This mala was inspired by the creation of a necklace I made last year. The necklace was a custom piece. The only direction I received in crating the piece, aside from the length and using some vintage Afghan coin silver paisley pendants was, make it shamanic.
What I came up with was a necklace that combined beads made from saguaro cacti spines, vintage amber, sun stones and those coin silver paisleys. A stunning piece if I say myself. The vintage deep cognac amber was complemented beautifully by the sparkling sun stones. The rustic nature of the saguaro beads and the patina on the coin silver contrasted nicety with the shine and sparkle of the amber and sun stone. Adding in the light jingle and movement the paisleys rounds out its shamanic feel.
When the idea for creating a shamanic mala came to mind I wanted to capture the movement and jingle of the necklace in a piece that would be more rustic overall. Using wood beads for the counting beads and darkly stained saguaro beads for the marker and guru beads. I used green silk cord for the piece to represent the sap that once flowed through the wood. What I ended up with is pictured below: 108 wood beads, 4 saguaro beads and 40 coin silver paisley pendants all tied together with silk cord.
This piece contains the power of the saguaro cacti, the sentinel of the Sanoran desert, believed to be the keeper of native souls, combined with the coin silver paisleys makes for a piece of power, movement and sound.
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