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Originally Posted by Billman
The origins of the Golden Sickle probably lie in the bronze bladed sickles that preceded those made of iron, as in this reconstruction (from Germany) the bronze blade is golden when polished - note the caulked billhook type of handle, common in northern Europe and Britain:
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That's one possibility, but you do know that they could tell the difference between bronze and gold, right?
There's a couple of things here. One is that the golden sickle is a Roman story, and we don't know if it was real. That said, a modern-day druid actually did try to cut mistletoe with a golden sickle (9 carat sheet gold--he was a jeweler), and yes, the gold sickle did cut the mistletoe. It cut about two stems before it broke. Mistletoe wood is pretty brittle. So it could have been done.
Additionally, we have to look at the symbolism:
gold=metal of the sun
sickle=crescent of the moon
...and the ritual took place on the summer solstice, the time of maximum sunlight.
Mistletoe is sacred because
--it grows in the "air," not in the ground,
--it tends to be green when the tree it's on has shed its leaves (a symbol of eternal life and/or the spirit?)
--the berries look like semen (white and sticky)
--the fruiting stem looks like a phallus, especially since the two berries at the base of the straight, rigid stem are typically the last two to fall off
(Yes, this is why you kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas. It's a fertility rite).
And finally, most English mistletoe grows on apple, not on oak, and mistle-oaks are quite rare. And yes, oak was sacred to the druids.
--As I recall, the mistletoe was caught on a bull hide, too, and bulls were one of the major sources of wealth in the ancient world (if you know the origin of "capitalism," you know what I'm talking about).
Add up all the symbols, the sun-moon of the golden sickle cutting a supernatural/fertility symbol/toxic plant on the day of maximum sunlight from a sacred tree, and it's caught on the skin of a slaughtered, valuable animal...
I don't know if the ritual ever happened, or whether they used a gold sickle or a gold plated sickle, or whatever. The things we do know are that it could have happened as stated, and regardless, there's a lot of symbolism hidden in that story.
Best,
F