Myth's of the Mistletoe

Subject: Myth's of the Mistletoe Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:48 am

Myth's of the Mistletoe
The Druids gathered this sacred plant with great ceremony, cutting it with a golden sickle and letting it fall into a white cloak. It played an important role in their Fertility Rites.
The Swiss were also particular about gathering Mistletoe. It could only be cut when the sun was in Sagittarius and the moon was dark. According to Frazer (the Golden Bough, 1922) it had to be shot down with an arrow and caught with the left hand.
In Sweden Mistletoe gathered on Midsummer's Eve was hung in houses and barns to keep out evil spirits, and used to make divining rods.
In Italy Mistletoe was thought to grow where a tree has been struck by lightning. It can be destroyed by neither fire nor water, and it communicates it indestructibility to the tree on which it grows.
In Northern Europe Mistletoe was said to be a divining rod, to find treasure and as a "Master-Key" to open locks.
Mistletoe earned its common name from its connection with Bird Droppings. (Mistil is the Anglo-Saxon word for "dung", while tan means "twig") Birds "plant" Mistletoe in trees by eating the sticky berries, wiping their beaks, and in so doing depositing the seeds in the tree bark crevices, where they sprout and grow. They produce little of there own food, but also live off its host's life-support system.