Nightmare Web

Myth on Dream Catchers

“It was long ago way before my time, and in your world it was the time of the people who you call Native Americans. They lived with the land and respected all the spirits. This is also the time when the dream realm was not very stable and chaos was the norm. Sometimes people went to sleep and where trap in the chaos of their dream and were unable to wake up. Many in fact lost their souls in this realm others lost their minds. It made the spirits of the land sad to see them suffer. That is when the great spirits of the time decided to appoint a protector of this realm to keep the dream realm in order and to prevent the loss of souls.

             But they could not agree on who that would be. The spirit of the trees wanted it to be a noble hawk. The grasses voted for the fleet footed deer. While the river and rocks fought over whether it would be the powerful bear or the wise wolf and the plains wanted it to be a strong stallion. They fought for days over this before they came up with a solution. Any animal that wanted the honor of watching over the dream realm may participate.

            The task they had to complete was to make something that would help the humans in the real world with the troubles that the dream world can cause and the one who gave the best gift would become the deity of dreams. So the animals who wanted to participate lined up before the spirits. From the fleet footed dear to the tricky snake many animals lined up and the smallest of these creatures was the spider. And when he said he wanted to compete, the other animals laughed saying.

            “How could one so small do anything good you mine as well give up now and go home”  they belittled him, but the spider refused to give up. He stood with the rest of the animals to receive instructions. The animals were given till the next full moon, which was eight sunset past, to come up with something and they had to work by themselves with no help from anyone. Each of the animals went their own way to get started on their projects, each confident that they would win.

            The animals worked diligently on their task as the days went by though some were having trouble. The spider worked endlessly on his project rarely ever taking a break only eating when he could stand the hunger pains no longer and only sleeping for a short period of time as he spent most of his time weaving.

             He put his heart into the gift for he really wanted to help the humans for one day he was in trouble a bird had decide to make him its lunch and just when he thought he was finish a boy came to his rescue and frightened the bird off. The boy picked him up from the tree he was on and put him on the ground.

            “Now you stay away from birds they aren’t pleasant company for spiders like yourself” he said laughing. Just then someone called his name and he left saying goodbye to the spider. He never got to thank the kind boy that rescued him so he decided to make a gift for him using his talents of weaving he made a beautiful tapestry out of his web, but when he went to go give it to the boy he found out that the boy had lost his soul to the dream realm. So in order to honor the boy he wanted to win this test and make sure this did not happen again. By the time the time the week was over only a handful of the animals had completed the task. They were the hawk, the wolf, the horse, the bear, the snake, the otter and the spider that stood before the spirits.

            The noble hawk made sweet sounding chimes made from the bark of oak trees and strung up with string from the bows of warriors with feathers woven into it  that would warn of trouble between the realms as is would only ring when something was wrong and wake those that were sleeping. The wise wolf presented her gift next, her gift was knowledge, the ability to learn what their mind already knew as she presented a book, the cover was made of buffalo skin and precious gems were stitched in the front cover.

             The magnificent stallion came with his gift of freedom, he would give the people the ability to move freely within the dream realm to search for the truths and lost souls, all they needed was to carry the dream stone which was a black shimmering stone with smooth edges hanging on a necklace made of woven horse hair. That was dipped in the steams of their hidden valleys. The mighty bear’s gift was a compass made from silver from the mountains, to guide one through their dream. The letters did not indicate the true directions but to point them down a path that would lead them home again.

            The devious snake was next and his gift was of trickery as he brought forth a golden medallion that gave one the ability to control another’s dream. While the playful otter’s gift was one of sight. A clam with a pearl inside that showed one the dreams of others, all they had to do was say the name of the person dreaming. Lastly it was the little spider who gave a gift made to protect. He presented the Nightmare Web a device that was supposed to trap the bad dreams and let the good dreams pass through. It was woven from his web in a circle, a bough from a tree kept it together and it was decorated with clay beads that had different meanings to the men.

            The spirits discussed among themselves who’s gift was the best for they were all worthy gifts, but only one could rule in the dream realm. They agreed that the snake’s gift could be used for great evil and not much good would come of it. Both the otter’s and stallion’s gifts could be turned against others as well. The wolf’s gift they agreed could cause trouble, for men have a horrible craving for knowledge. That left the gifts of the hawk, the bear, and the spider. The hawk’s gift could bring warning and the bear’s gift could bring guidance but they could not protect. So in the end they went with the spider’s gift and he was given complete rule over the dream realm and the nightmare web was given to the humans.

            In a show of respect the other animals gave their gifts to the spider, and he left for his new home. He was able to separate the chaos in the realm but out of this chaos the nightmare was born he worked against the spider deity and filled people’s dreams with fear and sadness. And the spider worked hard to protect the dreaming creatures teaching the men how to weave their own nightmare webs.