Pagan Christmas (12 page)

In the winter of 1932–1934, the Christ rose was very popular as a symbol of sacrifice with the winter hardship services institution that existed during the German Reich. A number of German cities had a “Christ Rose Day” during Advent, during which Christ roses made of white cloth were sold and collections taken up in the streets and pubs to help poor compatriots suffering in winter (Marzell 1935, 166).

Another reason for the belief in the magic powers of the hellebore lies with the root of the plant. The powder made out of the root induces sneezing. The Roman name for black hellebore, veratrum, comes from verus, or true—“because the powdered root causes sneezing, which is considered a proof of the truth” (Söhns 1920, 35).

Every day in Germany, people say “good health” (Gesundheit) when someone sneezes. (Gesundheit is the German equivalent of the English “God bless you.”) Behind this spontaneous exclamation is a magic formula not known to many people. Even less is known about the historical background of the blessing and the particular plant to which it refers—hellebore.

Normally, we consider sneezing a symptom of a cold and say Gesundheit because we don’t want the person who is sneezing to get sick. However, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates considered sneezing a sign of a fortunate avoidance of illness. Other ancient sources interpret strong sneezes as the sign of the exorcism of an illness demon. Because sneezing can be stimulated with the help of sneezing powder, several drugs made from different kinds of hellebore were very popular for this purpose with the early Greeks. In fact, in ancient times, hellebore was the most famous medicine of the Greek materia medica. The plants that were grouped together under the Greek name helleborors were used frequently and in many different situations to ward off illness. In old Egypt, sneezing was believed to be caused by demonic influence and was considered a sign of the presence of illness-causing demons or of evil forces that needed to exit the body. Just as in Greece, helpful sneezing was provoked with sneezing powder made from powdered hellebore root.

The hellebore (Helleborus). The root makes those “who are out of control, are melancholic, or are crazy, healthy again.” (Illustration from Brunfels 1532, 62)

Frost-hardened hellebore roots were especially popular with herbalists. While digging for black hellebore (also known as melampodion, or “plant of Melampus”) one had to be careful not to agitate the plant spirit, which could appear in the form of an eagle:

You are supposed to draw a circle around the black hellebore. And you should say prayers facing the east. You are supposed to keep an eye out for an eagle coming from either the right side or the left side. And if an eagle does come close, this is very ominous for the cutter. He will die in the course of a year (Theophrast, Geschichte der Pflanzen IX, 1).

Hellebore root contains a poisonous chemical compound, helleborin, that causes vomiting and diarrhea and was in earlier times considered a purgative for “people with a strong constitution” (Marzell 1935, 167). To escape the dark moods that could occur during the long, dark winter, folk healers and homeopaths prescribed hellebore tincture to prevent melancholy, heart weakness, madness, and epilepsy.

In the pagan tradition, Helleborus niger was considered a magic plant and a plant of Saturn; it was believed to have the power to cure madness. Concoctions made with the powdered root were demonized by Christian as a witches’ herb. In order to become invisible in preparation for the Sabbath flight, witches are supposed to have powdered themselves with it (Emboden 1974, 66).

Bornemann offers the following explanation for hellebore’s reputation as an aphrodisiac and psychoactive plant:

Christ rose is considered the Lord’s penis, and is therefore a potencytriggering medium. It contains a substance that increases circulation, the glycoside helleborin … Christmas rose [is a] consciousness-altering aphrodisiac … (Bornemann 1974, 52).

A PINCH OF GLACIER: A MOUNTAIN OF SNOW TO SNUFF

It is called black hellebore because, in earlier times, the powder of the black root was used as snuff tobacco.

VORNARBURG 2002A, 66

The famous German Schneeberger tobacco is named after the town of Schneeberg in the Saxon Erzgebirge, where it was once produced. Schneeberger means “snow mountain,” an appropriate name for a product that once contained substantial amounts of hellebore. However, tobacco is not an accurate name for the Schneeberger product, which in earlier times was a sneezing powder (snuff) made from hellebore, liverwort, and medicinal soap. Today, though it is made with a different recipe and is no longer produced in the Erzgebirge, Schneeberger snuff can be found again in the form of peppermint powder (Hartel 1977, 52).

“Real Schneeberger sneezing powder, Adler pharmacy, Schneeberg.”

Apothecary package of Schneeberger sneezing powder (1981). (From Martinetz 1994, 126)

The two main ingredients of Schneeberger “snuff tobacco” were black hellebore (Helleborus niger) and white hellebore (Veratrum album), both of which are now illegal ingredients.3 Another ingredient, also now forbidden for use in commercial products, was hazelwort or European wild ginger (Asarum europaeum L., Aristolochiaceae). The poison hazelwort “was a contribution to the witches’ herbal, because it was seen as part of the herbs of Bacchus, like ivy and hellebore (Christ rose)” (Beckmann and Beckmann 1990, 165).

In addition to these primary ingredients, numerous other plants found their way into the famous snuff powder over time. One is arnica (Arnica montana), a plant with specific meanings of its own in the ethnobotany of Christmas. In the vernacular, arnica is sometimes even called Schneeberger flower or snuff tobacco flower, demonstrating the plant’s association with Schneeberger snuff powder (Arends 1935, 239). The lovely, delicious-smelling lily-of-thevalley (Convallaria majalis) is also associated with the legendary snuff powder; its dried and pulverized blossoms were once an important ingredient. This is why the plant has been called “little tobacco flower” and, in Alsace, “little sneezing flower” (Marzell 1935, 37). The folk names “snuff tobacco clover” (yellow sweet clover, Melilotus officinalis) and “snuff tobacco herb” (salsify, Tragopogon pratensis) tell us that these two plants were also once incorporated into snuff. In English, yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is still sometimes called “sneezewort.”

Pulvis Sternatutoris Schneebergensis

Here is a recipe for Schneeberger snuff tobacco (Schneeberger Prime) from Hager’s Handbook of the Pharmaceutical Practice (Frerichs
et al.
1938, 591).

20 g hazelwort herb (Asarum europaeum)

5 g lily-of-thevalley flower blossoms (Convallaria majalis)

2 g hellebore root (Helleborus niger)

50 g orris root (Iris germanica)

15 drops bergamot essential oil (Citrus bergamia)

Cut up raw plant material and sprinkle with bergamot essential oil. When it is dry, grind the mixture very finely. It is said that soap powder can be used as a substitute for the poisonous hellebore. Gesundheit!

Modern Schneeberger snuff powder contains only a pinch of dextrose. It is no longer made in the Erzgebirge region. The bottles pictured here are souvenirs from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, purchased in 2001.

Horse chestnut flour (Aesculus hippocastanum) was another primary ingredient of Schneeberger snuff powder (de Vries 1989, 167). In addition to liverwort (Hepatica nobilis), nontoxic herbs such as marjoram (Origanum marjorana), lavender (Lavendula angustifolia), sage (Salvia officinalis), and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) were used to round out the formulation.

Other Christ Roses and Roots

Pheasant’s eye (Adonis vernalis L., Ranunculaceae) is also known as Bohemian Christ root or Bohemian hellebore (Schoen 1963, 51). In the Latin apothecary and in the vernacular, it is known both as Christ root herb and devil’s eye. The plant has been treasured and feared since antiquity as a strong pharmacological agent with healing—but also potentially fatal—powers.

Yellow dock (Rumex crispus L., Polygonaceae) is another plant commonly called Christ rose. The legendary medieval abbess Hildegard von Bingen suggests, “if a man loses his sense or his mind because an illness or weakness plagues his head, so that he becomes senseless, you administer Christ rose, and add a little quendel [wild thyme]” (Hildegard von Bingen Physica, 129). In ancient times, dock was an ingredient of the legendary Egyptian incense, kyphi. The incense ingredient later on became a smoking herb, called “wild tobacco” in the vernacular: “The country people, not infrequently, smoked its dried leaves as tobacco” (von Chamisso 1987, 144). Rumex crispus (yellow dock) was used by the North American Indians in a similar manner. The Iroquois considered dock a love medicine and love magic; it was used as a panacea and a tonic, a substance that strengthens. The Ojibwa made a hunting medicine from dried dock leaves mixed with kinnikinnik (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) that was smoked as “Indian Baccy” to attract wild animals (Moerman 1998, 496).

Arnica (Arnica montana L., Asteraceae), also called Mary’s herb, motherwort, wolf’s eye, St. Lucy flower, and St. Lucian herb, has golden-yellow ray flowers. It is “a little sun” that is “a reflection of the heavenly light that is covering the carpet of vegetation … and reveals to us, in this manner, that the light of the creator always shines through the plant world—even if the eye of a human being is very often too cloudy to see it” (Zimmerer 1896, 254f). The Wends, a Slavic people of the Lausitz region of eastern Germany, described arnica roots as “Christ’s roots” (Seligmann 1996, 82). In the region of the Nahe River, the yellow-flowering greater celandine (Chelidonium majus L., Papaveraceae) is also known as “Christ’s root” (Söhns 1920, 95).

The red rose (Rosa spp.) is a symbol of love and a pure heart, a holy plant.

Christmas Roses

Eros was leading the dance at the feast of the gods; and with his wing he pushed against a cup of nectar… . So it was that the drops of nectar fell down to the earth and changed white roses to red.

GRIGSON 1978, 181

“Lo how a rose e’er blooming” is the beginning of a very popular Christmas song. The melody was composed in 1599 in Cologne; Michael Praetorius set lyrics to the music in 1609.4 In both verses, Praetorius tied an image of the rose’s roots to the family tree of Jesus. The “flow’ret bright … amid the cold of winter,” refers to the newborn baby Jesus, who drives away the darkness with his bright light. The song also celebrates Mary “the Virgin Mother kind,” who brought us the little flower. Even though roses develop their beauty and splendor not in winter but in summer and autumn, similar allegorical comparisons between the holy family and roses of all kinds have been woven into the Christmas story. In turn, they inspired a whole folklore of plant names and customs referring to Mary, Jesus, and the holy night.

The little flowers of the bushy, wild, thorny hedge rose are white, like snow. The rose hips sometimes survive the autumn to glow red against the winter snow. In the Nahe River region they are called Mary’s rose or Mother of God rose; in the Swabian area, ladythorn; on the Swabian Alb, little Lord’s rose or Savior rose; and in Thuringia, herb of Jesus. Christian legend offers an explanation for its white blossoms and their delicate smell. During their flight from Herod into Egypt, Mary dried the newborn Jesus’s diapers or his scarf on a wild rose bush. The next morning the bush bloomed with white roses that had a lovely, delicate fragrance.

In the Allgäu region, rose hips were used to foretell the severity of the coming winter. If the rose hips were plump in the fall, the winter would be very cold; if the rose hips were long, the winter would be long as well.

“For centuries,” the rose has been a symbol “of the highest honors of the church,” wrote Walahfrid Strabo in the ninth century in his Hortulus, the most important record of the early history of agriculture in Germany. Strabo was the abbot of Reichenau Island in Lake Constance. Tourists still go there every year because of the bountiful richness of its flowers and blossoms. Strabo’s contemporaries saw the Virgin Mary as a mystical rose, a symbol of chastity, virginity, and love free from desires of the flesh. Also associated with Mary is the following Christmas folk custom: “If a girl cuts a rose on the summer solstice and wears it to church on Christmas day, her future husband will show himself when he takes the rose instead of the girl” (Hiller 1989, 233).

The association of roses with the love of beautiful women was handed down to us from the ancient Greeks. One Greek myth tells us that the rose fell out of the hair of Aurora, goddess of the dawn. In another myth, roses bloomed under the steps of the love goddess, Aphrodite. “In the moment the young goddess was created from the sperm of Uranus in the sea, a new bush was growing on earth. The holy assembly of gods sprinkled drops of nectar on the branches, and every drop became a rose” (Grigson 1978, 179).

The Lesbian poet Sappho (sixth century BCE), who worshipped Aphrodite all her life, described the rose as “queen of all flowers.” Achilleus Tatios (second century BCE), the Alexandrian poet who became famous for his romance Leukippe and Kleitophon, honored not only love, but also the rose:

It is the ornament of the earth, the pride of the plant kingdom, the crown of the flowers, the purple of the meadows, the reflection of beauty. It is full of love in the service of Aphrodite, it shows its perfumed petals, is dancing on moving leaves, is happy with the smiling Zephyrus.

The wild roses (Rosa canina) that grew from the tears of Aphrodite when she wept for Adonis carry the perfume of the love goddess. Thus the Romans, who in effect credited the smile of Eros with the creation of roses, perceived in wild roses the scent of Venus. Ancient Germans worshipped the blossoms and fragrance of the wild rose as holy to the love goddess, Freia.

Many cultures see the red or white rose blossom as a mystical, holy, feminine symbol of love. The use of rose water in Christmas baking and Christmas incense comes from this tradition. The ancients tell us that “The rose is the fragrance of the gods” (Grigson 1978, 180).

Many aromatherapists associate the changing symbolism of the rose and its vast number of beneficial effects—as numerous as the petals of its flower5—with the range of different intensities of love caused by Eros, from chastity to burning love: