DPO SG - Mistletoe

inanna_tarot

Well its December (just!) and what druid/pagan type is NOT thinking about mistletoe at this time of year? I've got mistletoe on my altar from my Orders Gathering, not to mention hearing of my friend organising the Mistletoe Foundation's activities this year.

The card depicts the mistletoe in what looks like an oak tree (by the dead leaf that is clinging on to the tree by a whisker). The moon is in the shape of a good cresent - could it possibly be the shape of the moon 6 days after the new moon? (I just looked at the book and PCG says it is 6 days after the new moon lol) There is also that most hotly debated sickle, although rather than golden like a certain text states, it is silver and probably made of a metal that has more cutting-power than gold lol.

When I first started to get into druidry I asked a druid about what mistletoe meant to them, and I got the reply of 'truth'.

'Why?' I asked

'The truth is what we seek, the quest. To find our own truth and to seek to understand other people's truth. However your more likely to find mistletoe growing naturally on an Oak!' Hohoho indeed lol.

Mistletoe is about finding Light at the time of darkness - as its celebrations are very closely tied to that of the Winter Solstice and the growing Light. Also, the late december part of the year is very much a male deity focused time and I really like to honour that by a plant that (to be blunt) looks like testes full of sperm high in a tree! Something so refreshingly rude and blunt about a sacred herb to Druids that looks like the Gods have been spreading their seed, and the mistletoe is often best 'planted' onto trees via bird droppings. Its just that raw toilet humour and belly giggling of the Dagda about it that makes mistletoe mistletoe to me - nature is funny and not all about archetypes and goddesses on their 'moontime'.
Actually that makes me wonder, is this humourous part of Mistletoe one of its properities as a panacea as laughter will definitely make us feel better :D

I've never seen a mistletoe ball on an oak, but plenty on trees like Apple and Lime (here in shropshire anyways), both of which are trees with lore associated with love. I would LOVE to harvest mistletoe from a hawthorn as I think the two together would reflect the sacred marriage as for me the hawthorn is a very feminine tree. But I havent, yet!

In a reading the cutting of the mistletoe could reflect how a cutting of the final ties may be needed - something to be 'sacrificed' for your own benefit. Although a lot of pomp and ceremony is suggested about Druids and Mistletoe, if the mistletoe is NOT harvested that it will kill its host tree. Mistletoe is basically a parasite and will not achieve a pretty harmonious balance between its need and the hosts need to survive, mistletoe wil just take all it can get and more. So the harvesting of the mistletoe is very important so why not make a ceremony out of it? So in a reading it might reflect the harsh reality of getting rid of a parasite or draining negative influence in your life?

But of course the Mistletoe is associated with new beginnings, and fertility of opportunities. It could be that you are open to 2 options (as the twigs on the mistle naturally branch off in twos) and a decision needs to be made, but if you wait the Light will shine on the right path for you.
I'd also associate it with hope and joy, like the Holly tree as its berries provide food for the birds during the harshest of months, and it cheers us up when be bring its leaves into our homes as decoration our walls and altars.
 

Luna's Crone

I looked this post up, because i was going thru the app, i don't have a deck sigh, and the cycle kinda stumped me.

you mentioned heated debate? what are their interpretations? the metal looks silver tone with to gold colored decorations. the handle is obvious very fancy so it must be for ritual?