Anhalonium Lewinii, the peyote cactus (now Lophophora williamsii), and Cannabis Indica, the psychoactive hemp plant, are here bracketed as a single compound entry. The pairing indicates their complementary action as vehicles for the same current: the expansion and manipulation of consciousness through vegetative agents. Anhalonium derives from the Greek an- (“without”) and halos (“salt”), referring to its habitat; “Lewinii” honors the German pharmacologist Louis Lewin, who classified the cactus in his seminal 1888 study of intoxicants. Cannabis Indica, from the Latin cannabis (“hemp”) and indicus (“of India”), denotes the resin-rich variety preferred for mystical and medical use in the East.

Position on the Tree of Life

This pairing sits at 8, Hod, on the Vegetable Drugs scale. Hod, “Splendor,” is the eighth Sephirah, governed by Mercury. It is the sphere of intellect, communication, and the formal structures of consciousness. The drugs assigned here are those that sharpen or alter the mental apparatus, making the mind more susceptible to symbolic input, logical rearrangement, or visionary insight—without entirely dissolving the ego (which belongs to the lower veils). The Hod intoxication is lucid, analytic, and often intensifies the perception of correspondences and patterns.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

As the Sephirah of Hod is under Mercury, the plants at this step are mercurial in essence: quick, adaptable, and capable of linking disparate ideas. Anhalonium, with its visionary geometry and alienation from normal time, and Cannabis Indica, with its discursive, associative drift, both serve to “mercurialize” the mind—turning it into a receiver for the subtle patterns of the Thirty-Two Paths. No additional planet is assigned; the step itself is the primary astrological anchor.

Historical Context

In the Qabalistic schema of Liber 777, Crowley compiled correspondences from a wide range of magical, alchemical, and ethnographic sources. Anhalonium Lewinii was introduced to the West through the studies of Louis Lewin and the 1896 isolation of mescaline by Arthur Heffter; it was quickly assimilated into the occult pharmacopeia as a means of inducing controlled visionary states. Cannabis Indica had been known in European medicine and occult literature since the mid‑nineteenth century, notably through the writings of the Club des Hashischins and the experiments of the Theosophical Society. Their conjunction at Hod is not arbitrary: both drugs, when used with intention, produce an enhanced awareness of symbol and synchronicity, a state Crowley described as “the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel” approached through the analytical intellect.

In the Table

At step 8 of the Vegetable Drugs column, the entry reads Anhalonium Lewinii [[Cannabis Indica]], a paired correspondence encoding the mercurial, mind‑sharpening aspect of both plants as they appear in the Qabalistic system of Hod.