Magical Blessings – The Hidden Meaning of Mistletoe

There are many symbols that permeate the Christmas season, and yet, like many things, we have become disconnected from the meaning inherent in the hidden blessings they contain. This has been a year of reconnection, as we move into embracing the stability of who we are in a world of fluctuating instability. Layer upon layer, the framework we have been used to living in has been crumbling and peeling away, as we delve deeper to discover the true foundations beneath the rubble. It is from this place that we can rebuild again with authenticity and lasting value.

The mistletoe symbolizes this type of Tower card Tarot symbolism, revealing to us what lies beneath the window of the glass house when it breaks, in the mysterious way that the druids believed it had been brought into the world. Earth and conceived when lightning struck the trees. Thriving in the trees rather than rooted in the earth, these bearers of peace, fertility, blessings, and immortality also represent both the divine and disorderly confusion and chaos.

Its ancient pagan religious meaning has been forgotten, but many of its other meanings and customs have remained with us, including the kiss under the mistletoe, which is a sign of goodwill and friendship, and an omen of happiness, good luck, and new meaning. religious. . Although it is a romantic symbol, this parasitic plant also contains lunar, feminine and fertility energy. (Diana, also known as Artemis, wore a crown of mistletoe as an emblem of fertility and immortality.)

Mistletoe was a sacred plant in the pagan religion of the Druids in Britain. They believed it had all sorts of miraculous qualities and therefore named it “All-heal”. Since it grew on the sacred oaks they worshipped, the druids believed mistletoe to be of divine origin and shared the oak’s strength. After the winter solstice, they took communion in a great ceremony and sacred ritual offering of fertility to their gods, which consisted of collecting the plant, cutting it with a golden sickle and placing it in a white cloth to avoid contamination by contact with iron or steel. Earth.

The Germans shared the sentiment of the Druids and called this plant Gut Hyl or “heals all”. Despite its toxicity, it was used as a universal remedy, a fertility drug, used for protection, and thought to have strengthening effects. It had very powerful meanings to many ancients, including the beautiful belief that if enemies accidentally met under wild mistletoe in the woods, they would lay down their arms, embrace each other, and enjoy a day of truce. Maybe we should skewer mistletoe on Earth?

Although it had pagan associations, which often banished mistletoe from Christian festivities, it has remained a popular Christmas symbol of love and eternal life and was used as a symbol of Christ, the Divine Healer of nations. It was called Grass of the Cross and Lignum Sanctae Crucis or “the Wood of the Holy Cross” because it was believed that the wood for the cross of Christ came from its tree. This is why she was condemned to the life of a parasitic vine for her part in the Crucifixion, just as the same symbolic serpent was condemned to crawl on her belly for her part in the fall of man. It’s interesting how what once had great meaning can be altered by a simple change in perspective. Does that mean that the symbolism and healing powers of those things have really changed, or has the meaning been transformed to move us away from remembering the inherent qualities in everything around us waiting for our transformative reconnection?

With the arrival of the New Year, the mistletoe reminds us of what lies beneath the illusion once lightning strikes, as it turns into the legendary Golden Branch whose yellow and withered leaves were believed to aid its owner in the search for the buried treasure. Legends such as the story of Virgil tell that Aeneas (leader of the Trojan refugees) takes this golden branch to the underworld while looking for news about the future of his deceased father. Other legends share that the Golden Branch brought freedom to any slave who touched it.

We have the ability to live in true freedom and discover many buried treasures, while the walls come crashing down. What is then revealed to us are magical blessings that are impossible to keep hidden once we embrace the truth within our hearts.