Life is both noun and verb: a sacred hoop, and the journey around it. Sometimes, our path is less road than river, and we are carried along by the current; other times, it requires deliberate, often laborious effort just to move a step or two in the right direction.
And then there are the times that combine properties of both, when we move with deliberation, but with such joy that it seems as though we are carried along almost effortlessly by the power of Spirit’s blessings.
At such times, we are dancing around the hoop.
It is, to be sure, more often rare than ordinary. Life is work, and we were never promised that it would be anything less. But work holds its own rewards, and if we live our days as we have been given to do, with an effort to go well through life as the old ways prescribe it, that work is balanced with harmony and joy and cause for celebration.
Today’s featured work evokes these dynamics: elemental forces and a harmonious path brought together in one ancient and powerfully traditional pattern, a pattern paired into two earrings. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
From All Directions Earrings
Sometimes we need protection from the winds that seem to buffet us from all directions. Sometimes, great gifts and blessings arrive on those same winds. Wings captures the dichotomous nature of our journey around the hoop with these earrings, jet-black onyx and silver polished so highly it’s nearly white, that embody the power of the winds and the sacred directions: gifts simultaneously of wild unharnessed power and of shelter from the storm. The settings are representations of the Sacred Directions, those reaches of our world guarded by the winds, that here encompass both cardinal and ordinal points. Each is cut freehand from sterling silver, with the spoke at each cardinal point gently curved on the end to imply the arcing shape of the hoop and impart a sense of motion around it. At the center of each, the vortex: a large round onyx cabochon, like a pool of liquid jet, resting gently in a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver. Settings are 1.75″ high by 1.75″ across; cabochons are .75″ across (dimensions approximate). Earrings are a companion work to Dance of the Whirlwind Spirits, in the Necklaces Gallery.
Sterling silver; onyx
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Last Tuesday, I mentioned that some of our traditional dances require that one foot remain always in contact with Mother Earth, she upon whose surface we make our journey. Today’s work, centered as it is by the grounding power of onyx, underscores the importance of that contact: a grounding force at the center of the winds, supporting us on our path.
It is a connection that is essential to our survival, one that supports our lives as noun and verb, as thing and act. The forces of our world — Mother Earth, Father Sky, the Sacred Directions and the Winds that guard them — all give us their blessing, lend us their power to keep us dancing around the hoop.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
