in some great danger of life, his
mother, Friga, exacted an oath from all the creatures of the animal, the
vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, that they would do no harm to her
son. The mistletoe, contemptible from its size and weakness, was alone
neglected, and of it no oath of immunity was demanded. Lok, the evil
genius, or god of Darkness, becoming acquainted with this fact, placed an
arrow made of mistletoe in the hands of Holder, the blind brother of
Balder, on a certain day, when the gods were throwing missiles at him in
sport, and wondering at their inability to do him injury with any arms
with which they could attack him. But, being shot with the mistletoe
arrow, it inflicted a fatal wound, and Balder died.

Ever afterwards the mistletoe was revered as a sacred plant, consecrated
to the powers of darkness; and annually it became an important rite among
the Druids to proceed into the forest in search of the mistletoe, which,
being found, was cut down by the Arch Druid, and its parts, after a solemn
sacrifice, were distributed among the people. Clavel[196] very ingeniously
remarks, that it is evident, in reference to the legend, that as Balder
symbolizes the Sun-god, and Lok, Darkness, this search for the mistletoe
was intended to deprive the god of Darkness of the power of destroying the
god of Light. And the distribution of the fragments of the mistletoe among
their pious worshippers, was to assure them that henceforth a similar
attempt of Lok would prove abortive, and he was thus deprived of the means
of effecting his design.[197]

The _myrtle_ performed the same office of symbolism in the Mysteries of
Greece as the lotus did in Egypt, or the mistletoe among the Druids. The
candidate, in these initiations, was crowned with myrtle, because,
according to the popular theology, the myrtle was sacred to Proserpine,
the goddess of the future life. Every classical scholar will remember the
golden branch with which Aeneas was supplied by the Sibyl, before
proceeding on his journey to the infernal regions[198]--a voyage which
is now universally admitted to be a mythical representation of the
ceremonies of initiation.

In all of these ancient Mysteries, while the sacred plant was a symbol of
initiation, the initiation itself was symbolic of the resurrection to a
future life, and of the immortality of the soul. In this view, Freemasonry
is to us now in the place of the ancient initiations, and the acacia is
substitute