Mystical systems
Mistletoe
Direct answer
Mistletoe: Mistletoe, Viscum album, is an evergreen plant that roots in the branches of trees and bears white berries in midwinter; Druid rite, Norse myth and Christmas custom all centre on it.
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At a glance
- Also called
- viscum album
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Vervain, Magical Correspondences, Folk Magic, Offering
Mistletoe, Viscum album, is an evergreen plant that roots in the branches of trees and bears white berries in midwinter; Druid rite, Norse myth and Christmas custom all centre on it.
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Why did the Druids value mistletoe?
Mistletoe is a partial parasite. Birds wipe its sticky seeds onto a branch, and the seedling sinks a root into the tree and draws water from it, forming a round, yellow-green bush that stays in leaf when its host is bare. It favours apple, lime and poplar and is rare on oak.
A plant that lives between earth and sky, green in the dead of the year, drew meaning easily. Pliny describes it as the most sacred thing the Druids knew when it grew on an oak. In Norse myth it is the one thing in the world that could wound the god Baldr. In English custom a bunch hung in the house at Christmas licenses a kiss beneath it.
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What sets Mistletoe apart
Its meaning rests on where it grows. Mistletoe never touches the soil, keeps its leaves through winter and fruits when little else does, so it was read as a plant outside the ordinary order of things. The Norse story turns on the same point: every creature of earth swore not to harm Baldr, and the mistletoe, belonging neither to earth nor sky, was passed over. The Druid rite in Pliny likewise takes care that the cut plant shall not fall to the ground.
- Botanical name: Viscum album, a partial parasite of trees
- Usual hosts: apple, lime, poplar and hawthorn; seldom oak
- Druid rite: Pliny, Natural History, book 16: sixth day of the moon, golden sickle
- Norse myth: the dart that kills Baldr, in Snorri's Prose Edda, about 1220
- Kissing custom: recorded in England from the late 18th century
- Hazard: leaves and berries poisonous if eaten
Often mistaken for something else: Holly and ivy are rooted evergreens brought indoors at midwinter for their greenery; mistletoe is the rootless one, growing on another tree, and the only one with a ritual of cutting.
The story behind Mistletoe
Pliny the Elder, writing about 77 CE, says the Druids of Gaul cut oak mistletoe on the sixth day of the moon: a priest in white climbed the tree with a golden sickle, the plant was caught in a white cloak and two white bulls were sacrificed. Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, of about 1220, tells how Loki guided the blind god Hod to throw a mistletoe dart that killed Baldr. Kissing under it is recorded in England from the late eighteenth century. James Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890) argued that the bough of its title was mistletoe.
Why Mistletoe matters
Mistletoe is one of the few plants whose ritual use by the Druids is described by an ancient author, however much of the account is hearsay.
How to read Mistletoe
It is hung at midwinter as a sign of peace and welcome, and in modern Druid orders a sprig is cut ceremonially near the winter solstice.
Mistletoe in practice: an example
A bunch tied with ribbon over a doorway in December is mistletoe in its most familiar role.
Where readings of Mistletoe go wrong
The leaves and berries are poisonous if eaten, to people and to pets, so a hanging bunch is kept well out of reach of children and animals.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- mistletoe meaning, mistletoe folklore, mistletoe druids, viscum album, why do we kiss under mistletoe
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
Why did the Druids value mistletoe?
According to Pliny, they held that whatever grew on an oak was sent from heaven, and mistletoe on oak is rare. He says they called it by a name meaning all-healing. His is the only ancient account.
Why do people kiss under mistletoe?
The custom is first recorded in England in the late 1700s among servants and spread in the following century. Its origin is unknown; links to Druids or to the Norse goddess Frigg are later suggestions without early evidence.
Is mistletoe poisonous?
Yes. European mistletoe contains toxic proteins, and eating the berries or leaves can cause serious stomach upset and effects on the heart. The American kinds sold at Christmas are also unsafe to eat.
