shadowfeathers path

Lady ShadowFeathers Path
Dream Catcher Purpose

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Dream Catcher Purpose and Application

It is traditional that a feather be put into the center of the dream catcher as it means breath, or air, and it is essential for life. The babies watching the feather would be entertained while the received a lesson on the importance of good air. The lesson comes in the way that the feather of an owl is the keeper for wisdom and is also the womans feather, and the eagle feather is for courage and is the mans feather. It is not to say that each feather is restricted to a spacific gender. The feathers are used for the awareness of the gender properties she or he is invoking. The Native American people are in general very spacific about gender roles and identity. Using gem stones in the dream catchers is something that is done today in the dreamcatchers that we see for sale. This was not done by the old ones. Government laws prohibit the sale of feathers from sacred birds, so four gems stones is used to represent the four directions, and the stones used by the western nations were substituted by us. The adult dream catchers do not use feathers.

Structure

The dream catchers that are made from willow and sinew are for children, and they are not meant to last. After a period of time the willow dries out, and then the tension of the sinew collapses. This is suppose to happen as it belies the temporaryness of youth. The adult dream catchers should be made out of woven fiber to reflect their adult dreams. It is also the custom in many parts of Canada, and the northeastern United States to have a dream catcher that has a tear drop or snow shoe shape.