Yellow Brain

I was recently out walking  along a path around Chatburn running parallel to, but hidden from, the busy A59. The grey sky above and the dull browns of decaying leaves and mulch below were interrupted by the deep yellow of what appeared to be a some blobs of yellow jelly. This was tremella mesenterica or Yellow Brain, a peculiar, frilly and slimy fungus which grows on old wood. The Woodland Trust reports:

According to European legend, if yellow brain fungus appeared on the gate or door of a house it meant that a witch had cast a spell on the family living there. The only way the spell could be removed was by piercing the fungus several times with straight pins until it went away. This is why yellow brain also has the common name of 'witches’ butter'. In Sweden, yellow brain fungus was burnt to protect against evil spirits.

Piercing a blob of bright yellow fungus in order to end a curse seems a straight forward solution to me, an evil ploy rather easily thwarted. A more complex problem was reversing the dreadful curse imposed upon the whole earth as a result of Adam’s Fall. God Himself solved it, by piercing not fungus, but His own beloved Son:

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Zechariah 12:10