Found in the Hermetikon archive

Opium Poppy

Papaver somniferum

Opium Poppy 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: 109
Contexts: 4
Mentions: 939

Overview Reading Contexts Citations Related Books

Archive Profile

Identity, safety, and search aliases used to connect this herb to the archive.

Herb identity

Common name: opium poppy
Latin name: Papaver somniferum(candidate)
Identity note: Archive hits include opium, poppy, sleep, medicine, poison, and occult/visionary contexts.

Safety

high

Opium and opioid alkaloid material is addictive and dangerous; historical mentions are not use guidance.

Historical archive citations are not medical advice. Use modern clinical and poison-control sources for ingestion, dosage, pregnancy, and toxicity questions.

NIDA Opioids: Opium and opioid alkaloid material is addictive and dangerous; historical mentions are not use guidance.

Aliases

opiumPapaver somniferumpoppiespoppy

Opium Poppy in Historical Sources

Curated archive synthesis of recurring uses, recipes, rituals, and interpretive problems.

Hermetikon's curated reading of Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) is built from 3 source-linked archive notes and 2 preparation or ritual-use entries. The strongest recurring contexts are ritual uses, symbolism, and safety. Each note below links back to the archive source used for the claim.

Safety

high

King's American Dispensatory treats opium poisoning as an emergency, discussing artificial respiration and atropine as an antagonist to opium and morphine.

King's American Dispensatory | Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

Page 528

Ritual

high

Spence places opium among narcotics used by Oriental vision-seekers to induce visionary sleep, so the evidence is visionary and toxic rather than routine herbal use.

Encyclopaedia of Occultism | Lewis Spence | 1920

Page 486

Symbolism

high

Liber 777 connects the opium poppy with sleep, night, and understanding, giving the plant a compact occult correspondence rather than a medicinal recipe.

Liber 777 | Aleister Crowley | 1909

Page 190

Preparations and ritual uses

Laudanum

high

Hill gives laudanum as a wine preparation of opium with cloves and cinnamon, a historically important but high-risk narcotic formula.

The Family Herbal | John Hill | 1755

Page 39

Visionary narcotic

high

Spence describes opium among narcotics used to induce visionary appearances and cataleptic visionary sleep.

Encyclopaedia of Occultism | Lewis Spence | 1920

Page 486

Opium Poppy Archive Contexts

Compact source patterns from the extracted citation set.

Medicine

3 passages across 3 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.

Matched as poppies; high confidence.

Preparation

4 passages across 4 books; strongest source: Culpeper's Complete Herbal.

Matched as opium; high confidence.

Ritual

2 passages across 2 books; strongest source: The Golden Bough.

Matched as poppies; high confidence.

Safety

6 passages across 6 books; strongest source: Anatomy of Melancholy.

Matched as opium; high confidence.

Opium Poppy Cited Excerpts

Representative public passages with the herb mention highlighted and linked to archive source material.

5 shown

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper

1653

"...e vertigo or swimming of the head, is admirable against the bitings of venomous beasts, and such as have taken too much opium, as also for lethargies, the juice helps hot rheums in the eyes; a scruple of the root in powder is enough to take at one time. *Dracontii, Dracunculi.* Divers authors attribute divers herbs to this name. It is most probable that they mean dragons, the roots of which cleanse mightily, and take away proud, or dead flesh, the very smell of them is hurtful for pregnant women: outwardly in ointments, they take away scurf, morphew, and sun-..."

ROOTS.Open in Reader

Preparationalias: opiumhigh confidence

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter

1854

"...ation 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 and cocaine have also been..."

Page 528Open in Reader

Safetyalias: opiumhigh confidence

The Family Herbal

John Hill

1755

"... a restorative cordial and strengthener; the latter is sufficiently known as a purge. Laudanum is made of two ounces of opium, a dram of cloves, and a dram of cinnamon, and a pint of wine. Viper wine is made of two ounces of dried vipers, and two quarts of white wine; and the tincture of ipecacuanha for a vomit, of two ounces of that root, half an ounce of dry orange peel, and a quart of sack. Lastly, what is called elixir proprietatis is made of aloes, myrrh, and saffron, of each an ounce, sal armoniac six drams, and salt of tartar eight ounces, in a quart o..."

Page 39Open in Reader

Preparationalias: opiumhigh confidence

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

1533

"...t plants and trees, the daffodil, dragon 's-wort, rue, cummin, hellebore, the tree from whence benzoin comes, mandrake, opium, and those things which are never sown, and never bear fruit, and those which bring forth berries of a dark color and black fruit, as the black fig-tree, the pinetree, the cypress-tree, and a certain tree used at burials, which never springs afresh with berries, rough, of a bitter taste, of a strong smell, of a black shadow, yielding a most sharp pitch, bearing a most unprofitable fruit, never dies with age, deadly, and dedicated to Pl..."

Page 109Open in Reader

Safetyalias: opiumhigh confidence

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence

1920

"...otent means for the inductions of visionary appearances are those made use of by the Orientals. Narcotics of all kinds— opium, haschish, and so on — are indulged in, and physical means used for this express purpose. Thus the Brahmins will gaze for hours at a time at the sun or moon, will remain for months in practically the some position, or will practise all manner of mortification of the body, so that they may foil at length into the visionary sleep (a species of catalepsy.) The narcotic salves with which they anoint themselves are said to be similar to the..."

Page 486Open in Reader

Preparationalias: opiumhigh confidence

Books Mentioning Opium Poppy

Complete public source inventory, placed after the interpretive reading so the page opens with the most useful synthesis first.

109 books

King's American Dispensatory

Harvey Wickes Felter | 1854

opiumpoppypoppies

220 mentionscited

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

Nicholas Culpeper | 1653

opiumpoppiespoppy

162 mentionscited

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Lewis Spence | 1920

opiumpoppiespoppy

27 mentionscited

Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton | 1621

opiumpoppiespoppy

27 mentions

The Golden Bough

James George Frazer | 1912

poppiesopiumpoppy

24 mentions

Encyclopaedia of Antiquities

Thomas Dudley Fosbroke | 1825

poppiespoppy

21 mentions

The Family Herbal

John Hill | 1755

opiumpoppiespoppy

20 mentionscited

Thaumaturgia

Richard Harris Dalton Barham | 1835

opiumpoppiespoppy

19 mentions

The Equinox Vol. 1 No. 3

Aleister Crowley | 1910

opiumpoppypoppies

14 mentions

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable

E. Cobham Brewer | 1870

opiumpoppiespoppy

13 mentions

Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics

James Hastings | 1916

Archive Profile

Herb identity

Safety

Aliases

Opium Poppy in Historical Sources

Safety

Ritual

Symbolism

Preparations and ritual uses

Laudanum

Visionary narcotic

Opium Poppy Archive Contexts

Medicine

Preparation

Ritual

Safety

Opium Poppy Cited Excerpts

Culpeper's Complete Herbal

King's American Dispensatory

The Family Herbal

Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Encyclopaedia of Occultism

Related Archive Material

Related herbs

Books Mentioning Opium Poppy