Among indigenous cultures, feminine motifs are often inextricably intertwined with images of the sacred. Part of that is no doubt a recognition of simple biology, since it is women who bring the future generations into the world. But it’s also a reflection of the role they play in cultural systems and structures for many of our peoples, one of sustenance on scales small and large, individual and communal, immediate and long-term.
In this way, women are like the water: They are life itself.
So it’s perhaps no accident that water is often seen as a feminine construct. Some cultures even distinguish between “male” and “female” rains, the former applied to cloudbursts and hard-driving storms, the latter to soft, soaking, nurturing precipitation. Meanwhile, spiritually symbolic roles in dances and ceremonial events often reflect such imagery, especially here in the desert Southwest. The Corn Maidens are decidedly female spirits, and the young women who personify them in dances were the traditional headdress accented with symbols that invoke the blessings of the rains.
Depending on the culture, bodies of water may be assigned gender identities, or they may be regarded as the embodiment or home of specific spirits, whether gendered or not. In my homelands, it is the Great Lakes that play a central role in our origin stories and traditional histories, the Great Waters that hold blessings and dangers alike. They are vast and deep and intensely blue-green not far off-shore, and they give up food and jewels in the form of pebbles and shells and the occasional great water serpent with a tail of copper.
Here in this place, the epicenter of Pueblo existence is its sacred lake, a shining blue pool deep in the mountains. It sits eternal beneath a turquoise-and-silver sky, absorbing the waters from the heavens and sustaining the surrounding life, both physical and spiritual. It is a body of water older than time; it holds the history of the people, and the future, too, a repository of hopes and dreams and spirits, of life itself.
Some of its imagery is reflected in the feminine spirit of Wings’s newest masterwork, the latest entry in his signature series The Mona Lisa On the Rio Grande. From its description in the Necklaces Gallery:
Bodies of water are often sacred to indigenous peoples, who recognize that water is life. They are also often associated with distinctly female spirits. The latest entry in Wings’s signature series The Mona Lisa On the Rio Grande brings these two motifs together in one stunning piece in the form of a traditional Pueblo maiden. Her head is formed of an enormous oval cabochon of lapis lazuli in shades of blue ranging from cobalt to indigo. Her tablita headdress, hand-cut of sterling silver, bears traditional symbols on front and back. On the front are celestial patterns of day and night, edged with signs of the dawn sunrise and paired with the guiding stars of the night sky. On the reverse, a cloud of rain-bearing thunderheads pointed to cardinal and ordinal directions rests at the center of the bezel; above at either side of the setting are matched hand-coiled copper spirals, symbols of The Eternal. The pendant hangs from a strand of heavy, highly polished antique sterling silver beads. The cabochon is 1.5″ across, exclusive of bezel; the setting is 2-15/16″ wide by 1-7/8″ high; the strand of beads is 19″ long (dimensions approximate). Reverse and close-up views shown below.
Sterling silver; antique sterling silver beads; lapis lazuli
$2,000 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
It captures the totality, the sense of comprehensiveness, of this place, of the natural world as it was given to the people in the days when this land was still a world unto itself. That existential spirit of The Eternal is captured in the imagery he chose for the reverse: the conjoined symbols of the thunderheads, the bringers of rain, pointing to each of the sacred directions, meeting in the center to form Eyes of Spirit; the copper spirals at the top, mirror images of themselves and each other, twinned of a single strand in the embodiment of The Infinite.
And, of course, the dichotomy of the day and night symbolism on the front, celestial imagery above a stone in the color and form of the lake itself, suspended from a bail accented with paired thunderheads that form their own version of the sacred space, a motif echoed in the ajouré pattern excised from the center of the setting.
That it hangs from saucer-shaped beads, two halves matched in a single three-dimensional whole, is likewise fitting — all the more so that they are old sterling silver beads from his personal collection, Beads that he hand-strung one by one.
He created the first in this signature series some two decades ago or more. Every one is different, every one with its own immanent spirit and identity. Every one of them has been a masterpiece, but some are formed of more valuable materials than others. Some also carry greater symbolic weight than others, and it is in that inherent spirit that their greatest value is found.
~ 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.
