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Paper short abstract

Following elaborate protocols, one may be able to locate and extract the elusive fern bloom on midsummer night. An entryway to a wider reflection on the widespread ritualisation of behaviour imposed by the picking of plants in certain ceremonial or magical contexts, starting with Romanian examples.

Paper long abstract

One of the most archaic plants in the world, ferns occupy a rich magical and mythical imaginary vivid in numerous beliefs in Romania. Throughout European mythology and imaginary, though, there is a well documented common awe around the elusive flowering fern, a biological impossibility. Exclusively blooming during summer solstice night, it is believed to bestow supernatural powers upon its gatherer: invisibility, wealth, the gift of reading minds or understanding animal language, luck in love and many more.

The entire journey to it, as it is recounted in documented testimonies from the Romanian space (Florea Marian, Pavelesvu, Olinescu, Olteanu and others) entails intricate prescriptions and encoded protocols that start with the prerequisite for purity (chastity) of the claimer and end with its safe deposit in - as detailed as - the colour of the handkerchief. Briefly, the entire human presence, mind and body, must enter a demanding, precisely paced state of attunement, focus and perseverance in order to find, approach, safely take hold and extract it.

The picking of the precious flower is the subject of my presentation, but only as an entryway to a wider reflection on the ritualized behaviour imposed by the collecting of certain plants in certain contexts within rural collectivities. The symbolic communication requires elaborate behavioral prescriptions - specific systems of actions, gestures, body positions, movement and overall presence, which reveal and reinforce cultural worldviews and human-nature relationships.