None of the promised snow last night, but today, winter is back with a vengeance. Dawn saw a bright rising sun mingling with long bands of latent stormclouds, the kind that usually find themselves disintegrating around the edges of the horizon.
And then the winds came.
It’s been much more than a blustery day from around eight-thirty onward: wave after wave after wave of mini-blizzards, horizontal winds driving sleet and heavy flakes before them on their journey between and around and over the peaks. It’s a day for staying indoors by the fire, but circumstances dictate otherwise.
And here, it;’s the sort of day that drives home the reality that spring really is just around the corner.
In this place, snowstorms are nearly as much of a phenomenon of spring as of winter, and we understand winter as the mother not merely of the thaw, not merely of the spring, but of the entire year. She is, to my mind, a distinctly feminine spirit, although she wields immanent strength and power to equal or surpass any of her male peers. She is a too-long-unrecognized creation spirit herself, and the year that we enjoy apart from her chilly ministrations is itself evidence of a creator’s love.
I look outside the window at the snow veiling the peaks, and I see not death and dormancy but the seedlings of the year, ice crystals like tiny beads that sow a readiness in the earth. The winds confirm this: An annual rite of spring in this place, this is their vanguard, here to torment us with trickster-ish cold but also to remind us that their warmer cousins are on the march. We have seen the catkins already opening on the aspens behind the house — too soon, yes, but all the same, these are hardy beings, and they will survive and thrive.
As, we know, will we, despite the inconveniences of temperature and weather and wind.
Today’s featured work is one that melds winter with spring, sky with earth, the pure white of snow and sleet and ice with the lush green of the grass and trees. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Creation Spirit Necklace
The silver-spangled blue of the cosmos and the lush green velvet of a fertile earth are the tools of the Creation Spirit, the One who combines the dust of the universe and the breath of life to create a world living in the light. Wings summons the likeness of its force and being into a powerful necklace that hints at worlds of which we can only dream. The latest in his signature series, The Mona Lisa On the Rio Grande, this entry features the characteristic tablita headdress above a jeweled face that hints at mysteries beyond our comprehension. The tablita, cut freehand of hand-milled sterling silver in a repeating pattern of spangled lines, holds in its embrace a phenomenon of a jewel, a gigantic cabochon of stunning spiderwebbed variscite, most likely from Utah’s Snowville District, manifest in the midnight blues of the cosmos aswirl with brilliant earthy emerald greens to create an impression of hidden depths. The matrix is nearly pure ivory, with tiny points of copper light here and there throughout its bold and complex webbing. A small arcing space in the shape of a crescent moon separates the top of the stone, set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver, from the setting. On the reverse, the back of the bezel opens in the shape of a heart pointed downwards, toward the wearer’s own heart, allowing the blues and greens and matrices to touch the skin and catch the light, while a cluster of tiny butterflies dance around the tablita‘s edge. The pendant hangs from a lightly flared hand-made sterling silver bail, stamped from and back with vintage-style lodge symbols and a Morning Star at its apex; the entire piece is suspended from a brilliantly polished sterling silver chain. The pendant is 3″ long, including the bail, and 2-1/16″ wide; the bail itself is 5/8″ long by 5/8″ across at the widest point; the variscite cabochon is 1-3/4″ long by 1-1/4″ across at the widest point; chain is 20″ long (dimensions approximate). Other views, front and reverse, are shown above and below.
Sterling silver; deep midnight blue, emerald green, and ivory variscite (most likely from Utah’s Snowville District)
$1,800 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In this instance, the classic symbol of love is built right into the work itself: a heart, summoned from the bezel’s reverse to bring through the spirit of the stone.
It’s a powerful piece, one worthy of its name, but more to the point, of the spirit of the stone and silver of which it is wrought. And it holds the elemental gifts of seasons and earth alike, working together to create our world anew each year.
We understand creative and creator spirits differently from the way in which dominant-culture traditions envision them. In our way, there is no whiff of brimstone accompanying the gifts of life, no conversionary agenda or structural underpinning of punishment traveling in tandem with the miracles of birth and rebirth, no systemic setting up of humankind to fail.
In our way, a creator’s love is woven into the very warp and weft of our world.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
