The sun is pale this morning, hiding behind a veil of clouds. To the west, the skies are darkening fast as a long line of storms approaches rapidly now.
It appears the forecast rain will actually arrive this time, and not a moment too soon.
We had only a scattering of drops yesterday, a dozen or a score, but a light rain settled in briefly overnight. Before that, the clouds parted long enough for us to witness the rise of the first full moon of summer, simultaneously heavy and seemingly weightless, by turns glowing amber and silvery white. This is the season of illumination ascendant, of sky spirits in flight.
Today’s featured work embodies flight, sky spirits, and illuminating power all at once. It’s a pair of earrings, one of my personal all-time favorites, in the form and shape of the Water Bird, ascendant and filled with light and power. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Ascension Earrings
The Water Bird is a figure simultaneously sacred and a part of our lives, one whose spirit has long appeared in Wings’s personal tradition and one that he has long infused into his work. These representations of this powerful wingéd being seem to belong wholly to the winter season, feathered spirits able to transcend the snow and ice and early dark, capable of ascension to the light. Cut freehand of sterling silver, each is wrought in classic symbolic shape, head pointing upward, wings arched, tailfeathers spread. A pair of hand-stamped crescents placed back to back give form and shape to the head and hint at otherworldly vision; a single arrowhead point defines the tail. Body feathers are represented by a trio of longer points, while hand-chiseled lines form the upper tailfeathers. Long, elegantly rayed mountain motifs are spread gently atop the wings, articulating the layers of covert wing feathers. at the heart of each water bird rests a fabulously adularescent oval cabochon of rainbow moonstone, perfectly translucent and refracting rays of cobalt blue, as thought each water bird carries with it the light of pure illumination as it ascends to the place where the spirits dwell. Small silver jump rings hold them securely to sterling silver wires. Earrings hang 2″ long (excluding jump rings and wires) by 1.25″ across at the widest point; moonstone cabochons are 1/2″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; rainbow moonstone
$725 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Small drops are falling now; as I write, the storm encroaches, thunderheads so towering that we cannot see more than their violet bases moving overhead. The glow of the sun to the southeast is silver now, its light as pale and radiant as last night’s moon.
And in a world that grows darker by the day — a world in the throes of pandemic, drought, violence, white supremacy, colonialism, and all the pain and suffering and grief and loss that attend them — we can use every bit of light available, however small or pale.
We can use the illumination, and the wisdom, too. It’s time to release our own spirits now, to allow them, in defiance of gravity and the shackles that bind us to the things of this world, to seek the aid of more powerful beings. It’s time for visions and dreams, time to join the sky spirits in flight — to gain a new view upon our world, and the wisdom to act upon it.
~ 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.
