On this day, the cold burns with all the force of a winter’s flame.
The mercury plunged last night — or, more accurately, in the early hours of the morning, after the dusting of snow finally arrived but well before the sun began to do likewise. I didn’t think to look when we first awakened, but by the time the sun was well above the ridgeline, the actual temperature had risen to five degrees, although the wind chill was still eight below zero.
Tonight’s actual temperature is forecast to reach four below zero, which means, in our tiny microclimate here, that it’s more likely to pass the -10 mark. The wind chill will be deadly; even now, a vicious north wind is already howling outside, less prowling around the corners than simply battering everything in its path. Stepping outside produces near-instant windburn, and the cold cuts straight to the bone.
It’s times like this when winter becomes hard here: not for the snow, not even for he basic cold, but for the deadly conditions that dog every step out of doors now. And it’s times like these that require us to focus differently, to find spiritual warmth and light, to transform the freezing flames into a fire of the heart and spirit, a sacred medicine fire that draws its power from all of the gifts this winter world still offers us.
This week’s Friday Feature highlights four works that embody and embrace these gifts: four pairs of earrings manifest as the winds and the sacred directions, the night and the celestial light, the space between earth and sky and the silvered vault that gives us sanctuary, and the places and spaces of ceremony and the literal fire that centers the sacred within them. All four pairs are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the pair above, manifest as the shimmering spokes and corners of the world, holding the black pool of night in its embrace. From its description:
From All Directions Earrings
Sometimes we need protection from the winds that seem to buffet us from all directions. Sometimes, great gifts and blessings arrive on those same winds. Wings captures the dichotomous nature of our journey around the hoop with these earrings, jet-black onyx and silver polished so highly it’s nearly white, that embody the power of the winds and the sacred directions: gifts simultaneously of wild unharnessed power and of shelter from the storm. The settings are representations of the Sacred Directions, those reaches of our world guarded by the winds, that here encompass both cardinal and ordinal points. Each is cut freehand from sterling silver, with the spoke at each cardinal point gently curved on the end to imply the arcing shape of the hoop and impart a sense of motion around it. At the center of each, the vortex: a large round onyx cabochon, like a pool of liquid jet, resting gently in a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver. Settings are 1.75″ high by 1.75″ across; cabochons are .75″ across (dimensions approximate). Earrings are a companion work to Dance of the Whirlwind Spirits [sold], in the Necklaces Gallery.
Sterling silver; onyx
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s reminder to be aware, to acknowledge and honor what sustains us even as the outside world seems to be falling apart.
The second pair likewise embodies these spokes and corners in tangible form, as though drawing the very edges of the world through the imagery of sacred fires and first medicines. From its description:
A Space For Medicine Earrings
A world in harmony is one that holds a space for medicine. With these earrings, Wings summons the First Medicine, water, and the sacred spaces that hold it into bold cascades of sterling silver. Each dangling drop consists of four pairs of thunderhead symbols, eight in total per earring, each pair conjoined at their open bases, then linked to the next at their narrow ends. The stampwork is heavy, deep, and even, and transfigures an ancient symbol for rain into one that represents the sheltering nature of sacred space — together, abundance, protection, medicine itself. Each earring is cut freehand of silver of a substantial gauge, enough for solidity but not for weight, following the lines of the stampwork. Sterling silver wires are threaded through organic tab-style loops. Earrings hang 2-1/4″ long, excluding wires, by 3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$425 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In both this pair and the first pair, the directional imagery, and that of the edges of the thunderheads, echo the kiva-steps pattern for which the pottery of Wings’s people is so rightly famed. It’s an extraordinarily evocative motif, one instantly recognizeable to any observer . . . and instantly meaningful on a far deeper level to the people to whom it belongs.
The third pair featured here today are created around the same central imagery as the pair immediately above, but this time, less as shape than as signifier, a tribute to the illuminating warmth of cosmic spaces. From its description:
Silver Sky Earrings
Between sun and clouds, above a world in flower, is the glowing expanse of a silver sky. Wings brings together storm and light and lines of growing medicine with these classic earrings that meld traditional slab and concha styles in a work of motion and depth. These dancing drops begins as perfectly saw-cut rectangles of solid eighteen-gauge sterling silver, filed smooth on all sides and with a single organic ring tab at the top center of each. Thunderhead symbols, stamped freehand, chase and conjoin down the center, creating compound motifs associated with rain and the winds and the sacred directions, their open bases at either end abutting gentler clouds beneath a radiant sun. Each set of rays is flanked by a triptych of stalks that evoke the image of plant spirits in flower. This same pattern is chased down either edge of each earring, forming a border of medicine beneath a vaulted silver sky, the curvature created through gentle shaping, repoussé-fashion, from the reverse. Each dangles from sterling silver earring wires strung through the upper tab rings. Earrings hang 1.5″ long (excluding wires) by .75″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$425 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We associate the sky with water: clouds, vapor, rain, snow. But the fact of the matter is that, in places such as this, those elements combine to create their own symbolic form of fire, even apart from the bitter burning winds of this season.
The fourth and final pair featured here today is perhaps the most literal manifestation of the force of a winter’s flame. From its description:
A Sacred Fire Earrings
At the center of ceremony sits a sacred fire, flames burning clean and bright, smoke the medicine of prayers and healing. Wings ignites two new flames in the pit with these earrings, masterpieces of ajouré cutwork excised with the signifiers of ingress and egress to sacred space. Each drop is cut freehand in the flowing arc of individual flames flickering up from the fire, each filed smooth and polished to a glowing Florentine finish. at the center of each, the saw-work, wrought in opposing twinned shapes instantly recognizeable from ancient traditional motifs long found in Pueblo pottery, a “kiva steps” pattern that shows the way to the ceremonial chamber. Each earring is suspended from sterling silver earring wires by way of organic ring tabs extending from the top of each fiery drop. Earrings hang 2-1/4″ long (excluding wires) by 3/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This pair has been one of my personal favorites from the very moment of its completion. It’s so simple and spare, no stampwork or stones required, and yet so incredibly powerful. It’s a power perceptible in the imagery alone, even apart from the deeper meaning of what it represents. They are, like the weather, like the wind, like that which centers ceremony, a force to be reckoned with — all the more so, perhaps, because of their understated appearance. Like that which they represent, their power is immanent, inherent, one that need not advertise itself because it holds within it the medicines of warmth and light.
Our world needs more of that today.
~ 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.
