Late morning, and at last the sun is breaking through the clouds intermittently. It has still not managed to file the edge off the chill wind, though; winter is determined not to loose its grip entirely yet.
Despite the cold, the grass is green and lush; new leaves stud the stalks of the raspberry bushes, and among the trees, only a few branches remain bare. In the upswing of a cycle that has flipped from deadly drought to more usual precipitation patterns in the space of a few months, the pollen count is rioting and threatening to swamp us all.
And so, while we cannot properly be said to have warmth on this first day of what the colonial calendar calls “May,” we at least have signs of an earth already flourishing, harbingers of a year of abundance to come.
One of those harbingers has not yet shown itself, but Serpent’s arrival cannot be far off now. And in Wings’s most recent iteration of his kind (as a solitary spirit, not joined to another, as occurs with his Warrior Woman series), he embodies the blessings of a rich and fertile earth aflower in the warmth of an illuminating light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
A Prospering World Cuff Bracelet
The spirits honor hard work and a life well lived in the old way by answering prayers for a prospering world. Wings evokes one of these spirits of prosperity in silver and stone by way of his own signature style: a hand-split cuff in the cold shape of Serpent, he who bears good fortune. This version of the snake is the same one who lends his talents to Medicine, a rattler bearing jewels of the earth in rich fertile colors. The band is formed of a single piece of sterling silver, hand-split so that head and tail extend in opposite directions to coil around the wrist. Small hand-stamped points form his eyes; tiny hoops, his snout and heavily layered rattle; lodge symbols adorn the two intermediate ends of the uniquely-styled band. He is that fierce member of his clan, the diamondback, with tiny hand-stamped versions of the pattern alternating between the gemstones he bears along his back, ten small round bezel-set cabochons of jade and tiger’s eye. Band is 6″ long by 7/16″ across; cabochons are 5/16″ across (dimensions approximate); the band has significant flexibility, but is designed for a smaller wrist (6.5″ or less). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; jade; tiger’s eye
$1,025 + shipping, handling, and insurance
How our peoples perceive Serpent, or Snake, varies widely, sometimes within short geographic distances. It even varies within our own cultures, with context determining value. Among Apache peoples, snakes are entirely taboo; here, they are seen as relatives of the Water Serpent, and thus capable of much good even as they are widely understood as creatures to be avoided in ordinary circumstances.
Among my own people, the very name for our medicine society derives from the rattles of the snake, used in ceremony and healing.
It’s an approach to the world that, unlike colonial cultures, our indigenous cultures tend to do well: nuance and context. Because we understand our relationship to the earth as one not of dominion, but rather, a healthy and harmonious form of symbiosis, we also understand that that which colonial society tends to sort into binaries of good and bad are often both or neither. That dominant culture assigns value in terms of monetary wealth and profit, while we assign value in terms of power, spirit, and simple being. Power is; it needs neither justification nor immanent value; those emerge in how power is harnessed, wielded, used. And so a being that can be utterly deadly to humans can also be understood as one capable of bestowing great gifts.
In Wings’s hands, such nuance infuses all of his works, but this one is perhaps a better exemplar of it than most. It’s a piece that summons the spirits of this season, especially: the silver arc of the light, carrying upon it a lush and greening world upon a the shimmering richness of the native (and Native) earth. It’s crafted in his own unique signature style, a piece that splits and coils simultaneously to embrace the wearer with its gifts.
And it does so by assuming the form of a powerful seasonal spirit, one of a rattling earth and spiraling waters, inducing our world to grow in harmony and prosperity.
~ 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.
