For once this winter, it seems the forecast might be accurate: Snow appears to be on the way.
But this day dawned deceptively warm and bright, the air mild and spring-like, light gold and earth increasingly green. Gray-violet clouds have moved in since, and the rising wind is expected soon to reach dangerous speeds — the latter, in other words, its just playing its customary role in a normal spring day in this place. But for the moment, the sun still plays hide-and-seek with the clouds; the wind is icy but the air still warm in the intervals when the gale slows. The world is awash in color, and a momentary visitation, just minutes ago, by a swooping bald eagle has seemed to confer Spirit’s own blessing on the day.
And, of course, that is the case with each day, whether the details are to our convenience or not. One side effect of dancing too near Death, however briefly, is that in the aftermath, the whole world is beautiful. It’s a grounding experience, a reminder to focus on that which matters, to appreciate that which we are given.
And we are given much.
And perhaps that is the lesson: In the most difficult, unsettled days, we return to the center of all things.
It’s a good lesson for this day, certainly, with its extreme and capricious weather. It’s also one that suits today’s featured work perfectly. From its description in the Buckles Gallery here on the site:
The Center of All Things Concha Belt Buckle
In our own small plane of existence, from our own human perspective, our world is the center of all things. Indigenous cultures affirm this reality in our origin stories, in how we understand Turtle Island beneath the skies, amidst the winds, above the point of emergence. Wings pays tribute to this vision, one lived daily among his own people, in this complex concha belt buckle, a flowering shell-shaped disc of heavy sterling silver that blossoms into traditional symbols of the world as we know it. Celestial patterns, rising sun and setting moon and the light that flows between them, edge the scalloped buckle in concentric rings. Its repoussé center, lightly domed by hand, is chased in a loop of hundreds of individual arrow stamps tracking the motion of the spiraling winds. Ancient kiva steps symbols lead inward to the very center, heart and womb alike, where rests a large oval cabochon of emerald green turquoise with a golden brown matrix that looks for all the world like a map of Turtle Island. On the reverse, only Wings’s hallmark appears, in the embrace of another spiritual center: the Morning Star Lodge, a place of healing and medicine, guidance and power. The buckle stretches 3.75 inches across by 3-1/8 inches high; the stone is 1-3/16 inches across by 7/8″ high (dimensions approximate). Reverse shown below.
Sterling silver; Colorado Evans Mine turquoise
$1,800 + shipping, handling, and insurance
For some of our peoples, that center is a place of emergence, one as tangible as it is symbolic. For others, human origins lie in the sky, a place from which the First People were lowered to inhabit their own world. For still others, it’s not a physical or geographic space, but merely the place where Spirit dwells.
And in our way, of course, Spirit — or at least spirit — dwells within everything.
It’s why our ways our so thoroughly grounded, in literal terms: why our history, our ancestry, our traditions, our spirits are braided and bound inextricably with the earth, with the land and water and sky, the trees and plants and animals and birds and other beings with whom we share it. Modern scientists of the dominant culture love to talk about ecosystems and habitat balance, but that’s not new, either to our own scientists or to the rest of us. It’s why our ways continue to caution against greed: It’s not merely bad on its own terms, but it creates an environment out of harmony, resources out of the proper ratio, a world out of balance.
And so, when that which lies beyond our control threatens to tip our own lives upside-down, we return to the center to center ourselves — to the land, to the spirits, to Spirit.
And once in a while, we are rewarded with a gift . . . a visitation from Eagle, Spirit’s own messenger, swooping up to soar high our own small space of earth, that we may know that Spirit is with us in a world of beauty and balance.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
