It’s a beautiful morning, the dawn sun once again bold and strong after more than a week of being muted by a veil of unseasonal clouds. Still, an imposing wall of thunderheads is already massing in the western sky, and it’s likely we’ll see a few drops of rain before the day is out.
For now, though, Father Sun is thoroughly ascendant, his passage heralded by Meadowlark’s song.
The rains have coaxed an abundance of smaller beings out into the light, providing a feast for the wild birds: earthworms in the garden soil, spiders and small insects traversing earthen paths, honeybees darting from dandelion to tree blossom and back again, doing their life-sustaining work.
And though they haven’t made their presence known yet, it’s also the season when the snakes emerge to warm themselves and search for tiny prey.
Cold-blooded creatures that they are, it perhaps seems odd to associate snakes with the sun, but it’s really not. After all, their very cold-bloodedness is what makes them so dependent upon the gift of Father Sun’s gaze, and it’s not at all unusual to find one next to a large rock, bathing in his warm golden light.
But more, that’s the thing about the spirit world: Opposites do more than merely attract; they reconcile, they wed, they become one, a one that is greater than the sum of its parts. The rules of this world do not apply; what is antithesis here is synthesis there, and more.
It’s at that line between worlds where art becomes our most effective translator: It interprets, explicates, defines in ways that words too often cannot, bound as they are by lexical and linguistic frameworks, social and cultural conventions, that limit their meaning in often-arbitrary ways. Art, though? Art can unite seemingly disparate elements into the whole they always were, showing a more fully-rounded, fully-dimensional view that speaks truth to its viewers, even if the words do not exist in this world to describe it.
It’s been a permanent theme in Wings’s work, from his earliest days as an artist, this uniting of worlds. His art is, in large part, a practice and praxis of making sense of the universe and existence by bringing together the signs and symbols of our world and that of the spirits, often in new and sometimes unsettling ways, in an attempt to uncover, to reveal the truth that the worlds are not really so separate after all, but merely parts of a greater whole. When life is lived as a sacred hoop, this sense of the infinite, of worlds inextricably intertwined, is simply the way of things.
Today’s feature, pictured above, is a perfect example. From the description in the Earrings Gallery:
Sun Serpent Earrings
Father Sun, unreachable by mortals, daily crosses a threshold in the sky between this world and more powerful ones, to touch us with his blessings, and his power. So, too, Serpent crosses such thresholds on the Earth. Here, both are made manifest in long, highly-polished sterling silver ovals, hand-cut in a blossom design and edged with hand-stamped sunrise symbols. The repoussé centers, slightly domed, are chased with a repeating pattern of serpent’s scales: reminders both of the unbroken Infinite and that power must be handled carefully and in harmony.
Sterling silver
$275 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
This week, we’ve been exploring the power that inheres in small, seemingly modest spirits, the gifts they offer and the lessons they teach. We’ve been focused largely on Spider Woman, but Snake is a powerful teacher, as well. As we’ve discussed before, in some cultures, Snake is taboo; in others, respected. In his form as Water Serpent, he is capable of instilling fear, but also of bestowing riches. And in some cultures, he lends his rattles to healers and spiritual leaders.
All this, from a being that has no legs, that slithers along the ground (or through the waters), that the dominant culture mostly scorns and fears at best, and around whose neck it hangs eternal damnation. It’s a reminder that, in our way, “the least of these” is not “least” at all, but a being whose existence fulfills a role in the Earth’s balance, and a spirit with much to teach us if only we are willing to heed its lessons.
Here, his image is combined with that of Father Sun, coiled in an infinite, endless hoop, a spirit of the soil melded with the one who rules the sky. And yet . . . and yet, while we all recognize the power and primacy of the sun, we forget its true significance as we go about our lives.
It’s not that Father Sun is regarded as somehow insignificant; rather, it’s that his omnipresence permits us to take him for granted. We forget to appreciate the light and warmth of that central orb upon which our own heliotropic world depends for its very existence.
And this is where Wings’s work especially shines: in weaving together the stories and symbols of our cultures, of our very worlds; in using his art to amplify the spirits’ voices and the lessons they teach; in reminding us all of the gifts we receive daily, gifts as basic as existence.
All in wearable form, to carry on one’s person, to hold next to one’s heart and soul.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
