Siamese Benzoin is a fragrant balsamic resin obtained from trees of the genus Styrax (primarily Styrax tonkinensis), native to Southeast Asia. The name ‘Benzoin’ derives from the Arabic lubān jāwī (‘frankincense of Java’), while ‘Opoponax’ is a separate resin entirely—a gum-resin from the roots of Commiphora erythraea or Commiphora kataf, historically confused with Benzoin in occult texts. In the context of this table, the combination ‘Siamese Benzoin, Opoponax’ conflates two distinct botanical materials, likely due to their shared sweet, vanilla-like, and balsamic profiles.

Position on the Tree of Life

This entry occupies Path 24 of the Hermetic Qabalah, which connects the sephiroth Netzach (Victory, Venus) and Hod (Splendor, Mercury). Path 24 corresponds to the letter Nun (נ) in the Hebrew alphabet, meaning ‘fish’, and is associated with the zodiacal sign Scorpio in many Qabalistic schemata.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

Path 24 carries the complex energy of Scorpio (fixed water), a sign deeply linked with death, transformation, sexuality, and hidden forces. The resinous, tear-like nature of Benzoin—as well as Opoponax’s pungent, animalic undertones—mirror Scorpio’s paradoxical fusion of the funereal with the regenerative. Crowley in 777 gives Scorpio the formula ‘Death in the highest sense’ and the perfume ‘Opoponax, Siamese Benzoin’.

Historical context

Opoponax appears in ancient Greek and Roman medicine (Dioscorides, Pliny) as ‘sweet myrrh’ or ‘panacea from the Panaces plant’; later the name was corrupted in European alchemy to refer to a resin from Commiphora or even Oppopanax hispidus. Benzoin entered European pharmacopoeias via Arab trade routes, known as ‘Benjamin’ (a corruption of lubān jāwī). In medieval and Renaissance grimoires, Benzoin was burned for purification and to attract benevolent spirits; Opoponax, being heavier and more tenacious, was used in exorcism or binding rituals. By the nineteenth century, both resins were staples of ritual fragrance, often paired in ‘Venusian’ or ‘Scorpionic’ fumigations.

In the Golden Dawn system, which provided the underlying attribution for 777, these two resins were considered synonymous in certain contexts—a chimeric entry reflecting the difficulty of precisely identifying imported aromatics. The conflation may also arise from the Paracelsian notion that opoponax and benzoin share a ‘spiritual signature’ of moist, earthy fixity under intense planetary pressure.

In the table of 777

At Path 24, Crowley assigns ‘Siamese Benzoin, Opoponax’ as a single perfume entry, bridging the Venusian sweetness of Netzach (Benzoin appears at Path 7) with the Mercurial fixity of Hod. The resin is the olfactory embodiment of Scorpio: cloying yet sharp, sweet yet rotten, a scent of dissolution that leaves a trace of immortality.