Mistletoe Meaning: Druids, Baldur and the Pagan History of the Kissing Plant
Mistletoe is the oddest of the midwinter plants. It has no roots in the ground, it stays green when its host tree is bare, and it fruits in the dead of winter. It is also the piece of Christmas greenery that, by long tradition, English churches left out of their decorations, which tells you something about its reputation.
Our piece on whether Christmas is pagan gives mistletoe a paragraph alongside holly, the tree and the Yule log. This one goes deeper on mistletoe alone: the two ancient sources everyone cites, what they actually say, where the kissing came from, and how to use it at home without poisoning the cat.
The plant itself
European mistletoe, Viscum album, is a hemiparasite. It grows on the branches of a host tree, taking water and minerals from it while making its own food from sunlight. Birds eat the sticky white berries and wipe or pass the seeds onto new branches. It is common on apple, poplar and lime trees and rare on oak. American mistletoe is a different genus, Phoradendron, but it looks similar and carries the same customs in the United States.
That rarity on oak is the key to the first story.
Pliny and the Druids
Old symbols for the Yule tree
The oldest detailed account comes from Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist, in book 16 of his Natural History, written in the first century CE. He says the Druids of Gaul held nothing more sacred than mistletoe and the tree it grows on, provided that tree is an oak. Because oak mistletoe is so rare, finding it was treated as a sign.
The ritual he describes
According to Pliny, the mistletoe was gathered on the sixth day of the moon, which he says marked the beginning of their months and years. A priest in white climbed the tree and cut the plant with a golden sickle, and it was caught in a white cloak before it could touch the ground. Two white bulls were then sacrificed. The Druids, he reports, called the plant by a word meaning all-healing, and believed that a drink made from it made barren animals fertile and worked as a remedy against poisons.
How much to trust it
Pliny was writing as an outsider, at a distance, about people the Romans were busy suppressing, and he adds a dry remark about how much religion people attach to trivial things. It is still the best source we have. Almost everything modern writers say about Druids and mistletoe traces back to this one passage. For more on Druid symbolism, see the Awen.
Baldur and the mistletoe dart
The second source is Norse. In the Prose Edda, written down by Snorri Sturluson in thirteenth-century Iceland, the god Baldur dreams of his own death. His mother Frigg goes through the world and takes an oath from fire, water, metals, stones, trees, animals, poisons and sicknesses that none of them will harm him. She skips one small plant growing west of Valhalla, the mistletoe, because it seems too young to swear.
Loki learns of the gap, cuts the mistletoe and shapes it into a dart. The gods amuse themselves by throwing things at Baldur, since nothing can hurt him. Loki hands the dart to Baldur's blind brother Hodr and guides his aim. Baldur falls dead.
The happy ending that is not there
You will often read that Frigg's tears became the white berries, that Baldur was revived, and that Frigg declared mistletoe a plant of love and peace, hence the kiss. None of that is in the Edda. Baldur stays in the underworld until after Ragnarok. The tender version is a modern embellishment, pleasant but unsourced. The real myth makes mistletoe the one small thing that can undo a god. Our piece on Yggdrasil covers the wider Norse cosmos.
Where the kissing came from
The kiss is English and comparatively recent. References to kissing under mistletoe appear in eighteenth-century England, apparently first among servants and then across households. Washington Irving described the custom in 1820: the young men plucked a berry for each kiss, and when the berries were gone the privilege ended. The Victorians made it a fixture, and it crossed to America with the rest of their Christmas. There is no ancient source for it, and that is fine. A custom only needs to be loved, not old.
Mistletoe in folk magic
Across Britain and Europe, mistletoe was hung in houses and barns for protection, against fire, lightning, illness and ill-wishing, and often kept up until it was replaced the following year. Pliny's fertility belief also lingered in country lore. In modern practice it is used as a protection charm over a door, a fertility or love token, and a symbol of life holding on through winter. For plant work generally, see our guide to herbal witchcraft, and for door charms, the protective entryway.
Safety first: keep it out of reach
Mistletoe berries and leaves are toxic. Eating them can cause vomiting, stomach pain and worse, and the ASPCA lists mistletoe as toxic to cats and dogs. Children are drawn to the white berries. Hang real mistletoe high, out of reach of pets and small hands, and put a dish or cloth beneath it to catch dropped berries. For anything hung low, on a wreath at child height or on a lower tree branch, use artificial mistletoe instead. If a child or pet eats any, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 or your vet straight away. Never use it in teas or food.
Hanging it and a simple blessing
Tie a sprig with red or green ribbon and hang it over the main doorway on the solstice or on the first day you decorate. As you hang it, say something short and plain:
Green in the dark and life on the bare bough, keep this door and all who pass through it. Let what is ill stay outside and what is kind come in.
Leave it up through the twelve days or for the whole year, then burn or bury it when the new sprig goes up. If you prefer a permanent version, mistletoe sits naturally beside the evergreen and Celtic motifs on the Yule ornaments, such as the triquetra ceramic ornament or the tree of life glass ornament. For the oak and tree symbolism behind Pliny's account, the tree of life range carries the same idea. Our Yule wreath guide shows how to work it into greenery.
One ornament for the bare bough
Frequently Asked Questions About Mistletoe
What does mistletoe symbolize in paganism?
Life that endures through winter, protection, fertility and healing. Pliny reports that the Druids treated oak mistletoe as sacred and called it all-healing, and folk custom hung it in houses for protection.
Why did Loki use mistletoe to kill Baldur?
In the Prose Edda, Frigg took oaths from everything in the world not to harm Baldur except mistletoe, which she thought too young. Loki made a dart from it and had the blind god Hodr throw it.
Where does kissing under the mistletoe come from?
Eighteenth-century England. There is no ancient source for the custom. Washington Irving described the berry-per-kiss rule in 1820, and the Victorians made it standard.
Is mistletoe poisonous to pets?
Yes. The berries and leaves are toxic to cats, dogs and people. Hang real mistletoe well out of reach and use artificial mistletoe anywhere low.
Mistletoe is a plant that lives between ground and sky, green in a dead season. Hang it high, respect what it can do, and let it keep the door.
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