We have a warm-up, finally: clear skies, bright sun, warmer winds . . . and mud. In town, very little snow remains on the ground, but here, it remains deep enough for Wings still to be plowing even as I write.
We are preparing for a hard winter, the kind we have not seen here for two or three years, at least. We know too well the extremes of which this land is capable — too well, too intimately, not to treat it with the utmost respect.
If only humanity had all this time been treating the world and its children with similar levels of respect.
In a colonial society, “respect” is a word much misused and abused. It is levied like a tax, lobbed like a missile, entirely for the purpose of enforcing colonial structures. Such a society oppresses and suppresses, then demands “respect” from those it silences, whether overtly or covertly. It norms everything on occupier and authoritarian notions of “respect” (and does the same with the currently fashionable watchwords, “empathy” and “compassion”), demanding that those in its genocidal sights genuflect to its position, to show deference and more. In the face of organized campaigns of extermination, we are to beg for scraps even as the dogs are set upon us.
That is not respect.
Our cultures know that respect is earned, by a lifetime of service to the community, by the wisdom that comes with age and experience, by the sacrifice that comes with a life lived with honor. We also know that even as it cannot be demanded, it must be given; to fail in this most essential virtue is to fail in the proper conduct of one’s own life.
In our way, respect is related to, but not synonymous with, honor; related to, but not synonymous with humility. All are inextricably intertwined; all are required of us. But in contemporary society, it perhaps requires both a commitment to the old ways and a degree of closeness to the natural world to understand the essentiality of all three.
Today, we highlight the first three entries in Wings’s newest series, The Respect Collection, a tribute to one of our most cardinal virtues and one of our greatest gifts of the spirits. All of the items in it embody a different aspect of how respect is modeled and manifest in our cultures. We begin with one the one shown above, one related to what is perhaps the most fundamental such expression: Prayer. From its description in (like all in this series) the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Eagle Feather Coil Bracelet
The eagle feather carries our prayers to spirit; as a gift, it is an honor conferred, a sign of respect for the person who has earned it. Wings calls its power into the spiraling hoop of this coil bracelet, one strung with gifts of the earth in the mottled earthy tones of Eagle’s own robes. At either end are the feather’s downy fringe, made of Hawai’ian puka shell in hue a shade off snow-white. Just above, the raptor’s characteristic mottling begins, expressed in the form of a length of doughnut-shaped rondels of variegated fossilized dinosaur bone. The bone flows into shades of black with round matte onyx, thence to more round beads of mottled black and white snowflake obsidian, fire and ice that flows into lengths of ovaled barrel beads of basaltic lava rock. At the center rest seven large faceted diamond-shaped barrel beads in smoky quartz, the color of a young eagle’s feathers and the shape of the Eye of Spirit itself. Note: Puka shell fringe beads are fragile; best worn for special occasions, not everyday wear. First in The Respect Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; Hawai’ian puka shell; fossilized dinosaur bone; onyx; snowflake obsidian; basaltic lava rock; smoky quartz
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Prayer as a sign of respect can be formal or informal, organized and public or as intensely private as the taking of a breath. For many of us, it’s impossible to separate prayer from life itself; we pray near-constantly as we go about our days, to the Creator, to the other spirits, to the animating and elemental forces and beings that inhabit the world surrounding us. Some are prayers of gratitude, some are requests for help, some are simple acknowledgment. All are ways of showing respect to the powers that direct and inhabit our cosmologies. The eagle feather is one tool used for such acts, such ways of living and being.
There are others.
Some expressions of respect are designed to show humility or identity or honor in other forms. The second entry in this collection is designed to embody their spirit, one imbued with a rainbow of colors and patterns that can and do change with context and purpose. From its description:
Blanket and Shawl Coil Bracelet
In our cultures, humbling oneself before the elders and the spirits by donning a blanket or a shawl, are signs of respect. Each plays its own role in our traditions and lifeways, whether as elaborately spangled and brilliantly-hued regalia for dancing or in modest and muted tones for solemn occasions and events. Wings captures their spectrum of shades and variation in this coil of color, a tribute to traditional expression and purpose. it begins at either end with big bold anchor nuggets of citrine, as though to capture the sun itself, then moves into the grassy green of peridot chops and the watery aqua of blue aventurine nuggets. Next come the deeper waters and the white-mottled blues of a sodalite sky, followed by a range of stormy sugilite purples, bold shades for men and women alike. The deep purples flow into a length delicate translucent amethyst nuggets, lighter and more subtle, thence to the pale dusky pinks of rhodochrosite, a color well-suited to the young. At the center sits a length of fiery translucent carnelian nuggets, the deep red of the local earth, of the blood that flows through our veins and the color we reclaim for our very selves. Second in The Respect Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; citrine; peridot; blue aventurine; sodalite; sugilite; amethyst; rhodochrosite, carnelian
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The third entry in this collection is manifest in the colors of this place, and the materials too: turquoise, coral, mother-of-pearl, heishi. All are items commonly used in another way in which respect is expressed in traditional terms — for spirits, and for the powers the hold. From its description:
Offering Bundle Coil Bracelet
In our way, to give an offering is to show respect: acknowledgment and gratitude and honor to those from whom we seek assistance, whether people or spirits. In some of our cultures, even the artistic and cultural embodiment of animal and other spirits may hold an offering bundle, a collection of feathers or gemstones or shells intended to show respect for their power and gratitude for the possibility of sharing it. Wings pays tribute to the value of its role with this small spiral of shell and traditional jewels, all in the traditional colors of such gifts. Anchored at either end by dark translucent olivella-shell heishi, it flows into bright pale blue turquoise nuggets, freeform and substantial. The Skystones give way to round, highly-polished orbs of mother-of-pearl shell, centered by a bold expanse of freeform nuggets of natural Mediterranean coral, flame-red and as old as time. Third in The Respect Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; olivella-shell heishi; blue turquoise; mother-of-pearl shell; Mediterranean coral
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Bundles are often found attached to figurative works, such as sculptures and fetishes. But offerings themselves are a way of life, as much as the donning of a blanket or the speaking of a prayer. We show respect for those from whom we would seek something — assistance, knowledge, expertise, material things. This is as true of the spirits as of our fellow humans. We show respect, too, by offering them in the form of tobacco or other traditional substances to those who, by virtue of age and wisdom, experience and service, have earned it.
And, as noted above, respect can be earned but not demanded. The giving of it, though? In our way, one might say it’s a commandment. It’s certainly as essential to our survival as it is to our ways of life. For in a life well lived, commanding respect is a logical, natural outcome.
The rest of the world could learn from it.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
