Web of Dreams: What Our Neighbors are Calling In
The culmination of my summer interactive art installation, with messages from your fellow citizens.
Hi everyone,
This week I want to share a material art thing I’ve been up to: the giant dreamcatcher project. I wove it in June, with Colin Cook’s strong hands bending and binding the hoop, and a neighbor helping me to hang it between the redwoods. It turned into a surprisingly lovely experience over the summer, of conversations with strangers and friends, an invitation to dialogue about the inner life.
Please enjoy this 10 minute meditation above, taking down the messages from the Mill Valley hoop this weekend, on the fall equinox, in honor of the International Day of Peace.
This is my second big hoop, I did one at Sundari (pictured below) 3 years ago. The whole process was pretty unplanned, but ultimately mystical in its unfolding. We hung that one outside the dormitory, and put rugs under it so people could lay their heads together and see if they could dream the same dream.
In both projects, the question was: what are we, collectively, dreaming into being? Where do our wishes point us?
We are simple beings in our deepest desires, really. Lean into the love you are.
You are the dream of creation,
XO, C
PS There’s also more reading below on the origin of the dreamcatcher in Northern Indigenous Tribes, and objects of protection in cultures around the planet.
The Sundari Hoop:
From the Ojibwe, the origin story of the dream catcher:
A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother. Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" - he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it. "No-keegwa" - the old lady whispered - "don't hurt him." "Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" - asked the little boy. The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her: "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" - he said - “Watch and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web."
The dreamcatcher also is a native tradition in Siberia, with a different weaving pattern. There it is known as the kytgem. The kytgem is also used to facilitate dream interpretation and guidance.1
I leave this note here to honor the cultural and spiritual significance of this object class in native traditions:
The dreamcatcher, originally known as asabikeshiinh (inanimate form of the word for spider) in the Ojibwe language and bawaajige nagwaagan in the Anishinaabe language, is a sacred object rooted in the spiritual traditions of the Anishinaabe people, which includes the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes. It’s made of a circular willow hoop woven with a web and adorned with feathers and beads, was traditionally hung over cradles to protect children from bad dreams, allowing only good dreams to pass through the web. As time passed, the dreamcatcher was adopted by other Native American tribes, including the Lakota, who called it iháŋbla gmunka, symbolizing the web of life. For the Lakota, the circle represented the cycle of life, where good ideas would pass through the web, and bad ones would be caught and perish. The Pan-Indian Movement of the 1960s and 1970s further spread the use of the dreamcatcher among different tribes, transforming it into a symbol of Native American unity and cultural pride.
In the late 20th century, the dreamcatcher gained popularity beyond Native American communities, becoming a widely recognized symbol around the world. However, its commercialization has raised concerns about cultural appropriation. The mass production and use of dreamcatchers by those outside the culture, often without understanding or respecting their origins, can be seen as a form of cultural disrespect.
Other cultures around the world have developed similar objects that serve either the same or different purposes as the dreamcatcher, reflecting a universal human desire for protection, connection to the spiritual realm, and the safeguarding of well-being. In Siberian shamanic traditions, the kytgem (or Siberian Dreamcatcher) is a protective tool used by shamans to ward off evil spirits and ensure the safety of individuals or communities. Constructed with materials such as beaver lamb, beads, drake feathers, and a willow hoop, the kytgem shares visual similarities with the dreamcatcher, yet its use is deeply embedded in the shamanic practices of Siberian tribes like the Evenki. Similarly, in Scandinavian cultures, the Sami people created protective amulets and woven belts often adorned with symbolic patterns to protect against malevolent forces. These objects, while not identical to the dreamcatcher, served a comparable function, highlighting a shared human inclination to create protective symbols using natural materials.
In other parts of the world, different objects have emerged with similar protective or spiritual purposes. In Japan, the omamori is a small, woven charm typically sold at Shinto shrines, believed to bring protection and good luck to its bearer. Each omamori is specific to a particular type of protection, such as health, safety, or academic success, much like how the dreamcatcher is intended to protect the sleeper from bad dreams. In South America, particularly among the indigenous peoples of the Andes, worry dolls or muñecas quitapenas are small, handcrafted dolls that children place under their pillows to take away their worries as they sleep. These dolls, like the dreamcatcher, embody a belief in the power of tangible objects to influence the spiritual or emotional well-being of a person, serving as conduits between the physical and spiritual worlds.
People around the world, regardless of their geographic location or specific spiritual beliefs, have imbued objects with protective or healing properties- a testament to humanity's shared need for comfort, protection, and connection to forces beyond the visible world. While the symbols and materials may differ, the underlying human concerns—protection, safety, and spiritual guidance—are universal.
1 Two 2015 genetic studies provided significant insights into the origins of Native American populations, confirming that the majority trace their ancestry back to ancient Siberian populations. These studies highlighted the migration patterns that brought the ancestors of most Native American tribes from Siberia across the Bering land bridge into the Americas during the last Ice Age. This migration established the genetic foundation for the indigenous populations throughout North, Central, and South America. The findings solidified the connection between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and their Siberian ancestors, supporting long-standing theories of human migration and settlement across continents. However, these studies also revealed an intriguing exception: certain tribes in Brazil were found to share DNA with Aboriginal Australian people, suggesting a more complex migration history than previously understood. This discovery indicates that there may have been multiple waves of migration into the Americas, with some groups potentially arriving via different routes or at different times than the majority Siberian ancestors. The genetic link between Brazilian tribes and Aboriginal Australians raises fascinating questions about early human migration and the interactions between ancient populations, suggesting a rich tapestry of ancestral connections that shaped the diverse indigenous cultures of the Americas.
