Of course, we all know mistletoe was sacred to Druids. But if, like me, you’re thinking of that green stuff we hang in strategic places at Yuletide, you might be mistaken. I came across this on Thursday (5th April)
MIstletoe growing on hawthorn, caught in the sun, Easter Week! (5th April 2018)
Amazing, that one ‘moon-berry’ left. But more so the golden branches.
I cropped that photo close, to make sure that berry was prime of place. But to take a longer shot: here the golden plant looks like the sun caught in the thorn’s tangle-top.
Mistletoe held high in the leafless branches of a thorn. Photo 5th April 2018
crispina kemp 
I know it’s a parasite,but seeing great globs of mistletoe in trees is a lovely thing. Even if the berries are revoltingly sticky and toxic 🙂
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Yea, I always wondered how it got to be the Druids’ most sacred plant. Until I saw the gold. The photo doesn’t fully capture its glow.
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It is quite golden, isn’t it? I wonder what the Druids used it for? My druidic knowledge stretches as far as Getafix from the Asterix comic books. He used a golden sickle to cut it as I recall, though I’m sure in reality there was more to it than that 🙂
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I don’t remember whether it was Julius Caeser or Pling who said the of Druids and mistletoe, that they cut it with a golden sickle, that it is caught in a white sheet, that it mustn’t touch the ground. I think it was said to be used for fertility, and yet it is poisonous. I can imagine the viscous juice might have been likened to semen, and possibly used in fertility charms, working in sympathetic magic (but not to be ingested; maybe rubbed on the belly?) More relevant is the fact of its branches turning gold in the spring, between Imbolg (2nd Feb, Candlemass) and Easter. If a branch is then found with berry intact (which we can imagine might be rare), that would be, in symbolic terms, true gold. What struck me is to find this golden growth, associated with sun and moon, in the week following the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox, which is how Easter is fixed. So, well, I had to photo it. 🙂
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A fitting find indeed. It’s hard to know what the Druid’s actual practices were, isn’t it? As I recall, the Romans also said the Druids practiced blood sacrifice, which they might have done, but it might also have been propaganda to highlight how barbaric they were, how much they needed civilising. We’ll never really know I suppose.
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Indeed, and lest we forget, the Romans used blood sports (the killing of criminals or captured enemies) to entertain the masses. A bit like the pot and the kettle. But human sacrifice was practiced by peoples, and for many reasons, and it is recorded that some ‘victims’ went willingly for by their death they served the clan, tribe, village, whatever. So easy for us to back-cast our modern values without understanding these less advantaged societies. (Please, don’t start me tub-thumping!)
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Haha! You feel free to tub thump! You’re right about the blood sacrifice and of course we had instances here – though the practice was not as common as on the continent, the bog bodies that have been found show that. The ritualised meals of cereals found in the gut, the strangulation, the submersion of the corpse in the ‘halfway house’ of marshland suggest each element was significant whether to appease an angry god or ensure a good harvest. And you’re so right, the Romans had terrible double standards when it came to bloodletting. But they were the ‘civilised’ ones. I think many cultures hold those same double standards
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Don’t they ever! I shall not mention a certain nation founded by those who sought freedom for their religion and thereafter pounded the doors of any who gainsaid them. But it amuses me (in an ironic way) when archaeologists fine decapitated heads and hold up their hands in horror of what this could mean. They seem to forget the traitors’ heads that used to decorated London Bridge. The same with the strangulation; yet we Brits were still hanging offenders as late as the 1950s. Why should our ancestors be thought the worse of for doing the same?
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All sadly true. Man’s inhumanity to man. Centuries pass and we learn very little. At least we’ve dispensed with the death penalty, I’d like to think forever. Though not so long ago, we were keen as mustard to join the EU, so the views of a nation can change dramatically
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Especially under charasmatic leadership, and when the economy is deflated. And then the mob rules.
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We’re so easy to manipulate when times are hard. Get rid of the ‘other’ – surely that will solve everything
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My mother had a saying for every occasion. I think the one here is: Out of the frying pan, into the pot! Or, The grass is always greener.
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