Dawn, and the sky is pale gold, an artifact of the complete lack of clouds anywhere around the horizon. The peaks, still shadowed, are capped with a thin veil of snow, and the air holds the perfect clarity of pure autumn.
This day is my birthday, and most years, it dawns exactly like this: air clear and sharp, light shimmering and soft, sky and earth both golden with nascent sun and new-turned leaves.
We spent yesterday traveling the roads west and north of here, hoping for a last look at the changing colors. The landscape was aflame in shades of gold and amber, copper and bronze, an earth in no way ready for rest, but rising to dance in the light.
That is the way of it with us children of autumn: We come alive amid the flames, like the mysteries of earth herself, standing taller in the chill air, gathering strength from the colors and power from the light.
Given the date, there was one obvious choice for today’s featured work, and it is one that suits day and season with perfect symmetry. From its description in the Pendants Gallery here on the site:
Earth Mother/Mother Earth Pendant
Earth Mother/Mother Earth, two spirits in one: The latter births the former, the former emerges from the very being of the latter. Wings summons this most elemental spirit of the Sacred Feminine into being in this pendant, one to hang beneath the throat and over the heart. She is wrought, freehand, out of sterling silver, arms stretched high above her head to embrace the universe, separated from head and body by delicate ajouré cutwork. She dances, swaying gently, as she emerges from the womb of the earth itself, all red canyons and warm rocky soil beneath a gray and stormy sky; her face is pure golden light, the radiance of sun and moon reflected off the surface of the world. Her body, and that of the earth, is formed from a bold oval cabochon of exquisite picture jasper set into a hand-made, hand-scalloped bezel; her face appears in the form of a spectacularly chatoyant golden-brown tiger’s eye, highly domed and radiating out of a saw-toothed bezel. She hangs suspended from a bail fashioned of wide sterling silver pattern wire molded in a fertile and flowering pattern. Pendant, including bail, hangs 3″ long; pendant only is 2.5″ long by 1-3/16″ across at the widest point; bail is 5/8″ long by 5/16″ across; picture jasper cabochon is 1-3/16″ long by 13/16″ across at the widest point; tiger’s eye cabochon is 1/2″ long by 1/4″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Front view shown at top. Jointly designed by Aji and Wings.
Sterling silver; picture jasper; tiger’s eye
$1,075 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It won’t be long before the snow blankets the land here, too. For now, though, the land is ascendant — green robes parting to make way for the spirit of the soil to emerge, leaves adance in celebration of its rise. This is the most elemental of the seasons, one in which earth, air, fire, and water all contest for time and space and primacy, yet all collaborate and conspire to create a world of ethereal, ephemeral beauty on a cosmic scale.
We are entering the time when the spirits walk, when the shadows grow long and the darkness cold and deep. And yet, this is a time of renewal, of rebirth: In the fiery glow of fall, a feminine spirit rises amid the mysteries of earth.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
