We have, at long last, a day that is both warm and perfectly clear, only a small breeze at the moment to lower the ambient air temperature. The mix of pale brown and new green shoots has turned the fields near as gold as the branches of the weeping willows, and our whole small world glows with the medicine of the light.
Grass and still-bare branches are not all: Goldfinches lounge at the feeders and on the red willows outside the kitchen door, little flashes of yellow on the currents as they dart to and fro. Crows and magpies, starlings and blackbirds, all are a mass of shimmering iridescence. The wood of deck and outbuildings, even the piles of firewood, all have been touched this day by the sun’s golden glow.
The outside world reeks of death and decay, but here? Here, the sights and sounds and scents of renewal, of medicine and harmony, abound.
Winter is itself a season of renewal and rebirth, one of healing, too, but the extremes that travel with her do their damage, albeit without malice. We feel it in our bodies, in our bones and joints and drying skin; so, too, does the Earth herself, soaked through her garments, frozen solid, dried and left to shiver in the wind. By now, we all need healing.
It’s another role for Father Sun, one he assumes at this time each year on top of the already heavy burden on his shoulders as he journeys across our sky. That burden is easing a bit now, but this is no time yet to end the prayers and songs for his path. His is light medicine, one that delivers warmth with its illumination, brings healing for a cold earth and a young world.
Today’s featured work is the embodiment of light medicine — indeed, that is its very name. But it’s more than a name, more than a label or a title; it’s the spirit of summer’s lush and fertile and long, steady sun, an aspiration to cultivate the the beauty and medicine of a wildflowering light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Light Medicine Cuff Bracelet
Summer is the season of light medicine, the mysteries of the storm and the gifts of the sun and the new life breathed in and out by the leaves of tree and wildflower. Wings calls the light, the breath, and the blossoms to dance together across the surface of this cuff bracelet. The band is hand-milled in a random floral pattern, petals spiraling in great looping whorls around the pistils, edges rising in sharp relief. At the center sits a single bold round cabochon of green-gold Labradorite, fantastically iridescent with the internal glow of sun and storm. The focal cab is flanked on either side by smaller orbs, a pair of luminous round citrine cabochons like tiny suns; at either end sits a round jade cabochon, glowing green with the very breath of summer. Each cab is bezel-set in sterling silver; dual scalloped patterns formed of chained crescent moons linked by tiny hoops trace either edge of the inner band. The band itself is 6″ long by 11/16″ across; Labradorite focal cabochon is 7/16″ across; citrine and jade cabs are 5/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; green-gold Labradorite; citrine; jade
$1,050 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a hard world, and this is the hardest season. There are days when it’s difficult to remember that the light is returning, and with it, a green earth lush with flowers and petals . . . and medicine.
At times like this, it helps to carry the healing with you: golden sun and green leaf and a wildflowering light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
