This week, we’ve been looking at our world through other eyes — mostly those of the birds, whose viewpoint is nearer the full panorama available to more powerful spirits. But even other earth-bound spirits have much to teach us about how to perceive the world . . . and some traverse the spaces between earth and sky, able to see from and inhabit multiple perspectives.
So it is with the “eyes” of today’s featured work, gifts of the earth named for a being bound firmly to it, yet evoking the spirit of a far more powerful entity that presides over all our lives. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Father Sun’s gaze is chatoyant warmth and golden fire, captured in a pair of earrings that embody this powerful spirit’s own eyes. Two solid, substantial sterling silver conchas lightly domed, repoussé-fashion. Each is stamped with concentric rings of traditional symbols: the sun’s coronal flare spiraling clockwise, extending into sunrise symbols. Beyond the small signs of the dawn symbols of life itself open and flower, each secure in the embrace of a ring of larger sunrises edging each concha. At the center sit the spirit’s eyes themselves: round tiger’s eye cabochons of near-feline aspect: the same warm rich golden brown of our people, gaze touched with a pearlescent fire that forms the light and warms the earth.
Sterling silver; tiger’s eye
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
At this time of year, it’s a good reminder: that Father Sun’s gaze is steady and universal, even when stormclouds and winter snows mask his face. Some of our peoples fulfill daily tasks to support his journey: calling, praying, singing the great fiery spirit across the sky, to ensure sufficient light and warmth for another day’s existence. But while in the colder season we are always aware of our mortal need for the gift of the sun’s gaze, we sometimes forget the broader view upon which it falls.
With today’s featured work, Wings has captured both vision and reality, sight and substance, melding them into a greater whole. It’s a lesson for us mere mortals, whose sight is too often short: The view we are granted from our place on the earth is vast and often beautiful, but still a limited one. There are other views, from greater heights, that show the world as it truly is, a world where we are only one part of a complex web, where all things are indeed related.
Even though we cannot often see the world from such a vantage point, we can be mindful that it is there, that Father’s Sun’s gaze lights the way for us all. Our own eyes may be insufficient to the task on their own, but we have the gift of the light to help us look beyond ourselves.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
