Dream Catcher Ritual Ceremony
There are many ways to celebrate a dream catcher. It is suggested that you initiate your dream catcher through a ritual ceremony. Rituals have great meaning and can put your mind and thoughts into action. Your dream catcher can become one with your feelings and perform the way you want it to.
Once you have decided where to hang your dream catcher, it is time to perform the ceremony that will enable it to work properly in your home or living space.
It is suggested that for the ceremony sage is lit and its smoke is used to cleanse the house. With the sage letting out its smoke, offer up a prayer for your dream catcher and what you wish for it to bless your home. Become one with the dream catcher and allow yourself to visualize what the dream catcher is there to protect. End your ceremony by thanking your dream catcher and feel it ready to bless your home.
You are ready to place your dream catcher in the chose spot to hang over and protect your home, family, or thoughts. You may choose to celebrate your dream catcher in this way or through other ways by your own choosing. There is an ancient ritual of the dream catcher called, Smudging. This is a powerful way to initiate and bless your dream catcher. However you choose to perform your ceremony of hanging a dream catcher, make sure you are one with it so it may work the best for you.
Ojibwe Dream Catcher History
Long ago in the ancient world of the Ojibwe Nation, the Clans were all located in one general area of that place known as Turtle Island. This is the way that the old Ojibwe storytellers say how Asibikaashi (Spider Woman) helped Wanabozhoo bring giizis (sun) back to the people. To this day, Asibikaashi will build her special lodge before dawn. If you are awake at dawn, as you should be, look for her lodge and you will see this miracle of how she captured the sunrise as the light sparkles on the dew which is gathered there.
Asibikaasi took care of her children, the people of the land, and she continues to do so to this day. When the Ojibwe Nation dispersed to the four corners of North America, to fill a prophecy, Asibikaashi had a difficult time making her journey to all those cradle boards, so the mothers, sisters, & Nokomis (grandmothers) took up the practice of weaving the magical webs for the new babies using willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from plants. It is in the shape of a circle to represent how giizis travels each day across the sky. The dream catcher will filter out all the bad bawedjigewin (dreams) & allow only good thoughts to enter into our minds when we are just abinooji. You will see a small hole in the center of each dream catcher where those good bawadjige may come through. With the first rays of sunlight, the bad dreams would perish. When we see little asibikaashi, we should not fear her, but instead respect and protect her. In honor of their origin, the number of points where the web connected to the hoop numbered 8 for Spider Woman’s eight legs or 7 for the Seven Prophecies.
It was traditional to put a feather in the center of the dream catcher; it means breath, or air. It is essential for life. A baby watching the air playing with the feather on her cradleboard was entertained while also being given a lesson on the importance of good air. This lesson comes forward in the way that the feather of the owl is kept for wisdom (a woman’s feather) & the eagle feather is kept for courage (a man’s feather). This is not to say that the use of each is restricted by gender, but that to use the feather each is aware of the gender properties she/he is invoking. (Indian people, in general, are very specific about gender roles and identity.) The use of gem stones, as we do in the ones we make for sale, is not something that was done by the old ones. Government laws have forbidden the sale of feathers from our sacred birds, so using four gem stones, to represent the four directions, and the stones used by western nations were substituted by us. The woven dream catchers of adults do not use feathers.
