The Ritual Master Hello everyone, and welcome to this year’s celebration of the winter solstice. The longest night of the year was a reason for ceremony from ancient times, and in the Middle Ages, much of the pre-christian rituals were still very present in the lives of Europeans. When I think of these symbolic rites of communion with nature, the image of the enchanted forest is strong and present, so I placed it high on my mood board for this year’s Christmas tree decoration. My magical woodland has something of a misty Avalon to it (hm hm, hint for tomorrow’s video) and so, I decided to combine carefully chosen ornaments with some homemade chic.
The forest is the realm of the beasts, the favourite source of inspiration in the Middle Ages. Animals, both real and fantastic, occupied an important place in medieval art, artists readily employed animal motifs, along with foliate designs, as part of their decorative vocabulary. Early medieval jewelry, for instance, abounds with animal forms elongated and twisted into intricate patterns and rare Bibles often make use of animal designs to enliven the sacred text.
The Bestiary developed in medieval Europe in the twelfth century. Based on the Greek Physiologus of around the second century, often with important additions from Christian scholars like Saint Ambrose or Isidore of Seville, the Bestiary is a collection of descriptions and interpretations of animals, intended as both a natural history and a series of moral and religious lessons. It was widely read in the Middle Ages and served as a source for artistic invention. In addition to providing intriguing interpretations of animals, bestiaries offered tales about the existence of bizarre and loathsome creatures, many of which appeared in medieval art.
With that in mind, I foraged the shops for animal figurines to suit my enchanted forest in a tree, and added some natural elements to make them feel more at home. As I already mentioned in our first video of the series, Christmas trees as we know them today were not in the medieval holiday spirit, so I simply had to adapt the style to suit our medieval theme. The garland was a perfect winter companion for my audiobook reading, it’s a pattern found online that I shall link in the description below, and it somehow brings that artisanal medieval feel to my tree. Don’t think the fairy lights are too modern, just squint your eyes a little and they become fireflies that have come to celebrate the solstice with us.
Reality and fiction have a unique way of morphing into the medieval imagination, and once I felt the magic appear from the pages, I decided to cultivate it in my own life from now on. Critical thinking is an essential skill in today’s world, but alone, it doesn’t nurture the soul much. Fantasy on the other hand, can be guided and molded so as to elevate your imagination from the mundane to the extraordinary. And this Christmas, my wings are taking me into the heart of the forest, to dance with the door mice, maybe play a little with the deer, put another blanket on the sleeping badgers, and contemplate the wisdom of the owl.
Until tomorrow, merry Advent !
