Every winter evening Eagle Dreamer sat at the fire with his clan and told stories of his flights with the White Eagle and the many things he had learned.  He taught the secrets of the spirals.  He saw spirals in the swirling waters of the streams and rivers, and in the whirling dust on the prairie.  He saw that pine cones, flowers, snail shells, trees were spirals.  The women sewed spirals into all the clothing.  The men carved spirals in bone ornaments.  One day as he straightened the sleeping robes in his lodge he heard his name called from a place near the roof. 

"Eagle Dreamer.  Look up here, Eagle Dreamer." 

Looking up he could make out the strands of a spider web highlighted by a shaft of sunlight shining through the smoke hole.  The spider, satisfied that she had the attention of the old man, began to weave.  From the point at which the strands crossed she spun new fibers attaching them to the strands that served as a foundation of her work.  As she wove, Eagle Dreamer's eyes followed every move, and his mouth opened wider and wider in amazement.  She was spinning a spiral!  When she finished weaving the spider stood in the center of her creation. 

"Do you see, Eagle Dreamer?  This is how Creator works, in a spiral dance from the known into the unknown, connecting everything to everything else.  Everything is in the circle.  We are All One and the Creator is in all things." 

"Yes, I see," said Eagle Dreamer.  "You have given me a great gift, Asabikeshii. I have seen that the spiral is in All Things.  I would learn to weave as you do, Asabikeshii, for the story is woven into the Web of Life.  The story is in the weaving." 

"You do see, Eagle Dreamer.  And you will see still more.  Go and gather twigs of the red willow saplings now when they are at their peak of red.  Tie them into hoops and bind them until they have dried.  They do not need to be larger than your hand.   Make a bead of stone, find colorful feathers that are the natural gifts of the winged ones, and make fine thread from the fibers of the nettle stalk. With these you will be honoring the stone people, the plant people, and the animal people--the first three orders of being.  When all is ready, call upon Asabikeshii and I shall teach you how to weave the spiral web of the Dream Spiral." 

His head filled with the magic and wonder of the spiral web of Asabikeshii, Eagle Dreamer gathered the materials the spider had demanded.  Weeks later he stood before the spider web in the roof of his lodge and called to Asabikeshii to teach him how to weave.  From the shadows came the voice of the spider. 

"You have done well, Eagle Dreamer.  Since you cannot make thread sticky as I do, I will show you a human way to weave the Dream Spiral.  After you have tied the twig ends together, make six loops around the hoop so that the seven points honor the Seven Powers--the Four Directions, Mother Earth below, Father Sky above, and the Great Mystery within." 

The spider showed Eagle Dreamer how to weave the Dream Spiral and then, "After you have finished the weaving, thread a stone bead into the center.  This remembers the Creator at the center of Creation.  Then tie feathers to the thread that remains so that good Dreams will know the way to the Dreamer.  Bad dreams will be lost in the weaving.  There they perish by the first light of day.  They evaporate like drops of morning dew.  Hang this above where you sleep.  Even the little infants in the cradleboard should have one of these Dream Spirals to catch dreams.  As they see it before them they will know the wisdom of the Spiral and the Web of Life.  Then your people will always see the beauty that hides behind each moment and know the pathway that leads to the One."

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White Eagle Soaring: Dream Dancer of the 7th Fire

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© 2007, Allen Aslan Heart / White Eagle Soaring of the Little Shell Pembina Band, a Treaty Tribe of the Ojibwe Nation