Medicine
mediumCulpeper calls balm an herb of Jupiter under Cancer, says it strengthens nature, and points to a syrup made from its juice and sugar.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Balm / Lemon Balm
Melissa officinalis
Balm / Lemon Balm 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
- 47
- Contexts
- 6
- Mentions
- 185
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- balm
- Latin name
- Melissa officinalis(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- Balm is a broad word for soothing preparations; Melissa is the cleaner botanical alias.
Safety
moderate
Lemon balm is generally moderate concern in medicinal use; sedation and thyroid-related cautions may matter.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MSK About Herbs: Lemon balm is generally moderate concern in medicinal use; sedation and thyroid-related cautions may matter.
Aliases
balmlemon balmmelissaMelissa officinalis
Balm / Lemon Balm in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Balm / Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine and ritual uses. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Medicine
highHill's Melissa entry describes garden balm botanically and links it to fevers, giving the cleanest archive evidence for lemon balm as Melissa rather than generic balm.
Ritual
mediumAgrippa includes balm among solary plants used in prophesying, expiations, and driving away evil spirits, but the word balm remains broader than Melissa alone.
Preparations and ritual uses
Balm syrup
mediumCulpeper points to a syrup made with balm juice and sugar, while framing balm as a Jupiter and Cancer herb.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED.
Paracelsian balm-mint powder
mediumSpence's Paracelsus passage describes balm-mint gathered before sunrise, pounded to fine dust, and processed in a long-necked vessel.
Balm / Lemon Balm Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Family Herbal.
Matched as melissa; high confidence.
Astrology
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.
Matched as melissa; high confidence.
Folk magic
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Primitive Culture Vol 1.
Matched as melissa; high confidence.
Preparation
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as balm; high confidence.
Ritual
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.
Matched as melissa; high confidence.
Safety
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Bulfinch's Mythology.
Matched as melissa; high confidence.
Balm / Lemon Balm Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...ess or golden-yellow, lievogyrate oil of the specific gravity 0.905 to 0.930. ' Odor slightly like thyme, but more like melissa. Constituents, chiefly cijiwA (CioHu), with 1 per cent of thymol, ccn-vncnl, and probably other phenols. Oil OF Thymus capitatus. — Has a pronounced thyme-like odor; specific gravity, 0.901 ; constituents, thymol (6 per cent), c ymol, pinene, dipentene, bornyl-acetate, and possibly cnn-acrol (.Schimmel & Co.'s Report, October, 1889). Produced in Spain. , Oil op Thv.mus camphoratus. — Specific gravitv, 0.904. Constituent, carmcrol (Powe..."
Page 512Open in Reader
Preparationalias: melissahigh confidence
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence
1920
"...was not easy to distinguish, he recognised at a glance — we know not by what signs — the supremacy of excellence in the melissa, and first decreed to it that pharmaceutical crown which at a later period the Carmelites ought to have consecrated. How he obtained this new specific may be seen in the Life of Paracelsus, by Savarien : 44 He took some balm-mint in flower, which he had taken care to collect before the rising of the sun. He pounded it in a mortar, reduced it to an impalpable dust, poured it into a long-necked vial which he sealed hermetically, and plac..."
Page 374Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: melissahigh confidence
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"... and spleen. It is very safe: you need have no dose prescribed; and is very fit to be kept in every body’s house. ### BALM. This herb is so well known to be an inhabitant almost in every garden, that I shall not need to write any discription thereof, although its virtues, which are many, may not be omitted. Government and virtues. ] It is an herb of Jupiter, and under Cancer, and strengthens nature much in all its actions. Let a syrup made with the juice of it and sugar (as you shall be taught at the latter end of this book) be kept in every gentlewoman’..."
THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: balmmedium confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"...s complaints, and I have known it alone cure intermittent fevers, where the bark has been unsuccessful. # B. ### BALM. *Melissa.* A PLANT common in our gardens. It grows to two feet in height, and the stalks are robust, square, and hairy. The leaves are oblong, broad, pointed at the end, and dentated about the edges, and they stand two at a joint; the flowers are small"
Page 71Open in Reader
Medicinealias: melissahigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1913
"...ms. Sometimes they flung the flowers into the bonfires. In Sicily they dip St. John's wort in oil, and so apply it as a balm for every wound. During the Middle Ages the power which the plant notoriously possesses of banning devils won for it the name of fuga daemonum ; and before witches and wizards were stretched on the rack or otherwise tortured, the flower used to be administered to them as a means of wringing the truth from their lips. 162 In North Wales people used to fix sprigs of St. John's wort over their doors, and sometimes over their windows, “i..."
Chapter VIII. The Magic Flowers of Midsummer Eve.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: balmmedium confidence
Books Mentioning Balm / Lemon Balm
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1881
melissabalm
28 mentions
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1855
melissa
26 mentions
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
melissabalm
16 mentionscited
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
melissabalm
13 mentionscited
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
melissabalm
8 mentions
Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) | 1493
balm
8 mentions
Secrets of Black Arts
Anonymous | 1850
balm
5 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
balm
5 mentions
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
balm
4 mentionscited
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
melissabalm
4 mentionscited
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
melissa
4 mentions
The Gospel of Buddha
Paul Carus | 1894
balm
4 mentions
Star Names
Richard Hinckley Allen | 1899
melissa
4 mentions
History of Witchcraft and Demonology
Montague Summers | 1926
melissabalm
4 mentions
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Charles Mackay | 1841
melissabalm
3 mentions
Illustration of the Occult Sciences
Ebenezer Sibly | 1784
balm
3 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant) | 1856
balm
3 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
melissabalm
3 mentions
Human Animals
Frank Hamel | 1915
melissa
3 mentions
Primitive Culture Vol 1
Edward B. Tylor | 1871
melissa
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1908
melissa
2 mentions
Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome
Anonymous Compiler | 1900
melissa
2 mentions
Primitive Culture, Vol. 2
Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871
melissa
2 mentions
The Mathnawi
R. A. Nicholson | 1925
balm
2 mentions
Morals and Dogma
Albert Pike | 1871
balm
2 mentions
Le streghe
Jules Michelet | 1862
melissa
2 mentions
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Patanjali | 400
balm
2 mentions
Four Basic Principles of Numerology
Various Authors | 1920
balm
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
balm
1 mentioncited
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim | 1533
balm
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1907
balm
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
balm
1 mention
Antient Mythology (Vol 1)
Jacob Bryant | 1774
melissa
1 mention
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted
Gustavus Hindman Miller | 1901
balm
1 mention
Isis Unveiled Vol. 1
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | 1877
balm
1 mention
Myths and Dreams
Edward Clodd | 1885
balm
1 mention
Varieties of Religious Experience
William James | 1902
balm
1 mention
A Book of Myths
Andrew Lang | 1889
balm
1 mention
Modern Magic
Angelo John Lewis | 1876
balm
1 mention
Custom and Myth
Andrew Lang | 1884
balm
1 mention
The Mathnawi, Vol. 2
R. A. Nicholson | 1926
balm
1 mention
The Hermetic Museum
A. E. Waite (Translator/Editor) | 1678
balm
1 mention
Splendor Solis
Solomon Trismosin (Legendary) | 1582
balm
1 mention
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
Max Heindel | 1909
balm
1 mention
The Twelve Keys
Basil Valentine | 1599
balm
1 mention
Custom and Myth
Andrew Lang | 1884
balm
1 mention
The Holy Kabbalah
Arthur Edward Waite | 1929
balm
1 mention