Scary Dream Catcher
In some Native American and First Nations cultures, a dreamcatcher or dream catcher (Ojibwe: asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word for 'spider')[1] is a handmade willow hoop, on which is woven a net or web. The dreamcatcher may also include sacred items such as certain feathers or beads. Traditionally they are often hung over a cradle as protection.[2] It originates in Anishinaabe culture as the 'spider web charm' (Anishinaabe: asubakacin 'net-like', White Earth Band; bwaajige ngwaagan 'dream snare', Curve Lake Band[3]), a hoop with woven string or sinew meant to replicate a spider's web, used as a protective charm for infants.[2]
Dreamcatchers were adopted in the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and gained popularity as a widely marketed 'Native crafts items' in the 1980s. [4]
Objects can have demons etc attached to them and give demons legal ground. (Deut 7:26) Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing. A favorite toy, stuffed animal, night-light, or dream catcher can help. Avoid scary movies, TV shows, and stories before bed — especially if they've triggered nightmares before know that nightmares aren't real, that they're just dreams and can't hurt them.
Ojibwe origin[edit]
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Ethnographer Frances Densmore in 1929 recorded an Ojibwe legend according to which the 'spiderwebs' protective charms originate with Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; who takes care of the children and the people on the land. As the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children.[2] So the mothers and grandmothers weave webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew, or cordage made from plants. The purpose of these charms is apotropaic and not explicitly connected with dreams:
Even infants were provided with protective charms. Examples of these are the 'spiderwebs' hung on the hoop of a cradle board. In old times this netting was made of nettle fiber. Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they 'caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and holds whatever comes in contact with it.'[2]
Basil Johnston, an elder from Neyaashiinigmiing, in his Ojibway Heritage (1976) gives the story of Spider (Ojibwe: asabikeshiinh, 'little net maker') as a trickster figure catching Snake in his web.[5][clarification needed]
Modern uses[edit]
While Dreamcatchers continue to be used in a traditional manner in their communities and cultures of origin, a derivative form of 'dreamcatchers' were also adopted into the Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s as a symbol of unity among the various Native American cultures, or a general symbol of identification with Native American or First Nations cultures.[4]
The name 'dream catcher' was published in mainstream, non-Native media in the 1970s[6] and became widely known as a 'Native crafts item' by the 1980s,[7]by the early 1990s 'one of the most popular and marketable' ones.[8]
In the course of becoming popular outside the Ojibwe Nation during the Pan-Native movement in the '60s, various types of 'dreamcatchers', many of which bear little resemblance to traditional styles, and that incorporate materials that would not be traditionally used, are now made, exhibited, and sold by New age groups and individuals. Some Native Americans have come to see these 'dreamcatchers' as over-commercialized, like 'sort of the Indian equivalent of a tacky plastic Jesus hanging in your truck,' while others find it a loving tradition or symbol of native unity. [4]
A mounted and framed dreamcatcher is being used as a shared symbol of hope and healing by the Little Thunderbirds Drum and Dance Troupe from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. In recognition of the shared trauma and loss experienced, both at their school during the Red Lake shootings, and by other students who have survived similar school shootings, they have traveled to other schools to meet with students, share songs and stories, and gift them with the dreamcatcher. The dreamcatcher has now been passed from Red Lake to students at Columbine CO, to Sandy Hook CT, to Marysville WA, to Townville SC, to Parkland FL.[9][10][11]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Free English-Ojibwe dictionary and translator - FREELANG'. www.freelang.net.
- ^ abcdDensmore, Frances (1929, 1979) Chippewa Customs. Minn. Hist. Soc. Press; pg. 113.
- ^Jim Great Elk Waters, View from the Medicine Lodge (2002), p. 111.
- ^ abc'During the pan-Indian movement in the 60's and 70's, Ojibway dreamcatchers started to get popular in other Native American tribes, even those in disparate places like the Cherokee, Lakota, and Navajo.' 'Native American Dream catchers', Native-Languages
- ^John Borrows, 'Foreword' to Françoise Dussart, Sylvie Poirier, Entangled Territorialities: Negotiating Indigenous Lands in australia and Canada, University of Toronto Press, 2017.
- ^'a hoop laced to resemble a cobweb is one of Andrea Petersen's prize possessions. It is a 'dream catcher'—hung over a Chippewa Indian infant's cradle to keep bad dreams from passing through. 'I hope I can help my students become dream catchers,' she says of the 16 children in her class. In a two-room log cabin elementary school on a Chippewa reservation in Grand Portage' The Ladies' Home Journal 94 (1977), p. 14.
- ^'Audrey Speich will be showing Indian Beading, Birch Bark Work, and Quill Work. She will also demonstrate the making of Dream Catchers and Medicine Bags.' The Society Newsletter (1985), p. 31.
- ^Terry Lusty (2001). 'Where did the Ojibwe dream catcher come from? Windspeaker - AMMSA'. www.ammsa.com. Sweetgrass; volume 8, issue 4: The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society. p. 19.CS1 maint: location (link)
- ^Marysville School District receives dreamcatcher given to Columbine survivors By Brandi N. Montreuil, Tulalip News. Posted on November 7, 2014
- ^'Showing Newtown they're not alone - CNN Video' – via edition.cnn.com.
- ^Dreamcatcher for school shooting survivors (paywall)
External links[edit]
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You are here: Real Ghost Stories :: Apparitions / Voices / Touches :: Dreamcatcher
(1 stories) (1 posts) (the author is a young adult)
Date: 2013-10-08
Country: United States
State: California
Paranormal Category: Apparitions / Voices / Touches
For my birthday, a good friend of mine got me a dreamcatcher. I had no idea the 'rules' of dreamcatchers and put it on top of my cat and watched him play with it. Then, I hung it up in my room above my bed.
That night I was woken up about once or twice to something pulling at my ankles, causing a full body jolt feeling. I shrugged off and went to sleep just fine.
I went on vacation for the weekend and the night I returned some very freaky things happened. It started with the same jolting feeling, then it felt as if someone grabbed my wrist and pulled it. It felt as if someone was trying to wake me up. This happened about 6 times before I heard a female voice say, 'See me.' I kept ignoring the presence until I got up and turned the light on in my room and attempted to sleep again.
Scary Dream Catcher Drawing
Then, something grabbed my ankles again and threw them up almost causing me to fully lift off my bed. Keep in mind I'm under the covers. I turned onto my back and then I felt a great amount of pressure on my chest and couldn't breathe for a few seconds. This was it for me and I crawled into bed with my roommate down the hall. Everything ended and I was able to sleep through the night.
The next day, I moved the dreamcatcher to my kitchen, not knowing where else to put it. When I moved it, I noticed there was a black mark across where the dreamcatcher was. This was not there before.
I've read that some people believe dreamcatchers can act as a portal to evil spirits. I have been approached by spirits before, especially when I was a kid but the past two years I have had paranormal things happen to me. Never has it felt as threatening as this time. Hopefully getting rid of the dreamcatcher will solve this issue.
Any thoughts?
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Comments about this paranormal experience
The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, nicblind, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will participate in the discussion and I need help with what I have experienced.
I understand the purpose of dreamcatchers and was excited to put one up in my room. I had no prior knowledge or suspicion of a dream catcher as a portal.
After this experience, I took it down and haven't had any problems since.
Also, the dream catcher was dyed blue and the mark on my wall is a deep black color. So that doesn't explain where the mark came from.
-Nic
Http://www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreminst.html
Http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/dreamcatcher.php
When my kids were younger, one of them made me one in school. A primitive sort of crude design, but with good intentions. (I hope!) I was delighted and hung it up, and from the 1st night I had bad dreams. It was there for about a month before I put 2 and 2 together, and took it down. The bad dreams ceased.
I'm guessing that it's a spiritual type of device, similar to a crucifix. Native Americans and other cultures, too, perhaps, knew the power behind it, but as laypeople, everyday joes, we simply looked at it as a 'decorative' ornament' akin to wearing a rosary as a necklace. (I did that, too, as a teenager, before becoming a Catholic... My bad!)
I'd be interested to hear from a Shaman or medicine-man/woman about feedback on dream catchers. Any takers? Should they be made only by certain people, or be blessed by authoritarian-figures? How do you make them work PROPERLY? 😕
Scary Dream Stories
I think lady-glow is onto something with the dye theory, and the 'jolting' you felt unrelated to the dream catcher. Like some of the others, I've no idea how on earth you managed to go to sleep afterwards!
I know, every now and then I will feel a 'jolting' hard enough to wake me. It feels as if my legs (sometimes it extends up to my shoulders) was heavily dropped onto the bed. The following theories have been offered to me as means of explanation;1) my body was actually responding to some action in my dream state (similar to sleep walking), 2) I was beginning to levitate. 🤔 Personally, in my experience, I don't think there's a paranormal cause, it's just my body being weird. The first couple of times, it really freaked me out, but since nothing ever happened afterwards, I simply lay quietly until I return to sleep.
The Dream Catchers were made to put over babies cradles by N.A. Tribes to keep nightmare/evil spirits away. If the Dream Catcher became full it was brought to the spiritual shaman to have it cleansed and blessed. They are not portals for evil spirits to come though, quite the opposite. So rest assured your cat playing with it didn't harm it.
To clean it take it outside and use a can of compressed air (the kind you use for the computer) with the design facing you to blow away anything attached. If you have to use water use as little as possible.
Stores aren't supposed to sell N.A. Items but they do all the time so please try to buy only items made by southwest tribes.
I can't help but wonder if these events may be the result of your idea that dream catchers attract evil. On some level you expected to experience something, so something happened. The mind is a tricky bugger.
And like Miracles, I would also like to know the 'rules.' Hadn't heard of any. 😳
While we're on this subject, I'd like to know where you read that dreamcatchers act as portals to evil spirits.
A dream catcher is supposed to filter a person's dreams allowing only the positive ones and catching the bad ones.
...good excuse to crawl into your roommate's bed! 🤔
But one question. Since you said that you felt like someone was over your chest and that you were not able to breath for a few seconds, could it have been a nightmare that someone was trying to touch your ankle or wrist and that you had a sleep paralysis. I am not doubting your experience. But just need a clarification. Because some dreams are so real and when it is coupled with sleep paralysis, it would look like paranormal. That is why I asked. Please clarify.
Regards and respects to you.
SDS
Scary Dream Catcher Catchers
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Scary Dream Interpretation
© The ghost story Dreamcatcher is copyrighted to nicblind. Edited by yourghoststories.com.