In recent days we have had high winds, pollen storms, wildfire smoke, and lows plunging below the freezing mark . . . but not a drop of rain.
The land, so green this time last month, is fast browning again, its surface dusty, the soil dry as ash and bone. Just north of here, where the winter snows were heavier, the water flows freely, but here we find ourselves falling again into the clutches of a deadly drought.
The earth is sickened, the world, too: anthropogenic climate catastrophe, pandemic, drought, lands on fire and people drowning in their own fluids. And still colonial humanity refuses to learn what Mother Earth is so desperately trying to teach us all, that our survival is bound up with hers.
It’s enough to make one weep.
Enough to make one die.
The earth needs medicine, and humanity, too; all of the world needs healing now.
Summer always makes abundantly clear all over again why we call water the First Medicine: from simple hydration to sustenance and harvest, it’s what keeps our world alive. But this summer has brought it home anew in ways we did not expect, with the global spread of a pandemic of highly infectious and deadly disease — one that kills, but in turn can be killed . . . with mere soap and water.
It’s part of the reason our cousins on other tribal lands are so susceptible: because this colonial society has left them without ready access to water.
You cannot call yourself a guardian of the water when you treat it like property instead of medicine.
Today’s featured masterwork honors the waters in all their forms: the cascading filaments of rain that revive the earth in summer, the frozen snows of winter, the streams of the First Medicine that send it across the land in a rushing, healing embrace. Today’s featured masterwork, one of Wings’s newest and completed only over the weekend,
It’s one of Wings’s newest works, one of three completed only over the weekend just past. Like the healing power of the water itself, it represents a balancing — between the weight of the stone and the broad lightness of the band, between the finely-webbed indigo and the shimmering light of the silver, between water flowing and medicine flowering. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
From Sacred Waters Cuff Bracelet
From sacred waters medicine flows and grows. In this place, both the lake and the rain and snow that feed it are sacred: the first medicine, the one that allows all others to flourish. Wings honors them all with this cuff bracelet wrought in the shapes and shades of water and light and all that flowers beside them. At the center sits an extraordinary free-form cabochon of ultra-high-grade water-web Kingman turquoise, a perfect blend of robin’s-egg and sky blues with a tight, inky spiderweb matrix. It’s set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver, then set upon a wide yet lightweight sterling silver band cut freehand into four sparkling strands, each stamped in a two separate, facing rows of flowering medicine. The four strands remain united at the ends of the band, each end stamped deeply and cleanly with flowing water and wildflowers dancing between compass motifs, their spokes and corners pointing to the Sacred Directions. Across the inner band are scattered a few stamped hearts, symbols of the love the spirits show in providing us with the water, with the plants, with life itself. The band is 6″ long by 1-1/2″ across, with each of the four individual strands measuring 3/16″ across; the turquoise cabochon is 1-3/4″ long by 1-3/16″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade water-web Kingman turquoise
$,1750 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s work that is a marvel of Mother Earth’s own artistry and that of her children. The stone is a phenomenon in its own right, a rare and outsized specimen of perfect color and pattern. The band is an extraordinary display of freehand skill, of patience, meticulousness, attention to detail, and pure talent, all of the cutwork and stampwork created entirely by hand, individually, without aid of templates, stencils, or power tools.
It’s a perfect tribute to its subject, streams of light and medicine flowing from either side of that incredible pool of water, evoking the sacred lake even as it honors the sanctity of the rain.
It’s a new personal favorite, bold, striking, and infused with the spirit of healing.
And healing is what our whole world needs now. Perhaps it all begins with streams of the First Medicine, protected, honored, enabled to embrace the Earth.
~ 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.
