"What Is...?" Wednesday

Dream Catchers

Dream catchers are arts and crafts of the Native American people...the original web dream catcher of the Ojibwa was intended to teach natural wisdom. Dream catchers of twigs, sinew, and feathers have been woven since ancient times by Ojibwa people and were woven by the grandfathers and grandmothers for newborn children and hung above the cradleboard to give the infants peaceful, beautiful dreams. 

Originally the Native American dream catcher was woven on twigs of the red willow using thread from the stalk of the stinging nettle. The red willow and twigs from other trees of the willow family, as well as red twig dogwood can be found in many parts of the United States. These twigs are gathered fresh and dried in a circle or pulled into a spiral shape depending upon their intended use. They used natural feathers and semi-precious gemstone, one gemstone to each web because there is only one creator in the web of life


A Legend


Long ago when the word was sound, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher 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 filter your good ideas and the bad ones will be trapped and will not pass.


The elder passed on his vision onto the people and now many Indian people have a dreamcatcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good will pass through the center hole to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams are captured in the web, where they perish in the light of the morning sun. It is said the dreamcatcher holds the destiny of the future.

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Mooning Over The Moon

Tomorrow will be a full moon and I did a little searching on full moon names and found out that there are just as many names for the full moon as there are peoples that have named them. The following is a bit explaining just how they were named and where the name came from....

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names  but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

~ Colonial American- Trapper's Moon 

~ American Indian (Choctaw)- Little Famine Moon

~ Chinese- Budding Moon                           

~ Celtic- Moon of Ice

~ American Indian (Dakotah Sioux)-  Moon of the Raccoon, Moon When Trees Pop          

~ English Medieval- Storm Moon

~ American Indian (Cherokee)- Bony Moon     

 ~ Neo Pagan-   Snow Moon

                      

This is a time when the Moon is at its most powerful, and the magic most potent. Performing any positive spell at this time will achieve good results. Since the full moon only truly occurs for one night out of the entire lunar cycle, it can be hard to fit it into your schedule. You can harness the energy of the full moon for about 2 days before or after the night the moon is truly full.

Spells: Artistic projects, love, romance, fertility, psychic abilities or making decisions. Also healing, guidance, and completion spells.

Leopardskin Jasper

Jasper is an extremely varied and versatile stone. The light colors are best for healing and darker colors are more grounding and can be used for protection. Jasper can also be used to further both the development and continuance of business pursuits .. to provide for coordination of activities leading to an increase. It is also reported to give you the courage to speak out and the bravery to achieve personal independence. 

Leopardskin Jasper is an excellent protection stone, providing protection for both travellers and astral travellers. This stone is also a good grounding stone and is especially useful in healing, It instills a feeling of wholeness, serenity and being cared for and aids mental clarity and functioning and balances the heart center. It was widely known as a “nurturing” stone.

It is known to help draw into your life whatever you need for physical healing. When Leopardskin Jasper is  in contact with your skin, the stone's energy flows into your aura, where it captures information about you. This information then rides on the return flow of the stone's energy back to the stone in contact with your skin. In this way, the Leopardskin Jasper learns your needs.

However, these stones do not discriminate between true and artificial needs. An example of an artificial need is a child's "need" to have ice cream for dessert, while his true need might be for an apple. Leopardskin Jasper helps attract whatever will satisfy one's true needs, which are not necessarily the same as desires or wishes.

Jasper (as a whole) is a form of semiprecious chalcedony, or microcrystalline quartz and is usually red, brown or green. Its patterns are usually more irregular and better defined than those of the other chalcedony variety, agate. Another difference between the two is that jaspers are generally opaque, while agates tend to be translucent, or at minimum will contain translucent bands. This distinction stems from the composition of the stones. Jasper contains microscopic "grains" of crystalline quartz and agate has microscopic "fibers" of crystalline quartz.

Jasper derives its colorful patterns from other minerals present, and is often named according to its pattern. It has a dull luster but takes a fine polish, and its hardness and other physical properties are those of quartz. Leopardskin Jasper was once believed to help prevent infection and heal wounds caused in fights or battles. In the modern world it is more commonly used to help heal emotional scars caused by past traumas, abuse or neglect.

Native Americans believe that jasper brings rain. The word for Jasper in some Native American cultures meant "rain-bringer." It was often worn by Shamen to provide protection. Jasper was thought to drive away evil spirits and protect against snake and spider bites. According to Native American beliefs, crystals can communicate while existing on multiple dimensions. They offer us information we cannot reach ourselves, and they promote harmonic symmetry and perfection within the world. You must become friends with the crystal energies you work with so that they can reveal their purpose to you

* The stones that you see (the first photo) on the wooden box are the very same ones I ordered last week, after seeing them in a photo (along side a couple of beautifully made tarot bags, that I ordered as well). My sweetie, Chris took the photo of the stones  just after they arrived yesterday.