By: Hartmut Ramm
On the 75th Anniversary of Anthroposophic Mistletoe Therapy
Original title: Die Mistel in der Zeit. Ein Beitrag zum 75jährigen Bestehen der anthroposophischen Misteltherapie. Der Merkurstab 1995; 48:113-23.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14271/DMS-16689-DE
English by A. R. Meuss, FIL, MTA.
This translation is published with the kind permission of the journal Der Merkurstab.

JAM Vol. 13(1), Spring 1996

Evolution of anthroposophic mistletoe therapy

Mistletoe has attracted special attention from antiquity, which is evident from mystery texts such as Virgil's Aeneid(1) or the later Edda,(2) where mistletoe plays a significant role in events. Pliny the Elder spoke of the great importance mistletoe had among the Celts: "They call mistletoe the 'all-healer' in their language."(3)

The plant's wide range of medicinal uses was also much appreciated in medieval times and the early part of the present age. However, the essential nature and true significance of mistletoe did not emerge until the early 20th Century,4 when Rudolf Steiner, basing himself on the science of the spirit, presented it as the medicine for cancer.(5)

It must have been a significant moment for the mistletoe spirit when it advanced from being the all-healer to being the "specific for carcinoma,"(6) that disease of our time.

The birth of anthroposophic mistletoe therapy in 1920 was preceded by a period of more than 3 years during which the basic principles were evolved. The first time Rudolf Steiner referred to the connection between mistletoe and cancer was on New Year's Eve, 1916.(7) Ita Wegman had taken this up immediately and started to produce and use a mistletoe preparation in her Zurich practice in the early months of 1917.(8) Rudolf Steiner was able to build on her initiative and present mistletoe therapy to the physicians on 2 April 1920, which was a Good Friday.

The presentation on 31 December 1916(7) marked the conclusion and summing up of a series of references Rudolf Steiner had made to mistletoe from 1904.9 His main concern had always been to show the nature of the plant by considering its cosmic origins, seeing it as a relic of the Ancient Moon period of Earth evolution. It was as if he wanted to seek mistletoe nature out in its spiritual home - or spiritual exile, as we might also put it. It was then possible to incorporate mistletoe in the ongoing stream of time.

After March 1920, Rudolf Steiner referred to mistletoe on a number of occasions, speaking not so much of its cosmic past but of its future within the Earth sphere. On 2 April 1920, he briefly presented mistletoe as a cancer medicine and then went on to say: "It will entirely be a matter of finding the right way of processing the fruit, though, of course, very much in connection with other mistletoe qualities." He emphasized "utter dependence on the method used to process mistletoe substance,"(5) and also said the aim was to change the "active element in the mistletoe process into a different process of aggregation,"10 with the "medicinal quality of Viscuni only arising in the process" (my italics - H.R.).(6)

Three years and three months passed between the two stages in the evolution of mistletoe therapy - seeking out past origins of mistletoe and indicating its future. During this time, mistletoe therapy developed quietly, becoming part of present Earth life.

Citation: Ramm, H. (1996). Mistletoe In The Time Stream (A. R. Meuss, Trans.). Journal of Anthroposophic Medicine, 13(1), 79–89.