The Legend of the
DreamCatcher
Long ago when the word was young, an old
Lakota
spiritual
leader
was
on
a
high mountain and
had a
vision. In his
vision,
Iktomi,
the
great
trickster
and
teacher of wisdom,
appeared
in
the form of a
spider.
Iktomi
spoke to him
in
a
sacred
language. As he
spoke,
Iktomi the
spider
picked
up the
elder s
willow
hoop
which
had
feathers,horsehair, beads
and
offerings
on it,
and began to
spin
a
web.
He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life;
how
we
begin
our
lives
as
infants, move on
through
childhood and
on to
adulthood.
Finally we go
to
old
age
where
we must be
taken
care of as
infants,
completing
the
cycle.
But ,
Iktomi said
as
he continued to
spin
his web, in each
time
of life
there
are
many
forces; some
good and
some
bad. If you
listen to
the
good
forces, they
will steer
you
in
the right direction. But,
if
you
listen to the
bad
forces,
they ll
steer you in
the wrong
direction
and
may
hurt you. So these
forces
can
help, or
can
interfere with the
harmony
of
Nature. While
the
spider spoke,
he
continued
to weave his
web.
When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder
the
web
and
said,
The
web
is a perfect circle with
a hole
in the
center.
Use the web
to help
your
people
reach
their goals,
making good
use of their
ideas,
dreams
and
visions. If
you
believe in the
great
spirit,
the
web will catch your
good
ideas and
the
bad
ones
will go through the
hole. The
elder passed
on
his
vision to
the people
and now
many
Indian
people hang a
dream
catcher
above their bed
to
sift
their
dreams
and
visions. The good is captured
in
the
web of life
and
carried
with
the people, but
the evil in
their
dreams
drops
through
the hole in the
center
of
the web and
are no longer a
part
of
their
lives. It s said
that the
dream
catcher holds the
destiny
of
the
future.
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