Safety
highCulpeper's quince passage treats white hellebore as a poison whose strength could be countered, making toxicity the dominant archive context.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Hellebore
Helleborus niger
Hellebore 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
- 26
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 264
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- hellebore
- Latin name
- Helleborus niger(ambiguous)
- Identity note
- White hellebore may refer to Veratrum album rather than Helleborus.
Safety
high
Historical hellebore identities include toxic plants; treat medicinal use as high risk.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- Kew POWO: Historical hellebore identities include toxic plants; treat medicinal use as high risk.
Aliases
helleboreblack helleboreHelleborus nigerVeratrum albumwhite hellebore
Hellebore in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Hellebore (Helleborus niger) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are astrology, identity, and safety. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Identity
highHill warns that bought hellebore root may be substituted with green-flowered wild or bastard hellebore, a rough medicine, making identity control central.
Astrology
highAgrippa assigns black hellebore, with mugwort, to the fixed star called the Head of Algol, linking the plant to high-risk stellar magic rather than household use.
Preparations and ritual uses
Cursed black-hellebore cutting
highFrazer reports a Greek cutting rule for black hellebore: face eastward and curse while cutting it, probably to intensify the bitter medicinal virtue.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1906
§ 2. The Magical Control of Rain
Hellebore Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Family Herbal.
Matched as hellebore; high confidence.
Astrology
5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Clavis Astrologiae Elimata.
Matched as hellebore; high confidence.
Preparation
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as hellebore; high confidence.
Ritual
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as hellebore; high confidence.
Safety
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.
Matched as hellebore; high confidence.
Hellebore Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"...been found most certainly true, that the very smell of a Quince hath taken away all the strength of the poison of white Hellebore. If there be need of any outwardly binding and cooling of hot fluxes, the oil of Quinces, or other medicines that may be made thereof, are very available to anoint the belly or other parts therewith; it likewise strengthens the stomach and belly, and the sinews that are loosened by sharp humours falling on them, and restrains immoderate sweatings. The muscilage taken from the seeds of Quinces, and boiled in a little water, is very good..."
Chapter 15Open in Reader
Preparationalias: helleborehigh confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...authus 981 annuus 981, 1760 tubenisus 982 Helicin 1700 Heliotropin . . . .1325, 1506, 1.509 Helixigenin 978 Helixin 978 Hellebore, American 2050 black 982 green 982, 2050 swamp 20.50 white 2048 Helleborein 9S3 Hellehoresin 983 Helleboretin 983 Helleborin 983 Helleborus 982 ftetidus 984 niger 982 orien talis 982 viridis 982, 983 Hehiiiias officinalis . .1687, 1688 Hemidesniin 985 Hemidesmus 984 indicus 984 Hemlock, dropwort 14.55 fir 1921 five-leaved water 14.54 garden 1743 parslev 1454, 1743 water." 14.55 Hemp nettle 1126 New Zealand 1133 Hen, common 2081 Henbane..."
Page 1302Open in Reader
Preparationalias: helleborehigh confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"... keep it in one's own garden, for, if the root be bought, they commonly sell that of the green flowered wild or bastard hellebore in its place, which is a rough medicine. ### LADIES' BEDSTRAW. *Gallium luteum.* A PRETTY wild plant, frequent about hedges in June and the succeeding months. The stalk is weak and two feet high; the leaves are of a blackish green, and small; and the flowers are yellow. The stalk is angular and whitish, very brittle, and seldom straight; the leaves stand a great many at each joint, and are small, narrow, and disposed about the stalk li..."
Page 83Open in Reader
Medicinealias: helleborehigh confidence
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim
1533
"...ars, whereof the first is called the Head of Alg'ol, and, amongst stones, rules over the diamond; amongst plants, black hellebore and mug-wort. The second are the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, which, amongst stones, rule over crystal and the stone diodocus; amongst plants, the herb diacedon, and frankincense and fennel; and amongst metals, quicksilver. The third is the star Aldeboran, which hath under it, amongst stones, the carbuncle and ruby; amongst plants, the milky thistle and matry-silva. The fourth is called the Goat Star, which rules, amongst stones, the sapp..."
Page 119Open in Reader
Ritualalias: helleborehigh confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1906
"... the sowers of rue and basil;​ [950] and hedge doctors in ancient Greece laid it down as a rule that in cutting black hellebore you should face eastward and curse.​ [951] Perhaps the bitter language was supposed to strengthen the bitter taste, and hence the medicinal virtue, of these plants. At Lindus in the island of Rhodes it was customary to sacrifice one or two plough oxen to Hercules with curses and imprecations; indeed we are told that the sacrifice was deemed invalid if a good word fell from any one’s lips during the rite. The custom was explained by..."
§ 2. The Magical Control of RainOpen in Reader
Ritualalias: helleborehigh confidence
Books Mentioning Hellebore
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton | 1621
helleboreblack helleborewhite hellebore
86 mentions
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
helleboreblack helleborewhite hellebore
58 mentionscited
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
helleboreblack helleborewhite hellebore
57 mentionscited
Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim | 1533
helleboreblack hellebore
8 mentionscited
Illustration of the Occult Sciences
Ebenezer Sibly | 1784
helleboreblack helleborewhite hellebore
6 mentions
Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) | 1493
helleboreblack hellebore
6 mentions
The Magus (Vol 1)
Francis Barrett | 1801
helleboreblack hellebore
4 mentions
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
helleboreblack hellebore
4 mentions
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
helleboreblack hellebore
3 mentions
Domestic Folk-lore
Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer | 1881
hellebore
3 mentions
Thaumaturgia
Richard Harris Dalton Barham | 1835
hellebore
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
hellebore
2 mentionscited
The Discoverie of Witchcraft
Reginald Scot | 1584
hellebore
2 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
hellebore
2 mentions
The Influence of the Stars
Rosa Baughan | 1880
hellebore
2 mentions
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1913
hellebore
2 mentions
The Book of Witches
Unknown Author (Historical Compilation) | 1900
hellebore
2 mentions
The Nag Hammadi Library
Various Gnostic Authors (Ancient) | 1945
hellebore
2 mentions
Metamorphoses (Books VIII-XV)
Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) | 8
hellebore
2 mentions
The Phantom World
Augustine Calmet | 1746
hellebore
2 mentions
Demonologia
J. S. Forsyth | 1827
hellebore
2 mentions
Manual of Astrology
Raphael (Robert Cross Smith) | 1828
hellebore
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
hellebore
1 mentioncited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
hellebore
1 mention
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
hellebore
1 mention
Clavis Astrologiae Elimata
Henry Coley | 1669
hellebore
1 mention