Safety
highHill introduces deadly nightshade as a poison before admitting restricted historical uses, making safety the controlling frame for belladonna.
Found in the Hermetikon archive
Belladonna
Atropa belladonna
Belladonna appears in Hermetikon as an archive-backed plant entry, with references across historical medical, magical, symbolic, and ritual contexts where the source texts support them.
- Risk
- high
- Books
- 22
- Contexts
- 4
- Mentions
- 121
Archive Profile
Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.
Herb identity
- Common name
- belladonna
- Latin name
- Atropa belladonna(candidate)
- Identity note
- Also known as deadly nightshade.
Safety
high
Contains tropane alkaloids and is associated with severe anticholinergic poisoning.
Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.
- NCBI Bookshelf: Contains tropane alkaloids and is associated with severe anticholinergic poisoning.
Aliases
belladonnaAtropa belladonnadeadly nightshade
Belladonna in Historical Sources
Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.
Hermetikon's curated reading of Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 1 preparation or ritual-use entry. The strongest recurring contexts are medicine, ritual uses, and safety. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.
Medicine
highKing's American Dispensatory discusses belladonna and atropine in opium-poisoning antagonism, a medical toxicology context rather than casual herb use.
Ritual
highSpence lists belladonna among black-magic herbs and poisonous philtres, pairing it with assafoetida, deadly nightshade, black poppies, venom, and human blood.
Preparations and ritual uses
Poisonous witches' salve
highThe Book of Witches lists belladonna with aconite, opium, and hyoscyamus in narcotic magic salves, explicitly requiring danger framing.
Belladonna Archive Contexts
Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.
Medicine
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: The Family Herbal.
Matched as deadly nightshade; high confidence.
Astrology
1 passage across 1 book; strongest source: Liber 777.
Matched as belladonna; high confidence.
Preparation
7 passages across 7 books; strongest source: Encyclopaedia of Occultism.
Matched as belladonna; high confidence.
Safety
6 passages across 6 books; strongest source: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable.
Matched as belladonna; high confidence.
Belladonna Cited Excerpts
Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper
1653
"...e Mullein | White Mustard | | THOMAS KELLY, LONDON. | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Black Mustard | Common Nightshade | Deadly Nightshade | | Nep | Nailwort | Orpine | | Cow Parsnip | Rock Parsley | Wild Parsnip | | THOMAS KELLY, LONDON. | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Pellitory of the Wall | Periwinkle | Pepper-wort | | Pimpernel | Plantain | Polypody | | White Poppy | Corn Rose Poppy | Primrose | | THOMAS KELLY, LONDON. | | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | Privet | Queen of the Meadow | Meadow Rue | | Cress Rocket | Rattle Grass | Rocket Cress | | Ragwort | Rapture Wort | S..."
Chapter 5Open in Reader
Safetyalias: deadly nightshadehigh confidence
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter
1854
"...sis to be produced. The respiration must not be allowed to flag. Ammonia may occasionally be inhaled. As before stated, belladonna is antagonistic to opium. Indeed, atropine is regarded as the best antagonist to poisoning by opium and morphine. Repeated small doses, J^ to ^'^ grain of atropine should be sulicutaneously injected at intervals until the pupils begin to dilate. This method is preferaUe to giving a large dose at once, and is attended with re.sults not otherwise obtainable. Stramonium maybe used; also gelsemium, giving it short of sedation. Strychnine a..."
Page 528Open in Reader
Safetyalias: belladonnahigh confidence
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence
1920
"...r influence to the spells. Geometrical figures, stars, pentagrams, columns, triangles, were, used ; also herbs, such as belladonna and assafoetida ; flowers, honeysuckle, being the witches' ladder, the arum, deadly nightshade and black poppies; distillations and philtres composed of the virus of loathsome diseases, venom of reptiles, secretions of animals, poisonous sap and fungi and fruits, such as the fatal manchineel, pulverised flint, impure ashes and human blood. Amulets and talismans were made of the skins of criminals, wrought from the skulls of hanged men,..."
Page 100Open in Reader
Preparationalias: belladonnahigh confidence
The Family Herbal
John Hill
1755
"... They are very cooling, and applied bruised to inflammations; scalds, burns, and troublesome eruptions on the skin. ### DEADLY NIGHTSHADE. *Solanum lethale.* IT may seem strange to mix a poison among medicines, but a part of this herb has its uses. This is a wild plant of a dull and dismal aspect. It grows five feet high. The stalks are angulated, and of a deep green. The leaves are very large, broad, and flat, and they also are of a dull dead green. The flowers stand singly on long footstalks, arising from the bosom of the leaves, and"
Page 296Open in Reader
Medicinealias: deadly nightshadehigh confidence
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley
1909
"...on on the deepest nervous centres. - Soma is said to give understanding and was sacred to the highest form of the Moon. Belladonna is here because of its virtue to dilate the pupil, thus producing a Black Sea; but this attribution seems a little fantastic. - Opium—its virtue is to relieve pain and to confer philosophic calm. - Nux Vomica, Nettle, and Cocain are given here for their power of excitation in one way or another. The attribution of the last named is doubtful as its apparently stimulating action is really due to its function as a local anæsthetic. Atropi..."
Page 216Open in Reader
Astrologyalias: belladonnahigh confidence
Books Mentioning Belladonna
Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.
King's American Dispensatory
Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854
belladonnadeadly nightshade
69 mentionscited
Encyclopaedia of Occultism
Lewis Spence | 1920
belladonnadeadly nightshade
6 mentionscited
History of Witchcraft and Demonology
Montague Summers | 1926
belladonna
5 mentions
Culpeper's Complete Herbal
Nicholas Culpeper | 1653
deadly nightshade
4 mentionscited
Thaumaturgia
Richard Harris Dalton Barham | 1835
deadly nightshadebelladonna
4 mentions
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted
Gustavus Hindman Miller | 1901
belladonna
4 mentions
The Book of Witches
Unknown Author (Historical Compilation) | 1900
belladonnadeadly nightshade
3 mentions
Liber 777
Aleister Crowley | 1909
belladonna
2 mentionscited
The Evil Eye
Frederick Thomas Elworthy | 1895
deadly nightshade
2 mentions
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 5
Aleister Crowley | 1911
deadly nightshadebelladonna
2 mentions
Human Animals
Frank Hamel | 1915
belladonna
2 mentions
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable
E. Cobham Brewer | 1870
belladonnadeadly nightshade
2 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Éliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis Constant) | 1856
belladonna
2 mentions
Transcendental Magic
Eliphas Levi | 1854
belladonna
2 mentions
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 10
Aleister Crowley | 1913
deadly nightshadebelladonna
2 mentions
Mysteries of All Nations
James Grant | 1880
belladonna
2 mentions
Indian Palmistry
J. B. Dale | 1895
belladonna
2 mentions
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 8
Aleister Crowley | 1912
belladonna
2 mentions
The Family Herbal
John Hill | 1755
deadly nightshade
1 mentioncited
The Magus (Vol 1)
Francis Barrett | 1801
deadly nightshade
1 mention
Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
John Netten Radcliffe | 1854
belladonna
1 mention
The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 9
Aleister Crowley | 1913
belladonna
1 mention