Dear Allen,

Today's the day you said you were closing on your house. I hope it is going well. Without "knowing" I knew that something was very disruptive in your world. Something strange was going on. As I'd reach out to you telepathically for dreamcatcher making "advice" while I was weaving complicated patterns, I'd feel that you were going through the "spiritual washing machine", and there was an interference pattern disrupting your energy. Maybe this will clear today.

Thank you for the hoops. I'm going to be doing a dreamcatcher for a 12 yr. old who has designed three nested hoops with LED lights... to represent Christmas lights. My daughter (8 yrs. old) cut the 24 inch hoop but it is too fragile to support LED lights and wire, but now that you sent me your hoops I see the right size and we can weave the two together. Good symbolism for this kind of weaving together the "Elders" and the new generation of enlightened beings that are coming in. Perfect for his outer hoop.

I'll tell you one thing about these new kids. They approach life inside-out instead of outside-in, like our generation, and it is very clearly reflected in their dreamcatchers. They already understand "the Secret", and they're using their dreamcatchers as a tool to energize what they want to experience... like selecting what they want on the menu, and knowing that they're the chef in the kitchen all at the same time. Doing the dreamcatcher work is very satisfying as a way to learn about this.

You asked about what I do with my dreamcatchers... and the best way to explain it is in a story.

When I was working in Silicon Valley as an engineer, my manager turned out to be of Cherokee of Black ancestry. Because of his black skin, he was passed over in the 30's when the Cherokee kids (that weren't living on reservations) were being rounded up and sent to Reservation schools. So, he was able to learn from his grandmother without interference. The Spirit of the black people was already broken (or thought to be), so there wasn't any concern about him being able to speak Cherokee in the black school he attended because of segregation. He kept quiet about it anyway, and there was no issue.

His grandmother was of the basketweaver clan, of women. Because Cherokee didn't have a written language, or there was a limited one, but the women didn't learn it, sacred ideas were communicated via numbers. When a baby was born, the mother was given a basket for the baby that reflected the baby's birth numbers. Those were derived from day that the baby was born, based on whatever calendar was being used by the society. They've now traced this practice to the Mayans, but it has evolved away from Guatemala quite a bit through use in the nomadic and more practical Cherokee society. When the basket was made, the numbers for the baby were woven in, and anyone who could "read" the basket could know everything there is to know about this incoming soul.

The numbers provide insight into Purpose, Inner Life, External Expression and Spirit patterns. 4 bodies, and 4 directions. They give insight into a person's "Natural Style".

Anyway, when he lived with his grandmother, he was fascinated by the numbers, but was uninterested in learning how to weave baskets (but he loved building model airplanes), and he would use the numerology that he learned from his grandmother in his hobby. Once you learn the basic pattern, you can see how it can be applied everywhere.

In the 50's he had earned an engineering/physics degree (at night because of his black skin), before equal rights. Then he worked as a manager at one of the largest IT firms and eventually where I was working. He had also studied quantum mechanics and discovered the same patterns as his Cherokee grandmother taught him. So, as a very curious employee, he saw potential in me to gradually teach me the number system, and quantum mechanics, and I was his student over 17 years. He saw himself as a wisdom keeper of this knowledge and he's passing it along to me to keep it. And you keep wisdom by using it, evolving it, or it starts to destroy you, as this woman Kay will be finding out as she tries to run a stolen business. The Spirit as moved on, and the shell is all that is left. Unsustainable. Wisdom is to be shared as Spirit shows who, what, where, why, how... not hoarded and used for personal gain at the expense of the rest of Creation. Like Bob Dylan said, "that which isn't growing is dying." Can't grow if it is disconnected from the Source. Can't be connected if used for personal gain at the expense of Creation!!!

Back to the story... so thinking that building model airplanes using the Cherokee numbers to represent patterns of sacred geometry wasn't my cup of tea, my new friend and I worked out how dreamcatchers could be used in a very similar way to his grandmother's baskets. In fact, "treasures" could be woven into them, and they could be hung in the window with the direction that needs support, and catch the Sun and Moon rays. Because Westerners are used to them, and they understand "Dreaming" somewhat, they can be dreamweavings ... or a sacred object that represents "being that which doesn't need fixing", or another way to say it, "being who you were born to be", and letting all else fall away and not "stick" to you. Sort of like teflon (and I use teflon-coated wire in some of my catchers to really emphasize this for some of my clients).

Because the energy of the material is very important in my work, I use many different kinds of materials, but there has to be the "basics" of sinew (for the buffalo... for flesh & bone), willow (for strong but flexible support structures in your life). The Dream-within-a-dream pattern is perfect because it matches the Cherokee basket with the inside of the basket and the outside of the basket. Inside represents "inner life", outside represents "external expression" and Purpose provides the support or structure. So, in the case of dreamcatchers, the inner hoop represents "inner life", what's hung on the outer hoop represents "external expression"... and includes the teachers attached to the top, and students, or careers, or relationships attached to the bottom. Between the inner and outer hoop is the Purpose weave, and that represents what the soul is here to learn, what Spirit patterns that they are bringing in.

I don't take pictures of the dreamcatchers I make because they are sacred, unless the person wants people who they don't know to have access to their dreams. These are private, and are hung in bedrooms, intimate places. Seeing someone's dreams can give you access to them and that access isn't to be unprotected. I also discourage people from having others in their lives touch their "catchers". They don't want to "wear" other people's energy, unless it is agreed that this catcher is all about weaving together dreams, or dreaming together (like coming together for a business, wedding, or mother/child catcher). In this case, the Catcher is representing a group energy, and isn't person, but I would still discourage "outsiders" from energetically having access. Don't hang it in the front lobby, unless you want the catcher to serve that purpose... to energize and attract or repel people who can or cannot join your group dreaming. If it is to define who you are as a group, keep it in the manager's office or the private conference room!

Having hoops and sinew with your energy has helped me a great deal with being able to do this work. It seems that I collect materials with energy already on them, and then I combine and assemble those materials to reflect a person's pattern. For example, I did a Catcher last month for a man who runs an alternative energy consulting firm. I kept seeing a lake with "the maximum" number of mountains around it, which would be 12 for a 12 Purpose. There is a large ball of light on top of each mountain (aka the stories of Great Spirit on the top of the mountains) that is reflected in the mountain lake. So I took teflon-coated 20 gauge electrical wire, and lead Crystals to make the mountains, with a 12 ohm resistor in each mountain (to represent the resistance to overcome to get to the Crystal), and then wavy jewelry wire to make the lake at the center/bottom of the mountain range. In the "lake" I put smaller crystals to represent the reflection. In the inner hoop, I used fire crystals and moonstones to represent "fire melting the ice", and in his business he is coming up with alternative ways to heat ourselves, melting the old paradigms. Then out of the center, I did it the way you do it with the spider coming out of the center into the outer expression space (expressing from the core). On the string, I strung 8 sets of beads to represents the 8 chakras, because this man does a lot of yoga, this made alot of sense to him. And at the very bottom, I put a key to a grandfather clock that I got at an antique clock store. He holds a key to Divine Timing in this energy consulting work he does. I used your hoops for this project, because no other energy could "hold" an intent like his.

Yesterday I delivered a Catcher to a woman who is an astrologer, and in her Purpose weave, I created many "spaces" that I filled with "stars" to represent constellations. I had her go on a "Vision Quest" style exercise to set the energy of the stars (189... for 13x13)... she has 13 for her Spirit number, and 2's that reflect for her Purpose and External Expression. Her husband and son made the hoops for this project. And it is her energy pattern to fill the empty spaces in life with beauty and magic and "stars", like the elven scenes in the Lord of the Rings. When she isn't running her energy that way, she gets very disoriented, and she has trouble figuring out what her purpose is in life. We hope that the Catcher will help her honor her "star filling" tendency and figure out an expression for it instead of having others define her and then rebelling because those roles don't fit her.

And, then there's the boy with the Christmas lights that I started this story with... these kids really enjoy the freedom of materials in their Catchers to reflect their "putting it all together", unlimited thinking. Something of the elders, something of the young girl, perfect for him.

My last example is a Catcher I'm working on right now. For the core (inner hoop) I wove a pattern that represents a sand dollar. The woman I'm doing this for is going to Thailand, and she is going to bring back 13 charms to put into the empty spaces in her purpose weave (also 13). Each charm is to have the energy of that space... 1--2--3. etc. in whatever style is meaningful to her. But, she's to find these charms like you would a sand dollar on the beach. For the materials, I used elastic and silk for the sand dollar because her inner life is very flexible and "stretchy", but also exquisite like silk. I also have a few beads that represent "planting seeds" which she does and honors. In the "space between" the inner and outer hoops, the Purpose weave, I'm using gold wrapped pearl stringing thread, and your sinew... The thread creates a 13 pointed star pattern, and the sinew weaves the spaces between the star and the hoop creating something that looks like a flower. It is in the empty spaces that she's going to put her charms that she collects on this trip. And her external expression is very "owl" so I'm going to find some artificial owl feathers because it is perfect to represent her living a "wild" pattern in her very domesticated chiropractic-office life where she deals with doctors, patients and insurance companies all day long. She's figured out how to "wear the energy" in a "caged" environment. Very interesting woman!

Again, thank you for sending me the materials, and know that they will be used and appreciated by many. Also, I would very much love to be doing this as part of your website, if there is a way I could do it in authenticity (I'm the opposite of Kay!!!). For example, I couldn't "take pictures" of Catchers I make for people, and I don't know if I could "fake it" just to provide an example. I suppose ones for businesses that are already public could be photographed, but I would want the Catcher to draw energy to that business and not disrupt it by being a marketing piece to promote my work. I also do numerology readings, and how the numerology works is something I could explain and post... and perhaps stories like the above without showing the Catcher.