My predictions with regard to yesterday’s patterns of weather and sky proved more accurate than I could have guessed.
More, those patterns manifest in more wonderful ways than we could have anticipated.
The rain held off until around five o’clock in the evening. Based on the sheer power of the storm gathering to the west/northwest during the afternoon, we expected extreme conditions. There was, as it happens, a little thunder; plenty of lightning and a lot of wind, too. But the rain, though heavy, was not destructive, and that was a gift.
Another gift was the rain’s near-constant presence for the next five or six hours straight. By eight or nine o’clock, the storm had settled into a steady but soft and soaking rain, heavy but gentle, and the land has come alive this day as a result. The east field, a pale and wan yellowed brown only two days ago, is now dotted with green once more. The trees are a little lusher, their leaves a little livelier; the fall wildflowers stand a little taller and spread their petals a little wider.
Today, we can feel the earth breathe beneath our feet again.
And last night, as predicted, the late hours began under cloud cover. By an hour or so before midnight, those to the northeast had begun to drift apart, making way for the faint diffuse glow of the nearer stars. It would take a couple more hours for the rest of the sky to follow suit, but by three-thirty or four, it was flawlessly clear, lit by stars so bright they seemed close enough to touch. And our nearest star, the sun rose upon a world of subtle beauty, small lines of violet cloud limned by coral on their undersides, giving way to a dawn of perfect quiet clarity.
Since then, despite a forecast that predicts no rain, the low-hanging fog has moved in, coalescing into more powerful clouds to dance with the sun, turning each mountain peak and slope into a lodge of shadows and light.
It’s an image evoked by — indeed, embodied by — today’s featured work. It’s a cuff, one that is solid, substantial, spiritually weighty without being physically heavy. It’s also a reminder, distilled into solid silver, of the truth that to work for mortal eyes, the light needs the shadow, and we need both for our senses to manage its power.
From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
A Lodge of Shadows and Light Cuff Bracelet
In prayer and in ceremony, seeking the illumination of visions and the wisdom of dreams, the spirits shelter us in a lodge of shadows and light. With this vintage-style cuff, Wings places the lodge squarely between rays of sun and lines of shadow, with Eyes of Spirit guiding from either side. The cuff is wrought of heavy-gauge sterling silver triangle wire, the apex sharp and the angles deeply slanted. All the way around the center, Wings has scored sixteen deep lines entirely freehand, eight on each side of the midpoint, leaning toward each other on an inward diagonal facing the center and wrapping around the top sides of the band. The pattern creates a single focal triangle visible on either side, the lodge at the center of shadows and light. Extending beyond the scoremarks on either end are three Eyes of Spirit on each angled side of the apex, for six per end and twelve in total, each diamond shape formed freehand in the old way with a single short chisel-end stamp, and each linked to the next with flowing horizontal lines formed by the same stamp. Water patterns trace the inner band; each end, filed smooth and richly textured, is flattened and hosts a single stamp: a heart on one end and a flowering blossom on the other, both the fruits of the work of the spirit. Cuff is 6″ long by 3/8″ across (dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and at the link.
Sterling silver
$1,175 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This is, as I said above, a weighty, powerful work. It’s solid on the wrist; there’s no mistaking the substance of it.
But what makes it is the stampwork and scorework, the old traditional imagery that coaxes its animating spirits to the surface to remind us of the old teachings that we are too prone to ignore or forget.
The linked Eyes of Spirit on both upper angles of either end remind us that we are not alone, that there is guidance to be had, illumination and wisdom, too, even shelter and protection when we need them. The flowing-water elements that trace the inner band, along with the single motifs at either end on the flattened top, invoke the powers of medicine.
But the element that truly makes this cuff is the freehand scorework at its center:
On each of the cuff’s two upper angles, Wings has scored eight lines, freehand, into the silver. But these are no mere lines: These are filed deeply into the surface, all on slight diagonals facing inward toward the center. And at that center, the innermost lines meet at the very top, an apex against the cuff’s own apex, to form a perfect triangle.
A triangle whose shape, in old symbologies, is so often used to represent the lodge — a place of ceremony, of healing, of medicine, of power. Here, this lodge in miniature is built of the positive and negative presence of the silver itself . . . much like those that appear on the triangular peaks and slopes right now, built of shadows and light.
A lodge is an enclosed space, one that is naturally shadowed until a fire is lit within it. But without the dark, the light would not be needed. It’s true in the outer world, as well, where the light is often so powerful that we cannot see for the glare.
Unless, of course, the shadows collaborate with it and conspire, their seeming contention with the light for space in fact a cooperative effort to allow us to benefit from both. The light needs the shadow, as do we, and the best of our world is one that balances both together.
And we are fortunate: It’s fall here, and there will be plenty of both in the weeks to come.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
