After some seven weeks of wildfire here, it finally feels as though the land may be getting a break at last.
It’s a lot better than breaking beneath the weight, which is what has loomed on the horizon for too long now. Don’t get me wrong; incalculable damage has been done, and the butcher’s bill for the death and destruction will not be fully tallied for a generation yet, at least. But in times such as these, we take our rays of hope where we can find them and as they come, and we are grateful for them.
Here at Red Willow, “rays” is perhaps a bit of a misnomer for this day’s developments; “drops” or “flakes” would be more apt. In this place, we were granted a small rain shower last night, after fall of dark — barely enough to settle the dust, true, but in these weeks of runaway wildfire, welcome all the same. We awakened this morning to peaks still swaddled in low dove-colored clouds that receded only at mid-morning to expose the dusting of snow that had accumulated in the dark hours.
That, too, is welcome.
Now, thunderheads rise from the horizon on all sides, and a dark blue bank of clouds has gathered to the west. These are monsoonal patterns, arrived now more or less on schedule for the season, if a little unusual for so early in the day. A true monsoonal even would be disastrous for the burn scars, but I suspect that this will be a smaller shower, or perhaps a short series of them: not enough to plunge the land from fire to flood, but enough to cool the pain of the fire’s excessive heat and settle the dust of the drought.
And despite the winds now rising once again, the prospect of a little rain offers us a respite — from the tense watchfulness of monitoring the wildfire’s smoke plume, from the atavistic fear of the flames themselves. It gives us a little distance, a little space in which to breathe again, and it reminds us of the flames’ other qualities, too: those of fire medicine.
Today’s post honors this spirit of this elemental force, acknowledging its properties of cleansing, of healing, of keeping our world warm and alive, up close and from an unimaginable distance, too. The five photos included here begin by making the references explicit and very, very literal, then step back a bit to show the ways in which fire is truly what keeps our world alive.
We begin with the photo above, one that Wings captured digitally some twelve to fourteen years ago (my best guess, all these years later, is closer to fourteen; 2008, most likely). It’s a shot of the kiva fireplace in our old brick-and-mortar gallery of that period, a traditional adobe version that emerged organically from the wall. Such fireplaces are architectural marvels: Built of the same clay as the ancient homes and walls, a material that provides natural insulation anyway, they do far better than other types of fireplaces for pushing heat out into the room — crucially important in a place where, to this day, there is no electricity or other power, and where winter temperatures have been known, on occasion, to hit forty below zero.
Fire medicine, indeed.
But the point of this photo is found not solely in the flames themselves, but in what sits atop its crenellated mantel: a gift of the earth in the form of the amethyst; old red cedar flutes propped on the sides; pottery, ancient and contemporary together, all eminently traditional; and a collection of sage and cedar bundles, which, touched by the flames, become medicine in traditional and tangible form.
The image in that photo (and the one immediately below the next work) finds expression in the first of today’s four featured works of wearable art. All four are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. All four pairs share in common aspects of this elemental spirit we call fire, but each in turn possesses is own unique spirit and identity. We begin with the one the best embodies the image above, and my personal favorite of them all. From its description:
A Sacred Fire Earrings
At the center of ceremony sits a sacred fire, flames burning clean and bright, smoke the medicine of prayers and healing. Wings ignites two new flames in the pit with these earrings, masterpieces of ajouré cutwork excised with the signifiers of ingress and egress to sacred space. Each drop is cut freehand in the flowing arc of individual flames flickering up from the fire, each filed smooth and polished to a glowing Florentine finish. at the center of each, the saw-work, wrought in opposing twinned shapes instantly recognizeable from ancient traditional motifs long found in Pueblo pottery, a “kiva steps” pattern that shows the way to the ceremonial chamber. Each earring is suspended from sterling silver earring wires by way of organic ring tabs extending from the top of each fiery drop. Earrings hang 2-1/4″ long (excluding wires) by 3/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
As I said above, these are my favorite pair of all those feature here today. I love the imagery, and the spiritual subtext, of the freehand “kiva steps” cut-work, humanly imperfect mirror images of each other that signify the sacred’s hidden depths and mysteries.
But speaking of the sacred, however much the full-color image at top hints at it via the presence of medicine, it’s the black-and-white image below that seems to evoke it most hauntingly . . . and another that seems especially well-suited to the plain silver earrings above, as well as the ones below.
Wings shot this image at our other gallery, in a traditional village home belonging to a relative — the site of his first real indoor gallery long ago, and of the last, as well. It, too, had a kiva fireplace, but one of slightly different design: More traditional yet, this one was built directly into the corner of two adjoining walls, what’s now known as the firebox simply rounded outward as part of the wall corner itself, set up from the floor on a single steep hearth step. It, too, had a shelf-like mantel, above which the flue became the convex corner of the room. He used that convexity to hang various forms of art, from traditional clay masks to fetish carvings to the occasional large work in silver and stone.
And it is the art that fixes the date on this image. I no longer recall definitively whether he shot this digitally or on film, although I believe it was the latter; it would have been taken in the cold months of late 2006 or early 2007, or at the very end of 2007 at the very latest. I said above that it was a haunting image, and I mean that both in the sense of the nostalgic, even slightly melancholic pull it exerts on heart and spirit, but also in the sense that an aspect of it was profoundly eerie. It helps to see it in conjunction with the other photo he took at the same time, also shot in black and white, of the flue above it with the masks holding pride of place. But for me, it’s always been possible to look at this image and see, in the cold color of the white fire, the power of the spirits at work.
And that brings us to our second featured work of wearable art, earrings from the same informal series that produced the pair above. These are at once longer ( by an entire half-inch) and simpler in overall design, although the hammerwork was anything but. They, too, possess that same haunting quality of pale fire; from their description:
A Cold Silver Fire Earrings
True winter arrives on the flames of a cold silver fire, a chill so deep it burns as bright as the light of the most distant star. Wings honors the season and the extremes of its elemental gifts with these earrings, stylized teardrops that shift and shimmer and dance like pure silver flame. Each is cut entirely freehand of lightweight sterling silver, filed smooth and hand-hammered to catch and reflect the glow of any available light. These dancing drops hang long and dangling, suspended from sterling silver earring wires threaded through organic tab rings at the top. Earrings hang 2-3/4″ long, excluding wires, by 11/16″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$275 + shipping, handling, and insurance
These are long; they dangle and dance, catching the light in the hammerwork and refracting it back out to the world, as is the task of any flame. And they remind us, too, that while we think of the forms and shades of metal as cold, it can flow very hot, and the hottest fire is the one whose flames burn white.
Of course, such fires are of most use to us metaphorically. The flames we need to warm our homes and bodies are best kept at a lower, slower burn, manifest in the bright shades of amber and orange and crimson that are their hallmark.
Flames like these, in other words.
Wings shot that at roughly the same time as the others, somewhere between late 2006 and 2008, most likely. It was a true-to-life color shot of the inside of the gallery fireplace, fully ablaze — an elegant expression of what warms us, body and soul alike.
It’s a collection of shades, and spirits, too, present in the third of today’s featured works of wearable art. It’s a mix of the cobalt blues of the storm and of the hottest flame, ablaze with the gentler spiral of copper fire . . . and of the more metaphorical manifestations of both elemental powers a the safer remove of the sky. From its description:
Storm and Fire Earrings
Summer is the season of storm and fire, of cobalt clouds and molten copper sunsets. Wings summons them all into a vortex of color and spirit with these dangling earrings. Each is built around a composite focal cabochon of brilliant blue lapis lazuli and shimmering strands of copper webbing. Each is set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver, then adorned with a hand-coiled pendant polished copper, glowing like a whirlwind lit from within. Earrings hang 2.5″ long (excluding wires) by 5/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 1.5″ long by 1/4″ across at the widest point; coiled copper pendants are 1/4″ long by 1/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; lapis lazuli and copper composite; copper
$575 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s rare that Wings works in composites, but these cabochons spoke to him clearly and emphatically, and he created their perfect accompaniment in the hand-made copper spirals. The spiral pendants pick up the blazing color in the cabochons beautifully, and for anyone familiar with the summer rainy season in this place of extremes, the stormy skies will be instantly recognizeable.
Much, in fact, like these, a swirling vortex fiery crimson and copper blended with the blues of the rain:
This was a post-storm sunset, one captured digitally, if memory serves, sometime between 2010 and 2014 or so. It’s an image that is perfectly characteristic of our rainy season, when the storms move through in the afternoon, leaving behind a sunset filled still with stormcloud and flame.
The blues, of course, are ever-present, but what catches the eye is the fire.
It’s a post-rain phenomenon common to this high-desert land, and it appears in the fourth and final of today’s featured works of wearable art, a pair whose banded shades of earth and fire appear in the image beneath it, too. From their description:
After the Rain Earrings
The high desert’s monsoon season is one of starkly beautiful landscapes, and after the rain, the sunset sets the sky aflame against a still-gray earth. Wings summons the spirits of storm and sunset simultaneously in these dangling drop earrings, each a long, elegant cascade of landscape jasper set into bezels backed with a feathery pattern as ethereal as the post-storm light. The cabochons are a matched pair, domed at the top and beveled at the corners, warm earthy bands of sand and burgundy and ivory at the top above a land still gray with storm and wind below. Each is set into a hand-filed, low-profile bezel trimmed with twisted silver and hung from sterling silver wires via hand-made jump rings; the back of each setting is hand-milled in a graceful feathered pattern, raised in a silky textured relief. Earrings hang 2.25″ in total length (excluding wires) by 5/8″ across; cabochons are 2″ long by .5″ across (dimensions approximate). [Note: These are large stones, requiring a significant amount of silver; the earrings are substantial, and should be worn by someone accustomed to wearing earrings with a bit of weight.] Reverse shown below.
Sterling silver; landscape jasper
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Because in this land, there is still fire after the rain. The fifth and final of today’s images make that truth abundantly clear.
Wings shot this image digitally — one of several as the sun was setting on an early August day exactly ten years ago. It was the heart of the monsoon season still, and we had spent the day racing to get the hay in before the storms broke.
We almost made it: the last trailer-load of bales was backed into the open front of the hay barn just before the first icy drops began to fall. We unloaded and stacked through most of it, then took a break . . . and storm and sun took a break with us, setting our entire world aglow in a spectrum of ethereal color and light. The first three photos were taken facing eastward, only seconds apart, watching the stormlight filter the setting sun into shades of blue and gold, magenta and green. Then he turned the opposite direction and shot three more of the sunset itself, a cloud-ridden sky fully aflame: amber, copper, crimson, mulberry, radiating out above a healing earth. This was one of the three.
It reminds us that there are moments when we need to stop, to take time out to see, to acknowledge and appreciate and honor all the beauty that earth and sky and elemental spirits deliver to us daily. And in times such as these, with a world quite literally in flames, we need to remember the powerful gifts of fire medicine, too: what warms and cleanses and heals our spirits, and keeps us and our world alive.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
