Nux Vomica is the seed of Strychnos nux-vomica, a tree native to Southeast Asia, its common name deriving from Latin nux (nut) and vomica (to vomit). The principal alkaloid, strychnine, acts as a powerful spinal convulsant, while the combination with Nettle (Urtica dioica) in this entry is a formulaic pairing, and the bracketed Cocaine and Atropine further specify the pharmacodynamic profile—a cocktail of stimulating, convulsant, anticholinergic, and anaesthetic agents. This cluster is not a single drug but a symbolic intensifier of the Geburah current: sharp, corrective, martial.

Position on the Tree of Life

This entry occupies the fifth Sephirah, Geburah, on the Pillar of Severity. Geburah is Mars, the sphere of judgment, war, and dissolution. A drug of this Sephirothic grade must rupture false boundaries, purge impurities, and administer the shock of accelerated karma.

Astrological and Planetary Correspondence

Geburah corresponds to Mars. In the vegetable kingdom, Mars rules plants that are thorny, burning, intensely hot, or violently purgative—all qualities present in this compound. Nux Vomica, with its strychnine content, produces tonic spasms and a heightened startle reflex, the vegetative parallel of Martian aggression.

Historical Context

Nux Vomica entered Western pharmacopoeia via Portuguese trade in the 16th century. By the 19th century, it was prescribed in homeopathic doses for digestive torpor and nervous debility; in toxic doses it produces the classic strychnine tetanus—every muscle contracting at once, the spine arched in opisthotonos. In the folk magic of Southeast Asia, the seeds were sometimes carried as charm substances for courage during physical trials, their dangerous reputation lending them a talismanic fear-value.

Nettle (Urtica dioica) is an indigenous European and Asian plant whose stinging hairs inject histamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin into the skin—a topical Martian inflammation. Its use in uroscopy and as a spring tonic is ancient, recorded by Dioscorides and in Anglo-Saxon leechbooks. The combination with Nux Vomica thus unites an internal convulsant with an external irritant, doubling the martial signature.

Cocaine (from Erythroxylum coca) and Atropine (from Atropa belladonna) are bracketed here not as interchangeable substitutes but as comparable in position: each is a potent alkaloid that crosses the blood-brain barrier and operates on the sympathetic nervous system. In the 777 system, their inclusion signals that any one of these four substances—or their blended tincture—may serve as the Geburah vegetable drug, depending on the specific intention (stimulant, anaesthetic, anticholinergic). Aleister Crowley’s own use of such combinations in his “drug diaries” suggests that the bracket is a working instruction for the magician: to combine cocaine’s cerebral clarity with atropine’s dilation and Nux Vomica’s spinal excitation.

Closing

In Liber 777, the cell for Geburah’s Vegetable Drugs lists Nux Vomica and Nettle as the base formula, with Cocaine and Atropine added as intensifiers or alternatives. The magician working this column is to ingest or consecrate a preparation that partakes of the nature of Mars in the plant kingdom: harsh, rapid, purgative, and utterly intolerant of the flesh’s normal boundaries.