The rain began at five minutes to midnight last night, the first gift of summer.
Oh, the calendar marks today as the Summer Solstice, and in truth, it is the first full day of the new season. but the moment of the solstice itself occurred in full dark, at 10:24 PM local time last night. Because that moment spilled over into this day, if only just barely, in the country’s Eastern time zone, the official observance is marked for today.
In the hours leading up to that divide, the night sky here was one of perfect clarity, full constellations visible and bright on all sides. And yet, around the moment of the actual solstice, the thunderbirds began to spread their wings, sending a deep rolling rumble across the air; just before the line between the days, the rain began to fall.
It was not a lot of rain, to be sure, but it was enough. Enough to dampen the ground; enough to allow for planting.
The rain was not yesterday’s only gift, either: On the last day of spring, the dragonflies returned. Again, not many, but enough to count, bluets and skimmers and what appeared to be a darner dancing in the distance, spiraling flashes of light and motion on the heat waves above the surface of the pond.
Today, the little messengers of love are back, whirling and darting in a joyous fury of pollination, an hardwired expression of love for the earth that sustains them, and us.
For us, this will be a day of planting, too — seeding newly-loamy earth with corns and beans and squash, with other fruits and vegetables, with herbs, with flowers. It is our own message to the earth, singing to seeds and soil as we sow the world’s renewal. It is a heart dance, our own form of love dancing, a love of the earth and the spirits large and small with whom we share it.
Today’s featured works were already slated for this day, but it’s especially apt now that one of their namesakes has returned to this place. It also nods in the direction of the spirits of last week, the Water Serpent and his clan and kind. The second work was not created as a match, but it complements the first nonetheless, in style and in spirit.
The first explicitly embodies the small spirit dancers who returned to us yesterday. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
Messenger of Dawn Necklace
Sometimes, a piece of art transcends its intended purpose, becoming so much more than its basic function and the sum of its parts that it qualifies as a masterwork, a perfect melding of symbol and spirit. So it is with this necklace, a manifestation of Dragonfly: water spirit, protector, symbol of love, messenger of the spirits. Handcrafted of finely stamped sterling silver half-round wire, his shimmery wings textured by countless strikes of a tiny jeweler’s hammer, he arrives dressed in the colors of the Pueblo dawn. His body is formed from delicate rose quartz cabochons: seven of them, a number sacred to many peoples, and stones that some other traditions regard as the mineral embodiment of the qualities of peace and universal love. His amber eyes blaze with the fiery glow of the rising sun; he carries a glowing copper serpent on his back, traversing his wings (image shown at the link). He hangs from a hand-strung necklace of square-cut leopard-skin jasper beads in warm shades of rose and brick red and taupe and gray, tying all the hues together. The strand is backed by a series of copper-colored trade-style beads terminating in a small series of old natural green turquoise “doughnut” beads with their own copper matrix. The dragonfly pendant is 2-5/8″ long from antennae to base and 2-7/16″ wide across the wingspan; the strand of beads is 17″ (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rose quartz; amber; copper; leopard-skin jasper beads; trade-style beads; green turquoise beads
$1,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
If Dragonfly is a messenger of dawn, he is also one of the dance: the greatest dance of all, that of the heart. It’s one that finds expression in another way in today’s second featured work, one not created for but consonant with the first. From its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Heart Dance Earrings
In our way, every dance is a dance of the heart. With these earrings, Wings summons a pair of dancers to the circle, shimmering silver beings holding fast to a bit of icy-pale rose quartz, a stone that some say represents matters of the heart. He repeats the motif on the drops themselves, each adorned with a single hand-stamped heart at top and bottom: moving up one side and down the other, creating their own round dance and sacred hoop. Earrings hang 1-15/16″ long (excluding wires) by 3/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rose quartz
$195 + shipping, handling, and insurance
The earrings resemble human figures, but they also call to mind the image of dragonfly wings, flanges of silver shimmering in the light, turned sideways as they whirl and spin. Both works are perfect for this season, one of warmer winds and waters.
It is, after all, a time for planting, and for pollinating.
It is a time for love dancing.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
