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Mistletoe by Moonlight
Mistletoe is an important plant in the folk magick of Europe and Britain. An evergreen shrub with white berries, it is believed to bestow fertility, healing, luck, and protection against evil. Although mistletoe is perhaps most popularly known as a kissing charm at Yule, it is still cut as part of folk rituals to observe the summer solstice (21 June) and winter solstice (21 December).
The
Celts regulated all their secular and sacred activates by the phases of the
moon. One of their most important rites was the harvest of
mistletoe. The Celts deemed mistletoe sacred because it grows on oak
trees, the most sacred of trees. Mistletoe excited the Celts' wonder
because it seemed to be able to grow without touching the earth, and it seemed
to propagate itself magically. We know today hat mistletoe appears to
spring from nothing because its seeds are propagated by bird droppings.
The Druids were the priestly caste of the Celts. Little is known about them, for they left behind no written records. According to the Roman historians who observed them, the Druids considered the phases of the moon before undertaking any activity - including the most sacred rite of harvesting mistletoe for use in fertility rituals. The first-century Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, gives us the only detailed account of a Druid ceremony in his description of this rite. The Druids, he said, observed the growth of mistletoe on trees. Six days after a new moon - a time when the Druids probably felt that the moon's increasing powers were right - they dressed in white robes and went into the forest to harvest the mistletoe. They cut boughs with a golden sickle (most likely gilded bronze) which may have symbolised the sun. The mistletoe was caught cloth as it fell. Any mistletoe that inadvertently reached the ground was beloved to lose its magical properties and was discarded.
After the mistletoe was harvest, two white bulls were led to the oaks and were sacrificed. Their throats were slashed while the priest recited incantations for blessings.
It is likely that today's custom of kissing beneath the mistletoe at Yule is a remnant of the ancient Druidic fertility rite.