The Dream Hunter, A Beautiful Legend Lakota
The legend of the dream hunter originates from the Lakota community, an ethnic group of the Sioux who live on the banks of the Missouri River in the United States. It is the Lakota who appeared in the famous film Dancing with the Wolves, a work that highlighted some of their customs and rituals.
The Lakota worshiped a deity they called Iktomi. He was the god of extreme wisdom, the one who delivered essential teachings to the whole community. They believed that Iktomi sometimes comes in human form. He looked like a tall man, with a mottled face of red and yellow.
However, the majority of the time it presented itself to the Indians in the form of a spider. A very wise spider, who sometimes spoke cryptic words and other times got very joking. She knew many stories, some very fanciful, and sometimes she told them to mortals. It was precisely Iktomi who transmitted the legend of the dream hunter to the Lakota.
A magical mountain
It is said that a long time ago, when the world was still young, an old Lakota man climbed a mountain and had a fabulous vision. Iktomi, the great master of the world, had appeared to him in spider form. He had started talking to her in sacred language because the topic was important.
As he spoke, Iktomi had taken a branch of the oldest willow tree in the area and made a ring. Then there was hanging some hair, beautiful colorful bird feathers, beads and other small items. Then he had started to weave.
At the same time, he was telling the old man that life was a cycle. The beginning and the end always came together. The men weren’t going in a straight line as they thought they were. In reality, we start one cycle and end it by starting another, and so on.
The life and ages of man
The legend of the dream hunter that Iktomi told the old man said that the ages of man were also cycles. We start our life being very fragile and dependent. Then, little by little, we get stronger. We walk on our feet, we run, we become adults. We are gaining in freedom.
However, we are aging quickly. We become again those fragile beings who need others. This is when the final circle closes and death appears. The end is like the beginning and the cycle repeats with the life of every human being born.
Iktomi continued to weave while the old man Lakota listened intently. This revelation seemed extraordinary to him. He understood that we were not moving forward, but towards the end. And that every end was also a beginning. Here is the real meaning of the dream hunter.
The dream hunter
Iktomi continued her speech. He told the old man that at every stage of life there are many forces working in different directions. Some are positive and some are negative. These forces can alter the natural harmony of destiny. Therefore, you have to be attentive to them and know how to identify them. Good doesn’t always look good, and bad isn’t always seen as bad.
Iktomi wove the spider web from the outside of the willow circle inward. However, at one point he stopped and left a void in the center. Then he told the old man that he would give him this coin so that all the Lakota people could learn to make good use of their dreams and visions. Good ideas and good projects had to get stuck in the spider’s web. The bad had to leave through the hole that remained in the center of the work.
The old man passed on the legend of the dream hunter to his tribe. From that moment on, the Lakota use Iktomi’s gift as a base that supports building their future. Westerners call it “the dream catcher”. If used well, it serves to examine dreams and dreams and to seek out the truths that serve as a guide in life.
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