Ritual
highFrazer connects Druidic mistletoe cutting with an oak cult and notes the ritual use of a golden sickle and the rule that cut mistletoe not touch the earth.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
LXV. Balder and the Mistletoe
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Mistletoe
Viscum album
Mistletoe appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.
- Risk
- high
- Books
- 57
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 447
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- mistletoe
- Latin name
- Viscum album(candidate)
- Identity note
- European and American mistletoe differ; Frazer material is especially strong.
Safety
high
Oral mistletoe can be toxic; specialized injectable use is outside Hermetikon's scope.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- NCCIH Herbs at a Glance: Oral mistletoe can be toxic; specialized injectable use is outside Hermetikon's scope.
Aliases
mistletoemistletoe of the oakViscum album
Mistletoe in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Mistletoe (Viscum album) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are ritual uses, symbolism, and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Symbolism
highFrazer interprets Balder's life as bound to the mistletoe, making the plant both external soul and fatal object within the mythic logic of sympathetic thought.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913
IV. The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough.
Identity
highKing's mistletoe hit is comparative rather than Viscum album medicine: the cited plant's inner bark is said to make an adhesive material like mistletoe berry birdlime.
Preparations and ritual uses
Druidic cutting
highFrazer's Druidic rite cuts mistletoe from the oak with a golden sickle and keeps it from touching the earth.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
LXV. Balder and the Mistletoe
Mistletoe Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as mistletoe; high confidence.
Astrology
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Liber 777.
Matched as mistletoe; high confidence.
Folk magic
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.
Matched as mistletoe; high confidence.
Preparation
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: King's American Dispensatory.
Matched as mistletoe; high confidence.
Safety
6 passages across 6 books; strongest source: Bulfinch's Mythology.
Matched as mistletoe; high confidence.
Mistletoe Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...ine. It is quite common to the Atlantic states, especially New Jersey. The viscid substance of the inner bark, like the mistletoe berry, "furnishes an" adhesive material known as hirdHuif. Tlie berries are about as large as a whortleberry, of a red color, and an acrid, liitttrish taste. The leaves are the medicinal parts. They have a bitter, somewhat liarsh taste, but no odor, and yield tlieir virtues to water or alcohol. They are believed to contain ilicin (see Related Species), wax, gum, salts, etc. (For the"
Page 156Open in Reader
Preparationalias: mistletoehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1913
"...ion, Vol. 11 of 12) by James George Frazer # Chapter XII. The Golden Bough. Thus the view that Balder's life was in the mistletoe is entirely in harmony with primitive modes of thought. It may indeed sound like a contradiction that, if his life was in the mistletoe, he should nevertheless have been killed by a blow from the plant. But when a person's life is conceived as embodied in a particular object, with the existence of which his own existence is inseparably bound up, and the destruction of which involves his own, the object in question may be regarded and s..."
IV. The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough.Open in Reader
Safetyalias: mistletoehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"...the holy oak when |Resemblance between the Latin worship of Jupiter and the Druidical worship of the oak.| they cut the mistletoe;[[618]](4270233193503605876_60250-h-18.htm.xhtml#f618) and the parallel would be all the closer if, as we have seen reason to think, the Latins worshipped Jupiter originally in groves of oak. Other resemblances between ancient Gaul and Latium will meet us later on. When we remember that the ancient Italian and Celtic peoples spoke languages which are nearly related to each other,[[619]](4270233193503605876_60250-h-18.htm.xhtml#f619) we..."
§ 1. Numa and EgeriaOpen in Reader
Astrologyalias: mistletoehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"James George Frazer ## § 5.—Conclusion. Thus the view that Balder's life was in the mistletoe is entirely in harmony with primitive modes of thought. It may indeed sound like a contradiction that, if his life was in the mistletoe, he should nevertheless have been killed by a blow from it. But when a person's life is conceived as embodied in a particular object, with the existence of which his own existence is inseparably bound up, and the destruction of which involves his own, the object in question may be regarded and spoken o..."
§ 5.—Conclusion.Open in Reader
Safetyalias: mistletoehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...m heaven and was a sign that the tree had been chosen by the god himself. Such a belief explains why the Druids cut the mistletoe, not with a common knife, but with a golden sickle, and why, when cut, it was not suffered to touch the earth; probably they thought that the celestial plant would have been profaned and its marvellous virtue lost by contact with the ground. With the ritual observed by the Druids in cutting the mistletoe we may compare the ritual which in Cambodia is prescribed in a similar case. They say that when you see an orchid growing as a parasi..."
LXV. Balder and the MistletoeOpen in Reader
Astrologyalias: mistletoehigh confidence
Books Mentioning Mistletoe
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
mistletoe
62 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
mistletoe
52 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
mistletoe
33 mentionscited
Magic and Religion
Andrew Lang | 1901
mistletoe
24 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1926
mistletoe
22 mentions
Balder the Beautiful, Volume I
James George Frazer | 1913
mistletoe
16 mentions
Teutonic Mythology (Vol 3)
Viktor Rydberg | 1889
mistletoe
15 mentions
Demonology and Devil-lore
Moncure Daniel Conway | 1879
mistletoe
12 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
mistletoe
11 mentionscited
Myths of the Norsemen
H. A. Guerber | 1908
mistletoe
11 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1916
mistletoe
11 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
mistletoe
10 mentions
Myths and Myth-Makers
John Fiske | 1873
mistletoe
10 mentions
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1881
mistletoe
9 mentions
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1855
mistletoe
9 mentions
The Age of Fable
Thomas Bulfinch | 1855
mistletoe
9 mentions
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
mistletoe
9 mentions
Student's Mythology
Catherine Ann White | 1873
mistletoe
7 mentions
British Goblins
Wirt Sikes | 1880
mistletoe
7 mentions
Tradition and Mythology
Lord Arundell of Wardour (John Francis Arundell) | 1872
mistletoe
7 mentions
Myths of the Norsemen
Anonymous | 1200
mistletoe
6 mentions
An Introduction to Mythology
George W. Cox | 1873
mistletoe
6 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
mistletoe
6 mentions
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
mistletoe
5 mentionscited
Transcendental Magic
Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant) | 1856
mistletoe
5 mentions
A Book of Myths
Andrew Lang | 1889
mistletoe
5 mentions
The Elder Eddas and Younger Eddas
Anonymous | 1200
mistletoe
5 mentions
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
mistletoe
4 mentions
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted
Gustavus Hindman Miller | 1901
mistletoe
4 mentions
Myths of the Cherokee
James Mooney | 1900
mistletoe
4 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
mistletoe
3 mentions
Domestic Folk-lore
Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer | 1881
mistletoe
3 mentions
Bible Myths
Thomas William Doane | 1882
mistletoe
3 mentions
Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
W. Y. Evans-Wentz | 1911
mistletoe
3 mentions
Young Folks' Treasury Vol. 2
Hamilton Wright Mabie (ed.) | 1909
mistletoe
3 mentions
Strange Pages from Family Papers
Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer | 1887
mistletoe
3 mentions
Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson | 1220
mistletoe
3 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1917
mistletoe
3 mentions
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
mistletoe
2 mentions
The Christian Mythology
Charles François Dupuis | 1794
mistletoe
2 mentions
Primitive Culture, Vol. 2
Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871
mistletoe
2 mentions
The Book of Witches
Unknown Author (Historical Compilation) | 1900
mistletoe
2 mentions
Magic and Fetishism
Alfred Cruikshank Haddon | 1906
mistletoe
2 mentions
Signs, Omens and Superstitions
George Lyman Kittredge | 1915
mistletoe
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1908
mistletoe
2 mentions
Error's Chains
Frank S. Dobbins | 1883
mistletoe
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
mistletoe
1 mention
Myths and Fables of To-Day
Samuel Adams Drake | 1900
mistletoe
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 6
Aleister Crowley | 1911
mistletoe
1 mention
Heathen Mythology
Anonymous | 1842
mistletoe
1 mention
The Science of Numerology
Sepharial (Walter Gorn Old) | 1912
mistletoe
1 mention
Myth, Ritual and Religion Vol. 2
Andrew Lang | 1887
mistletoe
1 mention
Teutonic Mythology, Vol. 2
Viktor Rydberg | 1889
mistletoe
1 mention
Illustration of the Occult Sciences
Ebenezer Sibly | 1784
mistletoe
1 mention
Mysteries of All Nations
James Grant | 1880
mistletoe
1 mention
Genethlialogia
John Gadbury | 1658
mistletoe
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 1
Aleister Crowley | 1909
mistletoe
1 mention