Clear today, hot and a little bit hazy, clouds building slowly. We may see a small shower akin to yesterday’s — wind and thunder, a few drops here and there, and a momentary rainbow to usher the real storm between the peaks on its way to points east of here.
Meanwhile, the leaves are turning fast, and not merely up here above the lower snowline. Even in town yesterday, trees everywhere were tinged already with gold, the bright jade of summer now fading fast. And last night’s early clouds gave way to the kind of star-studded sky associated more with October than with August.
There is a feeling now of time telescoping, compressing, rushing us headlong into a future already being destroyed before our eyes. We need leaders of vision, and visions, and our own dreams must adapt to face this new world, time and season and existence itself likewise fading in front of us, and us with it.
In this shifting season, it is time to seek the wisdom of the shifting spirits of the night. I refer, of course, not to the shapeshifters of colonial appropriation, a manufactured mythos that does not seek to understand our ways, only to possess and profit from them. Among our hundreds of peoples and cultures are perhaps an equal number of stories, of origins and otherwise, that tell of being able to shift into other forms — not for ill purpose, but to deal with changing needs and changed environments. The goal may be to teach us humans, so obstinate and unwilling to embrace that which is beyond our immediate perception or interest; it may be a matter of simple survival under changed conditions. It may also be simply the path open to a spirit that possesses such powers.
Whatever the purpose, these are beings able to traverse the land of dreams, the visionary worlds we only perceive dimly in the night sky, and we have much to learn from them.
Today’s featured work is the tangible embodiment of such a spirit and its powers, one whose form and shapes and even name make express the many identities it inhabits. From its description in the Other Artists: Sculpture gallery here on the site:
BearHawk Sculpture
In his trademark style, master carver Ned Archuleta (Taos Pueblo) melds together the spirits of a traditional elder and an animal into one mystical piece. Here, it’s the elder and a bear, traditional symbol of medicine and power, rendered in smooth, flowing, silken lines of clay-colored alabaster shot with bits of warm golden-hued streaks in the stone. About six inches in overall length, it sits on a wooden base.
Alabaster on wooden base
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
It is a man, yes, or at least a figurative spirit in the form of one — an elder, perhaps one whose task involves the spirits, or an ancestor. It is also a bear, a protector and bringer of medicine. And as its name makes clear, though only the wings are visible in the elder’s long hair, it is a hawk, too — itself a spirit of the skies, one skilled in the hunt, in war, and perhaps also in the in dreams that seem so far out of our meagre human reach.
Every night, before going to bed, I look to the skies, to see what the night can tell us: about the day now ending, about tomorrow, about tomorrows long distant. There is always something to see, to learn, to record in memory for future use. And these days, the beings that inhabit those skies are as changeable as our own world down here, if perhaps better adapted than we. When it comes to saving this world burning up around us, we could do far worse than to take our cues from the shifting spirits of the night.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
