It’s a week of markers here, remembrances of various sorts. The fact that the work week began with what the dominant culture calls “Presidents’ Day” necessarily puts us in mind of the ancestors, our real founding fathers (and mothers), as well as the spirit beings of a less ancestral sort who have been here with us since the time before time.
It’s also a week in which such markers are more personal to us individually. These are difficult days for memories, ones tinged now with an abiding sense of loss.
One thing our traditions afford us, however, is the ability to meet, once again, the spirits of those who have walked on — both loved ones in our immediate circles of family, and the spirits of the Ancient Ones, those who live on in our histories, and some of whom have moved on to assume other roles in the world beyond this one.
Those in the last category are a part of a larger group, some of whom once walked the earth as humans, others who were here as other beings even before the emergence of the First People. In this part of Indian Country, people call them katsinam, or kachinas. They are a part of life in this place, as much as the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, the earth upon which we walk.
On days such as this, when these spirits loom large in our thoughts, there is only one possible to feature here: Wings’s own tribute to the katsinam. This small but powerful being put in a brief appearance in yesterday’s post, emerging as he does, in part, from a gift of another, more fraternal spirit indigenous to this place.
From his description in the Collectibles Gallery here on the site:
Kachina Mixed-Media Figure
He is an elder among elders, a dancer, a long-haired spirit being. This figurative piece combines multiple natural elements with an inspiriting sense of motion to create a single dynamic, unifying form. Head and upper body are hand-crafted of sterling silver bearing images of power: His head bears the forces of the sacred directions; his body, elemental forces meeting in the sacred space. His lower body is a single very old piece of deer antler that diverges naturally into the two prongs that form his dancing legs. His traditional long hair is made of genuine horse hair, restored to him in the spirit world now full and dark. Like his namesakes in the spirit world, he wears an “eagle” feather at the back of his head (in this case, produced by one of our Barred Rock chickens and carried by the winds directly into Wings’s hands), accented by the brilliant blue and orange macaw feather used traditionally here. Both feathers and a rainbow-hued strand of old-style beads hang from the crown of his headdress, an old copper tube bead; he stands atop a cedar wood base. Entire piece stands 9.5″ high; figure alone, 5″ high excluding feather and base; feather adds another 3.5″ in height; base stands 2″ high by 3-3/8″ wide by 2-1/8″ deep (all dimensions approximate). Close-up and back view shown at the link.
Sterling silver; copper; feathers; old trade beads; horse hair; deer antler; cedar
$2,200 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Fragility requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
He is a familiar and a familial spirit, even if he is not a being that was once a flesh-and-blood human: In his current incarnation, he draws life from other beings of this place, identity and power instilled in his current form through the skill and talent, inspiration and inspiriting, channeled through Wings’s hands. To us, he represents the ancestors, those upon his shoulders and sacrifices we stand, those whose lives made our own existences possible.
In tangible terms, this spirit being dances atop a small square wooden block . . . but we know that he, like all of those he personifies, actually dances in a circle, an endless joining and rejoining of life’s sacred 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.
