The air today is brutally cold: a dawn well below zero, a high that barely reached the freezing point. The wind doesn’t just bite; it slashes and burns, as well. A power outage only drove the cold deeper into my bones.
On a day such as this, it’s easy to feel as though one will never be warm again — indeed, as though the whole world will never be warm again.
It will, of course. One week into the new year, and the season is already flying by. Spring seems far off now, but it will be here before we know it, and the world will once again unfold, lush and awash in color, beneath a flowering sky.
On a day such as this, Wings’s latest entry in his signature series, the Warrior Woman, serves as a welcome reminder that warmth and light will be ours again, and so will the natural abundance that accompanies them both. From its description in the Pins Gallery here on the site:
Flowering Sky Warrior Woman Pin
The whole world blossoms beneath a flowering sky. With the latest addition to his signature Warrior Woman series, created to honor the power and strength of women, Wings captures the beauty and wonder of skies that open upon a fertile earth. Her traditional dress bears symbols of the winds and the sacred directions, opening like a pair of flowers, edged with feminine crescent moons, and held at top and bottom with hearts. In her left hand, she holds the moon itself, hand-stamped with flowers just opening to the light; in her right, a Skystone the color of a robin’s egg, traced with a delicate golden-brown matrix. Over her right shoulder coils a serpent summoned from sterling silver pattern wire in a floral design, a symbol of prosperity and abundance. Pin stands 2.75″ high at the highest point by 2″ across at the widest point; cabochon is 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; turquoise
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is one Warrior Woman whose symbolism is distinctly feminine, even beyond her essential identity. She holds evidence of fertility in her hands, moon and flower and sign of the rain, even as she wears the image of Grandmother Moon herself. Even the tribute to the sacred directions and the winds at their doors bears a flowery female aspect.
On a day such as this, when our whole world here lies cold and hard beneath a shimmering white blanket, when the sun blinds but fails to warm and the wind slices to the bone, she reminds me us that the cold is here only for a time. Soon enough, we will dance again beneath a flowering sky.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
