The days are shortening rapidly, and with it, the amount of time i have to devote to any given task. I get up early, by most standards, but despite the extension of Daylight Savings Time (or, as I think of it, “Artificial Summer Time”), dawn is breaking later, and dusk arriving earlier, every day. Time is compressed into an increasingly scant few hours of daylight.
On some days (like today), it means that these posts are late, true, but that’s only a small part of it. It’s less time for chores, a large percentage of which occur outdoors; less time for the horses to graze and the chickens to range; less time to complete the thousand and one tasks required of us both each day.
And so it makes what light we do have all the more valuable. Not merely the sunlight of the day, although that’s essential. But it makes us appreciate all the more the lights of the night sky, including those at dusk and those just before dawn: the moon, the stars, and this time of year, a clearly visible Milky Way.
Right now, both Evening Star and Morning Star burn brightly in the heavens, serving as guides for those who must journey by night. So, too, does the crescent moon, now, like those in the photo above, at just about the half-visible point, washing darkened paths in brilliant white light. When I’m up in the earliest hours, I’m blessed to see the spheres pass each other, as the moon goes to sleep for the day and the Morning Star rises to do her work as midwife to the daily rebirth of Father Sun before retiring herself beneath the his rising glow.
It’s powerful symbolism, for us, certainly, but also for other traditional peoples of indigenous cultures the world over. It’s light, and hope, and the promise of endless possibility; it’s the sure and certain knowledge that guidance is there, and protection, and that we are not alone and abandoned beneath cold and darkened skies.
And so, the imagery naturally finds its way into Wings’s work, where hope and possibility and goodness and mystery all play essential roles. This belt buckle was one small example, melding together two powerful symbols of opposites, contrasts, day and night, dusk and dawn, beneath which are signs of growth and abundance. From its description in the Buckles Gallery here on the site:
At this buckle’s center, a Morning Star is surrounded by images of the setting crescent moon. Edging the buckle are hand-stamped representations of squash blossoms, slowly unfolding with dawn’s arrival. Buckle is 2″ long by 1-5/8″ high (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$255 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Its companion piece, highlighted a few weeks ago here, focused more on nighttime imagery where this one’s central element evokes thoughts of daybreak. Both, though, represent powerful celestial motifs: ethereal, transient, but in no way impermanent; we exist secure in the knowledge that each will show us its face again, and the world will remain solidly on its axis as it makes its way around the sun.
It’s reassuring, a reminder that however compressed our days are, however pressed for time our lives are, there remains essentials that are sure and certain in our daily lives, a natural order upon which we can depend. At times like this, when seasonal change leaves us unsettled, it’s a good lesson to remember.
~ Aji
