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Mistletoe’s power required careful handling.
Never Touch Earth:
Once harvested, mistletoe could not contact ground—it was stored hanging from rafters, kept in elevated locations, never placed on floor or earth. Contact with ground was believed to drain its power, making it worthless.
No Iron Contact:
Iron tools could not touch mistletoe—from harvest through preparation, only gold, bronze, or stone implements were used. Iron was opposed to mistletoe’s nature, would corrupt its properties.
Ritual Purity:
Those preparing or administering mistletoe medicine had to be ritually pure—fasting, sexually abstinent, clean in body and spirit. Impurity would taint the medicine, reduce its effectiveness.
Limited Distribution:
Mistletoe was not given casually—its rarity and sacredness meant it was reserved for serious conditions, distributed through Druids or experienced healers, not available to anyone who asked.
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