Parting the Mists

There’s a lot of lore for these two birds, some of which we will explore below. The wren is also one of my spirit guides, so this card definitely speaks to me. Have a great Friday and weekend!

The Robin and the Wren

In this card, we see a robin and a wren sitting on a holly branch (feminine aspect) in front of a broken bird cage with an evergreen tree inside. In the bottom left, you can see little toy soldiers walking through the snow with a cat, dog, and squirrel also walking away.

OK, so the thing to note here is some of the folklore of these two birds.

The wren has associations with this time of year and is the King of Birds, according to old folk legend. This ancient totem bird flew highest of all creatures by riding on the back of the great eagle, thus earning itself the title of King of All Birds through it’s cleverness and resourcefulness rather than on pure physical ability. It serves as a reminder that the smallest of the Earth’s creatures is capable of soaring to the greatest heights and seeing beyond the furthest horizon. In Ireland, there is an old tradition of “wren boys” or “straw boys” hunting a wren on Dec. 26th, or St. Stephen’s Day. The dead wren was affixed to the top of a pole and the wren boys would go around the community asking for money.

There are a lot of theories of why this is done. It is believed that the Celtic Druids considered the bird sacred, and later Christian traditions sought to dismantle its ideology, even recasting it’s resourcefulness to become King of Birds as deceit and treachery.

As for Robin Redbreast, who hasn’t heard of the “first Robin of spring”? Well, that’s not really an accurate concept, as the Robin is not a spring-only bird as the common expression would have us to believe. They will stay in winter if it does not get too cold and if there is a good food source. The striking birds were also featured on the earliest Christmas cards, but that might be due to early postal workers wearing red jackets and artists associating the two for the new postal system.

Given all this, these birds here are breaking with their traditional folkloric roles – and perhaps we need to do the same. At Yule and Christmas, it can be easy to get stuck with the traditions handed down to us. Sometimes they are wonderful and nostalgic, but sometimes they need changed or updated for the new age and new people. Perhaps it’s time to shake things up a bit and create a new tradition or evaluate an old one. To quote Gustav Mahler, “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”

Storyworld: Christmas Tales by John and Caitlin Matthews and artist Peter Malone