Found in the Hermetikon archive

Fennel

Foeniculum vulgare

Fennel 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: 22
Contexts: 4
Mentions: 292

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: fennel
Latin name: Foeniculum vulgare(candidate)
Identity note: Historical sources may discuss seed, fruit, root, or herb separately.

Safety

moderate

Pregnancy and concentrated-oil cautions are appropriate for medicinal use.

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

EMA HMPC: Pregnancy and concentrated-oil cautions are appropriate for medicinal use.

Aliases

fennelfennel seedFoeniculum vulgare

Fennel in Historical Sources

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

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

Preparation

high

Culpeper uses sweet fennel seed in a compound syrup with senna, anise, rhubarb, ginger, mace, cinnamon, saffron, and medicinal waters.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 57

Ritual

high

Frazer records long fennel among the greenery used to shadow doors on St. John's Eve, beside birch, St. John's wort, orpine, lilies, garlands, and lamps.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913

Â§ 4. The Midsummer Fires.

Symbolism

high

In Frazer's Adonis material, fennel is one of the fast-sprouting plants sown in the short-lived gardens of Adonis and then cast away with the dead god's images.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1907

Chapter X. The Gardens of Adonis.

Preparations and ritual uses

Compound syrup seed ingredient

high

Culpeper's syrup steeps sweet fennel seed with anise, senna, rhubarb, ginger, mace, cinnamon, saffron, juices, and medicinal waters.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 57

St. John's Eve doorway greenery

high

Frazer records long fennel among the plants hung over doors with garlands and lamps on St. John's Eve.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913

Â§ 4. The Midsummer Fires.

Fennel Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Astrology

5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.

Matched as fennel; high confidence.

Folk magic

1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.

Matched as fennel; high confidence.

Preparation

8 passages across 8 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.

Matched as fennel; high confidence.

Ritual

1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

Matched as fennel; high confidence.

Fennel 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

"...and an half, the Juice and Water of Borrage and Bugloss of each nine ounces, Senna half a pound, Annis seeds, and sweet Fennel seeds, of each three drams, Epithimum of Crete, two ounces, Agarick, Rhubarb, of each half an ounce, Ginger, Mace, of each four scruples, Cinnamon two scruples, Saffron half a dram, infuse the Rhubarb and Cinnamon apart by itself, in white Wine and Juice of Apples, of each two ounces, let all the rest, the Saffron excepted, be steeped in the Waters above mentioned, and the next day put in the juices, which being boiled, scummed, and st..."

Chapter 57Open in Reader

Preparationalias: fennelhigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"...posita, Compound tincture of senna, Elixir salutig. Take of .Mfxainlria senna, 2 ounces; jalap, in fine powder,! ounce; fennel or coriander seeds, i ounce; raisins, deprived of their seeds, 3 ounces ; best French brandy, or diluted alcohol, 2 l)ints, orasuflBcient quantity. Form into a tincture by maceration or percolation, as explained under THncturs,and make 2 pints of tincture (£■(/. — Land.). This i.s an excellent purgative, especially ior children, as it acts mildly and pleasantly. It is also useful in cases of lonstipation attended with Jlatnlence. The d..."

Page 1099Open in Reader

Preparationalias: fennelhigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"...ke those of wormwood: they stand in spikes at the tops of the stalks. The whole plant has a strong smell, somewhat like fennel. An infusion of the fresh tops works by urine, and gently promotes the menses. ### TEA. *Thea.* A SHRUB, native of the East, and cherished there with great care. It is six or seven feet high; the branches are slender; the leaves are numerous, oblong, serrated round the edges, and sharp pointed. The flowers are as big as orange flowers, and white; they stand in a very small cup: the fruit is dry, and of the bigness of a nut, containing ..."

Page 387Open in Reader

Preparationalias: fennelhigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1913

"...of St. John the Baptist, and on St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, every man's door being shadowed with green birch, long fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, white lilies, and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had also lamps of glass, with oil burning in them all the night; some hung [pg 197] out branches of iron curiously wrought, containing hundreds of lamps alight at once, which made a goodly show, namely, in New Fish Street, Thames Street, etc.” 496 In the sixteenth century the Eton boys used to kindle a bonfire on the east side of th..."

Â§ 4. The Midsummer Fires.Open in Reader

Preparationalias: fennelhigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1907

"...gardens of Adonis, as they were called. These were baskets or pots filled with earth, in which wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel, and various kinds of flowers were sown and tended for eight days, chiefly or exclusively by women. Fostered by the sun's heat, the plants shot up rapidly, but having no root they withered as rapidly away, and at the end of eight days were carried out with the images of the dead Adonis, and flung with them into the sea or into springs.[698](6454723153289519871_43605-h-11.html.xhtml#note_698) These gardens of Adonis are most naturally i..."

Chapter X. The Gardens of Adonis.Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: fennelhigh confidence

Books Mentioning Fennel

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

22 books

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

fennelfennel seed

185 mentionscited

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

fennelfennel seed

27 mentionscited

Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton | 1621

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Fennel in Historical Sources

Preparation

Ritual

Symbolism

Preparations and ritual uses

Compound syrup seed ingredient

St. John's Eve doorway greenery

Fennel Archive Contexts

Astrology

Folk magic

Preparation

Ritual

Fennel 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 Fennel