The snakes will all have gone to ground in a matter of weeks, perhaps even days. The last few days have been dark, intermittently rainy, and increasingly cold, not conducive to keeping reptiles warm and happy.
More, the ravens have been hovering, watching, waiting, just hoping to spot movement in the fields, a meal to feed the entire clan. They’ve been getting bolder, too, probably driven by a combination of regional habitat destruction and plain old hunger: Yesterday morning, four juveniles showed up at the feeder. One dove in without a second thought; the others, more cautious, joined in after a few minutes’ vacillation.
And so for now, the only serpents that put in an appearance are those that come down from the sky — tendrils of cloud that wend and wind their way between the peaks and over the valleys, snaking along the ground beneath a pressing layer of fog.
For some southwest peoples, this is unequivocally a good thing; snakes have occupy no beneficial place in their cultural framework. For others, it’s more complex. After all, Serpent is a spirit of great power, and in our traditions, he carries none of the cosmic baggage offloaded from the Book of Genesis. That’s not to say the he is necessarily “good,” but for many of our peoples, he’s not “bad,” either. He’s simply a force, yet another in collection of beings that populate the world, with his own identity, his own powers, his own role to play. How we approach that force, and choose to interact with it (or choose not to) is what is relevant — our appreciation of and respect for his power and in any attempt to harness it, to do so responsibly.
It’s an age-old balance, one we need to strike in all of our interactions — with each other, and also with the inhabitants of the natural world and its resources.
In Wings’s work, that same quest for harmony is a recurring theme, an element so fundamental that its inclusion is often not even a conscious act: It’s simply innate, inherent, immanent.
The earrings shown above are no exception. They’re a perfect example of his work at its simplest and most symbolic — pieces that manifest organically, meaning born spontaneously, evolving naturally out of form and shape. Some of those meanings have been explored here before. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
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
Things of the heavens; things of the earth; the powers of each and the processes of mediating between them. Father Sun, that orb of pure silvery light without which nothing survives. The shape of the shells, old spirits once of water, now of land. Serpent himself, he who moves across the earth in this world, yet is able to wend his way through other worlds, as well, in medicine and dreams.
When I don a pair of earrings for the day, it’s rarely a fully conscious choice. Every pair Wings has given me carries its own artistry, its own history, its own layer of symbols, both tangible and otherwise. On one day, it may be the colors that speak to me; on another, the obvious symbols; on still another, the underlying reason for the gift. On some days, there’s no apparent rhyme or reason, but the choice is the one I need worn close that day.
It’s one of the qualities of his work that imbues today’s pair and makes it one of my favorites — that ability to speak, to reassure on multiple levels for a multitude of needs. Today, they seem to me to be a way to capture a bit of summer, of the season and its warmth and light . . . and a reminder that the inherent power of the natural world requires us to harness it responsibly and handle it with respect.
~ Aji
