We live, increasingly, in a Trickster world — and it is one of our own making. From the politics of encoded greed and punitive policy to a stewardship that is not merely nonexistent but openly regressive, humanity has built for itself a cosmos of pain and fear, one grounded in a cosmology of cruelty.
And we are already reaping the whirlwind.
The headlines are endlessly dark, full of suffering inflicted deliberately, the suffering of humanity and of the earth whence we came. Each day seems to arrive full of omens and portents, precious few that hint at better days but a veritable tidal wave of premonitions of disaster.
Meanwhile, Mother Earth trembles and weeps, shakes and burns, her spirit and her skin alike adulterated, contaminated, insulted and invaded.
We are past the tipping point; what remains to be seen is whether we can slow the slide, and perhaps even gain enough momentum to make the next small upward swing.
The Earth and her nearest children have their own ideas.
Storm and quake, wildfire and drought, all are messages, harbingers, warnings to us. Too long unheeded, they are now abandoning all pretense at alarm and simply arriving, to do their work as needed. Amidst the tumult, this is a time of Earth rising, and she will win in the end.
It’s a fitting metaphor for today’s featured work — and, indeed, for the day itself, one that began twenty degrees too warm and now breathes beneath a dark and clouded sky, a day too warm for this early little winter that is nonetheless forecast to end in precipitation to long denied and in a drop, tomorrow, into single digits. Mother Earth is rising, and she and her children will have their say. It’s a spirit, a sensibility and state of existence, caught by Wings in today’s piece. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Earth Rising Cuff Bracelet
It is a time of elemental change, Earth rising to link past and present and future in a sacred hoop of protection and survival. Wings links them in more tangible ways with this spectacularly complex cuff, one that fuses one of his very early pieces into a whole new work that honors elemental powers, sacred numbers, and ancient spirits. It begins with a solid sterling silver cuff, scored freehand into eight separate lines, the number of the cardinal and ordinal directions. At either end, a sterling silver overlay in the shape of Grandmother Turtle, she who holds the world on her back, climbs steadily upward. Each turtle is cut, freehand, with a tiny jeweler’s saw, articulated head, legs, and tail each stamped with traditional patterns to form scales and provide texture and dimensionality. Each turtle’s shell is gently scalloped with stampwork around the edge, a Morning Star stretched across the shell’s center. Wings brought old to new and melded them together at the top of the cuff with the addition of one of his very early pieces from his personal collection: a hat pin in the form of a medicine shield that doubles as a medicine wheel, cut freehand and centered by Buffalo’s skull, our Elder Brother of the Earth. The horizontal spokes of the medicine shield are sculpted and stamped in the shape of a ceremonial pipe, eagle feathers suspended at either end. The entire wheel is overlaid onto a backing of hand-hammered sterling silver. Cuff band is 7″ long by roughly 1-1/8″ across; turtle overlays are 1-1/4″ long by 15/16″ across at the widest point; buffalo medicine wheel overlay is 1-7/16″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver
$1,900 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It is no accident that, in our way, Grandmother Turtle is a symbol of Mother Earth herself. It is likewise no accident that Buffalo is a signifier of life itself, an elder brother with whom we share the earth, and one whose gifts to us are complete: food, shelter, clothing, weaponry, medicine, art, ceremony, with no part going unused. Among all of the Earth’s many children, they are two of the closest to her, and yet to us as well.
And so it is natural, obvious, even, that Wings should have brought them within the embrace of this work, given them their rightful places on the path and in the hoop. They are not Trickster spirits, none of them, but beings of fundamental, elemental power, an integral part of our cosmos. They are warriors, too, elders in the spirit movement that will save the Earth, with us or without us.
It is our duty now to learn from them, and to fight alongside them on behalf of our world.
~ 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.
