It's almost Yule and here in the US it means that there's mistletoe hanging in every department store and many homes. In most places this means plastic mistletoe, but some folks go the extra mile and manage to find fresh mistletoe. It's lovely and very festive. It also means that there are some stores I just can't go in. Yes folks, I do not like mistletoe or - more accurately - mistletoe does not like me.
A few years ago I was hanging out in a lovely cemetery in Medford, Or and as I walked into a particular area I felt an intense aversion to it - like something really didn't want me there. I looked up and realized I was standing under a huge clump of mistletoe in an oak tree. Then I noticed that all of the trees in that part of the cemetery were completely infested with mistletoe, while the area I had been in before was mistletoe free.
I didn't think much about it until I was in another Southern Oregon and had a similar experience. Apparently mistletoe and I do not get along. Being near too much of it absolutely makes my skin crawl. Something about its energy and mine are just antithetical.
This rather bizarre phenomenon made me look up some of the history and lore surrounding mistletoe. Mistletoe is sacred to Druids and is believed to protect against evil and death (as well as lightning and a few other things). The most famous story associated with mistletoe is its involvement in the death of Baldur, the Norse god of beauty and light (in brief: Loki did it); but despite this it is still considered a largely beneficial plant in Norse mythology. So why does it make me feel like it hates me?
Well, I did find one bit of lore saying the mistletoe works as protection against baleful witchcraft. Now, I don't make a practice of casting baleful magick but a lot of what I do is a bit...well..gunmetal grey if not black exactly. So it's possible that mistletoe just doesn't get along well with shadow magick or maybe just my flavor of it. Very weird.
Resources
http://sunchyldes.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-seventh-day-of-yule-mistletoe.html
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/mythology_folklore/mistletoe.asp
http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:mistletoe
http://witchesandpagans.com/and-the-mistletoe.html
A few years ago I was hanging out in a lovely cemetery in Medford, Or and as I walked into a particular area I felt an intense aversion to it - like something really didn't want me there. I looked up and realized I was standing under a huge clump of mistletoe in an oak tree. Then I noticed that all of the trees in that part of the cemetery were completely infested with mistletoe, while the area I had been in before was mistletoe free.
Mistletoe Berries Uk. Licensed under PD via Wikipedia.
I didn't think much about it until I was in another Southern Oregon and had a similar experience. Apparently mistletoe and I do not get along. Being near too much of it absolutely makes my skin crawl. Something about its energy and mine are just antithetical.
This rather bizarre phenomenon made me look up some of the history and lore surrounding mistletoe. Mistletoe is sacred to Druids and is believed to protect against evil and death (as well as lightning and a few other things). The most famous story associated with mistletoe is its involvement in the death of Baldur, the Norse god of beauty and light (in brief: Loki did it); but despite this it is still considered a largely beneficial plant in Norse mythology. So why does it make me feel like it hates me?
Well, I did find one bit of lore saying the mistletoe works as protection against baleful witchcraft. Now, I don't make a practice of casting baleful magick but a lot of what I do is a bit...well..gunmetal grey if not black exactly. So it's possible that mistletoe just doesn't get along well with shadow magick or maybe just my flavor of it. Very weird.
Resources
http://sunchyldes.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-seventh-day-of-yule-mistletoe.html
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/articles/mythology_folklore/mistletoe.asp
http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:mistletoe
http://witchesandpagans.com/and-the-mistletoe.html
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