Some days are just hard.
They can be very good, too, but that doesn’t obviate the difficulty. Today was one of those days.
It began in haze and ended similarly, if, perhaps, for slightly different reasons. It was also one of those days filled with prayer of kinds both absolutely intentional and utterly involuntary, the latter the sort you haven’t even realized you’ve given words until you hear those words escape.
It’s now bitterly cold at night, mostly clear enough for the mercury to plunge into the teens. By the time the sun has gained the ridgeline, so has the pall of woodsmoke over the valley, and we see the dawn only through a shimmering particulate haze. On this day, we needed to travel to Santa Fe on business, and innumerable obstacles, from construction to traffic to other factors, sent us home far later than we had intended when we set out this day. By the time we were at last past Pojoaque, sun falling fast behind the hoodooed ridgeline to the west and dark falling with it, the light was once again a golden haze, this time a mix of woodsmoke, what was apparently a controlled burn further north, and the dust and dirt kicked up by traffic on an aridified earth.
The only smoke not present throughout the whole day, it seems, was that which accompanies our daily prayers, or that which we breathe in as part of contemplation or ceremony.
This week’s Friday Feature is one of the tools of the latter, a traditional means of putting the healing power of smoke to work on a deeply personal level. It’s a vintage-style replica of an old-style pipe, one carved by hand of antler and inlaid with richly polished wood. From its description in the Other Artists: Leatherwork, Antler, and Bone gallery here on the site:
In the old way, serious contemplation or conversation was often accompanied by the ceremonial smoking of a pipe. This small personalized version, expertly hand-carved in vintage style by Joseph “Joe T” Trujillo (Taos Pueblo) is infused with the meditative and spiritual qualities of the old ways. Bowl and stem are all one piece, wrought by hand out of deer antler and inlaid at the bowl’s base and partway up the stem with beautifully grained walnut. Both antler and walnut are covered with clear, transparent stain to strengthen the pipe and seal it against the elements; pipe is fully functional, useable with traditional Indian tobacco, commercial tobacco, or kinnickinnick or other smoking mixtures. Full pipe is a compact 3-3/8″ long; bowl is 1-7/8″ high; stem portion above the bowl is 1-3/4″ high (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sealed deer antler; sealed natural walnut wood
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is one of those pieces that simply feels good in one’s hand: sized appropriately, carved and sanded perfectly smooth, and fully functional for its task. The fact that it is a such beautiful example of this sort of traditional work is an added bonus.
But it’s the functionality that transforms it from an object of art into a tool of medicine. Art, of course, is medicine too, and this is no exception on that score. But to know that a piece actually aids one in thoughtful contemplation, in the seeking of wisdom or unity, in the healing of body and spirit alike?
That is the healing power of breath itself, the medicine of the smoke.
And after a day as hectic and harried as this, one fraught with obstacles and ending in the sort of relief that occurs with the realization that seemingly endless delay has meant avoiding the possibility of disaster, it is perhaps a good time for us to return to this practice ourselves. After all, the medicine of this kind of smoke, whether inhaled or sent spiraling skyward via an eagle’s feather, is medicine of body and spirit both.
~ Aji
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