Found in the Hermetikon archive

Mandrake

Mandragora officinarum

Mandrake 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: 49
Contexts: 5
Mentions: 342

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: mandrake
Latin name: Mandragora officinarum(candidate)
Identity note: High-value occult plant with strong folklore and toxicity framing.

Safety

high

Contains tropane alkaloids and is associated with anticholinergic poisoning.

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

NCBI Bookshelf: Contains tropane alkaloids and is associated with anticholinergic poisoning.

Aliases

mandrakemandragoraMandragora officinarum

Mandrake in Historical Sources

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

Hermetikon's curated reading of Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are folk magic, identity, and safety. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Identity

high

Mandrake has an important identity split in the archive. King's American Dispensatory discusses 'mandrake root' in a podophyllum manufacturing process, while European mandragora folklore and occult symbolism form a separate tradition.

King's American Dispensatory | Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Page 758

Folk magic

high

The magical mandrake material centers on human-shaped roots, hand-of-glory lore, and treasure or power traditions. These sources read as folklore and occult reception history, not botanical instructions.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913

IV. The Mistletoe and the Golden Bough.

Safety

high

Mandrake also carries a recurring danger motif. Witchcraft and demonology material describes mandragora as a potion with fatal consequences, and other archive references place it near narcotic or poisonous plants.

History of Witchcraft and Demonology | Montague Summers | 1926

NOTES TO CHAPTER V

Preparations and ritual uses

Podophyllum resin process

high

King's describes exhausting coarsely powdered mandrake root with alcohol in the manufacture of resin of podophyllum, making this American mandrake identity material.

King's American Dispensatory | Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Page 758

Mandrake Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Medicine

1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Family Herbal.

Matched as mandrake; high confidence.

Astrology

5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Clavis Astrologiae Elimata.

Matched as mandrake; high confidence.

Folk magic

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

Matched as mandragora; high confidence.

Preparation

3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.

Matched as mandrake; high confidence.

Safety

5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus.

Matched as mandragora; high confidence.

Mandrake 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

"..., Spurge roots, Alder, Ash, Pomegranates, Guajacum, Walnut tree, green Walnuts, Laurel, Bay, Lemon, Mace, Pomegranates, Mandrake roots, Mezereon, Mulberry tree roots, Sloe tree roots, Pinenuts, Fistick-nuts, Poplar tree, Oak, Elder, Sassafras, Cork, Tamerisk, Lime tree, Frankincense, Elm, Capt. Winterâ€™s Cinnamon.* *Culpeper.*] Of these, Captain Winterâ€™s Cinnamon, being taken as ordinary spice, or half a dram taken in the morning in any convenient liquor, is an excellent remedy for the scurvy; the powder of it being snuffed up in the nose, cleanses the head o..."

A CATALOGUE OF SIMPLES IN THE NEW DISPENSATORY.Open in Reader

Preparationalias: mandrakehigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"...of Cincinnati (A. D., 1852), for the following process of manufacturing resin of podophyllum. Exhaust coarsely powdered mandrake root with alcohol, b}' percolation. Place the saturated tincture in a still, and distill off the alcohol; the residue will be a dark fluid of the consistence of molasses; sometimes it i.s thicker, and when this is the case add a small portion of it to some water, and if it does not form a yellow-whitish precipitate, a small quantity of alcohol must be added to it, or enough to cause the light precipitate. Then warm the thick residual f..."

Page 758Open in Reader

Preparationalias: mandrakehigh confidence

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

1533

"...gs. Amongst plants and trees, the daffodil, dragon 's-wort, rue, cummin, hellebore, the tree from whence benzoin comes, mandrake, opium, and those things which are never sown, and never bear fruit, and those which bring forth berries of a dark color and black fruit, as the black fig-tree, the pinetree, the cypress-tree, and a certain tree used at burials, which never springs afresh with berries, rough, of a bitter taste, of a strong smell, of a black shadow, yielding a most sharp pitch, bearing a most unprofitable fruit, never dies with age, deadly, and dedicate..."

Page 109Open in Reader

Safetyalias: mandrakehigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"...s; calculated only to surprise ignorant people, and get money by the shew: there is nothing singular in the root of the mandrake; and as to the terms male and female, the two kinds would be better distinguished, by calling the one, the broader leaved mandrake, with round fruit, and the other, the narrower leaved mandrake, with oval fruit. There are plants which are separately male and female, as hemp, spinach, the date tree, and the like: but there is nothing of this distinction in the mandrakes. The fresh root of mandrake, is a violent medicine; it operates bot..."

Page 268Open in Reader

Medicinealias: mandrakehigh confidence

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence

1920

"...ecause its answers to his questions puzzled him, was such an android. Some have attempted to humanize a root called the mandrake, which bears a fantastic resemblance to a human being. (See Mandragora.) Angekok, Eskimo Shamans : (See Eskimos.) Angelle Brethren : (See Visions.) Angels : The word angel, " angelos " in Greek, " malak " in Hebrew, literally signifies a " person sent " or a " messenger." It is a name, not of nature but of office, and is applied also to men in the world, as ambassadors or representatives. In a lower sense, angel denotes a spiritual bei..."

Page 46Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: mandrakehigh confidence

Books Mentioning Mandrake

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

49 books

The Evolution of the Dragon

G. Elliot Smith | 1919

mandrakemandragora

77 mentions

Custom and Myth

Andrew Lang | 1884

mandrakemandragora

27 mentions

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Mandrake in Historical Sources

Identity

Folk magic

Safety

Preparations and ritual uses

Podophyllum resin process

Mandrake Archive Contexts

Medicine

Astrology

Folk magic

Preparation

Safety

Mandrake Cited Excerpts

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

King's American Dispensatory

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

The Family Herbal

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Mandrake