The Story Of The Dreamcatcher Spider

Seems like everyone is getting through something
today. I feel like
telling a story. Want to hear one? Come. Sit. My story
is about to
begin. Kat`a listen while I tell you of the dream
catcher spider.
.
.
A long, long time ago, there was a warrior. He was a
good man.
This warrior had to take a journey. He walked for a
long time. The
warrior came to a place where the road split into many
paths. Each
path taking a different direction. The warrior
stopped. Looked as far
as he could down each path. He thought and thought,
trying to decide
which path to take. Finally, knowing he could not
decide his path, he
sat on the ground. He pulled out his sacred bowl and
filled it with
smudge. After lighting the smudge he cleansed himself
and offered the
sweet smoke to the 7 directions. He gave a tobacco
offering and
prayed aloud. "Creator" he said, "there are so many
paths before me.
I want to choose the right path. The path that will
make me strong.
The one that will make me a good man in my tribe. The
one that will
make me a good son to my parents. The one that will
make me a good
husband to my wife. The one that will make me a good
father to my
children."
Well, we know that there are spirits everywhere. One
of the
spirits heard the warrior's plea. He turned himself
into a spider and
started weaving a web. As he wove the web, he told the
warrior the
story of how the dreamcatcher catches bad dreams in
it's web and the
good ones go through the center hole to the sleeping
individual. He
told the warrior that by the light of day, when the
sun hits the
dreamcatcher, all the bad dreams that are caught
disappear. He also
said that a dreamcatcher is much more than that. He
told the warrior
that it didn't matter which path of the web he would
choose, he would
end up at the center where the creator lives. It
didn't matter which
obstacles were in the way, if he was to stay on the
path he would
still end up at the center where the creator lives. So
it didn't
matter which path the warrior traveled, as long as he
kept his eye
on the center, where the Creator lives, it would never
be the wrong
path.
We honor the spider spirit and his wisdom by putting
spiders on
our dreamcatchers today. We always leave a large hole
in the center
when we weave them to remind us that this is where we
want to be in
life. And as we choose our paths in life, if we keep
our eye on the
center we can never go wrong

by James Running Turtle
(Indian -Outlaw)