Sometimes, Wings creates a piece so simple, so perfect, that it calls for undivided attention.
Today’s is one such piece.
It’s Wings’s latest, finished over the weekend. Bail and bezel, custom-made by hand, specifically for this stone. Old gemstone “doughnut” beads, drilled and strung on sterling silver chain, the better to hang together and hold the findings — old beads, representing earth and water and sky, all joined together in a single continuous strand.
And the stone itself . . . .
It’s a type of stone called staurolite. If you’ve never seen one, it’s a pretty amazing phenomenon. The name comes from a Greek word, “stauros.” despite what you might think, it doesn’t mean “star,” although the stone has distinctive star-like qualities. It means “cross,” and it’s apt. The stones are bits of metamorphic rock that, under intense geological heat and pressure, crystallize into iconic “twinned” forms, often perpendicular to each other, creating the shape of a cross.
Or, in our traditions, a symbol of the Four Sacred Directions.
STAUROLITE
As noted above, the etymology of the name is Greek: stauros, or cross; and -ite, resembling, or of the group [here, a group named “crosses”].
Most often, the base rock in which staurolites form is aluminum iron silicate, with magnesium often present, as well. Occasionally, lithium and/or zinc may be found. It’s a metamorphic rock, and is often found in other metamorphic host rock, such as schist, a flat-grained rock that tends to occur in a sheet-like pattern called “foliation” (think mica, which occurs naturally here), or gneiss, a formerly sedimentary or igneous rock metamorphosed into a sheet-like structure that appears in the rock as alternating bands. it also often occurs along with almandine garnet, one of several types of garnet we covered last weekend.
Metamorphic rock, of course, is one of the three major forms of rock, and its nature is transformative: Each ultimately began its existence as sedimentary or igneous rock (although metamorphic rock can further “morph” into other forms of metamorphic rock). Subjected by natural forces to extreme heat (ranging from 150 to 200 degrees Celsius) and extreme pressure (at least 1,500 “bars“), the structure of the rock itself is altered, changed into a new form.
In some cases, the heat and force that come to bear upon a particular section of rock are so concentrated that they produce what are known as penetrative twins: solidified crystalline bars that bisect each other to form the shape of a cross. Sometimes the cross pattern appears embedded wholly in the host rock, giving it a veneer-like look, a bit like the patterning on a sand dollar. Often, the crosses are fully formed, either extruding from the host rock or pushed out of it entirely. These crosses may develop at somewhat oblique angles, but very often, they appear in perfectly perpendicular form, like the one shown above.
Because of its mysteriously, seemingly magical origins, staurolite has long been held by cultures and traditions the world over to have equally magical properties and healing powers. In some European traditions, they are known as “faerie crosses” (fairy crosses) or “faerie stones” (fairy stones). Patrick County, Virginia, hosts Fairy Stone State Park, named for the staurolites that occur naturally in that area. It’s a planetary phenomenon: Staurolites are found in parts of Europe, including France, Portugal, Switzerland, and Russia; in parts of Australia; in Madagascar; in Brazil; and in the U.S., in Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, and one other state. That state is New Mexico, and they have been found only in one very limited area: in the greater environs of what were once Taos Pueblo lands, long since appropriated and now renamed the Hondo Canyon area. Here, the natural twinned form shown above occurs regularly, but so does a much rarer form, known in mineralogical terms as a sixling: crystals that occur in a repeated “twinning” pattern around an axis, creating six separate axes or three “twins.”
Contemporary New Age practices have adopted staurolite symbology from European Pagan traditions, claiming “elemental energies” as properties of the stone. Allegedly, it was also a talisman carried and worn by those participating in the Crusades, as an exemplar of the Cross, with a capital “C,” for which they supposedly fought (and invaded, and colonized, and raped and tortured and slaughtered). Some indigenous peoples no doubt have particular symbolic uses and associations related to the stone, but any such associations are unlikely to be for the consumption of outsiders. Today, many people, Indians included, use them for more prosaic purposes: wearing them in the form of jewelry, simply as beautiful natural adornment; or perhaps carrying one for good luck of a sort, in appreciation of the complex and serendipitous properties and processes necessary to form the stone as if by magic.
In Wings’s work, as always, it’s an homage to the natural world from which it arises. It’s also a way to honor some of the traditional ways and worldviews of many of our peoples. In many of our traditions, the number four plays a significant role, although it varies widely from culture to culture: four directions; four elements; four seasons; four stages of life. It’s a number and pattern that recurs throughout daily life by way of the natural world, and it recurs in microcosm in numerous ways. We see its expression in art in medicine wheels and shields; in spiritual practice, in the invocation of blessings and thanksgiving, and in the substances used for offering prayers. In Wings’s hands, it becomes more than simple adornment: It’s a grounding, a way to stay connected to and mindful of elemental powers and forces, and a reminder to be thankful for all that their very existence provides us.
BEADS: EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER
A pendant like this, staurolite in sterling silver, should hang from something more than a plain silver chain. Whether Wings intended it from the beginning, or it developed naturally, who can say? Wings always says that Spirit guides his hands while he’s working, and perhaps it was always supposed to turn out this way. But the strand of multivariate beads ties it all together in a way that cannot be missed.
The beads are a combination of types. The largest portion of the strand comprises azurite and malachite, each in the same bead; they sometimes occur naturally together (and sometimes wholly on their own). Azurite is a carbonate copper mineral, one that occurs naturally as deposits of copper ore weather over time. It ranges in color from a very light blue to deepest cobalt or indigo, often in the same stone. Any matrix usually appears whitish or pale gray. Similarly, malachite is another carbonate copper mineral, and one that occurs in the same manner. Instead of blue, it manifests in a brilliant green color, often with fine banding patterns in white, gray, or lighter green, giving it an agate-y appearance. Because they arise from the same source, both are often found together in the same veins and host rock, and are cut into cabochons and beads that feature both int he same stone. Because of their respective colors, some newer traditions regard azurite as a stone representing the elemental powers and characteristics of water, while malachite represents the earth that sustains the grass and plant life. The two combined are thought to bring together two elemental forces in an especially powerful (and brilliantly beautiful) way.
The secondary part of the strand on either side is Skystone: in this case, old natural chocolate-matrix Royston turquoise, green in hue with dark brown coppery-colored inclusions. We’ve covered turquoise and its various colors and matrices in general already. Despite their greenish cast, the turquoise beads remains firmly Skystone, dwelling in the air. The dark copper matrix hints at earth, yes, but also fire, and at millennia of powerful forces of heat and pressure that produce adaptive change and existential stability.
Scattered throughout the turquoise beads and terminating the strand are copper-colored trade-style beads, a touch of fire added to earth and water and sky. Not actual copper, they stand in for a final piece of the overall picture, that added by man himself, as he takes the gifts of the elements and learns to use them to create new forms of beauty.
From the piece’s description here on the site:
The forces of Nature are all around us, within us ready to share their power. Sometimes, though, we need a reminder. Keep that knowledge close to your heart with this staurolite pendant, formed naturally and given up by the local earth, now resting gently in a sterling silver bezel custom-made to hold this particular stone. The hand-made bail hangs from a 19″ strand of beads evoking elements of wanter and earth, air and fire: azurite and malachite; chocolate-matrix green Royston turquoise; and copper-colored trade-style beads, all hand-strung over sterling silver chain. The back of the bezel is hand-stamped with arrows placed at The Four Sacred Directions, all pointing inward toward a central sun symbol.
Sterling silver; staurolite; azurite and malachite beads; Royston turquoise beads; trade-style beads
$825 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a powerful piece, one that evokes and invokes powers beyond our abilities, outside our control, but ones that, harnessed with humility and respect, are also gifts of Spirit.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
