After an unrelievedly terrible week, the world outside our door continues with its extended “holiday weekend.” It feels as though the whole of the world is burning down around us, in every sense of the phrase, and yet colonialism insists upon business as usual and does its level best to inflict them on Indigenous spaces in the process.
I learned long ago, of course, that such colonial societies, their systems and structures, all remain supremely unbothered in the slightest by destruction and death. When my own family was touched by terrible tragedy, it seemed unthinkable that the world insisted upon going on as usual around me, but our loss did not even register on its cultural radar.
In the nearly three decades intervening, nothing has changed on that front except for the worse. But the repeated acts of deadly violence over the last week have dredged it back up in stark and vivid form. In these days of destruction, it’s hard to remember that this is a space, and a season, of creation.
Yes, elemental forces can be destructive, although they will never come close to the harm, the pure violence, that humans are capable of visiting upon each other . . . and upon the Earth itself. They, in truth, are the reason why such forces have become so powerfully destructive, but by the same token, they still retain the capacity to create. And while the fires nearby have been so fierce as to create their own weather, their own storms, their kind also cleanses and purifies and even heals, laying the groundwork for new growth: the fires of creation itself, in a season of planting and growth.
Today’s featured work reminds us in equally vivid form of these truths. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Sun and Moon Dream the World Cuff Bracelet
Sun and moon dream the world into being, hold it on its axis in an orbit of warm fire and cooling light. Wings dreams their spirits into being, too, with this cuff bracelet, a marvel of freehand stampwork that pays tribute to the motifs and medicine of the celestial spirits and their powers. The band’s pattern is formed largely of a single triangular stamp, a peak of rays above three smaller half orbs. Each open-ended triangle traces either edge of the band; two more rows meet in the middle to form radiant Eyes of Spirit, lit from within by a central sun and a moon on wax and wane, each connected by a plain, smooth “Eye” formed of the negative space between them. At either end is a single lifeline, flowing and bidirectional, representing the infinity of possibility for this visionary world of celestial dreams. The stampwork on the band’s surface is so deep, so consistent and uniform, that its spirit echoes softly on the underside. At either end of the inner band, overlays of a pair of hand-formed coils of shimmering copper replicate Earth’s orbit and the way of the hoop simultaneously. At the center of the outer band, set into a scalloped bezel and trimmed with twisted silver, sits a long, tapered oval cabochon of spiny oyster shell and copper composite, shades of sunfire and moonglow heat-treated to meld in a glorious burst of orange flame and snowy white. The band is 6″ long by 1-1/16″ across; the bezel is 1-9/16″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point; the cabochon is 1-3/8″ long by 3/8″ across at the widest point (directions approximate). Sides, ends and inner band, and front views shown below.
Sterling silver; copper; spiny oyster shell and copper composite
$1,250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a work whose inner band speaks of emergence, of paths spiraling ever outward into the light, of the generative power of elemental spirits like the Water Serpent.
The outer band speaks similarly of illumination, of the forces of the skies and the guidance of more powerful spirits still.
It’s a work much like those spirits it represents: of power flowing, yet pointed, of heartlines that deliver breath and lifeblood and existence itself.
It reminds us of the creative medicine of our world, of sun and moon, of fire and water, of birth and rebirth and an understanding of the world that sees it as whole and eternal.
This day has already drifted into a pall of smoke haze and light cloud cover, the latter holding nothing of rain but only the ash and heat that created it.
It’s remarkable to think that a wildfire, a massive engine of flaming destruction, can in fact be similarly a catalyst for creating its own weather systems: wind, lightning, even ash-filled rain. This is the dangerous side of its power, of course, but it’s simply the other side of the whole, one that includes regenerative power.
The irony, of course, is that, had colonial officials listened to Indigenous land stewardship experts for all these decades, there would be no wildfires raging here now. For that matter, had colonial officials heeded our peoples, there would similarly be no twelve-hundred-year drought, no aridification, no death-dealing weather — and no climate catastrophe driving it all.
But of course, they did not, and so we must deal with what is. But in the process, we cannot lose sight of the possibilities that remain: for reclamation and restoration, renewal and rebirth. These are days of destruction, true, but also of the fires of creation, and we must make sure that it is the latter’s legacy that survives.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
