Medicine
highCulpeper calls elm a cold Saturnine plant and gives leaves or bark with vinegar for scurf and leprosy, plus decoctions of leaves, bark, or root for bathing broken bones.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Elm
Ulmus rubra
Elm 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
- 6
- Mentions
- 26
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- elm
- Latin name
- Ulmus rubra(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- Archive references may mean elm wood, elm tree, or slippery elm materia medica.
Safety
moderate
Slippery elm can affect absorption of medicines; tree species appear as separate archive contexts.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MSK About Herbs: Slippery elm can affect absorption of medicines; tree species appear as separate archive contexts.
Aliases
elmelm treeslippery elmUlmus rubra
Elm in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Elm (Ulmus rubra) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine, ritual uses, and astrology. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Ritual
mediumFrazer records slippery elm logs used to kindle new fire after household fires were extinguished, making elm wood part of a need-fire rite.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913
§ 9. The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-Plague.
Astrology
mediumCrowley's Liber 777 treats elm as Saturnian because of falling boughs and coffin wood, an occult attribution tied to danger and death symbolism.
Preparations and ritual uses
Elm vinegar wash
highCulpeper uses elm leaves or bark with vinegar for scurf and leprosy, and gives decoctions of leaf, bark, or root for bathing broken bones.
Slippery elm need-fire
mediumFrazer describes extinguishing old fires and using two slippery elm logs to kindle a new ritual fire.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913
§ 9. The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-Plague.
Elm Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Book of the Damned.
Matched as elm; medium confidence.
Astrology
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Liber 777.
Matched as elm; medium confidence.
Preparation
5 passages across 4 books; strongest source: King's American Dispensatory.
Matched as slippery elm; high confidence.
Symbolism
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Myths of the Norsemen.
Matched as elm; medium confidence.
Ritual
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Mythology of All Races (Vol 11).
Matched as elm; medium confidence.
Safety
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.
Matched as elm; medium confidence.
Elm Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"... sky of dropsies, *viz.* to drink it, being boiled in white wine; to drink the decoction I mean, not the Elder. ### THE ELM TREE. This tree is so well known, growing generally in all counties of this land, that it is needless to describe it. *Government and virtues.*] It is a cold and saturnine plant. The leaves thereof bruised and applied, heal green wounds, being bound thereon with its own bark. The leaves or the bark used with vinegar, cures scurf and leprosy very effectually; The decoction of the leaves, bark, or root, being bathed, heals broken bones. The w..."
Chapter 11Open in Reader
Preparationalias: elm treehigh confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"cea, diarrhcea, dysentery, heetir fern; scrofula, and in profuse perspiration from debility. Combined with the barks of slippery elm and white pine, in decoction, and taken freely, it is said to have proved highly beneficial in syphilitimlcerations. Externally, the bark of the root in powder, applied as a poultice to old ulcers, forms an excellent antiseptic. A decoction may also be used in injection for prolapsus uteri and ani, and leucorrhmi, and as a wash in many cutaneous diseases; simmered in lard it is valuable in scald head. A decoction of the inner bark of t..."
Page 778Open in Reader
Preparationalias: slippery elmhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1913
"...se of the manner in which the fire then in use had been kindled. So, after all the fires were out, two suitable logs of slippery elm (Ulmus fulva) were provided for the new fire. One of the logs was from six to eight inches in diameter and from eight to ten feet long; the other was from ten to twelve inches in diameter and about ten feet long. About midway across the larger log a cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made, and in the wedge-shaped notch punk was placed. The other log was drawn rapidly to and fro in the cut by four strong men chosen for the..."
§ 9. The Sacrifice of an Animal to stay a Cattle-Plague.Open in Reader
Archive mentionalias: slippery elmmedium confidence
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley
1909
"...e tree is more properly solar.) In the other cases, in connection with the ideas of death, melancholy, poison, etc. The Elm is Saturnian on account of its murderous habit of dropping boughs without warning. The wood is also traditionally the best available for coffins. THE ZODIAC - The Olive is sacred to Minerva, but Geranium has a scarlet variety which is precisely the colour of Aries in the King Scale. The Tiger Lily is a traditional attribution. - Again traditional. We might possibly add giant trees of all species to this sign. - Hybrids are here for the..."
Page 194Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: elmmedium confidence
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton
1621
"...ome feeling of love ’Tis more eminent in Plants, Herbs, and is especially observed in vegetals, as betwixt the Vine and Elm a great Sympathy, betwixt the Vine and the Cabbage, betwixt the Vine and Olive, , The Virgin Goddess flees from Bacchus, (alciati) betwixt the Vine and Bays a great antipathy, the Vine loves not the Bay nor his smell, and will kill him, if he grow near him , the Burr and the Lintle cannot endure one another, the Olive and the Myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches, if they grow near. Read more of this in Piccolomineus, Cresce..."
Page 639Open in Reader
Safetyalias: elmmedium confidence
Books Mentioning Elm
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
elm treeelm
4 mentionscited
Myths of the Norsemen
Anonymous | 1200
elm
4 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
slippery elm
3 mentionscited
Balder the Beautiful, Volume I
James George Frazer | 1913
slippery elm
3 mentions
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Charles Mackay | 1841
elm
3 mentions
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
slippery elm
2 mentionscited
Mythology of All Races (Vol 11)
Hartley Burr Alexander | 1920
elm
2 mentions
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
elm
1 mentioncited
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
elm
1 mentioncited
Argonautica
Apollonius Rhodius | 250
elm
1 mention
Primitive Culture, Vol. 2
Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871
elm
1 mention
Book of the Damned
Charles Fort | 1919
elm
1 mention