The snow began last night, and continued until the early hours. It resumed once more before dawn, heavier now, white-out conditions remdering mountains and road alike invisible behind a wall of white. Now, the sun is shining brightly, with patches of bright blue showing between the clouds, but teh wind is cold and fierce.
For all practical purposes, winter is here, at least for the moment.
And with it, of course, comes the hardships the cold season presents to us. We have been lucky, or perhaps more accurately, blessed to have only a brownout or two thus far, but on the other end of the town, people awakened to no power, and thus for many of them, no heat. We are also fortunate that our heat does not depend on the electric grid; we have two small but powerful woodstoves, and adobe walls that stop even the most ferocious of freezing winds, holding the heat inside.
We shall be even more glad of that fact this evening, when the mercury plummets. For now, even as the sun shines, a new line of heavy dark snowclouds has formed to the west, and we may see a few more flurries yet, but tonight I suspect will be clear, with an icy waxing moon high above what little remains of the snow. The fires of day and night keep our world warm and illuminated to varying degrees, but for our own comfort and indeed survival, they need a little help from the flames.
Of course, those same fires do so much more for us than simple providing heat and light. They allow for smudging, for prayer, for medicine — and for the healing and well-being of the spirit that enables us to act from and live in strength, courage, love: all the ancient teachings that have been given to us that we may live well.
This week’s Friday Feature consists of four works that share in these qualities, manifest in one way or another the gifts of these teachings. All four are, to varying degrees, a part of Wings’s revived and informal series of two-stone rings, and share more than a passing resemblance in style, substance, symbol, and spirit alike. All four are found in the Rings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the one shown above — one that differs from the other three in signal ways, yet is still infused with the same stylistic spirit even as it embodies some of the greatest of spiritual gifts and obligations. From its description:
Rising On the Smoke Ring
The Water Bird joins with our prayers in a transformative essence rising on the smoke of ceremony. With this new spiral ring, Wings summons these spirits of transfiguration to reenact these ancient steps in spare and beautiful form. First is the coiling spiral of the band, Water Serpent scaled with the image of the Spirit Bird who shares part of his name. His body is formed of heavy sterling silver half-round wire wrapped double on the bottom, single at the center of the top, with each end terminating in a fantastic cabochon of faceted rainbow moonstone, a pair of night orbs that refract cobalt blue in the light. The paired Water Birds stamped freehand down the entire coil’s convex surface are joined on its inner flat surface by two more motifs of metamorphosis and medicine: on one end, flowing-water symbols repeated down half its length; on the other, those transmogrifying messenger spirits we call Butterfly. Ring as currently shown is a size 13. The individual strand that forms the band is 3/16 across; doubled in parallel, the paired strands jointly measure 1/2″ across; the faceted rainbow moonstone cabochons are 7/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Sizeable. Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$775 + shipping, handling, and insurance
If fire cleanses, so does smoke, with far less danger of getting burned. It’s a gift of incalculable value to us, a way to calm the mind and heal the body and free the spirit to its work of prayer and ceremony. In this piece, it appears with namesake jewels of the moon herself, that chill light of the dark hours that nonetheless illuminates the path ahead.
And if ever we needed the gift of a light to show us the way forward, it is now.
But the moon is not the only being to illumine this world for us; the sun keeps our days bright, our path visible, even when, as now, the clouds have moved in to obscure his face entirely. Together, these two spirits work in tandem to keep our world safe and habitable eve in extreme conditions.
The second of today’sf eatured works embody this tandem effort, its beautiful glow and its gift. From its description:
At Each End of the Stars Ring
Our world is illuminated at each end of the stars, a fiery red sun from dawn to end of day and an icy moon to light the dusk and dark of night. With this ring, Wings pays tribute to all the celestial spirits that keep our world warm and aglow, from the nearer guiding lights to the distant silvery arc of the Bridge of Stars that leads to other worlds. The band is formed of sterling silver half-round wire, solid and substantial without being heavy; Eyes of Spirit trace the full length of its convex surface, each diamond-shaped motif centered with a raised image of a guiding star, twinkling and radiant. The band is open at the top, each end offset slightly from its opposite and hammered flat to hold a single cabochon: at one end, the four corners of the sun manifest in the rich red fire of a beveled garnet; at the other, a similarly beveled square of rainbow moonstone refracting its colorful icy light to the four corners of the dark. The ends of the band are set a small distarnce apart, angled to permit adjustment: Widening the band will set the stones further apart; narrowing it will allow them to slide past each other. As shown, ring is currently sized at 11-1/2. The band is 3/16″ wide; each of the square cabochons is 1/4″ across (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; garnet; rainbow moonstone
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
But if this piece divides the gifts of each cycle into day and night, the next one highlights the liminal spaces at the edges.
The third of today’s featured works is manifest as the light of the sun atits most intensely hued and yet perhaps most vulnerable. It bookends the daylight hours, underscoring the beauty and power of those thresholds when day and night share space, if only for a few moments — when the sun rises in crimson robes and sets amid scarlet blankets. From its description:
Beneath the Sun’s Red Eye Ring
Our world is warmed and illuminated beneath the sun’s red eye, a distant orb of starfire that sustains the whole planet. With this self-adjustable ring, Wings distills the sun’s scarlet blaze into paired garnet cabochons, sparking and sparkling in the light. They sit at either end of a band formed of sterling silver half-round wire, its convex surface stamped freehand in a repeating pattern of linked diamonds, signifying the guiding power of the Eye of Spirit. Each end of the band is hammered by hand to support the stones, perfect beveled squares whose depths glow with the darkest red flame, each set into a plain low-profile bezel. Band is 3/16″ across; cabochons are 1/4″ across (dimensions approximate). As shown here, the open band is sized at roughly a size 13 (including 3/8″ gap between stones at ends of band), and can be tightened to a smaller size (or opened wider for a larger size, with stones set further apart). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; garnet
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These three works, all set with jewels of fiery translucence, embody fire in forms at once metaphorical and still tangible. The fourth, more opaque and yet not wholly so, is a bit different.
I noted above the importance of tending the fire of the heart, of the spirit; it’s crucial to a life well-lived as we know it, because it gives us the power and the commitment to follow the ancient teachings that have ensured our peoples’ survival in the face of deliberately genocidal odds. Our fourth and final featured work is manifest as this symbolic fire, the one that keeps us on the path even when the fire of other lights grow dim. From its description:
Love Is Red Ring
We know better than most that love is red: the color of the blood in our veins, of the fire in our hearts, of the warmth of the sun. With this ring set with a pair of tiny red suns, Wings pays tribute to the hearts, the fire, and the love. The band is a slender length of sterling silver half-round wire, chased in a repeating pattern of classic hearts along the whole of its convex surface. At either end, arrayed at slight angles across from each other, a pair of tiny crimson orbs rest in plain-edged bezels, domed carnelian cabochons that manage to be at once opaque and translucent, finding and channeling the light. Ring as shown here is currently sized at roughly 8.5, but can be enlarged (setting the stones further apart) or reduced (so that the stones meet and/or pass each other). Band is roughly 2-1/4″ long by 3/16″ wide; carnelian cabochons are 3/16″ across (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; carnelian
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Now, as I write, virtually every remnant trace of blue sky has vanished from view; the newest line of stormclouds has moved in overhead, lowering on all sides and concealing all but the bases of the peaks. A few flurries scatter themselves through the air outside the window, even as the sun makes a valiant if ultimately doomed effort to break through their veil once more. Indoors, the fire burns strong and bright in the woodstove, and we need have no fear of the bitter winds.
It feels lke a metaphor for what our world faces now, save that the last sentence seems more than a bit optimistic. Our own peoples face dark threats indeed in the week to come, never mind the destruction being daly wrought against the Earth herself. But we are strong, and we now our teachings and our ways; we have the fires of day and night to guide us, and those that burn in our hearts and spirits to move us to the work of resistance and repair, reclamation and renewal.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
