After a cloudy start to the morning, it’s bright and sunny now, early monsoonal-pattern thunderheads again on the rise around the horizon. In all defiance of the forecast, the skies granted a slight sprinkle late yesterday afternoon, not nearly enough to earn the label of “shower.” The rains arrived, though, in the early hours of the morning, soft, steady, soaking, and of sufficient volume to revive the thirsty earth.
It may be true that the only flowers yet open are the dandelions, but the whole earth seems reawakened and revived, reaching for the sky.
This morning’s gift was notable, too, as our first real spring rain. Such other precipitation as we have had thus far has tasted more of winter than of warmer winds, often mixed with snow and sleet, always accompanied by a harsh and bitter wind. This rain was gentle, exactly the sort of medicine the earth, and the world, need now.
As I write, Wings is at work harrowing the whole of the earth here, turning and aerating it so that grass and flowers may grow. That act alone will scatter a few seeds, and we shall find blossoms in unlikely places a few weeks hence. But next week should see us beginning to plant, and by the end of this week, the first of our wildly domesticated flowers open to the light.
I say “wildly domesticated” because in recent years we have had more than few growing wild, alone or in small groups, that were never planted — not wildflower species, but tulips and lilies and poppies whose seeds were scattered upon the wind, only to find their way to the rich earth of this place and take root. Yesterday’s lily was one such; the scarlet tulip above, its center inky purple limned with gold, is another. They find strength and purpose here, too, and the fall of the First Medicine coaxes them to dance with their wildflower cousins in the light of the high desert sun.
In this place, at an elevation of such long deep cold and crystal clarity, the opening of the first flowers of spring feels like ceremony, as though the very earth, newly shawled in reds and golds, is offering the best and most beautiful of herself to the spirits of the skies in prayer.
It’s an image, and a wild bouquet, fit for the first of today’s featured works. Both are drawn from more recent entries in Wings’s signature series of the last four years or so, The Coiled Power Collections, a series of jeweled gifts of the earth strung in the spiraling shape of a coil bracelet. These two are manifest in the first shades of spring, muted earth tones opening into rich red and yellow petals amid the glow of sherds of golden sunlight. And at times such as these, when the world outside our borders is filled with the dark shadows of environmental destruction, of pandemic and death, they remind us that we have resources upon which to call, reservoirs of courage and strength of heart and spirit.
They remind us, among other lessons, of the importance now of prayer, and of the role of ceremony.
Our first featured work embodies this act, both symbolically and in name. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Ceremony Coil Bracelet
We seek truth through prayer, through petitioning the spirits in the sacred fire of ceremony. Wings honors the fire, its purpose and effects, in this spiraling coil of flame. Manifest in the colors of the fire itself, it begins, small and red, with tiny freeform nuggets of angelskin branch coral that extend into larger freeform nuggets of highly polished carnelian. As the flames coalesce in color and intensity, they become spheres of chatoyant red tiger’s eye growing into the diffuse maroon and gold shades of mookaite. The fire concentrates into golden shades, freeform amber nuggets followed by luminous yellow tiger’s eye spheres, finally crystallizing into the pure gold fire of citrine. Memory wire expands and contracts to fit nearly any wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; angelskin coral; carnelian; mookaite; amber; tiger’s eye; citrine
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Bright flashes of color appear outside the window now, bits of sun captured in petals and wings. The goldfinches congregate at the feeders, the whole clan in residence now; the yellow-headed blackbird remains happily ensconced, most of the time, in the red willows outside the kitchen door. And in the weeks to come, the wild rudbeckia behind the house will open to the light.
This land, harsh and sere as it so often is, is nonetheless home to a wide array of colorful wildflowers. Cornflowers in shades from white to pink to magenta to violet to periwinkle to cobalt blue thrive here; so do purple asters and bright yellow daisies.
Whole extended clans of the last return to dance here every spring and summer: rudbeckia, in the form of daises, brown-eyed Susans, firewheels, blanketflowers. Some mimic their larger cousins, the wild sunflowers, in color and shape if not in size — long, slender, graceful golden petals around heads in rich hues, from brown to purple edged with crimson.
They remind us, these wildflowers, of our own interconnectedness — to the land, to clan and community, to our world. They represent the beauty that comes out of responsibility, of our commitment to the work.
And the find expression in the second of today’s featured works, one that symbolizes those ancient and ancestral resources and the spirits who create and sustain our world. From its description in the same section of the same gallery:
The Ancestors, the Clans, and the Gifts of the Spirits Coil Bracelet
The ancestors, the clans, and the gifts of the spirits are all sources of the truth of our existence. With this coil, Wings pays homage to these building blocks of not only our cultures and lifeways but our very selves, wrought in a continuous circle of ancient materials woven with the reds of identity and blood. At either end are small polished nuggets of rhodochrosite, warm pale rose and pearlescent with matrix. They extend into lengths of fiery chatoyant red tiger’s eye, round orbs seemingly lit with the light of the stars, infused with the deep reds of ancestry and history. The clans are represented by earthy doughnut-shaped rondels of fossilized dinosaur bone, impossibly old and ethereally beautiful. At the center lie fourteen spheres, large mookaite beads in the reds of our blood and the golds of earth and light of the indescribable translucent shades of the spirits and the blessings they bestow daily. Memory wire expands and contracts to fit nearly any wrist. Designed jointly by Wings and Aji.
Memory wire; rhodochrosite; red tiger’s eye; fossilized dinosaur bone; mookaite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We will likely see the daisies begin to flower, either this week or the next. To see the wild sunflowers reaching for the sky, and for the rainbow-colored light, we shall have to wait for the heart of monsoon season.
These are among the gifts of the warm season, these wild sunflowers dancing tall in the winds, the rains of summer, the arc of the rainbow light. They teach us strength and resilience, adaptability and courage in the face of adversity and danger — and always, always to put in the work, physically and spiritually, for a life of beauty and abundance.
As some ceremonial seasons draw to a close and those associated with the warm months near, we find this year that our small world remains closed in more tangible ways. It would be too easy to close ourselves off, too — from our responsibilities, from our world, from the earth and her needs and the old ways. We have no choice but to isolate physically. But we can learn to remain open spiritually by following the lead of the first brave flowers of spring, rising, opening, reaching for the sky.
~ 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.
