Dreams shattered, not lost,

shiny fragments,

the fringe of a soul

hold my hope.

Many indigenous First Nations and Inuit cultures throughout Canada and the USA believe that dreamcatchers are a link between physical and spiritual worlds. Dating back to prehistoric times, the myth surrounding dreamcatchers tells of a spiritual guide who takes the form of a spider spinning a web as he reveals sacred teachings of the human cycle of life to an enlightened elder. It is told that the parable and the web are completed in unison and gifted to the elder as protection from good and bad energies.

Dreamcatchers are positioned where the sun rises so that the light of day destroy the bad dreams which lodged in the threads of the web.

When placed above the head of a sleeper, good dreams pass through the opening at the centre of the web and filter down through the feather(s) hanging from the dreamcatcher, and into the dreaming minds. Bad dreams are caught in the threads of the web.

But what of good dreams that have been shattered?

Terry Atchison is a Glass Artist who works from her home studio in Fenelon Falls, Ontario.