By my way of reckoning, we are at the midpoint of the Leaves Turning Moon, about to head downward toward the Falling Leaves Moon. When I was a child, we also called them Harvest Moons — these brilliant orbs of night that hang low in the sky, huge and golden orange and warm like flame.
To the rest of the world, tonight is the Blood Moon, or, more contemporarily perhaps, the Blood Supermoon (the latter a term I’ve heard used only in the last decade or so). It will be a mystical sight, a celestial event, one that last occurred thirty-three years ago, and is said will not occur again for another eighteen.
To indigenous cultures the world and historical time over, blood moons have served as omens and harbingers, signs and portents. To some, they are the mark of great power to come; to others, they signify the end of the world as we know it. Most predictions turn out, in the the short term, at least, to be fatally flawed.
In the longer term, perhaps they are not so far off the mark.
Their meaning among our peoples varies widely, as does the significance attached to the lunar eclipse that co-occurs with and in part creates them. It is probably near-universal, however, that they are signs of power to be respected, whether as portents or simply as manifestations of spirit.
Today, we have the luxury of being able to capture the blood moon’s image photographically, an ability that neutralizes a bit of the fear once associated with such a display. When one can reduce a phenomenon’s image to two dimensions in a size small enough to hold in one’s hand, it loses a bit of its ability to inspire fear. Thankfully, it doesn’t lose the ability to inspire awe; no matter how often one returns to photos of such an event, it’s never a substitute for seeing the rise of the real thing.
A couple of weeks ago, Wings began work on some handmade settings for earrings. They took shape slowly; he originally formed them around a particular combination of stones that he later discarded before ever gauging its appearance against the bezels. By the time he cut them out, he had settled on the stones that he would use, something very different: garnet and turquoise.
What he could not envision is that they would be completed just in time for tonight’s celestial events.
From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Blood Moon Skies Earrings
Just in time for the first blood moon in more than thirty years, Wings offers a pair of dancing spirits in the form of earrings. Fiery blood-red orbs rise above the four corners of the turquoise sky; below, a fringe of silvery moondust dances in twin trails down to earth. The settings are made entirely by hand, including hand-made findings at top and bottom in lieu of the more common jump rings. Each “moon” is formed from a round garnet cabochon of astonishing depth, each flanked by two smaller silver spheres of ingot. Together, they ascend above a square cabochon of clear blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise, bezel-set and trimmed in twisted silver. The cascading moondust fringe is made of interlocking loops of old silver. Setting is 1-1/8 inches long; fringe is 1-5/8″ long; total length of each earring, excluding wires, is 2-3/4 inches (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; garnet; Sleeping Beauty turquoise
$390 + shipping, handling, and insurance
They seem a herald of sorts: an embodiment of the heavenly dance that will take place at dusk tonight, as the lunar eclipse begins its turn, showing us Grandmother Moon’s face in the color of our people. It is a time when the spirits dance, a cascading, whirling spiral of shimmering motion, like the first leaves falling in the twilight winds and the moondust that eddies around our feet to light our path.
If you go out to watch the moon tonight, stop for a moment to listen, to feel. The spirits will be all around you, dancing beneath blood moon skies.
~ 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.
