Storax, all Dull and Heavy Odours

Storax (from Greek sturax, via Latin storax) is a resinous balsam derived from the bark of Liquidambar orientalis and related trees. Its scent is sweet, balsamic, slightly vanilla-like, with a heavy tenacity. In the schema of Liber 777, "Storax, all Dull and Heavy Odours" designates not merely the resin itself but an entire olfactory category: odours that are low-volatility, thick, and lingering—the opposite of sharp or fugitive scents. These are the perfumes that weigh down the atmosphere rather than lift it.

Position on the Scale

The named subject occupies scale step 32 bis, an intermediate value between the 32nd Path (Tau, Saturn) and the unassigned 31 bis. Step 32 bis has "No attribution possible" for its corresponding 0, 1, and 31 bis columns, signifying a transitional or liminal point on the Tree of Life. This places "Storax, all Dull and Heavy Odours" at the boundary between the manifest (Malkuth) and the formless—a perfume category suited for operations at the edge of the material world, where scents thicken into presence.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Though no single planet is fixed for step 32 bis, the character of Dull and Heavy Odours aligns with Saturnian and lunar influences: slow, dense, moisture-binding, and grounding. In the system of olfactory correspondences, such odours correspond to the element of Earth in its most passive aspect, and to the humour of black bile (melancholy). They fix the spirit, in Paracelsian terms, and are employed in rites that require silence, endurance, or contact with chthonic forces.

Historical Context

The classification of perfumes into "dull" and "heavy" versus "volatile" and "sharp" originates in ancient materia medica. Dioscorides noted that storax was "warming and softening" but also "thickening"—a property that made it valuable for binding other ingredients in incense. In Egyptian temple practice, storax was a key component of Kyphi, the complex incense whose heavy base notes were believed to carry prayers into the underworld. Mediaeval alchemists such as Albertus Magnus divided aromatics into those that "ascend quickly to the brain" (sharp) and those that "descend to the bowels" (heavy). Storax, along with labdanum, opoponax, and myrrh, belonged to the latter category.

In Renaissance magical literature, dull odours were specified for nocturnal operations, for the consecration of Saturnine tools, and for binding spirits. The Magical Calendar of 1801 lists storax as a fumigant for works of limitation and protection. Crowley's inclusion of "all Dull and Heavy Odours" at the liminal step 32 bis extends this tradition: these are scents that mark the threshold where the Tree meets the Qliphoth, where odour becomes obstruction rather than aspiration.

Correspondence in Liber 777

At step 32 bis, the Perfumes column reads "Storax, all Dull and Heavy Odours." This is not identical to "Storax" alone (which appears at Hod, step 8, and at Path 16) but rather subsumes Storax as the primary example while encompassing all similarly dense scents: opopanax, labdanum, asafoetida's heavier fractions, stale animalics, and the residues of earlier distillations. This category stands opposed to the "Fugitive Odours" of Path 12 and the "Fiery Odours" of Path 31, completing the olfactory spectrum from volatile to fixed, quick to slow, bright to dull.