criticism, dreamcatchers were America’s best-selling items in the 1960s, and quickly took over the world.

The purpose of the dream catchers

Dreamcatchers should be hung above the headboard or above the cradle of children. Their mission is to dispel nightmares or those negative thoughts that we have from time to time.

Among the Ojibwe

For the Ojibwe people, these items work as follows:

• Dreamcatchers watch over our sleep. While we sleep, nightmares and bad feelings get stuck  in the central web.
• Dreams and positive feelings descend along the feathers before reaching us little by little.
• When day breaks, the soft gleams of the sun make nightmares disappear forever. A nice concept, isn’t it?

In addition, for the Ojibwa, this dreamcatcher tradition is based on a beautiful legend.

The central character was  a beautiful woman called Asibikaashi. She is also known as the “Spider Woman” and, far from having a negative connotation, this wonderful woman cared for all the creatures in our world.

She leaned over the cradle or the bed of little children to weave an invisible web of fine and delicate threads, capable of catching any nightmare and making it disappear. Nothing bad can happen to a creature while Asibikaashi is with it.

All the negative elements remain tangled in his paintings until the early hours of the morning, when the first rays of day renew all that is good on Earth, and make the bad disappear. We must clarify that there is another version of how dreamcatchers work.

Among the Lakota

The Lakota people gave them a whole different meaning, which you may be interested in:

• Nightmares and negative energies pass through the web until they disappear, while good dreams get stuck in the central web and then slowly descend along the feathers.
• When they finally touch our mind, they envelop us in peaceful, comforting sleep.
• Evil vanishes and good remains trapped in the dreamcatcher.

Dreamcatchers are, without a doubt, a beautiful tradition.

We cannot guarantee you that they will ward off bad energies, but whether that is true or not, it is always nice to have some around us. In addition, it is interesting to know their origin, tradition and history.

It’s also a simple way to pay tribute to North American tribes, keeping their heritage alive. Regardless of their colors or shapes, it is always nice to have a dream catcher at home!