Ritual
highAgrippa includes camphor in a lunar suffumigation with white poppy, frankincense, and animal materials, so the archive's strongest occult evidence is ritual incense.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Camphor
Cinnamomum camphora
Camphor 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
- high
- Books
- 38
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 290
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- camphor
- Latin name
- Cinnamomum camphora(candidate)
- Identity note
- Archive uses include incense, medicine, and aromatic preparations.
Safety
high
Camphor ingestion can be poisonous; topical use also requires caution.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MedlinePlus: Camphor ingestion can be poisonous; topical use also requires caution.
Aliases
camphorCinnamomum camphora
Camphor in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are ritual uses, folk magic, and symbolism. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Folk magic
highFrazer records Sarawak camphor-collecting taboos in which wives' adultery or combing could cause the camphor obtained in the jungle to evaporate.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
4. The Magician’s Progress
Symbolism
highLiber 777 reads camphor through lunar symbolism, emphasizing its white waxen appearance, clean perfume, disinfectant association, moth use, and lustration idea.
Preparations and ritual uses
Lunar suffumigation
highAgrippa's Moon suffumigation combines camphor with white poppy seed, frankincense, a dried frog head, and animal materials.
Camphor liniment
highPow-Wows gives gum camphor in an alcohol, turpentine, ether, chloroform, laudanum, and olive-oil liniment; this is historical evidence with major safety concerns.
Camphor Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Astrology
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Ritual and Belief.
Matched as camphor; high confidence.
Folk magic
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as camphor; high confidence.
Preparation
8 passages across 8 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.
Matched as camphor; high confidence.
Ritual
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as camphor; high confidence.
Safety
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: King's American Dispensatory.
Matched as camphor; high confidence.
Camphor Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...4 Inkberrv 1045, 1582 Inkroot 1833 (Vol. n.) Inosit 1091, 1697 Inosite 1915 Intoxicating long pepper. .1.505 Inula 1058 camphor 1058 Conyza 1059 dysenteries 1059 Helenium 1058 f quarrosa 1059 Inulenin 982 Inulin..981, 982, 1058, 1119, 1914 Invert-sugar 1248, 1696 lodal 1064 lodamine 1009 lodia 1572 Iodine 1'166. 1370 disnlphide .■ ..1865 lye. Iodoform 1060 absolute 1060 and naphtalin 1600 aromatized 1063 deodorized l'»63 gauze UI63 odorless 1061 lodoformum 1060 aromatisatum 1063 lodol 1064 lodo phenacelin 1457 lodophenin(e) 1457 lodum 1066 loduret ura hydrargyr..."
Page 1304Open in Reader
Safetyalias: camphorhigh confidence
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim
1533
"...oon we make a suffumigation of the head of a dried frog, the eyes of a bull, the seed of white poppy, frankincense, and camphor; which must be incorporated with catamenia, or the blood of a goose. For Saturn, take black poppy seed, henbane, root of mandrake, the loadstone, and myrrh, aad make them up with the brain of a cat or the blood of a bat. For Jupiter, take the seed of ash, lignum aloes, storax, the gum benjamin or benzoin, the lazuli stone, and the tops of the feathers of a peacock; and incorporate them with the blood of a stork, or a swallow, or the br..."
Page 146Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: camphorhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"..., or hauling in the dripping net, laden with silvery herring, on the coast of Scotland; whether he is searching for the camphor crystals in the shade of the tropical forest, or extracting the red gold from the darksome mine, or laying low with a sweep of his sickle the yellow ears on the harvest field. In all these his depredations on nature, man's first endeavour apparently is by quietness and silence to escape the notice of the beings whom he dreads; but if that cannot be, he puts the best face he can on the matter by dissembling his foul designs under a fair..."
§ 6. Common Words tabooed.Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: camphorhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"wash their plates would be to wash out the camphor crystals from the trees in which they are imbedded. In Laos, a province of Siam, a rhinoceros hunter will not wash himself for fear that as a consequence the wounds inflicted on the rhinoceros might not be mortal, and that the animal might disappear in one of the caves full of water in the mountains.​ [390] The chief product of some parts of Laos is lac. This is a resinous gum exuded by a red insect on the young branches of trees, to..."
§ 2. Homeopathic or Imitative MagicOpen in Reader
Preparationalias: camphorhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...us tribes of Sarawak are firmly persuaded that were the wives to commit adultery while their husbands are searching for camphor in the jungle, the camphor obtained by the men would evaporate. Husbands can discover, by certain knots in the tree, when the wives are unfaithful; and it is said that in former days many women were killed by jealous husbands on no better evidence than that of these knots. Further, the wives dare not touch a comb while their husbands are away collecting the camphor; for if they did so, the interstices between the fibres of the tree, in..."
4. The Magician’s ProgressOpen in Reader
Folk magicalias: camphorhigh confidence
Books Mentioning Camphor
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
camphor
148 mentionscited
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
camphor
15 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
camphor
13 mentionscited
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
camphor
12 mentions
Pow-Wows
John George Hohman | 1820
camphor
12 mentions
Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) | 1493
camphor
9 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1917
camphor
7 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
camphor
5 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
camphor
5 mentionscited
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1916
camphor
5 mentions
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
camphor
4 mentions
Magick in Theory and Practice
Aleister Crowley | 1929
camphor
4 mentions
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim | 1533
camphor
3 mentionscited
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
camphor
3 mentions
The Authentic Red Dragon and Black Hen
Anonymous | 1800
camphor
3 mentions
Pagan and Christian Creeds
Edward Carpenter | 1920
camphor
3 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
camphor
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
camphor
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
camphor
2 mentions
Ritual and Belief
A.W. Buckland | 1891
camphor
2 mentions
The Serpent Power
Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) | 1919
camphor
2 mentions
Isis Unveiled Vol. 1
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | 1877
camphor
2 mentions
The New Pearl of Great Price
A. E. Waite | 1894
camphor
2 mentions
Demonologia
J. S. Forsyth | 1827
camphor
2 mentions
Myths and Fables of To-Day
Samuel Adams Drake | 1900
camphor
2 mentions
The Evil Eye
Frederick Thomas Elworthy | 1895
camphor
2 mentions
Witchcraft, Magic & Alchemy
Grillot de Givry | 1929
camphor
2 mentions
Psychological Origin of Religion
James H. Leuba | 1909
camphor
2 mentions
Book of Black Magic
Arthur Edward Waite | 1898
camphor
2 mentions
Hatha Yoga Pradipika
Svatmarama | 1400
camphor
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1926
camphor
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1908
camphor
2 mentions
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
camphor
1 mention
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Charles Mackay | 1841
camphor
1 mention
The Book of Talismans
William Thomas Pavitt | 1914
camphor
1 mention
Palmistry for All
Cheiro | 1916
camphor
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 7
Aleister Crowley | 1912
camphor
1 mention
History of Religions
Crawford Howell Toy | 1913
camphor
1 mention