Plant Profile: Black Hellebore
Black Hellebore botanical drawing
Hellebore: Helleborus niger
Other names: Lenten rose, Christmas rose, black hellebore, garden hellebore, melampodium
Ruled by Saturn and Mars, associated with the element Water
Traditional Medicinal Uses: tinctures used in minute doses for mental and emotional disorders. The ancient Greeks used it as a cure for insanity. It has been used as a purgative for mental illness, and is a CNS depressant.
Chemical Composition: Hellebore is one of the most poisonous members of the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family along with monkshood/wolfsbane. It contains poisonous glycoalkaloids predominantly in the black roots for which it is named. It also contains aconitic acid, which is interestingly used in perfumery and found in aconite. The cardiotoxic compounds found in the plant are referred to as helleborin. Some of the plant alkaloids are related to the bufo-toxins of the toad, which have also been used for their entheogenic properties. Some of the symptoms of hellebore poisoning are tinnitis, stupor, thirst, swelling tongue and throat, burning in the eyes and mouth, slowed heartbeat, and convulsion followed by death.
Magical Uses:
exorcism and banishing
removing parasitic entities and spiritual poisons
consecrating talismans of Saturn and Mars
used in Faustian ritual, ceremonial magic, and necromancy
stops slander and gossip through magical strangulation
roots can be dried and carried as a spirit fetish more sinister than mandrake
Algol is one of the 15 fixed stars mentioned in the Book of Hermes. It is the eye in the head of Medusa, and the second brightest star in the constellation of Beta Persei. This star had a malefic influence, and was known as the demon star or mischief maker Ras al-Ghul, in Arabic. According to Agrippa, hellebore is under the rulership of Algol. Talismans made under the star are said to bring the creator power over other, the power of manifestation, protection from witchcraft and the ability to use magic against one’s enemies.
Historical info: hellebore was often used in the Middle Ages to commit murder, causing a painful death.
It was said that King Argos’s daughter was cured of her Dionysian madness with the juice of the hellebore.
>Check out more information on this plant and others in my online course at The House of Twigs, coming soon!
this information is for educational purposes only. it is not meant to diagnose, treat or prescribe or replace the advice of a physician. Poisoner’s Apothecary is not responsible for the misuse of this information*