Moonrise last night was the stuff of dreams: a silver-white glow from behind the top of the northeast slope of Pueblo Peak, reaching, radiating, growing into a giant amber half-orb suspended in the night.
It was a dream-like experience, too, watching it rise, emergent from the shadow of the mountain and faint trailing clouds to assume its rightful place in the cold clear night. The sky was an imperfect black, velvet yet banded in the subtlest of blues and a remnant golden glow, beaded with the jewels of a thousand thousand stars in formation. The beauty was enough to steal what breath the cold had left, and the rest of the world, the distant lights of resort and town, all fell away beneath my feet.
Only the sky remained.
It is visionary moments like these that allow us a glimpse into other worlds, if only we are willing to stop and still ourselves sufficiently to see. At such times, the cold falls away, too; the body forgets its discomfort as the other senses bask in the glow radiating from that tiniest of portals, a crack in the cosmos that affords us a glimpse of what awaits us on the other side of that invisible line, the one that divides this world from that of the spirits.
And we come to realize that the awe it inspires is not fear, but medicine.
In the web of a winter’s night, the moon’s light is medicine, too: not hope, but a promise, that we are not alone on the path.
Today’s featured work is the promise made manifest, wearable, a constant reminder of the illuminating gifts of the world of dreams and spirits. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Dream Medicine Cuff Bracelet
Dream medicine heals the spirit, illuminating our worldly path by means of a link to the forces of other worlds. Wings evokes healing powers and visionary experiences with this cuff, wrought of heavy-gauge sterling silver triangle wire. On each angled side of the band’s surface, graceful, flowing lines link bearpaw prints, traditional symbols of protection and medicine. Directly on top of the triangle’s apex, he has stamped scores of tiny crescents in a meticulous, consistent repeating pattern. The stampwork is bold, deep, and clean; the ends of the band are rounded and filed smooth for comfort. At the very center of the band’s surface, in a scalloped bezel trimmed with twisted silver, rests a freeform oval cabochon of ultra-high-grade Black Web Kingman turquoise, an electric sky blue tightly spiderwebbed with an inky black matrix and shimmering flashes of pyrite. The spectacular center cabochon is flanked on either side by richly textured moon-like orbs, a pair of highly domed, faceted cabochons of rainbow moonstone set in plain, low-profile bezels. The stones suggest the luminous web of visions and dreams, holding within it the illuminating powers of Medicine. Cuff is 6″ long by 3/8″ across at the triangle’s “base”; turquoise cabochon is 3/4″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point; rainbow moonstone cabochons are 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate). Other views shown below.
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade Black-Web Kingman turquoise; rainbow moonstone
$2,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It is the perfect piece for winter: a dark-webbed sky in the midst of moons like ice in a full spectrum of radiance; the tracks of bear, a healer and protector in the cold season; a cascading fall of water and light, the first medicine and the wisdom of the spirits.
Today, the sky is as blue as the indigo stone, webbed not with the night but with the pearl-gray clouds of changing weather. Tomorrow’s snow may yet arrive tonight. And if it does, the night’s late moonrise will be hidden from our sight.
It doesn’t matter. The light of the night sky is there, whether we can see her or not . . . and so, once again, the promise is fulfilled for yet another day.
And we are granted, once more, the gift of medicine: of the constant moon, the spirits’ light, the winter’s dreams.
~ 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.
