Last night’s stars were not nearly so bright, and today, the clouds are looming early. That’s a welcome development, actually; the few scattered drops of rain we’ve gotten over recent days have been woefully insufficient for what the land needs now.
If the big blue-black wall in the western sky is any indication, we might be in for something more substantial today . . . but we know how rapidly the winds can shift here, both literally and metaphorically, and we know better than to bank on it.
At the moment, the biggest question related to the skies is whether we shall be able to see the new sliver at moonset tonight. Two days past the new moon should be sufficient for it to show, but over recent weeks, remnant thunderheads have veiled much of that portion of the sunset sky.
The next full moon will occur just after midday here on August 19th. It will also be the only so-called blue moon of the year, at least as the label was supposedly originally defined. The putative first definition of a blue moon is the third full moon of a season that will see a fourth before the season is out: not, as it happens, the rare fourth and final full moon of the calendar season, but the penultimate one. The other definition, supposedly a later one, is of a second full moon that occurs within the same calendar month as the one immediately prior to it.
Of course, both definitions, and the widely varied interpretations of them, are utterly non-Indigenous here, concepts imported from Europe’s cultures by colonizing populations. We see that same colonial influence in the supposed “names” of each full moon, most of which bear no resemblance to how either of our peoples understands the moons and times to which such labels ostensibly refer. That was true last month, and it remains true now, and it’s why you don’t see any reference to them here, either in the posts in tis space or in Wings’s work generally.
But the phrase “once in a blue moon” is one that we both grew up hearing, and it’s one of those aspects of popular culture that has found purchase in our thought processes. For us, it perhaps has a different, even deeper resonance, given that we are accustomed to recognizing the moon in all the many colors of her robes. But it’s much more than just apparent color, which is also influenced greatly by atmospheric conditions; it’s also distance, season, timing, all the many subtle shifts in appearance and less-subtle shifts in location that contribute to our understanding of the orbs and crescents that nurture the night.
This week’s edition of Red Willow Spirit is an acknowledgment of some of those ways of understanding and engaging with those sources of light. The photos all consist of the moon in her fuller phases, and they represent a somewhat different collection than is usual here, but it’s specific to the post’s purpose. The first, shown above, was shot by Wings in digital format more than a decade ago — if memory serves, in 2013, although it might have been anywhere from one to three years prior. He captured it in digital format: a use of his very first digital camera, I believe, a very small, modest model that nonetheless produced images as extraordinary as this one. He called it Moon Over El Salto, but I believe the ridgeline just visible before the base of this giant golden orb is actually from the southern peak of Spoon Mountain. It’s frankly irrelevant to the name, since the moon here is a presence that washes the whole of the land in its glowing light.
There’s obviously nothing blue about the moon itself, nor about the velvety black background of the night sky. It most likely wasn’t a blue moon by the two accepted definitions, either; I suspect it was an ordinary full moon of a cooler season. But it points up the truth that here at Red Willow, every moon is a blue moon, each unique, and uniquely beautiful and powerful, its medicine what matters rather than any label.
The first of today’s two featured works of wearable art is a tribute to this truth. It’s a pair of pairs, earrings in traditional styles, and both are found in the Earrings Gallery here on the site. We begin with the newer pair, one whose identity, according to conventional wisdom, applies only to one that one full moon this year, the one coming up fewer than two weeks from now. But it’s a pair wrought to honor to all the blue moons, however defined — and however understood by cultures the world over. From its description:
All the Blue Moons Earrings
All the blue moons are mystery and magic, their very existence a rare gift. With these earrings, Wings honors their uncommon appearance, and the mystical nature of what they represent. Each dangling drop is formed of a large oval of sterling silver, saw-cut freehand and domed lightly from the reverse to assume their traditional concha shape. At the center of each sits a round, highly domed cabochon of ethereal Labradorite, each silvery gray but with an abundance of cobalt-blue flash from within. From beneath their bezels emanate eleven rays scored individually, freehand, each pair ending in one of twelve separately stamped radiant motifs, signifying the light of each month’s moon Each earring hangs suspended from sterling silver coil-and-ball-bead French earring wires via organic hand-drilled tabs at the top. Domed, earrings hang 1-3/4″ long, excluding wires, by 1-1/2″ across at the widest point; Labradorite cabochons are 7/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; Labradorite
$450 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It took me several tries to get a shot of this pair that would show their focal stones to full effect. They’re gray Labradorite, but the internal color shift is phenomenal, and that cobalt-blue flash is not an artifact of the photograph; it’s very, very real.
It makes them perfect for this pair, wrought in an old traditional style with stampwork that radiates light.
Radiates light, in fact, just like the moon its stones represent.
Which brings us to the second of today’s images. I said earlier that this edition’s photos “represent a somewhat different collection than is usual here,” and that remains true: The second and third photos are not by Wings, but by me [and thus are not for sale]. It’s also not without precedent; when I’ve wanted to illustrate a particular aspect of our lives here, I’ve turned to mine to supplement his on occasion, and such is the case now.
This is a photo that I took, in digital format, perhaps eight, ten, eleven years ago. It was, if memory serves, autumn, the clouds not yet fully departed from the throat of the valley between Spoon Mountain and Pueblo Peak, as you can see from the horizontal banding in shades of dusty rose. There are a few times during the year when a full moon — or, as I believe it was here, one day prior to full — rises before full dark, and it’s possible to see it ascend, a giant pearl floating against a wine-colored sky. At such times, the mountains are not fully black, shades of blue and purple visible in the low light, and the sky becomes radiant in a way that is very different from daylight, but no less powerful.
It also shows off the moon to spectacular effect, allowing it to seem to hang low and close, permitting the naked eye to see the gradations of color that add character to her face. In that, it’s a bit like the “moons” of today’s second featured work of wearable art.
This second pair of earrings is wrought in a design nonspecific to rare lunar phenomena, and yet, one aspect of it seems rare indeed. It’s a pair to honor the truth that the moon rests on a blanket of stars, regardless of whether it occurs at uncommon points in month or season and irrespective of the color it chooses to show to us — safe always in the silvered embrace of stars older than time as we know it. From its description:
The Moon Rests On a Blanket of Stars Earrings
The moon rests on a blanket of stars spread to the four directions. With these earrings, Wings places a jeweled version of Grandmother at the center of her sky, with silvered stars shooting along their heavenly trajectory beneath her. Each bold dangling drop is hand-milled in a line-and-dot motif hat seems to follow the path of an ancient light, then cut freehand into the old traditional four-spoked geometry that represents the winds and the sacred directions. The beautifully high-domed Labradorite cabochons at the center are deep and mysteriously whorled with the moondust of refracted color. Sterling silver jump rings at the top allow them to hang securely from sterling silver earring wires. Earrings hang 2-1/8″ long, excluding wires, by 3/4″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 7/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; Labradorite
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Again, it took some doing to show off these stones properly. Both are representative of how they look, and their qualities manifest in both stones, too — in ordinary light, layers of shimmering gray with dark flecks of schorl, but with the sun filtering through them, displaying the drastic color shifts for which Labradorite is rightly famous. Yes, the blue is real, but that’s less unusual; what’s remarkable here is the gradient of moss green and gold and warm radiant peach, all of which show themselves when the light catches the stone just right.
Much like, as it happens, the light in the third and final of today’s photos:
This is also my image, and I remember distinctly when I captured it: at moonrise in January of 2019. This is no summer moon, no; this one belongs to the very heart of winter. I took a great many shots that night, including several close-ups using the zoom function that showed the texture and color of the full moon’s face. But this one captured my imagination, and my spirit: that wintry iridescence that backlit the clouds surrounding our Grandmother’s rise that night, in all the shades and effects of the most finely polished of such jewels of the earth.
I named the photo Labradorite.
Its inclusion here reminds me that we need not see the moon’s face clearly, nor even at all, to benefit from her medicine. Her light touches earth and sky alike, turning clouds into something otherworldly, and the night into pure magic.
This is one of the great gifts of the moon, that she is always with us, even when we cannot see her, whether due to phase or cloud cover, and her gifts are just as constant. The orbs and crescents that nurture the night nurture the earth and our spirits, too.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
