Mistletoe is a magical herb. It's history has gotten distorted but its rightful place is powerful.

I'm going to talk about two kinds of mistletoe, although 'mistletoe' is a common name & refers to any plant in the order Santalales, there are hundreds of cultivars.

Phoradendron flavescens, American Mistletoe, is a native North American parasitic shrub that grows on deciduous trees. Its medicinal properties are as an antispasmodic, emmenagogue, emetic, diuretic, & it stimulates uterine contractions, raises blood pressure, relaxes nerves.

American mistletoe contains b12, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, iron, cobalt, iodine, copper, cadmium, and contains amines, beta-phenylethylamine, tyramine, lectins, viscin, choline, sugar, and tannin.

This mistletoe was used by various indigenous women of northern California during labor to ease the nerves, regulate contractions, expel the placenta, and prevent hemorrhage.

Pomo women created a decoction of leaves and infusion of roots of mistletoe to promote menstruation. Kawaiisu women made infusions with the mistletoe growing on Douglas Oak trees to stimulate abortions in the first 2 months of pregnancy.

Africans who were stolen & brought to the Americas carried mistletoe as a love charm & amulet. Mistletoe is sacred in Vodou - given to the family of spirits Erzulie to ensure pleasure & love, as well as the protection of women, powerful seduction, & control over fertility.

The second kind of mistletoe I'm going to discuss is Viscum album, or European Mistletoe. It's known as a stimulant, diuretic, and tonic. It's a heart stimulant that will first raise & then lower blood pressure, and stimulates glands.

It contains 11 proteins, lectin, viscotoxin, and alkaloids, vitamin b12, calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, iron, cobalt, iodine, copper, and cadmium.

It's native to northwest Europe to China, and growing south to Iran. It grows on various deciduous trees like oak and apple.

This mistletoe was also a sacred plant, to the Celtic Druids. They considered mistletoe as representative of the phallus that gave access to the powers of the underworld, otherwise known as the womb of Mother Earth.

It grew high on the oak tree, its evergreen leaves represented immortality, and its sticky berries, semen. Mistletoe symbolized the genitals of the Oak God. The Oak God loved the moon goddess Diana.

Diana was a lunar virgin, mother of all creatures, and the huntress. As a symbol of Earth Mother, she held the power to change the tides, and the cycling of menstrual blood, power over life & death.

Here's the relationship to this time of year: At the full moon after the winter solstice, Druids would sacrificially castrate the Oak God by cutting the mistletoe with a sickle. It was caught in a white cloth before touching the ground.

Gathering the abortive mistletoe was symbolic of women's moon energy in the powers of the underworld (Earth Mother), and to castrate the life power of the sexual act, to hold the life spirit suspended between heaven & earth.

An orgy occurred afterwards in sexual celebration. This is where it may have gained its reputation as an aphrodisiac, as is common with many ancient abortive herbs. The worshippers would take home pieces of mistletoe to keep away evil spirits.

During patriarchal Christianity, symbols of feminine power were devalued and propagandized as evil. At one point mistletoe was considered to be the forbidden tree in Eden, the tree of Knowledge.

The inherent power of women to regulate their own fertility and thus fate is the "forbidden fruit" of knowledge in patriarchal Christianity.

England's churches continue to ban mistletoe as a symbol of the ancient worship of the Earth Mother. Mistletoe is just one herb of many available for women to regain their self mastery.

It isn't until Victorian England that kissing under the mistletoe became a tradition. And originally it was men having the right to kiss any woman standing underneath mistletoe, and bad luck would fall on her for refusing the advance.

Let us reclaim this powerful fertility herb! I feel so sad that it has gotten wrapped up in patriarchal Christianity & the Christmas holiday when it has so much depth across many ancient cultures! Thank you mistletoe.