The village is closed today as the people gather for that which is sacred.
The weather has been mostly cooperative, only a few raindrops in late afternoon, although the air hung heavy for most of the day. It’s hard to decide which presents the greater difficulty: the cold dawn, temperatures in the forties, sufficient to have long since begun turning the leaves from green to gold; or the oppressive heat unbroken by the banks of clouds that amass throughout the day. The light plays Trickster, too, beginning by hiding its face, then descending in an unrelieved glare, then playing coy with clouds and temperatures for the remainder of the day.
But whether dressed in morning’s clear turquoise and silver, or the stormy gray of later day, the light gathers and grows and gives itself to us.
It brings to mind one of Wings’s especially powerful works, the remaining piece in a complementary pair that embodied the ability to gather, hold, and refract the light. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Light In the Storm Cuff Bracelet
It is in the eye of the storm that we are afforded a glimpse of its passing, when the clouds part momentarily to let the light descend. Wings has captured the glow of those rays in this anticlastic cuff, as big and bold as the storm itself, as bright as the light that transcends it. The band is wrought of sixteen-gauge sterling silver, heavier than usual for the shaping required of an anticlastic band, and sloped gently upward on either side. Its surface is free of adornment save a row of chased traditional symbols that run its entire length: stylized thunderheads paired together at their bases to form a sig of the Four Sacred Directions, each mated pair embracing an Eye of Spirit, that which watches over us even in the fiercest storm. At its center, elevated upon a small sterling silver cylinder, rests another representation of Spirit’s Eye: the light itself, caught and held fast in a massive cabochon of dove-gray labradorite. The stone possesses breathtaking depth and clarity, shot through with angled inclusions like sheets of rain and refracting the light into a gold-tinged rainbow of color. Hand-stamped stars of various shapes and sizes spread stardust along the cuff’s inner band. Band is 1-11/16″ across; cabochon is 1-3/4″ long by 11/16″ high (dimensions approximate). Other views shown at the link. First in Wings’s new series, The Light Collection.
Sterling silver; labradorite
$1,800 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Its companion piece found its home last month, but this, the first of the pair and the embodiment of the ability to hold and carry light in the darkest of times, still seeks its own. Perhaps it is meant for someone whose path is especially forbidding; the people who are only now beginning their pilgrimage know well the obstacles that can appear along the way. Perhaps it belongs to someone who has already navigated a dark road and emerged into the light, someone who needs the reminder that light, and therefore hope, will remain always present even when our mortal senses are too weak to perceive them well.
Perhaps it is meant for someone now in the throes of the storm itself, someone for whom that glimpse of glimmering light means the difference in how, and whether, she weathers the waves.
Or perhaps it’s intended for someone who, like most of us, travels a road comprising day and night, storm and light, who just needs that little extra bit of security, that ability to hold a fragment of the light itself practically in one’s hand.
Our ancestors knew well the value of the fire, the medicine of the light; they gathered together around it as community and clan, for safety and security, for fellowship and feasting. We gather, and the light gathers, too. Even in the darkest storms, we only need to remind ourselves to seek it, and when found, to hold it — in our hands and in our hearts.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
