Meeting the winter with hope and support
We’ve arrived at December. As I write we are looking out to sea, across a beautiful bay. We came to the coast in April to mark the tenth anniversary of the start of our relationship and have returned for A’s birthday. The sea is wilder. The coast windswept and beautiful. In April the wild flowers were everywhere, now the coast wears mantles in shades of stone and biscuit, chalk green and watered viridian.
As we drove I watched the trees for mistletoe. Associated with Druid ritual around the Winter Solstice, it was once gathered from oaks on the sixth day of the new moon. Oak mistle is rare but more potent than mistle growing on other trees. It grows most commonly on apple and also on ash, lime, sycamore, poplar and hawthorn. For the heart, mistletoe grown on hawthorn marries well with hawthorn’s benefits for the heart, helping to lower blood pressure and aid circulation. Gathering mistletoe was a high ritual — cut with a silver sickle, caught in robes and not allowed to touch the ground.
A herb of guidance and inspiration also known as ‘all heal’ and with folkloric associations with fertility and immortality. It is also immune-enhancing and a spleen tonic. Helpful for a range of chronic conditions including candida, chronic fatigue, recovery of appetite and after cancer treatments. It’s a gentle sedative, muscle relaxant, and nerve tonic. And is beneficial for epilepsy, convulsions, panic attack, mood swings, and tension. It increases resilience to stress, especially when acute and enhances the function of the thymus gland. It can be used by herbalists in the UK, but is severely restricted in Europe.
While holly was a symbol of the god Saturn and part of the festivities of Saturnalia, mistletoe has links with Norse as well as Druid traditions. A protection from storms and evil and, in the Norse myth associated with Balder. The story is that mistletoe was the only thing he wasn’t protected from, but he was killed with an arrow of mistletoe. The tears his mother, the goddess Frigga, wept, became white berries that revived her son to life. And so the plant was blessed and became a symbol of peace.
For Druids, mistletoe is part of the ceremony of Alban Arthan or Winter Solstice. During the ritual all lights are quenched, a symbol of the darkest, longest night. Then a candle is lit and everyone lights their candles from this single flame — the birth of Mabon, the divine child within, and the rebirth of the sun. Each person is given a sprig of mistletoe — healing, fertility, inspiration.
Mistletoe is a herb that meets our longing — for hope, for healing, for peace…
As we enter December, some of us may be preparing for Christmas, some for Hanukkah, some for Solstice. Some will have celebrated Diwali at the end of October. In dark months, festivals of light beckon. Decorating houses with greenery when the world is pared back, counting days till we gather and celebrate, sharing rituals… In dark times, a candle in the dark, a sprig of mistletoe that speaks of inspiration and healing is balm and solace. In the dark times, gathering around the light can be all we can do, can be so powerful.