There are stories in the stars.
Our whole world is filled with them — more, in our way, it is the stories that make our world. The very elements that animate our cosmos are themselves wholly animate spirits, beings who create themselves with their own stories: stars, sea, soil, sky.
These spirits have lent their stories, their very identities, to our arts — substance, sign, and symbol.
Today’s featured work is an example of this dynamic, an old traditional style wrought in elemental form. It is a story of the stars, told by spirits of the sea.
I’ve written about the stars many times, and especially about that star which speaks most insistently to Wings himself, the Morning Star:
Perhaps the most popular is the Morning Star, that bright orb that appears to grow in size and visibility in those indigo hours just before the dawn, then slowly fade into the background of the daylit sky. For some, the Morning Star is associated with the East, a clear link to the dawn (as in the piece shown above, a dawn spirit with a face in pale rose, a headdress accented with a waning moon and an arc of Morning Stars). For others, her location in the sky is more nebulous: It is her power that matters, not her physical place. In some cultures, she is a decidedly female spirit, although the gender no doubt differs in others, while some probably ascribed no gender to this being in any way. Some of the powers and gifts that are associated with the Morning Star include, perhaps first and foremost, guidance; related to guidance, wisdom; linked to its time of appearance, rebirth and renewal and the blessings of a new day. Generally speaking, the Morning Star is expressed symbolically by means of four equidistant spokes stretching to the cardinal directions. The spokes may extend from a central orb, or may simply meet in the middle; their own form varies, as well, ranging from plain slender lines to vaguely diamond-shaped patterns that may be wide or narrow, but that are identical to each other in size and shape.
The stars hold a place in the cosmologies of our peoples; it is, perhaps, as universal as the fact that we all live beneath the same skies in which they dwell.
What is less obvious is that the seas should offer up stories and spirits in a place such as this, a dray and arid desert land thousands of feet above sea level. But shells have always played an integral role in the arts, and, indeed, in other cultural traditions, of the peoples of this place.
I’ve written previously about the role shells play in our cultures, and their indigenous presence here — yes, here, in the high desert:
Shells of all sorts have been used by our peoples since the dawn of time: as adornment; as art; as units of trade; as a means of recording history and transmitting messages; as forms of medicine and spiritual aid; for my own people, as an object of prophecy and navigational guide. Whereas heishi is a traditional medium for jewelry in this part of Indian Country, to points North And East, the shells of the cowrie and the whelk hold pride of place. What our Algonquin peoples call wampum comes from the whelk; the cowrie plays numerous roles, sacred ones among them.
Cowrie shells were common in the lands of my childhood. Unlike many snail shells, they do not manifest in the spiral shape we associate with the more common garden and sea snails whose shells mimic their endangered cousin, the nautilus, except, of course, for the tiny coiled effect at the end cone. They do, however, appear in a stunning array of colors and patterns within a spectrum that runs from white to deepest brown, spots and lines and spiraling bands across the shell’s surface. And when my own family migrated to this desert land years ago, I found them here, as well.
People don’t think of the desert Southwest as a place where seashells occur naturally, but it is. There are reasons that the peoples of this place have always traditionally used coral and heishi that have nothing to do with trade: After all, in the time before time, this entire land was covered with water — our canyons and hoodoos are Nature’s own art, sculptures effected by the flow of water over time on an epic (and epochal) scale. South of here, in the Guadalupe Mountains near New Mexico’s borders with Texas and Mexico, there is an enormous fossilized reef in the middle of the desert: a shell mound of truly ancient vintage, memorialized now in the desert sand and rock. There are other such formations stretching westward across the state. While today most shell used in art and adornment is acquired via modern forms of trade, in the old days, these once-living jewels could be extracted from the earth of this land itself.
In more recent centuries, the very spirit of the shell in archetypal form has assumed a role of great breadth and depth. Five hundred years ago, invaders bestowed upon it a Spanish name, one that has since endured as proper name, object of art, and article of traditional dress.
That name is concha, and it means, quite simply, shell — and, oh, the stories it has to tell.
In today’s work, one of Wings’s newest pairs of earrings, it tells a story of the stars. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
StarShells Earrings
Wings has reconceived an old traditional style in a way that links earth and water and sky: conchas (shells) adorned by their own shell accents. Two oval medallions in the shape of old-fashioned conchas form the body of the earrings. Hand-stamped traditional symbols arc across the top of each to form a sunrise, at the center of which rests an Eye of Spirit, symbol of wisdom and guidance, visions and dreams. Beneath the Eye sits a square garnet cabochon, the deep red of early dawn, seated above a Morning Star on its descent beneath the dawn sky. The celestial symbols cascade toward the lower arc of the earrings, the tip of which are hand-cut, ajouré-fashion, and hand-stamped to form tiny shells held within the body of the earring, opening onto the new day. Wires are made by hand with ingot tips stamped in a blossoming flower pattern, inserted through a tiny hole in the top of each earring. Earrings hand 1-5/8″ long (excluding wires) by 1-3/16″ across at the widest point; garnet cabochons are .25″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; garnet
$445 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Stories change with the telling: something as simple as an inflection, a stress on another syllable, a word twisted to give it a double meaning; with the teller, and with time. But the most elemental stories, the ones that hold the most essential truths and the truest spirits, are the ones whose message withstands such forces, remaining fundamentally unchanged.
Today’s featured work is a perfect example of this dynamic, an ancient shape and style given new form, yet true to the essence of its story and spirit.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
