Medicine
highCulpeper's black alder evidence is a bark decoction claim: the bark of the black alder tree is said to purge choler and phlegm.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
A CATALOGUE OF SIMPLES IN THE NEW DISPENSATORY.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Alder
Alnus glutinosa
Alder 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
- 12
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 22
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- alder
- Latin name
- Alnus glutinosa(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- Archive ranking: alder was the highest unseeded candidate by chunk hits; the bare word can include names and places.
Safety
moderate
Tannin-rich bark and folk preparations call for conservative handling; ordinary historical references are not dosing guidance.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- Kew POWO: Tannin-rich bark and folk preparations call for conservative handling; ordinary historical references are not dosing guidance.
Aliases
alderalder treeAlnus glutinosa
Alder in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Alder (Alnus glutinosa) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine, ritual uses, and folk magic. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Ritual
mediumFrazer records a Whitsuntide leaf-clad figure whose body is wrapped in alder and hazel leaves before a water-drenching procession.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
9. The Magic Spring
Folk magic
mediumFrazer also records alder branches and sacrificial grass thrust into a whale's mouth during a hunter propitiation rite.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1912
Chapter XIV. The Propitiation of Wild Animals by Hunters.
Preparations and ritual uses
Black alder bark decoction
highCulpeper says black alder bark is made into a decoction to purge choler and phlegm.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
A CATALOGUE OF SIMPLES IN THE NEW DISPENSATORY.
Leaf-clad water procession
mediumFrazer's Pfingstl figure is wrapped in alder and hazel leaves, paraded, drenched with water, and finally brought into the brook.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
9. The Magic Spring
Alder Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Astrology
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Argonautica.
Matched as alder; high confidence.
Folk magic
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as alder; medium confidence.
Preparation
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as alder tree; high confidence.
Symbolism
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Transcendental Magic.
Matched as alder; medium confidence.
Ritual
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Transcendental Magic.
Matched as alder; medium confidence.
Alder Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"... the scurvy; the powder of it being snuffed up in the nose, cleanses the head of rheum gallantly. The bark of the black Alder tree purges choler and flegm if you make a decoction with it. Agrimony, Wormwood, Dodder, Hops, Endive and Succory roots: Parsly and Smallage roots, or you may bruise a handful of each of them, and put them in a gallon of ale, and let them work together: put the simples into a boulter-bag, and a draught, (half a pint, more or less, according to the age of him that drinks it,) being drunk every morning, helps the dropsy, jaundice, evil dispo..."
A CATALOGUE OF SIMPLES IN THE NEW DISPENSATORY.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: alder treehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...a nosegay of peonies. The sleeves of his coat were also made of water-plants, and the rest of his body was enveloped in alder and hazel leaves. On each side of him marched a boy holding up one of the Pfingstl’s arms. These two boys carried drawn swords, and so did most of the others who formed the procession. They stopped at every house where they hoped to receive a present; and the people, in hiding, soused the leaf-clad boy with water. All rejoiced when he was well drenched. Finally he waded into the brook up to his middle; whereupon one of the boys, stan..."
9. The Magic SpringOpen in Reader
Preparationalias: aldermedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1912
"...ith its burden had reached the shore, one of the women pronounced an incantation over the whale's head, and then thrust alder branches and sacrificial grass into its mouth. Next they muffled its head in a hood, apparently to prevent the creature from witnessing the painful spectacle of its own dissection. After that the men cut up the carcase, and the women collected the blood in pails. Two seals, which had also been killed, were included in the festivities which followed. The heads of all three animals were cut off and placed on the roof of the house. Next d..."
Chapter XIV. The Propitiation of Wild Animals by Hunters.Open in Reader
Folk magicalias: aldermedium confidence
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings
1926
"... of the Cross, i. 120a, hymns, vii. 19a, on idol-worship, vii. 156b, on Sunday, xii. 106a, textual criticism, ii. 593b. ALDER TREE, ii. 832a, xii. 453b. ALDHELM (St.), on adoration of the Cross, i. 120a. ALDINE TEXT OF LXX, ii. 593b. ALDUS MANUTIUS, Humanism, vi. 833b. ALEANDER, JEROME, vi. 834a. ALE-FESTIVAL (Teut.), v. 891b. ALĒKH, i. 277a. ALEMAN, MATEO, Guzman de Alfarache, vi. 10a. ALENI, JULIUS, and Jews in China, iii. 558b."
Page 29Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: alder treehigh confidence
Argonautica
Apollonius Rhodius
250
"...mas. And close by, all smirched with soot, was the base of the altar, which the Aeolid Phrixus once set up to Zeus, the alder of fugitives, when he sacrificed the golden wonder at the bidding of Hermes who graciously met him on the way. There by the counsels of Argus the chieftains put them ashore. And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking the huge oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun. But right in front the serpent with his keen sleepless eyes saw them coming, and s..."
BOOK IVOpen in Reader
Astrologyalias: aldermedium confidence
Books Mentioning Alder
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
alder treealder
4 mentionscited
Student's Mythology
Catherine Ann White | 1873
alder
3 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
alder
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
alder
2 mentionscited
Argonautica
Apollonius Rhodius | 250
alder
2 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
alder
2 mentionscited
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1926
alder tree
1 mentioncited
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
alder
1 mention
Primitive Culture, Vol. 2
Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871
alder
1 mention
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Charles Mackay | 1841
alder
1 mention
Isis Unveiled Vol. 1
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | 1877
alder
1 mention
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
alder
1 mention