A long last, the equinox has come and gone, and winter is officially over.
We know better. Snow is forecast for tomorrow, and the skies have already turned heavy and gray with its weight.
Which is actually a good thing, in this place; in fact, I could not be happier with our first day of spring. Besides holding out the hope of much-needed precipitation, it reminds me of the spring days of my childhood in the lands of my home, all sharp edges softened by clouds, the whole air of the day at once cozy and gentle and yet animated by an undercurrent of possibility, of all the power of the storm to come.
Unlike those lands, this has never much been a place for “spring showers,” although that has changed a bit in recent years as climatic patterns alter and shift. Here, though, rain is welcome whenever and however it chooses to come: as the snows of a winter still not fully departed or the cascading sheets of an errant spring storm.
As cold as it is today, I suspect snow is more likely than rain, and despite the heavy cloud cover now, its arrival more likely tonight than during the daylight hours. Yesterday, the clouds were already moving in, and while they had mostly cleared by the earliest hours of the morning, the great icy sphere of the moon rose behind their veil. If current patterns hold, we’re unlikely to see her face at all tonight, but we know that her ascension to the height of the new spring dark is assured all the same.
After all, she was with us, visibly, overnight — illuminating the dark from winter’s night to dawn of spring.
Today’s featured work, a personal favorite, embodies these dynamics in ethereally beautiful fashion, a manifestation of the sacred, of the moon, of her illuminating power, of the ascension of the light both at night and on a seasonal scale. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Ascension Earrings
The Water Bird is a figure simultaneously sacred and a part of our ordinary lives, one whose spirit has long appeared in Wings’s personal tradition and one that he has also long infused into his work. These representations of this powerful wingéd being seem to belong wholly to the winter season, feathered spirits able to transcend the snow and ice and early dark, capable of ascension to the light. Cut freehand of sterling silver, each is wrought in classic symbolic shape, head pointing upward, wings arched, tailfeathers spread. A pair of hand-stamped crescents placed back to back give form and shape to the head and hint at otherworldly vision; a single arrowhead point defines the tail. Body feathers are represented by a trio of longer points, while hand-chiseled lines form the upper tailfeathers. Long, elegantly rayed mountain motifs are spread gently atop the wings, articulating the layers of covert wing feathers. at the heart of each water bird rests a fabulously adularescent oval cabochon of rainbow moonstone, perfectly translucent and refracting rays of cobalt blue, as thought each water bird carries with it the light of pure illumination as it ascends to the place where the spirits dwell. Small silver jump rings hold them securely to sterling silver wires. Earrings hang 2″ long (excluding jump rings and wires) by 1.25″ across at the widest point; moonstone cabochons are 1/2″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This pair, at this moment, reminds me, too, that the sacred is also so very ordinary in that it is a part of our daily lives, a thread woven through time itself, through day and night and every season and every kind of weather and circumstance. We are entering now our hardest season here: typically bone-dry save for the occasional late snow, with wild swings of temperature and far wilder trickster winds that batter our small world all day, every day. It’s easy to get lost in the burden of tasks and obstacles now, to forget the wonder that is also part of our world, and to become distracted from the sacred that we have been taught to observe and to honor.
But the lights of the sky spirits are steadying influences, even on those nights when they are veiled from our view. The spirits of the sacred, like the Water Bird, capable of taking flight, remind us of the powers that shape our world and our lives, that sustain us and ensure our survival, and in so doing, they remind us to be grateful, and to recommit ourselves to our ways of being.
And while here we know that it is not spring yet, not really, not until Meadowlark comes to sing, we have this day made the symbolic leap along with Mother earth and Father Sky and the angle of the light: from winter’s night to dawn of spring, with a year of potential growth and abundance unfurling now before us.
It’s time to put these gifts to work.
~ 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.
