This month, Bear has occupied this space: as a powerful shifting spirit; as a protective mother and family too; as a medicine being. All are facets of this great creature who occupies a visible space in our worldview mostly in autumn, preparatory to the long sleep of winter.
Of course, here, winter is now no sure thing.
Despite the poor unwary ursine soul who ventured too close to colonizing human habitation in Raton last month, none has shown up here yet, at least so far as we know. I add the caveat because the half-feral dogs still bark at night, sounding an alarm in the darkest hours at something we neither see nor hear. It might be as simple as coyote or skunk; it might be as large as a wayward bear; or it might be a visitor from other planes of existence whose presence is perceptible only to those creatures with heightened or enlightened senses. But as yet, despite autumn’s early advance, there has been neither sighting nor visible evidence of the medicine spirit’s appearance.
On this day, the world is awash in golden light, too many of the trees fast turning from gold to amber to pumpkin orange (and in a few instances, already to the brown of full dormancy). Our sunsets, too, are those of fire and flame: scarlet and crimson from wildfire smoke, silver and gold from errant local dust, and a perfect blazing orange as touching a still-dry and sandy earth as the sun drops below the horizon.
August has robed itself in October’s blankets.
And October would more naturally be the time of year that I would choose to feature today’s work — a medicine bear in perfect pure orange, a last glowing gift, a medicine of fire, before winter itself descends like another kind of blanket. From its description in the Other Artists: Sculpture gallery here on the site:
This alabaster medicine bear by master carver Mark Swazo-Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo) is hewn in the classic vintage Southwest Indian style. The surface is smooth, silky, and touchable, in a brilliant clear orange with a translucent white marbled matrix. In Mark’s trademark style, the medicine bundle is made of macaw and turkey feathers, shells, pottery sherds, and bits of turquoise.
Orange alabaster; turkey feathers; macaw feathers; pottery sherds; turquoise; shells
$425 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Once in a while, a piece comes along that seems infused, instilled, inspirited with the light itself — with the glow of the sun and the warmth of fire, a work that seems the very embodiment of protection and healing, of medicine itself. This is one such: wrought in the simplest, sparest lines imaginable, of a stone whose color and texture seem as impossible as magic.
Right now, the health of our world seems impossible, seasons out of sequence, weather and climate upended and rendered impotent. But ass this medicine bear reminds us, there are prayers to be said and offerings to be made . . . and there are still spirits of magic and medicine, of both the rain and the fire, here to heal us all.
~ 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.
