Found in the Hermetikon archive

Oak

Quercus robur

Oak 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: 50
Contexts: 4
Mentions: 207

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: oak
Latin name: Quercus robur(ambiguous)
Identity note: Common word with strong genuine ritual/tree-worship material; filter for botanical context.

Safety

moderate

Tannin-rich bark and acorns require caution at high intake.

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

EMA HMPC: Tannin-rich bark and acorns require caution at high intake.

Aliases

oakoak treeQuercus albaQuercus robur

Oak in Historical Sources

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

Hermetikon's curated reading of Oak (Quercus robur) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are ritual uses and symbolism. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Ritual

high

Frazer records a Serbian Christmas Eve rite in which young men cut an oak tree at sunrise after prayer or crossing and wheat is thrown on the chosen tree.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913

Â§ 7. The Midwinter Fires.

Symbolism

high

Frazer's oak chapter argues that oak-tree or oak-god worship was shared across Aryan Europe and links the oak with Zeus or Jupiter, sky, rain, and thunder.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1890

XV. The Worship of the Oak

Ritual

high

Spence preserves Roman sacred-tree lore in which a triumphant general hung captured arms on Jupiter's oak and trees were treated as spirit-temples.

Encyclopaedia of Occultism | Lewis Spence | 1920

Page 397

Preparations and ritual uses

Christmas oak cutting

high

Frazer's Serbian Christmas Eve rite cuts the chosen oak at sunrise after greeting it, praying or crossing, and throwing wheat on it.

The Golden Bough | James George Frazer | 1913

Â§ 7. The Midwinter Fires.

Oak Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Astrology

6 passages across 6 books; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.

Matched as oak tree; high confidence.

Preparation

3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.

Matched as oak; high confidence.

Ritual

2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.

Matched as oak tree; high confidence.

Safety

3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: Bulfinch's Mythology.

Matched as oak tree; high confidence.

Oak Cited Excerpts

Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.

5 shown

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1913

"...mas Eve (Badnyi Dan) every peasant house sends two of its strongest young men to the nearest forest to cut down a young oak tree and bring it home. There, after offering up a short prayer or crossing themselves thrice, they throw a handful of wheat on the chosen oak and greet it with the words, “Happy Badnyi day to you!” Then they cut it down, taking care that it shall fall towards the east at the moment when the sun's orb appears over the rim of the eastern horizon. Should the tree fall towards the west, it would be the worst possible omen for the house and its..."

Â§ 7. The Midwinter Fires.Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: oak treehigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1906

"...erful, the rare, not the familiar and commonplace, which excites the religious emotions of mankind. |The worship of the oak tree or of the oak god seems to have been common to all the Aryans of Europe.| The worship of the oak tree or of the oak god appears to have been shared by all the branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Both Greeks and Italians associated the tree |Worship of the oak in Greece; its association with Zeus.| with their highest god, Zeus or Jupiter, the divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder.[[1151]](4270233193503605876_60250-h-20.htm.x..."

Â§ 2. The Aryan God of the Oak and the Thunder[1149]Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: oak treehigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1907

"...he sacrificed the animal to Laphystian Zeus. The golden fleece itself he gave to his wife's father, who nailed it to an oak tree, guarded by a sleepless dragon in a sacred grove of Ares. Meanwhile at home an oracle had commanded that King Athamas himself should be sacrificed as an expiatory offering for the whole country. So the people decked him with garlands like a victim and led him to the altar, where they were just about to sacrifice him when he was rescued either by his grandson Cytisorus, who arrived in the nick of time from Colchis, or by Hercules, who b..."

Chapter VI. Sacrifice Of The King's Son.Open in Reader

Ritualalias: oak treehigh confidence

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence

1920

"...ere was a strange sympathy between the trees and mankind, and great honour was paid to the sacred trees of Rome. On the oak tree of Jupiter the triumphant general hung the shield and arms of his fallen foe ; while the hedges about the Temple of Diana at Nemi were covered with votive offerings. The trees also harboured the spirits of the dead who came forth as dreams to the souls of men. Pliny the elder says in this matter •• Trees have a soul since nothing on earth lives without one. They are the temples of spirits and the simple countryside dedicates still a no..."

Page 397Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: oak treehigh confidence

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer

1890

"### XV. The Worship of the Oak THE WORSHIP of the oak tree or of the oak god appears to have been shared by all the branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Both Greeks and Italians associated the tree with their highest god, Zeus or Jupiter, the divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder. Perhaps the oldest and certainly one of the most famous sanctuaries in Greece was that of Dodona, where Zeus was revered in the oracular oak. The thunder-storms which are said to rage at Dodona more freque..."

XV. The Worship of the OakOpen in Reader

Astrologyalias: oak treehigh confidence

Books Mentioning Oak

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

50 books

Argonautica

Apollonius Rhodius | 250

oak treeoak

26 mentions

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

oak

15 mentions

Extraordinary Popular Delusions

Charles Mackay | 1841

oak

13 mentions

The Elder Eddas and Younger Eddas

Anonymous | 1200

oak treeoak

11 mentions

Primitive Culture, Vol. 2

Edward Burnett Tylor | 1871

oak

11 mentions

Balder the Beautiful, Volume I

James George Frazer | 1913

oak treeoak

10 mentions

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence | 1920

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Oak in Historical Sources

Ritual

Symbolism

Ritual

Preparations and ritual uses

Christmas oak cutting

Oak Archive Contexts

Astrology

Preparation

Ritual

Safety

Oak Cited Excerpts

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

The Golden Bough

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Oak