Medicine
highHill says hawthorn flowers and dried fruit share the same virtue, working by urine and being used in powder or infusion for gravel complaints.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Hawthorn
Crataegus monogyna
Hawthorn 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
- 42
- Contexts
- 6
- Mentions
- 149
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- hawthorn
- Latin name
- Crataegus monogyna(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- Also appears as whitethorn or May tree in folk contexts.
Safety
moderate
Cardiac medication and blood-pressure interaction cautions are relevant.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- NCCIH Herbs at a Glance: Cardiac medication and blood-pressure interaction cautions are relevant.
Aliases
hawthornCrataegusCrataegus monogynahawthornewhitethorn
Hawthorn in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine, folk magic, and symbolism. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Folk magic
highFrazer records May Day decking of doors and porches with sycamore and hawthorn boughs, with young people gathering flowered branches before sunrise.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
X. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe
Symbolism
highFrazer also treats hawthorn garlands and green boughs as protective material used to ward off unseen powers of mischief.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1906
§ 3. Sacrifices to Water-spirits
Preparations and ritual uses
Flower and fruit infusion
highHill says hawthorn flowers and dried fruit may be used in powder or infusion for urinary gravel complaints.
May Day boughs
highFrazer records hawthorn boughs gathered before sunrise and fixed over doors and windows as part of May Day greenery customs.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
X. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe
Hawthorn Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as hawthorn; high confidence.
Astrology
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as hawthorn; high confidence.
Folk magic
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.
Matched as whitethorn; high confidence.
Preparation
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as hawthorn; high confidence.
Ritual
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as hawthorn; high confidence.
Safety
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Illustration of the Occult Sciences.
Matched as hawthorn; high confidence.
Hawthorn Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"... and ease. The distilled water cleanses the skin, and takes away freckles, spots, morphew, or wrinkles in the face. ### HAWTHORN. It is not my intention to trouble you with a description of this tree, which is so well known that it needs none. It is ordinarily but a hedge bush, although being pruned and dressed, it grows to a tree of a reasonable height. As for the Hawthorn Tree at Glastonbury, which is said to flower yearly on Christmas-day, it rather shews the superstition of those that observe it for the time of its flowering, than any great wonder, since the..."
Chapter 12Open in Reader
Preparationalias: hawthornhigh confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...the above United States Government Report, are those of mate, Paraguay tea {Ilex Pnraguayensis), camellia {C.jnponica), hawthorn, box-elder, hor.se chestnut, sycamore, rose, plum, elm, ash, willow, beech, oak, Missouri or golden currant, birch, poplar, raspberrv, and Jersey tea {Ccanothus Avuriranu.^), also Vaccinium Arrto^taph)/los (see BuU.'Keiv Gnrdenx, 1895, p. 61; also see Related Products, p. 1931). Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage. — Tea is a mild stimulant and astringent. Used in moderation, the infusion, when not too strong, is a harmless and refreshing..."
Page 1044Open in Reader
Preparationalias: hawthornhigh confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"...ordial medicine; they work also gently by urine, and cure colicy pains; they are to be given in powder or infusion. ### HAWTHORN. *Spina alba.* A SHRUB too common in our hedges to need much description. The trunk is irregular, and seldom straight; the branches are strong, tough, and thorny; and the leaves of a glossy green and beautifully divided. The flowers are white and beautiful, the fruit is small. The flowers and the dried fruit are used in medicine; they have the same virtue; they work by urine, and are good in the gravel, and all complaints of that kind;..."
Page 215Open in Reader
Preparationalias: hawthornhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"...otect them against the angry spirits of the beasts they had killed.| Now when we observe that garlands of flowers, like hawthorn and other green boughs,[[439]](4270233193503605876_60250-h-18.htm.xhtml#f439) avail to ward off the unseen powers of mischief, we may conjecture that the practice of crowning dogs at the festival of a huntress goddess was intended to preserve the hounds from the angry and dangerous spirits of the wild beasts which they had killed in the course of the year. Fantastical as this explanation may sound to us, it is perfectly in accordance w..."
§ 3. Sacrifices to Water-spiritsOpen in Reader
Safetyalias: hawthornhigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"... Cornish, may be reckoned that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with green boughs of sycamore and hawthorn, and of planting trees, or rather stumps of trees, before their houses.†In the north of England it was formerly the custom for young people to rise a little after midnight on the morning of the first of May, and go out with music and the blowing of horns into the woods, where they broke branches and adorned them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. This done, they returned about sunrise and fastened the flower-decked branches over t..."
X. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern EuropeOpen in Reader
Astrologyalias: hawthornhigh confidence
Books Mentioning Hawthorn
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
hawthornwhitethorn
16 mentionscited
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
hawthornhawthorne
15 mentions
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
hawthorn
12 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
hawthorn
8 mentionscited
Demonology and Devil-lore
Moncure Daniel Conway | 1879
hawthorne
7 mentions
Strange Pages from Family Papers
Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer | 1887
hawthornehawthorn
6 mentions
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
hawthorn
5 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
hawthorn
4 mentions
Primitive Manners & Customs
James Anson Farrer | 1879
hawthornwhitethorn
4 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1918
hawthornhawthorne
4 mentions
Myths and Fables of To-Day
Samuel Adams Drake | 1900
hawthorne
4 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
hawthorn
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
hawthorn
3 mentions
Myths and Dreams
Edward Clodd | 1885
hawthorn
3 mentions
Pow-Wows
John George Hohman | 1820
hawthorn
3 mentions
British Goblins
Wirt Sikes | 1880
hawthorn
3 mentions
A Book of Myths
Andrew Lang | 1889
hawthorne
3 mentions
Myths and Legends of All Nations
Logan Marshall (Editor) | 1914
hawthorne
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1911
hawthorn
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
hawthorn
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1907
hawthorn
2 mentions
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
whitethorn
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
hawthorn
2 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1907
hawthorn
2 mentions
Illustration of the Occult Sciences
Ebenezer Sibly | 1784
hawthorn
2 mentions
Genethlialogia
John Gadbury | 1658
hawthorn
2 mentions
Celtic Fairy Tales
Joseph Jacobs (collector/editor) | 1892
hawthorn
2 mentions
Mysteries of All Nations
James Grant | 1880
hawthorn
2 mentions
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
hawthorn
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
hawthorn
2 mentions
Myths and Myth-Makers
John Fiske | 1873
whitethorn
2 mentions
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1855
hawthorn
2 mentions
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1881
hawthorn
2 mentions
Young Folks' Treasury Vol. 2
Hamilton Wright Mabie (ed.) | 1909
hawthorne
2 mentions
Select Works of Plotinus
Thomas Taylor | 1817
hawthorne
2 mentions
Morals and Dogma
Albert Pike | 1871
hawthorn
2 mentions
Meister Eckhart, Vol. 2
C. de B. Evans | 1931
hawthorn
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
hawthorn
1 mentioncited
Witchcraft and Superstitious Record
John Maxwell Wood | 1911
hawthorn
1 mention
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1926
hawthorne
1 mention
The Kabala of Numbers
Sephariel | 1913
hawthorn
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 10
Aleister Crowley | 1913
hawthorn
1 mention