Art Pilgrimage to Fairy Hills & the Luminous World of Christian Waller

Pilgrimages like art are mysteries. Following clues and hints and strange invitations are sometimes the only way to find your place.

I took the photo above of this extraordinary mural that is painted above the main room and studio in Christian Waller’s home, Waller House on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country. This area is now known as Ivanhoe but at the time Christian lived there it was called ‘Fairy Hills’. Perhaps because of the artists that gathered there and their interest in myth, symbology and in Christian Waller’s case, spiritualism, theosophy and esoteric magic.

Sometimes a pilgrimage begins with a thread, a tiny idea or flash of inspiration but recently I experienced a pilgrimage that grew from things seemingly falling apart. Two weeks ago I journeyed back to Melbourne following not a thread but instead feeling like a marathon runner as I attempted to honour a diary full of commitments - that I’d made! Every time I looked at my diary I sighed but for some reason I was determined to see it through.

And then all of a sudden each plan and meeting began to unravel, through all kinds of strange reasons - illness, mixed up dates and well, who knows but all of those appointments disappeared. At first it felt like everything was going wrong but so much was changing beneath me - like a path of stepping stones switching and moving that I realised it was out of my hands and all I could do was let the knew slower and much quieter schedule take it’s place. I have a tendency to pack a lot in but I’m in my 50s now and I really forget that I can’t move at that lightning pace anymore. I breathed a sigh of - relief!

I found that I had a whole day free now in Melbourne and so I thought what would I love to do? Instantly my spirit went to stained glass. Even though I work with wool and fibre, glass is my passion - I’m not that skilled working with it but I really receive alot from standing in front of stained glass windows. I see them as huge tarot cards with the depth and shimmer of deep water - that’s it - they are like water paintings for me. Perhaps even portals. In my mind I heard the name Christian Waller (b. 1894- 1954), and I remembered an exhibition that had featured her work called Daughters of the Sun. I had also fallen in love with a print of Morgan Le Fay. If you want to see the amazing breadth and depth of Christian’s creative and esoteric gifts, this is a great post on Art Blat. 

Morgan Le Fay (Morgan the fairy) Christian Waller 1927.

Christian was not only a printmaker and murialist, she was the only professional female stained glass artist in Australia before 1970s but I had never seen her work with my own eyes. That was it, the new plan : finding my way to the stained glass of Christian Waller. And then, just making that decision alone was like stepping on a touchstone. Christian Waller’s world opened up to me and it became the focus of my whole time in Melbourne - it became a pilgrimage. By deciding to honour my spirit and love of colour I had opened a new door, and then another door and another… within days I was not only basking in the luminous glow of her stained glass but standing on the threshold of the door to her actual home.

I can look into stained glass for hours and have mapped many pilgrimages over the years around seeking out magical glass windows.

When I think of a pilgrimage it is a walking journey but never straight or clear. Quite often the path is hidden or spiraling & sometimes there are strange little paths or doorways that catch your attention like side quests - my advice is to take them!

Trust the weird hunches.

With a little research, I found that a small church in Ivanhoe, St James was the home to an incredible collection of stained glass windows created by Christian and her husband Napier Waller. When I looked up when the church would be open, I saw that it was only twice a week for services. On a whim (or a nudge?) I contacted the church asking about the windows and was amazed to receive an invitation immediately by Rev Mike McNamara to come and visit on the day of my arrival. He told me that he would open the church especially for me. I couldn’t believe my luck and got in touch with my friend Leah who loves glass almost as much as I do, and we made our way to Ivanhoe.

Stained glass reflection on the wall at the ‘golden hour’ light in St James Church

No surprise that I was drawn to this stained glass window by Christian Waller of Dorcas holding a wool distaff and spindle - St James Church, Ivanhoe

Art Deco graphics with Christian’s flowing colours for the St. Agnes window - St James Church

Rev. Mike was very welcoming and we had a great talk about the Arts & Crafts and Art Deco Movements that inspired Christian Waller and the windows in the church. The church has so many fantastic windows that I really need to return again just to fully take them in.

There was no doubt about my favourite window or windows - because they are twins. They are angels and are really quite small and slender windows. The gift is that they are in a little alcove with a step that lets you stand eye to eye with this masterpiece. You can look right into the glass worlds like oceans and streams of colour filled with tiny air bubbles - the magic of antique glass. I could even spot Christian Waller’s signature at the bottom of one of the panels. In the darkened church we happened to be there right at the golden hour of 4.30pm and these two jewels shone like illuminated & water coloured peacock feathers. Christian’s use of purple & blue glass is out of this world. The strange softness that she can create in the gradient of coloured glass is original and now absolutely recognisable to me as her work.

Was Christian Waller trying to recreate an auric glow? Her stained glass reminds me of illuminated tarot cards.

I can see that Christian Waller was fusing her own personal blend of faith and belief in her work. Along with her Christian beliefs she was strongly interested in Theosophy and Hermetic lore, Symbolism and magic.

One of the church custodians told me that Christian Waller had lived locally and I began to look for her home and found that on this very weekend that I would be in Melbourne, the National Trust were having an open day to visit Waller House. But guess what? The tours, all of them were fully booked. I felt deflated for a moment but the more I thought about the strange synchronicity of this trip and what it was becoming, I decided to chance my arm and contacted the National Trust directly to ask if I could join the tour. I received a quick reply and a space was made for myself and my friend Wendy to join the first tour on Sunday morning.

These strange and magical tangents really do happen on pilgrimages. The door to Christian Waller’s home and deep inner world was opening.

The mural painted above the main room and studio in Waller House

Inside the purpose built stained glass studio in Waller House.

Stepping into Waller House was like entering a time capsule. Much of it felt unchanged since the time of it’s creation in 1922 when it was built by Phillip Millsom in an Arts & Crafts design with input from⁠ Napier & Christian Waller. Each room had been built around the idea of making art.

Every room felt like an art studio and had been used in this way. Creativity and the fostering of it was at the centre of everything in their home.

A clue to the mystery? Peacock feathered textiles on the day bed of Christian’s bedroom

Now that I’m back home again, I’m hit by the depth of this journey - from a visit that felt like it was chaotic and overbooked, it became a river of quiet coloured glass and still churches and art studios. I think I’ve only just begun to explore the esoteric nature of Christian Waller’s work and life and it feels like I have to keep trusting my intuition and it unfold. Her creativity has inspired me to return to my art practice of painting with luminous beeswax called encaustic. I’m still in awe of the strange synchronicities and have a tiny gift in my journal that I picked up from the ground outside Waller House before leaving - it was a dark striped feather of the Powerful Owl.

If you’d like to see inside St James Church, Rev Mike can be contacted to take requests for viewings and the National Trust are running conservation tours of Waller House each month. Right now I’m hanging out for the postie to arrive - I’ve just purchased the recent publication of the stunning book Christian Waller Stained Glass : Towards the Light by Caroline Miley.

Photograph of Christian Waller and writing set in the bedroom