The snow has already begun to fall on the peaks.
There’s none falling here at the moment, although we had a fleeting slushy mix in the dark hours of the morning, just enough to turn surfaces to ice. But if current patterns are indicative, we will be blessed with at least a dusting before the day is out.
It’s an answer to a seemingly constant prayer now — precipitation, however it may choose to come, in a time of record drought. And even when those answers arrive in small and insubstantial form, we know the importance of being grateful.
Such a worldview only underscores why prayer is a way of life for us — a practice, yes, but it goes deeper than that. It’s a part not merely of what we do but of who we are. It’s an acknowledgment of humility in the face of powers greater than our own, an acceptance of our place and role in our cosmologies and cosmos, an enactment of the teachings handed down to us and an expression of what they represent. It’s a practice of gratitude, and of offerings, to the spirits of the deep and distant dark, our words and songs in prayer rising on the smoke.
It’s a practice manifest in the form and shape and spirit of today’s featured work. From its description in the Rings Gallery here on the site:
Rising On the Smoke Spiral Ring
The Water Bird joins with our prayers in a transformative essence rising on the smoke of ceremony. With this new spiral ring, Wings summons these spirits of transfiguration to reenact these ancient steps in spare and beautiful form. First is the coiling spiral of the band, Water Serpent scaled with the image of the Spirit Bird who shares part of his name. His body is formed of heavy sterling silver half-round wire wrapped double on the bottom, single at the center of the top, with each end terminating in a fantastic cabochon of faceted rainbow moonstone, a pair of night orbs that refract cobalt blue in the light. The paired Water Birds stamped freehand down the entire coil’s convex surface are joined on its inner flat surface by two more motifs of metamorphosis and medicine: on one end, flowing-water symbols repeated down half its length; on the other, those transmogrifying messenger spirits we call Butterfly. Ring as currently shown is a size 13. The individual strand that forms the band is 3/16 across; doubled in parallel, the paired strands jointly measure 1/2″ across; the faceted rainbow moonstone cabochons are 7/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Sizeable. Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$775 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The spiral shape of this work is so spare, so elegantly simple, and yet so powerful. It reminds us of the infinite nature of the cosmos, of the eternal nature of existence — of simple being, no true beginning and no end, but an everlasting cycle of the path around the hoop.
It’s a way of understanding path and journey both, one that echoes the nature of the path and the journey of this planet that we call home: revolution, orbit, always in motion and always precisely where it needs to be.
This our place, on this spinning orb, floating in and among an infinite spiral of cosmic spirits. Our world may be wounded now, but it is ours, and our responsibility to heal it, too.
Ad so we offer prayers: for the rain, for the snow, for the power and medicine of healing. Sometimes our prayers are granted by the spirits of this endless universe.
Today appears to be a day when we shall be granted such a gift, and it is time for prayer and offerings: to sun and moon and stars, to an infinite spiral of cosmic spirits, to the Creator of cosmos, world, our very being, and all those who hold us safe in its embrace.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
