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a white cloth before touching the ground.
Its powers, when properly used, were significant. It was called “all heal", and believed to be a cure for mental disorder, especially epilepsy. It was especially effective if used to treat fresh wounds. Modern science has not been able to find any evidence or proof that there is anything in mistletoe that has medical value, which adds to the mystery.
It was also believed to be an aphrodisiac and to have ptower to make the barren, human and animal, fertile, which may explain the kissing under the niistletoe—which, according to mistletoe experts, does not mean anything unless the sprig of mistletoe has berries and whoever is involved in the osculation picks a berry after the act.
Those who venture to capture mistletoe and bring it in front an oak tree, if they cannot use a golden knife as the Irish Druids did on the sixth of the moon, might try using an arrow, a practice tolerated by the Swiss or try to knock it out of the tree with Stones as did the Welsh. Rifle fire might be accepted, but not a shotgun blast.
The Christmas message of the Mistletoe, the Christian one, is that it was a sign of new life, of green, in the barren oak. In more sophisticated explanations, it was also noted that it was life from outside, not from the tree.
Whether one accepts the pagan or the Christian explanations of the mistletoe, the scientific or unscientific reports of its powers, it is not to be trifled with. The careful would do better to kiss under the Christmas tree or under holly leaves.
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