Found in the Hermetikon archive

Spikenard

Nardostachys jatamansi

Spikenard 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: 23
Contexts: 4
Mentions: 181

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: spikenard
Latin name: Nardostachys jatamansi(ambiguous)
Identity note: Historical sources often use nard; nard is broad and can be noisy.

Safety

moderate

Resin/oil and root preparations vary; avoid medicinal dosing without modern species-specific safety review.

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

Kew POWO: Resin/oil and root preparations vary; avoid medicinal dosing without modern species-specific safety review.

Aliases

spikenardnardNardostachys jatamansi

Spikenard in Historical Sources

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

Hermetikon's curated reading of Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are astrology and identity. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Identity

high

Fosbroke's antiquities entry anchors true spikenard in long-distance trade, saying Indians sold it to Persians, then Syrians, and later Roman channels through Egypt.

Encyclopaedia of Antiquities | Thomas Dudley Fosbroke | 1825

Page 616

Identity

high

Hill's Plowman's Spikenard is Baccharis monspeliensium, a local plant with the name spikenard but not the same identity as imported nard.

The Family Herbal | John Hill | 1755

Page 322

Astrology

high

Baughan assigns spikenard to the Sun among pungent plants such as marigold, heliotrope, rosemary, balsam, peony, St. John's wort, and ginger.

The Influence of the Stars | Rosa Baughan | 1880

CHAPTER VII. AN EXPLANATION OF VARIOUS TERMS USED IN ASTROLOGY

Preparations and ritual uses

Perfumed syrup

high

Culpeper perfumes a syrup with cinnamon and spikenard after boiling honey, sugar, and sharp vinegar.

Culpeper's Complete Herbal | Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

Chapter 57

Ointment material

high

Grant preserves a Scottish witch-trial ointment motif in which oil of spikenard and heart's grease are said to cure diseases.

Mysteries of All Nations | James Grant | 1880

CHAPTER LXIV.

Spikenard Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Medicine

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

Matched as spikenard; high confidence.

Astrology

5 passages across 5 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.

Matched as spikenard; high confidence.

Preparation

8 passages across 8 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.

Matched as spikenard; high confidence.

Safety

1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Solomon and Solomonic Literature.

Matched as spikenard; high confidence.

Spikenard 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

"...th honey and sugar, of each two pounds, sharp Vinegar four ounces, boil it to a Syrup, and perfume it with Cinnamon and Spikenard, of each three drams. *Culpeper.*] It helps the passion of the matrix, and retains it in its place, it dissolves the coldness, wind, and pains thereof: it strengthens the nerves, opens the pores, corrects the blood, it corrects and provokes the menses. You may take a spoonful of it at a time. #### *Syrupus de Betonica compositus.* Or Syrup of Bettony compound. *College.*] Take of Bettony three handfuls, Marjoram four handfuls and a hal..."

Chapter 57Open in Reader

Preparationalias: spikenardhigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"...xternally ill 'ettrr. itrh. and Other riUanemi,-i diiea.ie.-<. when="" added="" to="" the="" compound="" syrup="" of="" spikenard="" it="" should="" be="" exhausted="" by="" boiling="" alcohol="" and="" tincture="" instead="" with="" other="" articles="" as="" is="" usually="" done.="" alcoholic="" extract="" combined="" powdered="" liquorice="" benzoic="" acid="" sanguinaria="" morphine="" forms="" a="" lozenge="" or="" pill="" very="" valuable="" in="" chronie="" catarrhal="" bronrhial.="" all="" pulmonary="" irri="" one="" drop="" oil="" stillingia="" may="" a..."

Page 171Open in Reader

Preparationalias: spikenardhigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"...full as much virtue as the kind already described: the narrow leaved plantain has less, but of the same kind. PLOWMAN'S SPIKENARD. *Baccharis monspeliensium*. A TALL robust wild plant with broad rough leaves, and numerous small yellowish flowers, frequent by road-sides, and in dry pastures. The plant grows three feet high. The stalks are round, thick, upright, and a little hairy. The leaves are large, broad from the root, and narrower on the stalk; they are blunt at the points, and a little indented at the edges. The flowers grow on the tops of the branches, spre..."

Page 322Open in Reader

Medicinealias: spikenardhigh confidence

Solomon and Solomonic Literature

Moncure Daniel Conway

1898

"...ir Mary); and this epithet might have been derived from Shulamith’s “ringlets” which were “tied up in folds,” and whose spikenard sent forth its odours while Solomon was at the table. The later Jahvism must have considered such attention by ladies to their hair as an evidence of wickedness. Paul, while recognizing that long hair is a woman’s “glory” (1 Cor. xi.) dangerously fascinating even to the angels, testifies against “braided hair” (1 Tim. ii.), an instruction repeated in 1 Peter iii. Whether this lady of means who helped to support Jesus was from Magdala o..."

Chapter XIX. Postscripta.Open in Reader

Safetyalias: spikenardhigh confidence

Encyclopaedia of Antiquities

Thomas Dudley Fosbroke

1825

"... through the Orientals. In the Middle Ages they were introduced into Europe by the Genoese and Venetians, *viâ* Egypt.i SPIKENARD. The Indians sold it to the Persians, and they to the Syrians, to whom the Romans went for it; but after the Conquest of Egypt by Augustus, brought it themselves from India by means of a fleet in the Arabian Gulf.k SPINNING. Tertullian ascribes the invention to Mercury, so that it ascends above History. The wheel which had spindles,i accompanies figures of Nemesis, a Cupid in Stosch, &c.l SPIRITOUS LIQUORS. The Classical Ancients used ..."

Page 616Open in Reader

Astrologyalias: spikenardhigh confidence

Books Mentioning Spikenard

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

23 books

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

spikenardnard

116 mentionscited

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Spikenard in Historical Sources

Identity

Identity

Astrology

Preparations and ritual uses

Perfumed syrup

Ointment material

Spikenard Archive Contexts

Medicine

Astrology

Preparation

Safety

Spikenard Cited Excerpts

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

King's American Dispensatory

The Family Herbal

Solomon and Solomonic Literature

Encyclopaedia of Antiquities

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Spikenard