Woodpecker Necklace

I got up today and went back to Moundville for the necklace.  The weather was that sort of sun and cloud mix that makes everything a dreamlike glaze of gold.  Since my car is currently dead, I borrowed a vehicle and drove over.  The loud music and road unwinding under the wheels helped to take away some of the darkness of my mood as it always does.  Movement heals me.  In almost any situation, traveling heals.

I was a little worried that the necklace might have sold, but when I got there, it was waiting in the center of the case.  I took care of the requisite financial exchange, added a bottle of water and some trail mix, talked to the guy who had been there both last weekend and today both and remembered me coming in about the artist some more, and took myself out to the big mound, the one the chief used to live on for awhile.  I wore the necklace out.

I swear it seems like it catches and stores the sun.  It glows in the light.  It is just incredible.  The picture above is approximately to scale, and it does a good job of showing off the detail.

What I bought it for other than the loveliness, though, was the symbolism.  I have a thing for birds, it's true, but this one is more than just a bird.  When I looked up woodpeckers in Native American symbolism generally last week, I found all sorts of things they are supposed to have/be/do.  This is a compilation borrowed from here:

• Connection to the earth
• Ability to find hidden layers
• Understands rhythms, cycles and patterns
• Warnings
• Prophecy
• Associated with thunder
• The Earth's drummer
• Pecks away at deception until the truth is revealed

Basically, then, woodpeckers march to their own beat, have keen insight, and keep on persistently until they win.  They're not quite like all the other birds in the tree.  Yeah.  Sound like anybody else you know?

I'm willing to take the woodpecker on with the raven/crow.  I think they both fit me.  God knows I'm hard-headed enough to fit it.