It’s been a long time since Wings has released a collection of coils — too long, actually. In the aftermath of the deadly dangerous bit of criminality that was November 8, 2016, we both cast about for an outlet for our rage, for a means of channeling it into another form of the resistance that has marked our daily lives in an occupied, colonial society. Together, we began collaborating on the design of a collection drawn on my own traditions, one that embodies what are sometimes called the “seven gifts” — the seven virtues given to the First People by the spirits, seven traits of character that, practiced as a way of daily living, form the basis for a life well lived no matter the external circumstance. It would be seven collections of seven coils each, each collection built around a different “gift,” or virtue. After all, such lessons are found across our cultures in varying forms, but virtually always with a similar core of truth.It will be hard for some to understand, seeming as though it’s intended merely to capitalize on tradition, but it’s not; the design, and then his creation, of each coil involved a digging deep into the meaning of each virtue, both in the abstract and in its application, and a constant meditation on how better both to understand what is required of us and how to put it into practice effectively.
It was a means of returning to the deepest, most essential aspects of our traditions, of making our work one with our ways in a manner that might better help us face what was to come — and, perhaps, help others face it, too.
And fight.
Because we were engaged in resistance long before the rest of the world had even heard of the word.
We began, then, with bravery, because we then saw clearly what so much of the country even now refuses to see: the galloping fascism, the overt gestures toward literal Nazism, the elevation of colonial terror societies like the Klan. We foresaw the concentration camps, even now in full operation, the separation of families, the stripping of sovereignty, the literal war by overt and covert means . . . against any- and everyone, but most especially against our own indigenous peoples. We knew that we would need strong hearts and courageous spirits, and that proves more true every day.
Shortly thereafter, he launched a second collection, one centered around generosity — fitting for a season then centered, in the dominant culture, around Thanksgiving and Christmas. In our way, of course, generosity means something very different; it’s not charity, but a literal way of daily living. If you acquire something, you use it to give to others. In the old days, that might mean sharing the meat from a hunt, the hides, the medicine. Today, it more often means money, although not always. In the dominant spiritual tradition of this country is a concept known as “tithing,” in which ten percent of one’s income is given to the church, and one’s monetary obligations are thereby settled. Charity is encouraged, of course, but it’s denominated as such, and given a large enough (and institutional enough) donation, it becomes a personal gain in the form of a tax write-off. Our cultures’ exhortations to generosity do not have a limit, nor an inducement to personal gain; it’s simply a way of life — in a word colonial traditions understand, a commandment. And so it is that when we made a sale a couple of weeks ago a portion of it went to help some folks get propane. It’s also why, despite our chickens’ amazing productivity, we are down to about three dozen eggs for ourselves for the winter; we give them out routinely to anyone who needs or wants fresh eggs.
After the holiday season of that politically terrible year, we all had to face the prospect of what this rupture would mean for us in real, concrete terms. Most people have yet to do so, and they continually profess shock at the state of things. It was always inevitable, as we tried to tell people, but in our experience, indigenous knowledge is desired mostly for exploitation, not for any sort of genuine change in lifeways or behavior. We already recognized, however, the existential threat, and the need for the wisdom to navigate these increasingly dangerous spaces in ways that allowed for survival. And so we turned our focus specifically to concepts of the virtue of wisdom, leading to the focus of Wings’s third collection. It was useful even on less political terms, too. After all, the days the end one year and begin the next (at least by the dominant culture’s way of reckoning these things) lead to the coldest, deepest part of winter, when survival even now is no sure thing for too many in our own region; in the indigenous lands of this broader area, we lose at least one or two people every winter to exposure. It’s good to reflect, occasionally, upon the power of the elements and what it takes to survive, as our ancestors did, without the conveniences of modern amenities. It’s also daunting, fostering respect anew for the ancestors’ strength and power, the very reason that we are here.
Before that winter was out, of course, came the dominant culture’s celebration of “love” in the form of Valentine’s Day, and so that became the catalyst for (and subject of) Wings’s fourth collection. In our way, commandments to love incorporate love in all its forms, including love of family, of relatives, of clan and community and culture, of the earth and those beings with whom we share it, of the spirits. But there is also romantic love, and our ways have evolved as they have in an attempt to ensure healthy romantic relationships. Given the date, Wings focused his fourth collection around love in this form, but it was clear from each entry that — as is common in our ways — these explorations of such love were firmly grounded in love in all its other forms and facets, too.
This brought us to what would be his fifth collection. We had decided on humility, in part because we wanted the sixth and seventh ones to appear in a given order, but also because we were facing a season and circumstances that would be humbling, to say the least. Spring is the most difficult season here, and while it was not yet spring by the calendar, it was, at that time, only a month away.
And then we got a real lesson in humility. Several of them, actually.
We were thoroughly mired in the process of building our house, always a daunting challenge, but especially during the winter months. There were problems with the wiring, problems with other aspects of it. We were both fighting pneumonia, Wings’s case far worse than my own, and far longer-lasting. And our eldest horse left us the night after Valentine’s Day.
Humbling, indeed.
We put off the next collection for a while, feeling inadequate to the task. Wings had other works that needed to be finished; we were both focused on managing the construction of the house and the constant money chase to keep it going; we were grieving, and we were both, in plain and simple terms, mired in the process of survival, giving the cold and the snow and the state of our lungs.
We didn’t know it then, but we were at a turning point in the construction, and the next year-plus would pass at a breakneck pace. In the interim, more of our animals would leave us, there would be new health problems, and eventually, climate change would present us with a staggering drought. And twenty months would pass before we could effectively return to this particular project, with the proper frame of mind and the proper respect for the subject matter.
Part of the problem, too, truth be told, was our dilemma in how to approach the subject. How does one capture “humility” in silver and stone? In our ways, the point of the lesson is that we are to humble ourselves: It is not our place to regard ourselves as superior to anyone (or anything, a lesson the outside world must learn if the earth is to survive). If others would elevate us, it is up to us to make sure our feet are firmly grounded in the earth, and that we remind ourselves routinely of our place by our conduct toward others and toward our world. But how does one do that? namely, through practice of the other virtues: bravery, generosity, wisdom, love, respect, truth. All of those are captured under their own names, so how to portray humility? There are reasons that many of our cultures forbid expressions of individual honor; the acceptance of them is regarded as personal aggrandizement. It’s the same calculus by which we tend to eschew the desire for leadership or authority; those who wold seek them disqualify themselves by the very desire, because experience has long taught us well that such desires are rooted in arrogance, selfishness, and greed, when what is required is the humble commitment to serve the greater good.
We decided that the best way to go about this task was indirectly, by highlighting those forces and powers that humble us routinely, whether we are aware of it or not, whether we wish to accept it or not. Each of these powers, and their animating spirits, have lessons to teach us about how to be humble in a good way. And that became the focus of this fifth in the Seventh Fire Series, The Humility Collection.
There are seven coils in all. These are, in some respects, a bit more substantial than most. They contain a variety of extremely valuable beads, from a spectacularly high-grade kyanite to Sleeping Beauty turquoise to natural Mediterranean coral to genuine amber to real fossilized dinosaur bone — the sorts of materials that would normally dictate a significantly higher price. In keeping with past entries in this series, Wings has retained the original price for such collections, $325 per coil. There are a couple of other anomalies, too: Some of these are made with genuine hematite and iron pyrite beads, substances that are significantly heavier than many gemstones, and so are a bit weightier than the other coils in these collections. They are still as comfortable as ever, but their size makes them perhaps slightly better suited to medium to larger wrists.
There is an order to these things, and Wings creates them with purpose in mind. We begin with the aspects of such forces that are most immediate to our mortal experience, a design to reflect the change of the seasons and the passage of time. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Seasons and Time Coil Bracelet
Seasons and time are eternal, forces that teach us humility by their very endurance, humbling us in the face of their inexorable power. They teach us, too, to deal with impermanence: of weather, of youth, of troubled times and good ones, too. Wings honors their lessons in this coil of jewels, anchored at either end with pairs of faceted beads of smoky quartz, wrought in the wisdom-infused shape of eyes of Spirit. At each end, the coil begins with the blue skies of spring in the form of lightly polished free-form nuggets of robin’s-egg blue turquoise, moving thence into the brilliant greens of summer by way of lengths of smoothly polished geometric nuggets of malachite. From summer, we travel along the hoop to autumn, represented by smooth fiery amber, free-form and slender. Fall fire moves gently into the snows of winter, its white expanses formed from small polished chips of Hawai’ian puka shell. Both ends meet in the middle of the light, flanking a row of seven more Eyes of Spirit wrought in the exponential diamond patterns of faceted smoky quartz. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. First in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; turquoise; malachite; amber; puka shell; smoky quartz
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
And though their presence is more intermittent, less seemingly inexorable, the forces that we place at the quadrants of the wheel are as eternal as those of the seasons and time itself. The winds and the directions, concepts and markers that we hold sacred, likewise hold their own special powers and have their own lessons to impart, and the next coil captures their likeness. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
The Wheel, the Winds, and the Sacred Directions Coil Bracelet
Our ways teach us to respect the lessons of the wheel, the winds, and the Sacred Directions, powers and animating spirits far stronger than we who show us the value of humility in the face of cosmic forces. Wings pays tribute to these cardinal powers with a spiral of gems in the colors assigned to them: white, yellow, red, and black, accented with the colors of the light. Each end of the coil is anchored with a bit of that light in the form of a quartet of small round Labradorite beads. Inward from either end is a length of luminescent round black beads, solid hematite, representing the westerly powers; four more Labradorite beads separate them from the southern forces, manifest in bold natural nuggets of Mediterranean coral. After another brief interval of Labradorite, the spirits of the east make their appearance via lengths of brilliantly translucent golden citrine, slender free-form nuggets given a coarse texture and a high polish. Four more Labradorite beads on either side separate them from the center expanse of seven round white fluorite orbs, representing the awe-inspiring powers of the north, keeping us humble in the face of the forces of the most powerful of storms, and of the very powers of life and death. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. Second in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; white fluorite; Labradorite; citrine; Mediterranean coral; hematite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Of course, with the seasons and the winds comes the storm, whether water or fire. Their force can be devastating if we are unequipped to face it, but both elemental powers also give life, and weathering the elements is more than mere survival. It is these aspects that are caught in the spiral of the third entry. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Weathering the Elements Coil Bracelet
Little teaches us humility as effectively as extremes of weather and climate. With this spiraling spangled coil, Wings calls upon these powerful forces for aid in weathering the elements. Each end begins with tiny polished free-form nuggets, little more than chips of sky blue turquoise in earthy matrix, each separated from the brilliance of more valuable blue turquoise by the golden artifice of iron pyrite — fool’s gold, a gift of the spirits to keep us humble when greed threatens to overtake good sense. Beyond the blue of Skystone and rain comes the power of fire — first amber, representing the golden edges of the flame, then bright red Mediterranean coral nuggets, the fire itself, all flanking a center row of bold doughnut-shaped rondel beads carved from impossibly chatoyant red tiger’s eye, like the very heart of the sun. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. Third in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; red tiger’s eye; Mediterranean coral; amber; blue turquoise; blue turquoise in matrix; iron pyrite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
From our environmental influences, we turn inward, or perhaps better expressed, downward: to the very earth upon which we walk, the same earth from which we come. Our earth consists not merely of soil, but of water and sky and ancient spirits, all brought together in a shift of tectonic plates and spirits that transcend the bounds of space and time. Their lessons run the length of the next coil. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Tectonic Shift Coil Bracelet
We are kept grounded by the movement of the earth, a tectonic shift of epochal proportions that creates the world in which live, and teaches us humility via lessons of scale of time. Wings evokes this seismic process with a coil centered around the children of fire: an expanse of seven ovaled barrel beads formed of volcanic lava rock, tapered at either end and softly polished. At either end, separated by bits of water and sky in the form of bold polished chips of bright Sleeping Beauty turquoise, they eventually flow into a harder kind of earth, small round spheres of jet-black onyx lightly polished to a Florentine-like finish. Again, water and sky intervene to separate the land masses and the atmosphere; then, the trees arise, represented by short round barrel beads of polished red-brown wood. Each length of wood ends in a short strand of Skystone, bright blue nuggets above a more ancient earth at the ends: Each end is anchored by seven small doughnut-shaped rondels of fossilized dinosaur bone, bits of spirits so ancient as to render us instantly humble by comparison to the sheer longevity of their timeless legacy. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. Fourth in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; basaltic lava rock; onyx; Sleeping Beauty turquoise; polished wood; fossilized dinosaur bone
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
But while we may be earthbound, our world is not; the heavens are part of our earth, too. The sky spirits are with us around the clock, but they show themselves mostly in the darker hours, when their glow illuminates our path in ways we are helpless to do ourselves. Their shimmer and shine are captured in the next gemstone spiral. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
The Sky Spirits Coil Bracelet
The Sky Spirits hold the powers of warmth, of illumination, even of life itself; they teach us humility by the gift of their presence, and by our powerlessness in their absence. Wings summons the beauty of these beings into jeweled form around a spiral of pure light. At the center of this coil lie representations of our own center, Father Sun, in the form of seven brilliantly chatoyant round tiger’s eye spheres, each a mix of gold and bronze. At either end, the tiger’s eyes are flanked by a short length of four translucent barrel beads of faceted smoky quartz, a bit of the sun’s light seen safely through the tempering haze of our atmosphere. Beyond them lie representations of Grandmother Moon, first as the summery orbs of pale rose quartz, then, filtered through the rainbow iridescence of stormy Labradorite, as the icy moons of winter, pale marbled blue lace agate. At either end of the agate rest four small doughnut-shaped rondels of translucent kyanite in shades from teal to silvery white, a bit of the Aurora Borealis, a sight to make us humble before the vast powers of the night sky. Finally, at either end, the night skies take over in full, represented by a length of round highly polished solid hematite. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. Fifth in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; tiger’s eye; smoky quartz; Labradorite; rose quartz; blue lace agate; kyanite; hematite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Of course, our relationship to earth and sky is never simple; we are bound to the former by the forces of gravity, even as we are able to see, and seek, the elevation of the latter. Some mysteries are beyond our reach, but the beauty they radiate is not, and it is this that Wings has captured in the next small vortex of light (also my favorite among the entire set). From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Gravity Coil Bracelet
We stand humble in the face of the laws of physics, forces and spirits that teach us the humility needed to cope effectively with our largely earthbound existence on this plane. Wings honors the law of gravity, its force and power and strength that keeps us safe, in a spiraling descent of ethereal light. The coil is centered by jewels of the night sky, seven beautifully cut oval barrel beads of ultra-high-grade kyanite in translucent shades of ice blue and teal and indigo, shimmering like the oldest of stars in the cosmos. They are flanked at either side by lengthy expanses of Labradorite, round spheres like planets made wholly of iridescent light. These luminous orbs descend into two lengths of smaller spheres, highly polished round beads of solid hematite, a glowing black jewel sometimes infused with enough magnetite to mimic gravity’s force on a miniature scale. At either end is the ephemeral light of our lower atmosphere, four small round beads of shimmering Labradorite. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. Sixth in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; ultra-high-grade kyanite; Labradorite; basaltic lava rock; hematite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Finally, however, mere witness is not enough; mere observation and understanding are not enough. Action is required, both to keep the world on its axis, and to keep our more immediate world in balance. Rotation is a constant, and so is revolution, and we must put both forces to work in our own lives and those of our societies at large if humankind is to survive. These are the sobering lessons of the last entry in this set. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Rotation and Revolution Coil Bracelet
Our world, and our place in it, are powered by the twin forces of rotation and revolution, keeping the earth anchored in the proper space and time. Rotation keeps us humble, ensuring that we do not lose our place in the universe, while revolution teaches humility in the form of requiring us to look outside ourselves to greater things: a process essential to readying us for its counterpart, the other kind of revolution to which we are called. Wings honors these forces in all their forms in a rotating hoop of radiant light. At the coils center rest fourteen large round orbs of beautifully chatoyant tiger’s eye, the gold and bronze of pure flame glowing with life. At either end, four doughnut-shaped rondel beads of iron pyrite, fool’s gold, separate it from the next strand and caution against arrogance. Next come long strands of red tiger’s eye in large doughnut-shaped rondels, each shimmering with maroon chatoyant fire. These red flames of the sun flow into the cool watery expanse of the earth’s own atmosphere, smaller rondels of teal-colored kyanite lit from within with the silver of a million stars. Each end is anchored with a small length of pyrite rondels, once again, a caution against human frailty and a means of keeping us firmly grounded in the earth. Beads are strung on memory wire, which expands and contracts to fit virtually any wrist. Another view shown at the link. [Note: Kyanite beads are teal-colored in natural light, not the cornflower blue they appear above.] Seventh in The Humility Collection of The Seventh Fire Series. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; tiger’s eye; iron pyrite; red tiger’s eye; kyanite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In designing this particular collection, we were forced to face the reality of our world anew, one filled with powerful forces and humble spirits, whether we like to acknowledge that on a daily basis or not. What we like to do and what is required of us are often at odds, but if ever there were a time to heed the latter, that time is now.
Humility, indeed.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
