Long ago when the world was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision.  In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider.  Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language.  As he spoke, 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 catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go through the hole." The elder passed on his Vision to the people and now many Indian people hang a Dreamcatcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions.

~*~

While sleeping under a Dreamcatcher one may feel secure that bad dreams being confused and ill-intentioned get caught in the web to perish with the first light of day and drop through the hole in the center of the web and are no longer a part of their lives.  While the good dreams, knowing the right way, easily slip through the center hole, work their way down the web catching all the good energies of the stones and adornment, floating down the feathers and onto the dreamers head. One never need fear bad dreams again while sleeping under a blessed dreamcatcher.