All the forecasting hype; not a single drop of rain.
By the time we went to bed last night, the “official” meteorologists had breathlessly changed their predictions to greater than 81% chance of rain and/or snow for the night hours.
We awakened to . . . nothing.
Oh, there is still plenty of cloud cover, a mix of fog and impending storm wrapped around the peaks and the southeast horizon. But the western skies are lightening fast and given the warming temperatures, even the mountains may still be bare once it lifts.
This land that has always felt like sanctuary seems stripped bare and vulnerable now.
But this land is also protected in ways that mere mortals can barely comprehend. This is a place held close in the space of the spirits, and although it may be wounded now by the depredations of colonial humanity, it will still outlive us all.
I wrote, these last two days, of the earth-bound spirits who make this place their home: the elk, spirits of season and place who belong to this land as surely as if they sprang from its dust, fully formed. Last night reminded us anew why they need sanctuary now: Late in the evening, there were reports of the highway heading north toward the Colorado line being closed in both directions at San Cristobal. Word this morning is that a herd of elk were crossing the highway, and predictably, a motorist was traveling too fast to stop or otherwise avoid hitting one of these magnificent beings. It’s a mountainous stretch of road where people drive far too fast at the best of times, engaging in dangerous and illegal passing maneuvers routinely. But it cuts through forest land, and signs are posted warning of elk herds, and locals should know by now that they will be abroad now. Of course, in the middle of a deadly pandemic, spiking badly in this state and in this area built around the local Indigenous community, no one who is not local should even be traveling these roads, but we all know that the colonizers don’t care in the slightest about our well-being or survival.
They don’t care about the survival of the land or its spirits, either, despite the loud and performative game they talk about “environmentalism” and their possessory language toward the mountain and the water.
But this is an ancient land, one that has already seen much more than all of humanity will ever know. And it will, by whatever means are required of it, stay its own refuge: a space for spirits of medicine.
Today’s featured work embodies this protected place of earth and sky. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
In the Space of the Spirits Cuff Bracelet
The storm dances and the First Medicine flows in the space of the spirits. Wings summons storm and rain and sacred space together into one wide shining band of hand-wrought sterling silver. Each edge of the band is hand-scored in a single deeply stamped line to create twinned borders. Within those edges, traditional thunderhead symbols point inward in a repeating pattern from either side, each one impossibly even, each throwing the negative space into sharp relief. Down the center, thunderhead symbols were initially stamped in a conjoined pattern, creating a motif of sacred space that points to all directions, then the silver within was excised, freehand, ajouré-fashion, to create an internal band of negative space that holds the mysteries of storm and spirit. At either terminal, a flowing water pattern sends the gift of the rain to its rounded, hand-smoothed ends. Cuff measures 6″ long by 1-3/16″ across (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This piece has been, from the moment of its creation, one of my personal favorites. It’s partly the old traditional style of it, partly the symbolism — and partly the freehand saw-work and the skill with which the piece was summoned into being.
It is a masterwork of traditional silversmithing techniques, but more than that, it’s a work infused and imbued with medicine, animated by the spirits of healing and harmony.
It’s also a piece of substance and solidity — weighty in what it represents, but not so heavy that it weighs down the wearer’s wrist. In that, it’s like our teachings, and like the gifts of the spirits themselves, a reminder of the obligations we carry, and of our power to carry them out, as well.
And Spirit knows that humanity needs such reminders now, an awareness of our responsibilities to future generations and to the Earth herself, and a renewed commitment to using every bit of our power for their healing and their well-being.
It will not be easy. We know that. We also know that it is made all the harder by the recalcitrant forces of colonialism, even now in a week ostensibly set aside to celebrate our peoples instead digging in their heels and ratcheting up their purposeful harm.
But as the spirits remind us, we are strong. And it is time to remake and rebuild our world, all of it, as a space for spirits of medicine.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
