While researching herbs for a spell a witch character of mine is casting (hopefully you'll meet her someday), I paused over a most interesting entry regarding mistletoe - my world was rocked. According to Judika Illes’, The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The complete a-z for the entire magical world, the sprig of white berries and green foliage isn’t something you’d want decking your halls at any other time of year.
Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows on trees (never touching the Earth) and may gradually kill them. Its berries are poisonous and “…look like tiny golden full moons.” The Greeks, Romans, Celts and Germans all believed mistletoe held magical properties, from energy, power, fertility. Other names for mistletoe: Witch’s Branch, Witch’s Broom, Witch’s Berries. Wikipedia tells me: “Mistletoe bears fruit at the time of the Winter Solstice, the birth of the new year, and may have been used in solstitial rites in Druidic Britain as a symbol of immortality.” And “Mistletoe has sometimes been nicknamed the vampire plant because it can probe beneath the tree bark to drain water and minerals, enabling it to survive during a drought.”
And yet we have the cheerful holiday tradition of hanging mistletoe on Christmas Eve and kissing under it to inspire true love. Interesting that such a deadly herb with ancient magical associations should dangle in our living rooms, the source of hope, or embarrassment, for many who are cajoled into kissing under its shadow. What a magical world we live in – even if we don’t know it. ;)
Happy Howlidays!
