Found in the Hermetikon archive

Acacia

Acacia nilotica

Acacia appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.

Risk: moderate
Books: 44
Contexts: 3
Mentions: 304

Overview Reading Contexts Citations Related Books

Archive Profile

Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.

Herb identity

Common name: acacia
Latin name: Acacia nilotica(ambiguous)
Identity note: Important biblical, Masonic, gum, wood, and Egyptian plant term.

Safety

moderate

Acacia gum and acacia species differ; medicinal use is species-specific.

Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.

Kew POWO: Acacia gum and acacia species differ; medicinal use is species-specific.

Aliases

acaciaAcacia niloticagum arabicVachellia nilotica

Acacia in Historical Sources

Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.

Hermetikon's curated reading of Acacia (Acacia nilotica) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are preparations, symbolism, and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Preparation

high

Culpeper treats acacia as a dispensatory ingredient: his troches of amber combine acacia with gum arabic, tragacanth, coral, frankincense, saffron, and opium for historical astringent use.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 60

Identity

high

Frazer identifies Arunta manna as a product of the mulga tree, Acacia aneura, making this archive evidence species-specific rather than a generic Acacia nilotica reference.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1906

Â§ 2. Homeopathic or Imitative Magic

Symbolism

high

Frazer's Osiris material preserves acacia as a tree-symbol: inscriptions call Osiris the solitary one in the acacia and present him as a vegetation or tree-spirit figure.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1911

Chapter IX. The Doctrine of Lunar Sympathy.

Preparations and ritual uses

Troches of amber

high

Culpeper's troches combine acacia with burnt hartshorn, red coral, tragacanth, mastich, gum lac, poppy seed, frankincense, saffron, opium, and fleawort mucilage.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 60

Guaiac mixture excipient

high

King's uses fine acacia powder with powdered guaiac, sugar, and cinnamon water, where acacia functions as a pharmaceutical gum and suspending ingredient.

King's American Dispensatory | Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Page 382

Acacia Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Astrology

4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.

Matched as acacia; high confidence.

Preparation

9 passages across 9 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.

Matched as acacia; high confidence.

Ritual

2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.

Matched as acacia; high confidence.

Acacia Cited Excerpts

Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.

5 shown

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper

1653

"...oches of Amber. *College.*] Take of Amber an ounce, Hartâ€™s-horn burnt, Gum Arabic burnt, red Coral burnt, Tragacanth, Acacia, Hypocistis, Balaustines, Mastich, Gum Lacca washed, black Poppy seeds roasted, of each two drams and two scruples, Frankincense, Saffron, Opium, of each two drams, with a sufficient quantity of mussilage of the seeds of Fleawort drawn in Plantain Water, make them into troches according to art. *Culpeper.*] They were invented to stop fluxes of blood in any part of the body, the menses, the hÃ¦morrhoids or piles; they also help ulcers i..."

Chapter 60Open in Reader

Preparationalias: acaciahigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"...aiac {U.S. P.), in powder, twenty-five grammes (2-5 Gm.; [386 grs.] ; sugar, twentj'-five grammes (25 Gm.) [386 grs.] ; acacia, in fine powder, fifteen grammes (15 Gm.) [231 grs.]; cinnamon water {U. S. P.), one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fig, 391 TTl]. Triturate the powdered guaiac with the sugar and acacia, then gradually add the cinnamon water, and mix thoroughly. This mixture should be well agitated, whenever any of it is to be dispensed. Note. — This preparation is practically identical with the Mist ur a Guaiaci of the British Phannacopoin..."

Page 382Open in Reader

Preparationalias: acaciahigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"...ied by this unsuspected medicine. The gum which hangs upon the branches of cherry-trees, is of the same nature with the gum arabic, and may be used for the same purposes, as in heat of urine, dissolved in barley-water. ### WINTER CHERRY. *Alkekengi.* A VERY singular and pretty plant kept in our gardens; it grows two feet high, not very erect, nor much branched; the stalk is thick, strong, and angulated: the leaves are large, broad, and sharp-pointed; the flowers are moderately large and white, but with yellow threads in the middle; the fruit is a round red berry, ..."

Page 123Open in Reader

Preparationalias: gum arabichigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1906

"...men of the manna totem in the Arunta tribe for the increase of their totem. This manna is a product of the mulga tree (*Acacia aneura*), and resembles the better-known sugar-manna of gum trees. When the men of the totem wish to multiply the manna, they resort to a great boulder of grey rock, curiously streaked with black and white seams, which is thought to represent a mass of manna deposited there long ago by a man of the totem. The same significance is attributed to other smaller stones which rest on the top of the boulder. The headman of the totem begins th..."

Â§ 2. Homeopathic or Imitative MagicOpen in Reader

Astrologyalias: acaciahigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1911

"...corn springing from him. 264 In inscriptions he is referred to as â€œthe one in the tree,â€ â€œthe solitary one in the acacia,â€ and so forth. 265 On the monuments he sometimes appears as a mummy covered with a tree or with plants; 266 and trees are represented growing from his grave. 267 It accords with the character of Osiris as a tree-spirit that his worshippers were forbidden to injure fruit-trees, and with his character as a god of vegetation in general that they were not allowed to stop up wells of water, which are so important for the irrigation of ho..."

Chapter IX. The Doctrine of Lunar Sympathy.Open in Reader

Preparationalias: acaciahigh confidence

Books Mentioning Acacia

Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.

44 books

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

acaciagum arabic

91 mentionscited

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

acaciagum arabic

58 mentionscited

Literature of the Ancient Egyptians

E.A. Wallis Budge | 1914

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Acacia in Historical Sources

Preparation

Identity

Symbolism

Preparations and ritual uses

Troches of amber

Guaiac mixture excipient

Acacia Archive Contexts

Astrology

Preparation

Ritual

Acacia Cited Excerpts

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

King's American Dispensatory

The Family Herbal

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Acacia