Identity
mediumHill's ivy entry is botanical: Hedera is described as a common shrub crawling on old trees or walls, with variable leaves and clustered flowers.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Ivy
Hedera helix
Ivy 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
- 37
- Contexts
- 5
- Mentions
- 84
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- ivy
- Latin name
- Hedera helix(candidate)
- Identity note
- Strong Dionysian, wreath, and folk-symbolic archive material.
Safety
moderate
Ivy berries, leaves, and extracts can be toxic or irritating; medicinal use requires modern safety review.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- MedlinePlus: Ivy berries, leaves, and extracts can be toxic or irritating; medicinal use requires modern safety review.
Aliases
ivyHedera helix
Ivy in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Ivy (Hedera helix) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are ritual uses, folk magic, and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Ritual
mediumFrazer records a Rhineland spring combat in which Summer is clad in ivy and defeats Winter clad in straw or moss, after which a summer garland or branch is carried about.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
9. The Magic Spring
Folk magic
mediumFrazer also records Christmas wren customs in which the dead wren is fixed in holly and ivy on a broomstick and taken house to house.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1912
§ 3. The Rites of Plough Monday.
Preparations and ritual uses
seasonal costume
mediumFrazer's Rhineland rite dresses the representative of Summer in ivy for combat against a straw- or moss-clad Winter figure.
The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890
9. The Magic Spring
Ivy Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Astrology
4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Star Names.
Matched as ivy; medium confidence.
Folk magic
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as ivy; medium confidence.
Preparation
3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.
Matched as ivy; medium confidence.
Symbolism
2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as ivy; medium confidence.
Ritual
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Golden Bough.
Matched as ivy; medium confidence.
Ivy Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"...ering according to property, in operation, some bind, as* Amomus, Agnus Castus, Shepherd’s purse, Cypress, Horsetail, Ivy, Bay leaves, Melilot, Bawm, Mirtles, Sorrel, Plantain, Knot-grass, Comfry, Cinquefoil, Fleawort, Purslain, Oak leaves, Willow leaves, Sengreen or Houseleek, &c. *Open, as*, Garlick, Onions, Wormwood, Mallows, Marsh-mallows, Pellitory of the Wall, Endive, Succory, &c. *Soften.* Mallows, Marsh-mallows, Beets, Pellitory of the Wall, Violet leaves, Strawberry leaves, Arrach, Cypress leaves, Bay leaves, Fleawort, &c. *Harden.* Purslain, Nig..."
A CATALOGUE OF SIMPLES IN THE NEW DISPENSATORY.Open in Reader
Preparationalias: ivymedium confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"liquor our poor people drink under that name, is only malt spirits and oil of turpentine. ### IVY. *Hedera.* A VERY common shrub, crawling about old trees, or upon old walls; it sometimes runs upon the ground for want of such support, but then it rarely bears any fruit. The trunk is thick, brown, and covered with a peculiar roughness. The branches are numerous and brittle. The leaves have a strange variety of shapes, oblong, angular, cornered, or divided. The flowers stand in little round clusters, and they are small and inconsider..."
Page 237Open in Reader
Preparationalias: ivymedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...en, a chimney-sweeper who walks encased in a pyramidal-shaped framework of wicker-work, which is covered with holly and ivy, and surmounted by a crown of flowers and ribbons. Thus arrayed he dances on May Day at the head of a troop [pg 089] of chimney-sweeps, who collect pence. 310 In some parts also of France a young fellow is encased in a wicker framework covered with leaves and is led about. 311 In Frickthal (Aargau) a similar frame of basketwork is called the Whitsuntide Basket. As soon as the trees begin to bud, a spot is chosen in the wood, and here t..."
§ 5.—Tree-worship in antiquity.Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: ivymedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1912
".... On Christmas Day or St. Stephen's Day the boys hunt and kill the wren, fasten it in the middle of a mass of holly and ivy on the top of a broomstick, and on St. Stephen's Day go about with it from house to house, singing:— Money or food (bread, butter, eggs, etc.) were given them, upon which they feasted in the evening.[947](389121169233125807_42336-h-18.html.xhtml#note_947) In Essex a similar custom used to be observed at Christmas, and the verses sung by the boys were almost identical with those sung in Ireland.[948](389121169233125807_42336-h-18.html..."
§ 3. The Rites of Plough Monday.Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: ivymedium confidence
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer
1890
"...ious, and the ceremony ended with a feast. Again, in the region of the middle Rhine, a representative of Summer clad in ivy combats a representative of Winter clad in straw or moss and finally gains a victory over him. The vanquished foe is thrown to the ground and stripped of his casing of straw, which is torn to pieces and scattered about, while the youthful comrades of the two champions sing a song to commemorate the defeat of Winter by Summer. Afterwards they carry about a summer garland or branch and collect gifts of eggs and bacon from house to house...."
9. The Magic SpringOpen in Reader
Ritualalias: ivymedium confidence
Books Mentioning Ivy
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
Encyclopaedia of Antiquities
Thomas Dudley Fosbroke | 1825
ivy
8 mentions
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
ivy
6 mentionscited
Star Names
Richard Hinckley Allen | 1899
ivy
6 mentions
Metamorphoses (Books I-VII)
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) | 8
ivy
6 mentions
A Book of Myths
Andrew Lang | 1889
ivy
5 mentions
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted
Gustavus Hindman Miller | 1901
ivy
5 mentions
Student's Mythology
Catherine Ann White | 1873
ivy
4 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
ivy
3 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1890
ivy
3 mentionscited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
ivy
3 mentions
British Goblins
Wirt Sikes | 1880
ivy
3 mentions
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
ivy
2 mentions
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
ivy
2 mentions
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
ivy
2 mentions
Book of the Damned
Charles Fort | 1919
ivy
2 mentions
Morals and Dogma
Albert Pike | 1871
ivy
2 mentions
The Age of Fable
Thomas Bulfinch | 1855
ivy
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
ivy
1 mentioncited
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1912
ivy
1 mentioncited
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
ivy
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1907
ivy
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1913
ivy
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
ivy
1 mention
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
ivy
1 mention
The Golden Bough
James George Frazer | 1906
ivy
1 mention
History of Witchcraft and Demonology
Montague Summers | 1926
ivy
1 mention
Mythology of Greece and Rome
Otto Seemann | 1881
ivy
1 mention
Zanoni
Edward Bulwer-Lytton | 1842
ivy
1 mention
Magick in Theory and Practice
Aleister Crowley | 1929
ivy
1 mention
Tradition and Mythology
Lord Arundell of Wardour (John Francis Arundell) | 1872
ivy
1 mention
Mysteries of All Nations
James Grant | 1880
ivy
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 5
Aleister Crowley | 1911
ivy
1 mention
Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
James Hastings | 1916
ivy
1 mention
Bulfinch's Mythology
Thomas Bulfinch | 1881
ivy
1 mention
Metamorphoses (Books VIII-XV)
Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) | 8
ivy
1 mention
Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
W. Y. Evans-Wentz | 1911
ivy
1 mention
The Holy Kabbalah
Arthur Edward Waite | 1929
ivy
1 mention