Mistletoe: The Golden Bough

Mistletoe is well-known as a sacred plant. The druids of old considered it sacred because in the dead of winter, when the branches of the oak tree were bare, and all of nature seemed dead, the mistletoe high in the trees was still green, and flourished without having roots in the earth. To them, it represented the life and spirit of the tree. Pliny described the harvest of mistletoe:

The Druids, for so they [the Gauls] call their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided only that the tree is an oak. But apart from this they choose oak-woods for their sacred groves and perform no sacred rites without oak-leaves; so that the very name of Druids may be regarded as a Greek appellation derived from their worship of the oak. For they believe that whatever grows on these trees is sent from heaven, and is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the god himself. The mistletoe is very rarely to be met with; but when it is found, they gather it with solemn ceremony. This they do above all on the sixth day of the moon, from whence they date the beginnings of their months, of their years, and of their thirty years’ cycle, because by the sixth day the moon has plenty of vigour and has not run half its course. After due preparations have been made for a sacrifice and a feast under the tree, they hail it as the universal healer and bring to the spot two white bulls, whose horns have never been bound before. A priest clad in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloth. Then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God may make his own gift to prosper with those upon whom he has bestowed it. They believe that a potion prepared from the mistletoe will make barren animals to bring forth, and that the plant is a remedy against all poison.

The Italians believed the efficacy of the mistletoe was greatest if it was cut o the first day of the moon, not the sixth. The Aino of Japan also regard mistletoe as sacred, and is deemed best if growing in a willow tree. In some parts of Europe it is considered best if the mistletoe is shot or knocked down with stones from where the tree is growing. In Aargau in Switzerland, mistletoe should be harvested when the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is waning, and should be shot out of the tree with an arrow and caught in the left hand. In Wales, mistletoe should be gathered on Midsummer Eve.

The uses of mistletoe varied, but in most cases it was considered a cure-all. It also had specific reputations as a fertility enhancer or as a cure for epilepsy. The Walos of Senegambia in Africa carried mistletoe when they went into battle to protect against wounds. In Austria a sprig of mistletoe on the threshold would prevent nightmares, but in Wales if the mistletoe was placed under a pillow it would induce dreams of omen, both good and bad. The Swedes made divining rods of mistletoe which they used to find gold.

In Greek myth, Persphone opened the gates of Hades with mistletoe berries.

Mistletoe figures prominently in the Norse myth of Baldur. Baldur had dreams which predicted his death, so the goddess Frigg took oaths from all animals, all plants, fire, water, all metals, stones, and earth, and from all poisons and diseases not to harm Baldur. She did not ask this oath of mistletoe, because she thought was ‘too young to swear’. Since Baldur was considered invulnerable, the other gods would shoot at him, or otherwise try to harm him, to amuse themselves and to satisfy themselves that he was, indeed, invulnerable. But Loki tricked Frigg into telling him that the mistletoe had not sworn an oath, and then Loki tricked Hother into throwing mistletoe at Baldur. The mistletoe pierced Baldur and he fell down dead. The gods grieved much over this, and decided to burn Baldur’s body on a pyre on his ship. When Baldur’s wife, Nanna, saw the funeral pyre, her heart burst from grief, and she, too, was laid upon the pyre to be burned. The Scandinavians burned bonfires on Midsummer’s Eve which were called ‘Baldur’s balefires’, and most likely in ancient times a human sacrifice was burned upon them in effigy of Baldur.

So what is the Golden Bough? It was a branch from a tree in the sanctuary at Nemi, a grove sacred to Diana of the Wood. No branch on this tree was allowed to be broken, except by a runaway slave. Breaking this branch gave the slave the right to fight the priest-king of Nemi to the death, and if he succeeded, he then filled the office until someone else came along and slew him. This was the only manner in which the office could be filled. It was this Golden Bough that Aeneas plucked, as suggested by the Sibyl, before he began his descent into the Underworld. Virgil, in describing this scene, writes of two doves that guide Aeneas to the grove and alighted upon a tree:

whence shone a flickering gleam of gold. As in the woods in winter cold the mistletoe–a plant not native to its tree-is green with fresh leaves and twines its yellow berries about the boles; such seemed upon the shady holm-oak the leafy gold, so rustled in the gentle breeze the golden leaf.

Sir James Frazier, in his famous work The Golden Bough, hypothesizes that the mistletoe was known as the Golden Bough because when old and withered, all of the mistletoe, stems, leaves and berries, takes on a golden color. It was also thought that the mistletoe was brought to rest in trees by a flash of lightning (and was called a ‘thunder-besom’ by many peoples); as such, it was thought to carry the seed of fire. This makes it logical for Aeneas to carry it when descending into the Underworld, for it could illuminate his way