Found in the Hermetikon archive

Hyssop

Hyssopus officinalis

Hyssop 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: 34
Contexts: 3
Mentions: 150

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: hyssop
Latin name: Hyssopus officinalis(candidate)
Identity note: Avoid conflating with anise hyssop.

Safety

moderate

Concentrated essential oil is a concern; avoid medicinal use in pregnancy without professional guidance.

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

EMA HMPC: Concentrated essential oil is a concern; avoid medicinal use in pregnancy without professional guidance.

Aliases

hyssopHyssopus officinalis

Hyssop in Historical Sources

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

Hermetikon's curated reading of Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are preparations, astrology, and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Preparation

high

Culpeper gives a clear distilled-water use for hyssop: hyssop water is said to cleanse phlegm from the lungs, help coughs and asthma, and be distilled in August.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 55

Astrology

high

Agrippa classifies hyssop with rosemary, agnus castus, and the olive tree as Lunary plants, contrasting them with onions under Mars.

Three Books of Occult Philosophy | Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim | 1533

Page 107

Identity

high

King's featured hyssop row is actually hedge-hyssop, a cathartic and irritant plant, separating that citation from common Hyssopus officinalis.

King's American Dispensatory | Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Page 66

Preparations and ritual uses

distilled water

high

Culpeper's hyssop water is a seasonal distillation, made in August, and used historically for phlegm, coughs, and asthma.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 55

Hyssop Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Astrology

2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: Liber 777.

Matched as hyssop; high confidence.

Preparation

11 passages across 11 books; strongest source: Book of Black Magic.

Matched as hyssop; high confidence.

Safety

1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted.

Matched as hyssop; high confidence.

Hyssop 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

"...ht. *Maidenhair* distilled in May, the water cleanses both liver and lungs, clarifies the blood, and breaks the stone. *Hyssop* water cleanses the lungs of flegm, helps coughs and Asthmas, distil it in August. The water of *Hore-hound*, helps the cough and straitness of the breast; it strengthens the breast, lungs and stomach, and liver, distil it in June. *Carduus* water succours the head, strengthens the memory, helps such as are troubled with vertigoes and quartan agues, it provokes sweat, strengthens the heart, and all other fevers of choler. It is in its ..."

Chapter 55Open in Reader

Preparationalias: hyssophigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"... the infusion, or tincture, or plnnt in substance, are alone used in medicine. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.— Hedge-hyssop is rarely, if at all. used in this country. In I'uropi' it has been employed as a liydragogue-cathartic in the treatment of f//v>j;.?iV((^ affections, in duses of from 10 to 30 grains ot the powdered root. Its use is frequently followed by emesis and diuresis. In large doses its irritant action is pronounced, inducing violent vomiting and purging, the stools often being bloody and attended with severe colic. Gastro-intestinal inflammat..."

Page 66Open in Reader

Preparationalias: hyssophigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"...ith bloody stools, and in overflowing of the menses: it is to be given in an electuary, with conserve of red roses. ### HYSSOP. *Hyssopus.* A VERY pretty garden plant, kept for its virtues. It grows two feet high. The stalks are square, robust, upright, and of a pale green colour. The leaves stand two at each joint; they are long, narrow, pointed at the ends, and of a bright green colour. The flowers are small, and they stand in long spikes, at the tops of the branches; they are of a beautiful blue colour. The whole plant has a strong, but not disagreeable sme..."

Page 227Open in Reader

Preparationalias: hyssophigh confidence

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

1533

"...as doth the heliotropion towards the Sun; and the palm-tree, which sends forth a bough at every rising of the new Moon. Hyssop, also, and rosemary, agnus castus, and the olive-tree, are Lunary. Also the herb chinosta, which increaseth and decreaseth with the Moon, viz., in substance and number of leaves, not only in sap but in virtue — which, indeed, is in some sort common to all plants, except onions, which last are under the influence of Mars, and have contrary properties. As amongst flying things the Saturnine bird called a quail is a great enemy to the Moo..."

Page 107Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: hyssophigh confidence

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence

1920

"... " (madwort) hung up anywhere in the house ; the stone " Catochites ;" spitting on the right shoe before it bo put on ; hyssop ; lilies ; fumigations ; sprinklings ; necklaces of jacinth, sapphire, or carbuncle ; washings in river water,* provided silence be kept ; licking a child's forehead, first upward, next across, and lastly up again, and then spitting behind its back ; sweeping its face with the bough of a pine tree ; laying it on the ground, covered up in a linen cloth, and then sprinkling it in the form of a cross, with three handfuls of earth, dug whe..."

Page 195Open in Reader

Preparationalias: hyssophigh confidence

Books Mentioning Hyssop

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

34 books

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Hyssop in Historical Sources

Preparation

Astrology

Identity

Preparations and ritual uses

distilled water

Hyssop Archive Contexts

Astrology

Preparation

Safety

Hyssop Cited Excerpts

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

King's American Dispensatory

The Family Herbal

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Hyssop