Midday, and the wind is rising, but at least we were granted a calm and beautiful morning. It’s still a drastic change from yesterday’s ferocious gale, its force less bluster and more battering and bitterly, bitterly cold into the bargain.
Such is the nature of spring here, but it has worsened significantly in recent years with the accelerating influences and effects of colonialism-driven climate change. These days, being granted even a few daylight hours of calm and warmth in March is a gift, and we are grateful to have had it.
I regularly refer to this as the trickster season here, one that shifts shape and spirit, soul and substance, in the beat of the smallest bird’s wing. It’s true that the polar swings in temperature contribute to that, as well as the near-inevitability of at least one more massive snowstorm, the kind that drops a foot of heavy white stuff in the overnight hours only to see the whole of it melted before noon. But the real essence of this unsettled and unsettling season is the wind.
The wild creatures feel it, too. Some of the smaller birds still congregate around the feeders, but the larger ones tend to wait for evening. The gusts this time of year are enough to send a raven flying in reverse; the raptors can’t be bothered with fighting it. Even the prairie dogs stayed mostly below ground yesterday, preferring to avoid the sting of the dirt — and, of course, the depredations of the dogs who have newly discovered their existence.
Late two or three nights ago, I heard all the area dogs barking at once. I stepped outside to find that the coyotes were near and in full chorus for the first time in months. They tend to be creatures of the threshold seasons, spring and especially fall, but we see little of them in winter weather and even less in summer. On this night, however, they were present in force and number and singing for the stars.
The one being we rarely, if ever, see here is Coyote’s cousin, Wolf. There are wolves here, of course, in the backcountry, but they are far less willing to approach human habitation than their hungrier relatives. I say “hungrier,” but it might be simply a question of “greedier”; there is, after all, a reason why Coyote has earned a reputation in so many of our cultures as a trickster, while Wolf rarely does likewise. At any rate, as far as we know, we’ve only spotted the latter here once or twice, from a distance: very early morning hours, and moving at such speed through the chamisa and sage that it was impossible to get a clear shot. But where Coyote frequently flies solo, Wolf tends to keep to the pack, a less self-centered and more communally-oriented personality, so to speak. In that regard, both are particularly well-suited to current season and circumstance . . . but the former identifies with it even as the latter defends against it — a season of trickster winds, protector spirits, and for all of us, a very hard road ahead for weeks to come.
This week’s #TBT featured work resembles both wild canine species a bit, but although it’s small like Coyote, it’s a tribute to Wolf — or, more specifically, to Wolf’s larger ancestor, Direwolf. Dating back exactly one decade, to March of 2012, it was one of a group of three pins that Wings created for one of our dearest friends, part of a very special commission in which each pin was to be presented as a gift to a different person working intimately on and in a project in which. Direwolf, or rather direwolves, plural, were themselves characters. One, which we have featured in this space in the past, was set with a moonstone eye; the other two featured amethyst eyes. This is the first of those two, one set with an unusually deeply purple gem.
Some folks will no doubt recognize the image for what it is, and know exactly to what the style refers. But because that style was already so well established, Wings wanted to incorporate its feel, its spirit, into his own Indigenous representation of a wolf, and, in fact, conversation with our friend indicated that that was the goal. So while he very often sketches a few quick lines directly onto silver before saw-cutting a pice out freehand, in this case, he went through several pen-and-paper iterations before coming up with a version he found satisfactory, one that would in fact be instantly recognizeable, so that the recipients (and everyone else) would know the reference instantly, but that also incorporated the feeling of essential power, sense of motion, and animating spirit of that creature the world now knows simply as Wolf.
To achieve that, he wanted a wolf in motion: running, with all the great power and speed that spirit’s lean body possesses. Eventually, he refined the general shape to the one you see here, with each of the pins in full gallop but with slight variations in body placement and extension. After sketching out the general shape, including running legs, snout and muzzle, and placement of ears and tail, he then turned its entire topline (and some of its lower line too) into a mix of giant ruff and wind-ruffled fur. Again, the shape used to achieve will be recognizeable to those who know the original, but Wings freehanded all of it here.
Once he had the basic outline set, he chose two separate V-shaped stamps — stamps used most often to represent arrowheads, or occasionally a lodge motif, both of which are remarkably apt for a spirit known for its protective qualities, given their customary defensive uses — and set to work on delineating the ruffled and rippling fur on ears, ruff, body, flanks, and tail. He kept the patterning largely random, just enough to evoke the patterns created by the wind itself. he used a bold arc, paired with a tiny one, to articulate the hip joint; a few smaller arcs, lines, and hoops gave definition to the face and legs. Because only one eye would show, and it was necessary that it be recognizeably amethyst, he chose a small cabochon that was nonetheless slightly larger than what would ordinarily be proportional, so that the color and depth of the stone would catch the eye. After soldering the bezel into place, he turned the piece over, shaped the pin gently to give it the faintest doming so that it would lie properly when worn, then added his hallmark and soldered the pin assembly securely on the reverse. Finally, he oxidized all of the stampwork heavily and then buffed the entire piece to a medium-high polish — enough to make the silver gleam, but not enough to erase the oxidation deep in each stamped groove. Leaving the stamps cleanly but deeply oxidized provided depth to the piece, erasing its flatness and providing a sense of dimensionality to it.
All that remained was to set the stone. Of course, as I noted earlier, all three pins were created simultaneously; upon completion, Wings had to choose which stone went with which pin, and he adjudged this one the proper recipient of the deep purple amethyst cabochon, one like the darkened glow of storm and night. Once the stone was set, he gave the piece a final buffing by hand, blessed it traditionally, and handed it, with its two siblings, off to me to arrange for delivery.
In many of our peoples’ traditions, Wolf is a protective being, one who works to keep family, and by extension, community, safe from outside harms. It’s probably no surprise, then, that it should play a central role in numerous traditional stories and teachings — very like its cousin Coyote in that regard, although to teach the opposite lessons. As the clouds clear beneath the rising wind outside now, it occurs to me that we have plenty of Coyote’s influences among us now, but we could use more of Wolf’s presence: in trickster winds, protector spirits for us all.
~ Aji
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