Our peoples’ traditions vary widely, sometimes within very small spaces geographically. Five hours’ drive southwest, and you come to a place where all mention of snakes is taboo; even the casino bars the wearing of snakeskin boots.
In places such as this, they are more closely connected with their water-dwelling cousin, and thus become avatars of prosperity and abundance. There are, of course, contexts where their presence is unwelcome — Rattler, particularly, is powerful enough to pose a danger to humans — but on a purely symbolic level, they are bringers of good fortune.
It’s why Wings includes Serpent as a foundational element of his signature series, the Warrior Woman — and why, on occasion, he creates a work devoted entirely to this complex being . . . wrought, of course, in his own distinctive signature style.
Today’s featured work is one such piece, the first one crafted in this particular style in more than a decade. It’s a uniquely eclectic piece, and a powerful one, too, one that embraces the wearer with an abundance of earth and light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
A Prospering World Serpent 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 and below.
Sterling silver; jade; tiger’s eye
$1,025 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In the old way, some of our peoples used rattlesnake rattles in ceremony and medicine, the original “rattles” that formed the very basis for which some societies were named. It was, perhaps, a means of honoring the being’s power, all while turning its venom, in symbolic terms at least, to useful purpose.
And, of course, the species of Snake are as diverse as the manifestations of Serpent: some good, some bad, some indifferent to human desire or intent; some as benign as the green of the earth, others robed in the powerful imagery of the Eye of Spirit.
In this season, when the verdant lushness of summer seems impossibly distant, when the light is low-angled and short of life, this spirit of the warmer winds reminds us that both will return, and sooner than we know. In this iteration, he carries upon his very back the abundance of earth and light, the riches of nature that give us the gift of a prospering world.
And it all comes together — and extends apart — in Wings’s inimitable signature design, one that turns the band itself into a coil of shimmering silver light.
It’s a reminder of the impermanence of season and time, of the elemental law of nature that all life is both cycle and circle, a spiraling temporal gift that changes constantly with the the turn of the earth and the angle of the sun.
It’s a lesson in simple arithmetic, of learning to calculate value in the gifts we are given, and the more esoteric teachings of value as appreciation. We are given abundance; it is up to us to recognize that as prosperity.
~ Aji
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