At four forty-five this morning, the moon hit its full phase. We were not yet awake to see it, if it was even visible to us at all by then; at that hour, it’s usually at or already below the northwest horizon now. The high thin clouds that trailed across last night’s sky veiled the moon’s face, too, so that our only proof of her presence was a diffuse silver glow.
But in the hours preceding her ascension, those indigo hours of sunset, the western skies put on their own particular show, lighting up our world with the purple fire of twilight.
Such sunsets have been relatively rare lately, mostly because by day’s end, we have not had enough clouds to produce the fiery rainbow of color that marks that moment at other seasons. Last night’s, though, was glorious, shades of rose and violet and copper flame, all banded together in an elemental dance, one that spiraled around to touch the clouds on all sides of us, even those above the mountains to the east.
And it put me thoroughly in mind of today’s featured throwback work.
In truth, I had already chosen this piece for today’s post, but last night’s fire at fall of dark seemed an affirmation of sorts, as though the very skies of day and night were endorsing the choice. It’s one that embodies such beauty and power, and healing, too, in substance and spirit and indeed in very name. This was one of the nine coil bracelets from last December’s commission by one of our dearest friends, and it was one of my favorites of the lot: Twilight Medicine was its name, and it was manifest in all the powerful shades and spirits of the western skies at day’s end and the birth of the night.
This one was built around a large polished barrel bead of purple and gray mookaite, the swirled shades of a thunderhead’s base, flanked on either side by glossy tapered barrels of faceted onyx. From there, it fanned outward into a spiraling embrace of purple fire: segments of large and luminous lepidolite round beads flowing into slightly smaller mulberry-toned ruby rounds, each length broken up by separator beads and segments of large purpled mookaite doughnut rondels, both smooth and faceted onyx barrels, icy gray Labradorite doughnut rondels, shimmering as though lit from within by the light of a thousand stars, and toward the ends, square onyx tubes and very old hand-wrought copper barrels. Stretched out into one long strand, the colors would have been breathtaking; allowed by the memory wire to circle in on itself, it was a vortex of pure dusken power, all the elemental beauty of high desert sky and storm, light and night, brought together in an otherworldly round dance.
Today, the air is hazy with pollen, and the forecast winds are already on the rise. Who knows whether tonight will be clear enough to see the [by then no longer quite] full moon? But there will certainly be dust in the air at day’s end, and perhaps the winds will blow in enough clouds once again to deliver the purple fire of twilight. Whatever they bring, it will be a gift, and it will be medicine.
~ Aji
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