Yesterday, we looked at dreams, at one of their gatekeepers, a guardian of sorts. Today, it’s another sort of guardian of our nights, one of structure more than spirit, but in some cultures and contexts, with its own inspiriting power: the tipi.
The word means, quite simply, lodge. A home, a shelter, a structure. It’s not the sort of traditional home found among Pueblo peoples, who more than a millennium ago pioneered a stationary, permanent structure; it harks back to earlier needs and uses, when most of life was lived under the sky, and shelter was needed primarily for protection during sleep. That sense of temporary use helped it to find its own use here, however, as part of the Tipi Way, the ceremonies now part of the Native American Church that have been practiced by Pueblo peoples (and others) much longer than the official church’s existence.
Wings grew up as a traditional, a kiva boy who was the son and nephew of two powerful and experienced traditionals who were also road men in the Native American Church. There’s an old photo in the studio of him at about age three, standing between the two men in front of just such a tipi, and it’s an image that resonates deep within the soul: Two good men, carrying on their traditions, passing them to the next generation through the immersion of daily lived experience.
Perhaps it’s one reason why tipi imagery appears in Wings’s art with some regularity, despite the fact that such structures have never been traditional Pueblo housing. An example of the belt buckle featured here, where the motif appears in a repeating positive/negative pattern, like its own protective palisade, a latilla fence of bound groups of poles placed one after the other. From its description in the Buckles Gallery here on the site:
At the center of this dress buckle, a hand-stamped evening star is surrounded by crescent moon patterns. Around the buckle’s edge in an alternating pattern are hand-stamped tipis, traditional representations of the lodges used by many peoples for living, sleeping, and healing.
Sterling silver
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Last night, the Evening Star appeared at dusk, larger than usual and shaded with the soft coral reflection of the setting sun. It was a reminder of what guides us, keeps us, protects us, even through the dark hours while mind and body sleep — and a reminder that, come the dawn, its counterpart will be there to guide us from the shadowy world of dreams back into the light.
~ Aji
