Dreamcatcher Tattoos

Dreamcatcher Tattoos

Dreamcatchers are from the native Americas can function to allow only good dreams to enter your subconscious mind, and filtering out the negative dreams or nightmares. According to Native American legend, the spider women would travel far and wide to visit the cradles of new born babies.

She was known as an enchantress who was able to weave magical webs called cradle-boards which used to guard the baby from nightmares.

However with time she was not able to visit all the babies as the tribe expanded, so the mothers took it on to themselves to create dreamcathers so that their babies would remain protected.

Dreamcather Tattoos - The Web

There are three major components to the dreamcatcher and each component has a vivid meaning. It is made up of a wooden ring which contained within a matrix of loose stringed web which had a hole in the middle. The bad dreams would get caught in the web while the good dreams were allowed to pass through the hole.

Many tribes made dreamcatchers that had eight points, paying homage to the 8 legs of the spider women. The third component are feathers which were attached to the wooden ring and thought to deliver the dream to the baby from the ring. Whenever they moved that was an indication that a beautiful dream is on the way.

Dreamcatcher Tattoos - The Ring

Dreamcatcher Tattoos

The ring is made of wood, representing mother nature, and is said to draw natural and spiritual energies from her. The ring has a number of beads on it of different colors, and represent different traditional native American ideologies. They are said to represent different directions, and each bead will the draw the best energy for that direction.

Like the bead facing east, is the direction of the sun rising and this bead is known to represent a new beginning and will absorb the positive energy of the sun. It is also the direction of the eagle, and the natives call upon its supreme vision to see what approaching from afar. If it is a dream then it will prepare to absorb that energy .

The different colors of the beads also have their own meanings. The colors black red and yellow are colors of the ancestors and they are beckoned to bestow their well wishes, blessing and wisdom to on the dreamer. And called upon to help eradicate the negative energies that a nightmare brings. The black colored bead beckons ancestors to help to learn lessons from the dreams we have, the red bead ask ancestors to bestow lessons of love , honesty and hard work through our dreams and the yellow bead asks ancestors to bestow us with lessons on insight and intuition through our dreams.

Dreamcatcher Tattoos - The Feathers

In native American culture, the feathers on the dream catcher, would have different symbology depending on the type of bird feather that was used. Generally owl feathers were favored if the dreamer was female and eagle feathers if the dreamer was male. Owls were thought to be associated with feminine energies and had special nocturnal abilities given that it was a night bird. It represents wisdom which the natives thought is the most important thing that dreams should impart onto female dreamers.

The eagle feathers symbolize courage, strength and foresight which were the most valued qualities amongst male dreamers. Other feathers that were also used were dove feathers which represented love, crane feathers which represented knowledge, hawk feathers which represented protection and also swallow feathers that represented good luck. Once the dream was allowed to pass the feathers, the feather would them bestow onto them their respective qualities.