MARIJUANA AND THE BIBLE
by Jeff Brown and the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church
OFFERINGS OF DEVOTION
With offerings of devotion, ships from the isles will meet to pour the wealth of
nations and bring tribute to his feet. The Coptic Church believes fully the teachings of
the Bible, and as such we have our daily oblations, and offer our sacrifices, made by fire
unto our God with chants and Psalms and spiritual hymns, lifting up holy hands and
making melody in our hearts.
Herb (marijuana) is a Godly creation from the beginning of the world. It is
known as the 'weed of wisdom', 'angels food', the 'tree of life' and even the “Wicked Old
Ganja Tree.” Its purpose in creation is as a fiery sacrifice to be offered to our Redeemer
during oblations. The political worldwide organizations have framed mischief on it and
call it drugs. To show that it is not a dangerous drug, let me inform my readers that it is
used as food for mankind, and as a medicinal cure for diverse diseases. Ganja is not for
commerce; yet because of the oppression of the people, it was raised up as the only
liberator of the people, and the only peacemaker among the entire generation. Ganja is
the sacramental right of every man worldwide, and any law against it is only the
organized conspiracy of the United Nations and the political governments who assist in
maintaining this conspiracy.
The Coptic Church is not politically originated, and this was firmly expressed
when we met with the political directorate of the land during the period of
preincorporation. We support no political organization, pagan religion, or commercial
institution, seeing that religion, politics, and commerce are the three unclean spirits which
separate the people from their God. Because of our non-political stand, the church has
received tremendous opposition from the politicians, who do not want the eyes of the
people to be opened.. Through its agency, the police force, the church has been severely
harassed, victimized, and discriminated. Our members have passed through several acts
of police brutality, our legal properties maliciously destroyed, members falsely
imprisoned, divine services broken up, and all the atrocities performed upon the Church,
under the name of political laws and their justice.
Walter Wells
Elder Priest of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church of
Jamaica, West Indies (deceased)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all I want to thank the Jamaican elders of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic
Church for revealing to me that marijuana is the sacrament that was used by Christ and
his disciples. And also for the revelation that God lives in us.
I am a white American and grew up in Miami, Florida in a middle class family.
Miami was the place I heard about and joined the church.
All the Jamaican elders have passed away. For various reasons, including
persecution the church has broken up and no organized prayer service is being conducted.
.
For this second edition of Marijuana and the Bible special thanks to Chris Bennett
who was inspired by the first edition, written back around 1985. Chris went on to further
research the religious use of marijuana and wrote Greengold The Tree of Life Marijuana
in Magic and Religion; Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible; and Cannabis and the Soma
Solution. Some of his work has been incorporated in this new edition. At one time Chris
worked for Cannabis Culture magazine and pottv.com out of Vancouver, Canada. He
currently runs his shop The Urban Shaman in Vancouver.
Special thanks to Joan Bello for granting me permission to use some of her
ground breaking work, The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological and Spiritual.
Joan has a Master's Degree in Holistic Health and Psychology. In Benefits she explores
holistic healing strategies and unifies ancient wisdom with modern science. In her ground
breaking work Joan shows how THC integrates with the autonomic nervous system,
restoring balance to the body, mind and spirit. A very special thanks to Joan for
volunteering to format this second edition. Joan recently published Cannabis Cures
Cancer and is working on the Yoga of Marijuana. Am looking forward to reading both.
Special thanks to Michael Alberto-Puleo, M.D for his ground breaking work, The
Anointed Ones, Secrets of the Messiah Medicine. In his groundbreaking work Michael
makes the case that the holy anointing oil of the bible contains a psychoactive drug,
although he does not make the direct connection with cannabis. Most of his work has
been incorporated in the chapter entitled Holy Anointing Oil. Michael graduated with a
degree in Creative writing and his goal was to become a mythobonatist, someone who
investigates the role of plants in ancient myth and religion. He later became a doctor.
Special thanks to all who liked the first edition, who posted it all over the web so
that others could read it. Around 1985 I originally produced 1,000 copies of Marijuana
and the Bible. I sold some and the rest were given away. It was 2011 when I first put the
first edition on Amazon Kindle with a few minor changes. .
Special thanks to all who have recognized the greatness of the marijuana plant,
throughout the ages. .
CONTENTS
THE USE OF MARIJUANA IN ANCIENT TIMES
MARIJUANA IN AFRICA
MARIJUANA IN ANCIENT EGYPT
MARIJUANA IN ANCIENT IRAN
MARIJUANA IN INDIA
MARIJUANA IN CHINA
MARIJUANA IN JAPAN
MARIJUANA IN EUROPE
MARIJUANA USE BY THE MOSLEMS
MARIJUANA IN THE NEW WORLD
MARIJUANA IN JAMAICA
THE USE OF M ARIJUANA AS INCENSE
EVIDENCE INDICATING THE SEMITIC ORIGIN OF CANNABIS
THE ISRAELITE USE OF INCENSE
HOLY ANOINTING OIL
THE SYMBOLISM OF FIRE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
MYSTICISM
MARIJUANA AS THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
THE TREE OF LIFE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS
THE GODMAN AND REVELATION OF JES-US
MAN AN ANGEL
THE USE OF MARIJUANA IN ANCIENT TIMES
Ancient and modern historians, archaeologist, anthropologist, philologists, and
the physical evidence they produce, (artifacts, relics, textiles, cuneiform, languages, etc)
indicate that cannabis is one of mankinds oldest cultivated crops. The weaving of hemp
fibre began 10,000 years ago, at approximately the same time as pottery making and prior
to metal working. (Columbia History of the World, Harper and Row, N.Y., 1981)
Mircea Eliade, along with Sir James George Frazer (author of the
“Golden Bough”), have both advocated the theory that early religions were derived from
agricultural cults.
Carl Sagan proposes evidence using the Bushmen of Africa, to show hemp to
have been the first plant cultivated by man dating to when he was a hunter-gatherer. In
his book “Dragons of Eden”, Carl Sagan has speculated that marijuana may have been
the first crop planted by Stone Age Man, using the Pygmies as an example. The Pygmies
were basically hunter-gatherers until they started planting the marijuana, which they use
for religious purposes.
In defense of the Pygmies, perhaps I should note that a friend of mine who has
spent time with them says that for such activities as the patient stalking and hunting of
mammals and fish, they prepare themselves through marijuana intoxication, which helps
to make the long waits, boring to anyone further evolved than a Komodo dragon, at least
moderately tolerable. Ganja is their only cultivated crop. It would be wryly interesting
if in human history, the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of
agriculture, and thereby to civilization.” Carl Sagan
The use of marijuana is as old as the history of man and dates to the prehistoric
period. Marijuana is closely connected with the history and development of some of the
oldest nations on earth,. It has played a significant role in the religions and cultures of
Africa, the Middle East, India, and China.
Richard E. Schultes, a prominent researcher in the field of psychoactive plants,
said in an article he wrote entitled “Man and Marijuana”:
“That early man experimented with all plant materials that he could chew and
could not have avoided discovering the properties of cannabis (marijuana), for in his
quest for seeds and oil, he certainly ate the sticky tops of the plant. Upon eating hemp,
the euphoric, ecstatic and hallucinatory aspects may have introduced man to an ‘otherworldly’ plane from which emerged religious beliefs, perhaps even the concept of deity.
The plant became accepted as a special gift of the gods, a sacred medium for communion
with the spiritual world and as such it has remained in some cultures to the present.”
The effects of marijuana was proof to the ancients that the spirit and power of the
god(s) existed in this plant and that it was literally a messenger (angel) or actually the
Flesh and Blood and/or Bread of the God(s) and was and continues to be a holy
sacrament. Considered to be sacred, marijuana has been used in religious worship from
before recorded history.
According to William A. Embolden in his book Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L,
p. 235:
“Shamanistic traditions of great antiquity in Asia and the Near East have one of
their most important elements the attempt to find God without a vale of tears; that
cannabis played a role in this, at least in some areas, is born out in the philology
surrounding the ritualistic use of the plant. Whereas Western religious traditions
generally stress sin, repentance, and mortification of the flesh, certain older non-Western
religious cults seem to have employed cannabis as a euphoriant, which allowed the
participant a joyous path to the ‘ultimate’; hence such appellations as ‘heavenly guide’.”
According to “Licit and Illicit Drugs” by the Consumer Union, pages 397-398:
“Ashurbanipal lived about 650 B.C., but the cuneiform descriptions of marijuana
in his library are generally regarded as obvious copies of much older texts,” says Dr.
Robert P. Walton, an American physician and authority on marijuana. “This evidence
serves to project the origin of hashish back to the earliest beginnings of history.”
“The earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia brewed intoxicating beer of barley
more than 5,000 years ago; is it too much to assume that even earlier cultures experienced
euphoria, accidentally or deliberately, through inhalation of the resinous smoke of
cannabis?” (Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L, page 216)
There is a myth that pot is a mild and minor drug. Usually in context of American
usage it is, but it doesn't have to be. The hard part about expressing this, however, is that
the anti-marijuana people who pose visions of disaster about “hashish” or about
“legalizing the stronger forms of cannabis” are also wrong. In and of itself there's nothing
wrong with cannabis being a potent hallucinogen; this has certainly accounted for its vast
popularity through these many centuries. When one seeks a shaman's drug one generally
wants something more powerful than a “mild hallucinogen.” Of course, knowing when
and where to use cannabis at a dosage or strength suitable for real visions is also
important. It's obviously not a good idea to try in an unrefined social context, or when
working in the fields or factory. This use of cannabis has traditionally been confined, by
rational custom in ancient societies, to rituals which help define and control, measure and
magnify, the raw experience. -Dr. M. Aldrich quoted in High Culture, by William
Novak.
As a natural progression in our case we will now give a short history of the
religious use of marijuana in various cultures and countries of the world. The following
information was taken from the most authoritative books dealing with the history of
marijuana. They are listed in the bibliography and some in the work. .
MARIJUANA IN AFRICA
When white men first went to Africa, marijuana was a part of the native way of
life. Africa was a continent of marijuana cultures where marijuana was an
integral part of religious ceremony. The Africans were observed inhaling the smoke from
piles of smoldering hemp. Some of these piles had been place upon altars. The Africans
also utilized pipes.
Their “Dagga” cults believed Holy cannabis was brought to earth by the Gods, in
particular from the “two Dog Star” system that we call A and B. “Dagga” literally means
“cannabis”. Interesting, the surviving Indo-European word for the plant can be read as
“canna,” “reed”, and “bi”, “two,” as well as “canna” as in canine; and “bis”, meaning
two (bi)- “Two Dogs.” (Jack Herer, THE EMPEROR WEARS NO CLOTHES)
Jack is considered to be the father of the hemp movement in the United States and
for a history on hemp and its many uses we highly recommend his book. .
In south central Africa, marijuana is held to be sacred and is connected with many
religious and social customs. Marijuana is regarded by some sects as a magic plant
possessing universal protection against all injury to life, and is symbolic of peace and
friendship. Certain tribes consider hemp use a duty.
Pogge and Wissman, during their explorations of Africa in 1881 visited the
Bashlinge. They found large plots of land around the villages used for the cultivation of
hemp. Originally there were small clubs of hemp smokers, bound by ties of friendship,
but these eventually led to the formation of a religious cult. The Bashilenge called
themselves 'Bena-Riamba-the sons of hemp,” and their land “Lubuku,” meaning
friendship. They greeted each other with the expression “moio,” meaning both “hemp”
and “life”......the hemp pipe assumed a symbolic meaning for the Bashilenge somewhat
analogous to the significance which the peace pipe had for American Indians. No
holiday, no trade agreement, no peace treaty was transacted without it. (Sula Benet,
Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp)
The earliest evidence for cannabis smoking in Africa outside Egypt comes from
fourteenth century Ethiopia, where two ceramic smoking-pipe bowls containing traces of
cannabis were recently discovered during an archaeological excavation. In many parts of
East Africa, especially near Lake Victoria (the source for the Nile), hemp smoking and
hashish snuffing cults still exist.
The ancient Egyptians believed that they had received their divinities from
Ethiopia and have always held to the ancient and honored tradition of their southern
origin. Ethiopia is so important in history that it is mentioned as being in the Garden of
Eden (Genesis 2:12).
The ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote:
“The Ethiopians conceived themselves to be of greater antiquity than any other
nation; and it is probable that, born under the sun's path, its warmth may have ripened
them earlier than other men. They supposed themselves to be the inventors of worship,
of festivals, of solemn assemblies, of sacrifice, and every religious practice.”
At one time Ethiopia referred to the entire continent of Africa. Throughout the
ancient world Ethiopia was considered the home of the gods. It was referred to as the
“Divine Land”. It was also referred to as the “Land of Incense” This is important as we
shall see in following chapters. Marijuana was used as incense by many cultures and
religions.
From Tales of Hashish/Francois Lallemand p.117.
Scientists from the Egyptian Expedition were of the opinion that hashish was
nothing other than our hemp plant, whose properties are weakened in the north, and what
seems to confirm that theory is the superiority of the hashish of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
over that of the Nile Delta. We know how much soil, temperature, humidity, and
cultivation can change the appearance, and especially the properties of plants.”
Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition (1798-1799).
MARIJUANA IN ANCIENT EGYPT
Direct references to marijuana in ancient Egypt are hard to come by.
The ancient Egyptians believed that humans held the potential for becoming
godlike. They maintained that a sacred plant was a major part of that transhumanization.
It is written in the Harris Papyrus 501, dated 311 BC...and a like measure of the divine
shrubs to prompt the speech of the star gods. (Translated by E.A. Wallis Budge (1910).)
Another papyrus, No. 10,477, sheet 30, in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, states
the speech of the star gods, was prompted by the Divine Shrub, adding:
I am Yesterday and Tomorrow, and have the power to regenerate myself....The
hitherto closed door is thrust open and the radiance in my heart hath made it enduring. I
can walk in my new immortal body and go to the domain of the starry gods. Now I can
speak in accents to which they listen, and my language is that of the star Sirius. (Charles
Muses, THE SACRED PLANT OF OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 1989)
It was the African tribes that said cannabis came from Sirius. Please keep in mind
that the Egyptians traded with marijuana using peoples from the most ancient of times.
The sacred shrub used in the ancient Egyptian mysteries was believed to have
come from that part of the world: “...cuttings from the shrub from the land of the gods,
the home district of Sopdu. Geographically, this district covered Western Arabia and the
East African coastland between the Nile and the Red Sea, i.e. Abyyssinia (Ethiopia) or
Ancient Nubia. We read too of the substance from the land of the gods, also called
celestial food and essence of being.” (Musaios, THE LIONS PATH, 1985: 84-85, “The
Sacred Plant of Ancient Egypt,” Charles Muses).
The importance of the geographical position of Palestine cannot be overlooked
when considering the trade routes through which caravans moved, laden with goods and
precious “spices”. Palestine was situated along the two most vital trade routes of the
ancient world. One was between Egypt and Asia and the other ran west from Arabia to
the coastal plain, from there branching off to Egypt to Syria (Benet, 1975)
The Incense Road, like the Silk Road, was a conduit of exchange in the ancient
world blending languages, religions, cultures and ideas with its spices and herbs. Linking
Egypt and India with a route running right through the Holy Lands...., it is perhaps the
oldest continuous trade route in history (Dannaway,Strange Fire, 2009).
There can be little doubt, that the Egyptians, who were among the foremost
pharmacists of the ancient world, were completely familiar with every drug and poison
then available (Genders, Roy. PERFUME THROUGH THE AGES. G.P. Putnam's Sons,
New York, 1972, p.26)
Alexandria Egypt was a center of learning in the ancient world. Pythagoras and
Aristotle both studied there. Pliny records that the Egyptians claimed the honor of having
invented the art of curing disease. Interestingly Pythagoras (497 B.C.) is listed as number
one of fifteen people who have taken hashish or marijuana In The Book of Lists.
“Pythagoras and Democritus journey to Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, and Persia,
visiting sects of drug-using wise men, known as Magi: the very same religious group that
visited Jesus according to the Gospels; and wrote extensively about their potent
psychotropic substances with which they experimented” (Hillman, The Chemical Drug
Muse, 2008).
Some sources have suggested that cannabis was an ingredient in the ancient
incense and perfume of the Pharaohs, known as krphi. Kyphi as used as an offering to
the Gods.....indicating its medical qualities, Kyphi was applied on the skin to heal
wounds. (Chris Bennett, CANNABIS AND THE SOMA SOLUTION.)
“The clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have been able
to recover from the papayri, but in the word itself. Kyphi is recognized to-day in 'keef,'
the popular name for the smokeable variety of the herb Cannabis Indica or Indian Hemp.
Cannabis Indica is none other than our friend hashish....It is not after all, a far cry
from the mysteries of Osiris, in Egypt....Osiris... 'died' annually, and mimicry of the
symbolic event was the basis of all ritual. In the mysteries the initiate 'died' too: but the
death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state of stupor or deep trance brought
about by the fumes of keef.” (Bland, The Adventures of a Modern Occultist, 1920)
In the book, Plants of the Gods: Origin of Hallucinogenic Use by Richard E.
Schultes and Albert Hofman, page 72, it is stated that specimens of marijuana nearly
4,000 years old have turned up in an Egyptian site and that in ancient Thebes the plant
was made into a drink.
Thebes was also the birthplace of Ahkenaton (died 1375 B.C.) who was the first
known monotheist. Early researchers referred to him as “the first individual in history.”
Hemp cordage dated from the time of Ahkenaton has been found in El Armane, the city
of Ahkenaton. (T.E. Peet and C.L. Wooley, CITY OF AHKENATON)
The Egyptians spun hemp in the regions of Badarian around 4,000 B.C. (John
Mercer, THE SPINNER'S HANDBOOK.)
“In ancient Egypt, hemp is noted as a drug in the Berlin and Ebers papyri. It was
used internally, by smoking, and in a salve. It was called smsm t”. (THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ISLAM 1979)
“If the hieroglyph 'smsm.t' in the ancient medical papyri of Egypt indicates
cannabis, it was used as an incense, as an oral medication for 'mothers and children', in
enemas, in eye medications, and as an ointment in bandages. This may be its first
mention in world literature as an eye medication. (Mathre, Cannabis in Medical Practice,
1997)
There is general agreement with the view of Dawson (1934a) that shemshemet
means cannabis, and the identification was strongly supported by the use of hempen rope
making. As a drug, it has remained in active use since pharaonic times. (Nunn, Ancient
Egyptian Medicine, 2002)
MARIJUANA IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ANCIENT IRAN
Mesopotamia is largely regarded as the birthplace of civilization.
“It is said that the Assyrians used hemp (marijuana) as incense in the seventh or
eighth century before Christ and called it ‘Qunubu’, a term apparently borrowed from an
old East Iranian word ‘Konaba’, the same as the Scythian name ‘cannabis’.” (Plants of
the Gods – Origin of Hallucinogenic Use by Richard E. Schultes and Albert Hofman)
Marijuana may have been the first incense in the ancient Near East. (Edwin
Morris, 1984, IN FRAGRANCE; THE STORY OF PERFUME FROM CLEOPATRA
TO CHANEL)
From the remotest of times cannabis was used both medicinally and as a
sacrament-oils and incenses were prepared from the plant because its “aroma was
pleasing to the Gods” (Meissner, Babylon and Assyria , 1925)
Inspiration was derived by burning incense, which, if we follow evidence
obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic trance. The gods were also invoked by incense.
(MacKenzie, 1915 BABYLONIAN RELIGIOUS RITES)
Cannabis, which figures prominently in healing in China and India, also would
have been a major element of barter along the early trade routes leading into and out of
Assyria. (Emboden, Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L , 1995)
Ancient Iran was the source for the great Persian Empire. Iran is located slightly
to the northeast of the ancient kingdoms of Sumeria, Babylonia, and Assyria. According
to Mircea Eliade, “Shamanic ecstasy induced by hemp smoke was known in ancient
Iran.” Professor Eliade has suggested that Zoroaster, the Persian prophet, said to have
written the Zend-Avesta, was a user of hemp. In the Zend-Avesta hemp occupies the first
place in a list of 10,000 medicinal plants.
One of the few surviving books of the Zend-Avesta, called the Venidad, “The
Law against Demons”, calls bhanga (marijuana) Zoroaster’s “good narcotic”, and tells of
two mortals who were transported in soul to the heavens where, upon drinking from a cup
of bhang, they had the highest mysteries revealed to them. Professor Eliade has theorized
that Zoroaster may have used hemp to bridge the metaphysical gap between heaven and
earth.
The most explicit detailed Iranian account of intoxication for religious purposes;
is the Arda Wiraz Namag... [it] demonstrates the belief that pharmacologically induced
visions were the means to religious knowledge and that they were the basis of the religion
that the Magi claimed to have received from Zoroaster. (Flattery and Schwartz, Hoama
and Harmaline, 1989)
Zoroaster, like Ahkenaton before him, was an initiator of monotheism, the
worship of one supreme God. Zoroaster's faith was one of “Good Words, Good
Thoughts, and Good Deeds.” His ancient followers and their modern counterpart, the
Parsee, are known for their good nature and generosity. A basic tenent of Zorastrianism is
that it is a sin to pollute land or water-something that should be a part of every religious
faith. (Bennett, Greengold.)
Zoroaster envisioned an end to conflict and time called the great Renovation.
The Zoroastrian myth of Creation, Fall, and World Renovation fundamentally influenced
the Messianic ideas of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The ancient Zoroastrians are associated with the ancient Magi. The Magi, the
'wise men' of the Gospel birth story (Matt. 2:1): The Magi were the pioneers of
magnetism, science, and astrology. We get the modern words “magic” and “magician”
from their name. They predicted the coming of Christ , and the “three Magi followed the
star to Bethlehem.”
It has been suggested by many diverse authors that the star the ancient Magi
followed was the same star the ancient Egyptians and Africans said their holy herb came
from-the brightest star in the night sky, the sun behind the sun, Sirius. (Bennett,
Greengold)
The Magi brought incense, myrrh, and gold as gifts for the new born king of the
Jews. It is interesting to note that up until recent times in Latvia and the Ukraine a dish
made from hemp was served for “Three Kings Day”.
(Sula Benet, Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp)
Pliny said, “Magic had its origins in medicine and came from the East, and was
'the most fraudulent of all arts, and the most universal; the magi used herbs, herbae
mirabilis, [miraculous herbs] to invoke the gods and ….to expel evil spirits from the sick.
(Pliny, NATURAL HISTORY).
Pliny refers to “the wonderful powers ascribed to plants by the Magi. According
to Pliny, they possessed a certain miraculous plant that they would use “when they wish
to call up the Gods.
MARIJUANA IN INDIA
India appears to be the place where the most direct reference to cannabis use in
religion is recorded. Very early in history there are references of trade with Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and China.
In Indian tradition marijuana is associated with immortality. There is a complex
myth of the churning of the Ocean of Milk by the gods, their joint act of creation. They
were in search of Amrita, the elixir of eternal life. When the gods, helped by demons,
churned the ocean to obtain Amrita, one of the resulting nectars was cannabis. After
churning the ocean, the demons attempted to gain control of Amrita (marijuana), but the
gods were able to prevent this seizure, giving cannabis the name Vijaya (“victory”) to
commemorate their success.
Other ancient Indian names for marijuana were “sacred grass”, “hero leaved”,
“joy”, “rejoicer”, “desired in the three world”, “gods’ food”, “fountain of pleasures”, and
“Shiva’s plant”.
Early Indian legends maintained that the angel of mankind lived in the leaves of
the marijuana plant. It was so sacred that it was reputed to deter evil and cleanse its user
of sin. In Hindu mythology, hemp is a holy plant given to man for the “welfare of
mankind” and is considered to be one of the divine nectars able to give man anything
from good health, to long life, to visions of the gods. Nectar is defined as the fabled
drink of the gods.
Tradition maintains that when nectar of Amrita dropped from heaven, that
cannabis sprouted from it. In Hindu mythology, Amrita means immortality; also the
ambrosial drink which produced it. In India hemp is made into a drink and is reputed to
be the favorite drink of Indra (the King of the Indian gods). Tradition maintains that the
god Indra gave marijuana to the people so that they might attain elevated states of
consciousness, delight in worldly joy, and freedom from fear.
Ambrosia: a name given to anything that confers immortality. 1.)The food of the
gods. 2.) The ointment of the gods, which preserved even the dead from decay (Peck,
Harry Thurston. Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, Harper and
Bros. 1896, 1923.)
“According to shamanic tradition, Indra....discovered cannabis and sowed it in the
Himalayas so that it would always be available to the people, who could then attain joy,
courage, and stronger sexual desires by using the plant.....hashish is also called
indracense, 'incense of Indra.' (Ratsch, Marijuana Medicine, 2001)
According to Hindu legends, Shiva, the Supreme God of many Hindu sects, had
some family squabble and went off to the fields. He sat under a hemp plant to be
sheltered from the heat of the sun and happened to eat some of its leaves. He felt so
refreshed from the hemp plant that it became his favorite food, and that is how he got his
title, the Lord of Bhang.
“Shiva is always represented with three eyes, the third being the eye of wisdom,
which man opens on the realization of divinity” (Avalon, 1964).
Cannabis is mentioned as a medicinal and magical plant as well as a “sacred
grass” in the Atharva Veda (dated 2000 – 1400 B.C.). It also calls hemp one of the five
kingdoms of herbs . . . which releases us from anxiety and refers to hemp as a “source of
happiness”, “joy-giver” and “liberator”. Although the holy books, the Shastras, forbid
the worship of the plant, it has been venerated and used as a sacrifice to the deities.
Indian tradition, writing and belief is that the “Siddhartha” (the Buddha), used and ate
nothing but hemp and its seeds for six years prior to announcing (discovering) his truths
and becoming the Buddha.
Cannabis held a preeminent place in the Tantric religion which evolved in Tibet
in the seventh century A.D. Tantrism was a religion based on fear of demons. To
combat the demonic threat to the world, the people sought protection in plants such as
cannabis which were set afire to overcome evil forces.
The Rudrayamal Tantra, from the eighth century relates that a drink made from
cannabis and other herbs, makes humans 'equal to the gods and immortal's (Ratsch,
Marijuana Medicine, 2001)
In the tenth century A.D., hemp was extolled as indracanna, the “food of the
gods”. A fifteenth-century document refers to cannabis as “light-hearted”, “joy-full”, and
“rejoices”, and claimed that among its virtues are “astringency”, “heat”, “speech-giving”,
“inspiration of mental powers”, “excitability” and the capacity to “remove wind and
phlegm”.
Today in Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas of Tibet, cannabis plays a very
significant role in the meditative ritual to facilitate deep meditation and heighten
awareness. In modern India it is taken at Hindu and Sikh temples and Mohammedan
shrines. Among fakirs (Hindu ascetics) bhang is viewed as the giver of long life and
means a communion with the divine spirit. Like his Hindu brother, the Musalman fakir
reveres bhang as the lengthener of life and the freer from the bonds of self.
The students of the scriptures at Benares are given bhang before they sit to study.
At Benares, students of the Ujain and other holy places, yogis, bairagis and sanyasis take
deep draughts of bhang that they may center their thoughts on the Eternal.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, set up
to study the use of hemp in India, contains the following report:
“. . . It is inevitable that temperaments would be found to whom the quickening
spirit of bhang is the spirit of freedom and knowledge. In the ecstasy of bhang the spark
of the Eternal in man turns into the light the murkiness of matter.
“. . . Bhang is the Joy-giver, the Sky-flyer, the Heavenly-Guide, the Poor Man’s
Heaven, the Soother of Grief . . . No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of
bhang . . . The supporting power of bhang has brought many a Hindu family safe through
the miseries of famine. To forbid or even seriously to restrict the use of so gracious an
herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to large bands of
worshiped ascetics, deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace in discomfort,
of a cure in sickness, of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attacks
of evil influences and whose mighty power makes the devotee of the Victorious,
overcoming the demons of hunger and thirst, of panic, fear, of the glamour of Maya or
matter, and of madness, able in rest to brood on the Eternal, till the Eternal, possessing
him body and soul, frees him from the haunting of self and receives him into the Ocean
of Being. These beliefs the Musal man devotee shares to the full. Like his Hindu brother,,
the Musalman fakir reveres bhang as the lengthener of life, the freer from the bonds of
self. We drank bhang and the mystery I am He grew plain.”
Indian medical works dating back to 1300 A.D. list among the effects of cannabis
that it “sharpens the memory”, “sharpens the wits”, “creates energy”, 'stimulates mental
powers' and is an elixir vitae. Indian Commission witnesses testified that cannabis is
“refreshing and stimulating”, alleviates fatigue, creates the capacity for hard work and the
ability to concentrate, and gives rise to pleasurable sensations, so that one is at peace with
everybody”. (Great Britain 1969:174-175, 191-192)
Moslems as well as Hindus share the belief that ganja is a “holy plant” (Chopra,
article Man and Marijuana , 1969:216-218.
Much of the holiness of bhang (marijuana) is due to its virtues of clearing the
head and stimulating the brain to thought. Among ascetics, the sect knows as Atits are
specially devoted to hemp. No social or religious gathering of Atits is complete without
the use of the hemp plant; smoked in ganja or drunk in bhang. To its devotee, bhang is
an ordinary plant that became holy from its guardian and healing qualities.
According to one account, when nectar was produced from the churning of the
ocean, something was wanted to purify the nectar. The deity Mahadev supplied from his
own body, and so it is called angai or body-born.
According to another account, some nectar dropped to the ground and from the
ground the bhang plant sprang. It was because they used this child of nectar or of
Mahadev in agreement with religious forms, that the seers or Rishis became Siddha, or
one with the deity.
He who, despite the example of the Rishis uses no bhang, shall lose his happiness
in this life and in the life to come. In the end he shall be caste into hell. The mere sight of
bhang cleanses from as much sin as a thousand horse-sacrifices or a thousand
pilgrimages. He who scandalizes the user of bhang shall suffer the torments of hell so
long as the sun endures. He who drinks bhang foolishly or for pleasure without religious
rites is as guilty as the sinner of sins. He who drinks wisely and according to rule, be he
ever so low, even though his body is smeared with human ordure and urine, is Shiva (a
man of God). No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of bhang. (HEMP
DRUGS REPORT).
In India, the pipe is known as a chillim (sometimes spelt chillum or chillam)
which derived from the Hindu chilam, meaning chalice. Cannabis pipes today are
sometimes known as chillums and have given rise to the colloquilism 'chill out', meaning
to take it easy and relax. (Martin Booth CANNABIS A HISTORY)
MARIJUANA IN CHINA
China called cannabis “Ta-Ma”, or “great hemp” to differentiate it from the minor
fiber plants. The Chinese pictogram for true hemp is a large “man”, indicating the strong
relationship between man and hemp.
The Shen Nung pharmacopoeia, compiled during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.
220) classifies ta ma among the “superior” immortality elixirs. Eating hemp flower tops,
it says, makes one “become a divine transcendent. (Dr. M. Aldrich, HIGH TIMES
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS)
Hemp was so highly regarded in ancient China that the Chinese called their
country “the land of mulberry and hemp”. Hemp was a symbol of power over evil and in
Emperor Shen Nung’s pharmacopoeia was known as the “liberator of sin”. The Chinese
believed that the legendary Shen Nung first taught the cultivation of hemp in the 28th
century B.C. Shen Nung is credited with developing the science of medicine from the
curative powers of plants. So highly regarded was Shen Nung that he was deified and
today he is regarded as the Father of Chinese medicine. Shen Nung was also regarded as
the Lord of fire. He sacrificed on T’ai Shan, a mountain of antiquity.
A statement in the Pen-ts’ao Ching of some significance is that Cannabis “grows
along rivers and valleys at T’ai-shan, but it is now common everywhere.” Mount T’ai is
in Shangtung Province, where the cultivation of the hemp plant is still intensive to this
day. Whether or not this early attribution indicates the actual geographic origin of the
cultivation of the cannabis plant remains to be seen. (An Archaeological and Historical
Account of Cannabis in China by Hui-Lin Li)
A Chinese Taoist priest wrote in the fifth century B.C. that cannabis was used in
combination with ginseng to set forward time in order to reveal future events. It is
recorded that the Taoist recommended the addition of cannabis to their incense burners in
the first century A.D. and that the effects thus produced were highly regarded as a means
of achieving immortality. In early Chinese Taoist ritual the fumes and odors of incense
burners were said to have produced a mystic exaltation and contribution to well-being.
Webster’s New Riverside Dictionary defines marijuana: 1. Hemp; 2. The dried
flower clusters and leaves of the hemp plant, esp. when taken to induce euphoria.
Euphoria is defined as a strong feeling of elation or well-being.
One of the later Chinese names meant “delight giver”. A fourth century report
asserts that eating hemp causes the user to see spirits, and several hundred years later the
Chinese were taking cannabis for the “enjoyment of life”. (Man and Marijuana -Richard
E. Schultes)
So important a place did hemp fiber occupy in ancient Chinese culture that the
Book of Rites (second century B.C. ordained that out of respect for the dead, mourners
should wear clothes made from hemp fabric, a custom followed down to modern times.
(Earnest L. Abel, MARIHUANA:THE FIRST TWELVE THOUSAND YEARS. )
Like the practice of medicine around the world, early Chinese doctoring was
based on the concept of demons. The only way to cure the sick was to drive out the
demons. The early priest doctors used marijuana stalks into which snake-like figures
were carved. Standing over the body of the stricken patient, his cannabis stalk poised to
strike, the priest pounded the bed and commanded the demon to be gone. The cannabis
stalk with the snake carved on it was the forerunner to the sign of modern medicine (the
staff with the entwined serpents).
MARIJUANA IN JAPAN
Hemp was used in ancient Japan in ceremonial purification rites and for driving
away evil spirits. In Japan, Shinto priests used a gohei, a short stick with undyed hemp
fibers (for purity); attached to one end. According to Shinto beliefs, evil and impurity
cannot exist alongside one another, and so by waving the gohei (purity) above someone’s
head the evil spirit inside him would be driven away. Clothes made of hemp were
especially worn during formal and religious ceremonies because of hemp’s traditional
association with purity.
By the first century A.D., Taoists in Japan used cannabis seeds in their incense
burners. A fifth century Japanese booklet stated that “hemp and mulberry have long been
used in worshipping the gods.” (Chris Conrad, HEMP, LIFELINE TO THE FUTURE,
quoting S. Beal, Fosho-Hing-Tsan-King, 1882; and M. Joya, things Japanese, 1963)
MARIJUANA IN EUROPE
According to Nikolaas J. van der Merwe (Department of Archaeology, University
of Cape Town, South Africa), the peasants of Europe have been using cannabis as
medicine, ritual material, and to smoke or chew as far back as oral traditions go.
The date on which marijuana was introduced into western Europe is not known;
but it must have been very early. An urn containing marijuana leaves and seeds,
unearthed near Berlin, Germany, is believed to date from 500 B.C.
Marijuana was an integral part of the Scythian cult of the dead wherein homage
was paid to the memory of their departed leaders. This use of cannabis was found in
frozen Scythian tombs dated from 500 to 300 B.C.. Along with the cannabis, a
miniature tripot-like tent over a copper censer was found in which the sacred plant was
burned.
It is interesting to note that two extraordinary rugs were also found in the frozen
Scythian tombs. One rug had a border frieze with a repeated composition of a horseman
approaching the Great Goddess who holds the “Tree of Life in one hand and raises the
other hand in welcome.
In a famous passage written about 450 B.C. Herodoutus describes the funeral rites
that took place when a king died among the Scythians---a normadic tribe that roamed the
steps from Turkestan to Siberia. After burial, he wrote, the Scythians would purify
themselves by setting up small tepee-like structures covered by rugs which they would
enter in to inhale fumes of hemp seeds thrown on red-hot stones. “It sends forth such
billows of smoke that no Greek steambath could surpass it comments Herodotus . The
Scythians howl with pleasure at these baths. “
During the Roman Empire, Galen, writing in the second century A.D., comments
that this herb was often passed around at banquets to promote hilarity and joy. Some
hashish, still said to be potent, was recently found in an airtight container in the wreck of
a Carthinian warship thought to have been sunk in the Second Punic War (218-201B.C.)
off the coast of Sicily.
According to Professors Graeme Whittington and Jack Jarvis of the University of
St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, hemp was grown agriculturally in tenth century Scotland.
Sediment from Kilconquhar Lock, near Fife, had cannabis pollen. Cannabis from around
the same time has been found in East Anglia, Wales, and in Finland. The hemp was
found to have been grown in areas occupied by religious groups of the time. Commented
Jarvis in an Omni interview, '….the decline of these ecclesiastical establishments may
have coincided with a decline in the growing of hemp.'
In 16th century Europe , Benedictine monk and qualified Bachelor of medicine,
Francois Rabelais (1494-1553) was persecuted by both religious and civil authorities for
the release of his books Garganauan and Pantagruel. The author claimed that secret
knowledge could be found by study of this book. In the book 'Pantagruel', Rabelais gives
a distinct description of hemp, which he referred to as 'The Herb Pantagruelion.'
“The leaves sprout out all round the stalk at equal distances, to the number of five
or seven at each level; and it is by special favor of nature that they are grouped in these
two odd numbers which are both divine and mysterious.
Rabelais goes on to describe hemps unmistakable uses:
“ ...all the cotton plants of Tylos on the Persian Gulf, of Arabia, and of Malta have
not dressed so many people as this plant alone. It protects armies against cold rain, much
more effectively than did the skin tents of old.....It shapes and makes serviceable boots,
high boots, leggings, shoes, pumps, slippers, and nailed shoes. By it bows are strung,
arbalests bent, and slings made.
Rabelais ends a chapter devoted to the herb Pantagruelion with the following
message;
'….and marry our Goddesses ; which is their one means of rising to be gods. In
the end, they decided to deliberate on a means of preventing this and called a council.”
In the 19th century, Charles Baudelaire writes of his magic-religious experiences
with hashish in Artificial Paradise in 1857. The religious tone of this work is evident, as
the first chapter is titled “The Taste for Infinity”. (The Anointed Ones)
MARIJUANA USE BY THE MOSLEMS
It is interesting to note that the use of marijuana was not prohibited by
Mohammed (570-632 A.D.) while the use of alcohol was. Moslems considered hemp as a
“Holy Plant” and medieval Arab doctors considered hemp as a sacred medicine which
they called among other names kannab.
The Sufis (a Moslem sect) originating in 8th century Persia used hashish as a
means of stimulating mystical consciousness and appreciation of the nature of Allah.
Eating hashish to the Sufis was “an act of worship”. They maintained that hashish gave
them otherwise unattainable insights into themselves, deeper understanding and that it
made them feel witty. They also claimed that it gave happiness, reduced anxiety, reduced
worry, and increased music appreciation.
According to one Arab legend, Haydar, the Persian founder of the religious order
of Sufi, came across the cannabis plant while wandering in the Persian mountains.
Usually a reserved and silent man, when he returned to his monastery after eating some
cannabis leaves, his disciples were amazed at how talkative and animated (full of spirit)
he seemed. After cajoling Haydar into telling them what he had done to make him feel so
happy, his disciples went out into the mountains and tried the cannabis for themselves. So
it was, according to the legend, the Sufis came to know the pleasures of hashish. (Taken
from the Introduction to A Comprehensive Guide to Cannabis Literature by Earnest
Abel).
The mystical Sufi Muslims believed spiritual enlightenment was attainable
through a state of ecstasy or altered consciousness and used hashish specifically for that
purpose. To them, hashish was sacramental, a portal through which to commune directly
with Allah and therefore not a substance to be regarded lightly. Haydar, its supposed
discoverer, had warned his disciples to keep it from the ignorant for fear they would
abuse it. Yet the secret was not kept. It is said, as he was dying, Haydar requested
cannabis be planted round his grave and, through this, pilgrims learnt of it, spreading the
knowledge. Additionally, the Sufi poets whose mystical didactic verse is central to
Islamic literature referred to cannabis infusions as the 'cup of Haydar'. It is hardly
surprising, with such publicity, the secret leaked out. (Martin Booth, CANNABIS, A
HISTORY)``
That its psycho-active properties were well known is indicated by the metaphors
by which it was referred to in early Arabic texts; the 'bush of understanding', the 'shrub of
emotion', the 'blissful branches' and the 'morsel of thought'. (Martin Booth, CANNABIS,
A HISTORY)
“God has granted you the privilege of knowing the secret of these leaves. Thus
when you eat it, your dense worries may disappear and your exalted minds may become
polished. “-Abu Khalid, 632 A.D.
MARIJUANA IN THE NEW WORLD
According to Richard L.Lingeman in this book Drugs from A to Z, page 146,
“Marijuana smoking was known by the Indians before Columbus.”
After the Spanish conquest in 1521, the Spaniards recorded that the Aztecs
(Mayans) used marijuana.
The book “Great American Hemp Industry,” by Jack Frazier, has references about
pre-Columbian use of hemp in the Americas.
Section entitled “Hemp Discovers America” is the following:
The earliest report of wild hemp in North America is from an expedition to
Virginia in 1524 by John De Verrazzano, a Florentine, sailing under a French flag. Jaques
Cartier, the French explorer, made three voyages to Canada, in 1535, 1536 and 1541. He
reported seeing hemp on all three occasions. When Richard Jakluyt compiled his classic
“Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America” in 1582, he included hemp in a
list of plants found growing in North America.
In the Section entitled: Pipes, Bowls, and JointsWe know from archeological discoveries that stone pipes were used ritually in the
ancient Near East. Such pipes consist of a bowl and stem carved out of one stone. Some
have animal heads on the bowl and some have a hand (with all five fingers) carved in
relief on the bottom of the bowl.
It is interesting, says Gordon, to note that American Indian pipes sometimes have
animal heads carved on the bowl, as well as hands with all five fingers carved beneath
the bowl. The heads indicate that the bowls were personified, while the hands not only
suggest that the fragrant smoke was being offered, but also that the whole cultic object
was called a hand (Kaf-hand is the name of such an object in Hebrew).
Historical and archeological evidence seems to indicate the marijuana cigarette or
joint originated somewhere in Mexico, Central America, or the Island of Hispanola
(Haiti). One of the early reports from the Caribbean of 1561` sounds suspiciously like
an early version of the cigarette. Most historians have assumed , wrongly I think, that the
writer was talking about the tobacco plant:
In this island, as in some other provinces of these countries, there are certain
bushes, not very large , like reeds, which produce a leaf like that of the walnut , but a
little larger, which is held in high estimation by the people of the country where it is used
and very much prized by the slaves which the Spaniards brought from Ethiopia.
There are reports of awe struck Englishmen who saw Indians sit in counsel and
pass the “Peace Pipe” from one chief to the next. When asked by an inquisitive
whiteman, “What is in the pipe?” They said , “the Sacrament of the Father Creator.”
(GREAT AMERICAN HEMP INDUSTRY by Jack Frazier, 1991, Solar Age Press)
On page 16 of Sparetime Magazine, Aug. 28, 1985, an article by Judi Martin on
the excavation site of a 500 year old Indian village in Ontario, Canada;
“Among the collection of artifacts taken from the Morrision dig site are stone and
ceramic smoking pipes which contain traces of hemp and tobacco that is five times
stronger than the cigarettes smoked today.”
When the Spanish 'discovered' Mexico in the 1500's , they found the Aztecs
smoking a reed type cigarette. The Aztecs were famous for their 'perfumed' reed
cigarettes. It wasn't until the 1890's that an American archeologist discovered what they
were. Dr. Walter Fewkes, in his investigation of the Hopi of New Mexico, found what
answered completely that described as being used by the Mexicans.
These cigarettes are found in large numbers in the sacrificial caves in the vicinity,
and appear to be a survival of one of the most primitive of smoking arrangements. The
natives of Mexico are found with a weed called marijuana, for mixing with tobacco in
their cigarettes, which when it is smoked and inhaled by them, is said to produce a
hilarious spirit in the smoker.” (J.D. Mcguire, REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM
[Washington, D.C. 1897])
According to the Marijuana Medical Papers by David Solomon, marijuana plays a
role in certain primitive South American tribes. (CANNABIS A REFERENCE, Dr.
William H. McGlothlin, phd. Harvard.)
The present day Cuna Indians of Panama use marijuana as a sacred herb and the
Cora Indians of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico smoke marijuana in the course of
their sacred ceremonies.
In the Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L by William A. Emboden, Jr. pages 229
and 231, is the following:
A particularly interesting account of a Tepehua (no relationship to Tepecanna)
Indian ceremony with cannabis was published in 1963 by the Mexican ethnologist
Roberto William Garcia of the University of Veracruz, Mexico. The Tepehua belong
linguistically and culturally to the Totonac of Veracruz, northermost branch of the Maya
language family.
In his account of Tepehua religion and ritual, William Garcia (1963; 215-21)
describes in some detail a communal curing ceremony focused on a plant called Santa
Rosa, 'The Herb Which Makes One Speak' which he identified botanically as Cannabis
Sativa. According to Garcia it is worshiped as an earth deity and is thought to be alive
and comparable to a piece of the heart of God.
In 1890, Carl Lumholtz, a Swiss ethnologist, studied many of the tribes in the
Sierra Madra Del Norte. He discovered that the Tepecano often substituted marijuana for
peyote.
The Tepecano always kept their cannabis in votive bowls or in nitches together
with cotton balls. The cotton symbolizes rain clouds which were the ultimate blessing to
the Indians. The cannabis absorbed the nature of the clouds and the use of it became a
prayer for rain (blessing).
The Lipan Apache are known to use cannabis in their ceremonial breakfast.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the medicinal uses of cannabis passed
from Europe to North America. Many cannabis preparations were available at the corner
drugstore. In 1857, Fitz Hugh Ludlow acquired a tincture of the Indica variety while
living in Poughkeepsie, N.Y...He paid six cents a dose for it in the form of 'Tilden's
Extract.' Ludlow , then only 16 and with his imagination inflamed by The Thousand and
One Nights, declared hemp “the drug of the traveler', which allowed him to journey
mentally around the globe as well as into the higher, more mystic regions. His
experience eventually led him to write The Hashish Eater, America's first native
contribution to the literature on hemp highs.
MARIJUANA IN JAMAICA
This chapter on Jamaica is included as the Jamaican Rasta religion is where the
author first came across the idea of marijuana as a Christian sacrament and a tool to know
the God or Goddess within.
According to Jamaican folk beliefs, Ganja has divine origin. It is the source of
“wisdom” and of “peace”; its use is both sacred and secular. Some tradition maintains
that it was the Arawak Indians who first used ganja in Jamaica. These Indians were
known for their peacefulness and were completely wiped out by persecution, slavery and
disease brought by the Spanish invaders and later the English.
Jamaica was to become a trade center for African slaves. It was the ancestors of
these slaves that went on to found the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church- A Rasta Christian
Church.
Jamaica also has an East Indian population which were undoubtably aware of
ganja's spiritual uses. In fact the Jamaican name for marijuana (Ganja) comes from India.
And the name for the chillum pipe that was used in church services also came from India.
In 1979, Dennis Forsythe, Ph. D., presented a report to the department of
sociology at the University of the West Indies, in Jamaica. Here is part of that report.
“Rastas come together around the usage of ganja, which they use for smoking,
eating, drinking, sniffing and massaging. For them, ganja is not a drug, but a 'Holy' herb.
So omnipotent is the ingredient of their culture and so positive is their estimation of its
value to man that they call it the 'wisdom weed' and the 'spiritual meat' of the movement.
Symbolically, herb for Rastas grew out of the grave of King Solomon, and because of its
wholesome effects, has the power to 'heal the nations' by bringing every man to the selfknowledge appropriate and fitting for 'Ever-living Life'.
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (with chapters in Jamaica and Miami) reveres
Ganja as the 'Holy' Eucharist and 'spiritual intensifier' with biblical, historical and divine
associations. Biblical justification for its usage is found on the first page of the Bible
(Genesis 1:29). For the brethren, ganja is the mystical body and blood of 'Jesus'--the
burnt offering unto God made by fire—which allows a member to see and know the
'living God', or the 'God in Man'. Presently, the Ethiopian Zion Coptic organization is
fighting to get U.S. officials, as well as the Jamaican government, to 'free up' the plant on
religious grounds. They derive their moral authority to use the herb from their personal
experiences with the plant and also from the Book of Genesis which approves the usage
of 'every herb bearing seed.'
Rastas, through the usage of ganja, feel themselves to be divinely inspired;
experiencing the same magnificence of spirit and oneness with nature which Moses must
have experienced 'high' on the mountain top in the form of the 'burning bush', as did Jesus
'high' on top of Mount Sinai.
Barbara Blake Hannah, a Jamaican journalist, wrote a book entitled 'Rastafari-The
New Creation”. In one of the chapters entitled “The Holy Herb” is the following:
Herb smoking enhances intellectual powers; it can speed up thinking on one
particular subject, isolate those thoughts from everyday reality, and place the user in a
world of his own, rather than the society in which he must function. This, at the same
time, does not remove the user from the midst of reality—thus enabling him to function
on three levels of existence at once; physical, mental and spiritual.
THE USE OF MARIJUANA AS INCENSE
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: “Pharmacological Cults”:
“. . . the ceremonial use of incense in contemporary ritual is most likely a relic of
the time when the psychoactive properties of incense brought the ancient worshiper into
touch with supernatural forces.”
The following piece was taken from “Licit and Illicit Drugs”, page 31.
“In the Judaic world, the vapors from burnt spices and aromatic gums were
considered part of the pleasurable act of worship. In Proverbs (27:9) it is said that
‘Ointment and perfumes rejoice the heart.’ Perfumes were widely used in Egyptian
worship. Stone altars have been unearthed in Babylon and Palestine, which have been
used for burning incense made of aromatic wood and spices. While the casual readers
today may interpret such practices as mere satisfaction of the desire for pleasant odors,
this is almost certainly an error. In many or most cases, a psychoactive drug was being
inhaled in the islands of the Mediterranean 2,500 years ago and in Africa hundreds of
years ago. For example, leaves and flowers of a particular plant were often thrown upon
bonfires and the smoke inhaled; the plant was marijuana.” (Edward Preble and Gabriel V.
Laurey 1967, ‘Plastic Cement: The Ten Cent Hallucinogen,’ International Journal of the
Addictions 2, Fall 1967, pages 271-272)
According to the book, “the Great American Hemp Industry”, Pipe Bowls found
in Palestine and Syria dating 1000 to 600 B.C. match an illustration from National
Geographic (April 91) showing Ramseys making an incense prayer offering.
“It is recorded that the Chinese Taoist recommended the addition of cannabis to
their incense burners in the first century as a means of achieving immortality.”
(Marijuana, the First Twelve Thousand Years” by Earnest Abel, page 5)
“There is a classic Greek term, cannabeizein, which means to smoke cannabis.
Cannabeizein frequently took the form of inhaling vapors from an incense burner in
which these resins were mixed with other resins, such as myrrh, balsam, frankincense,
and perfumes.” (Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L)
Herodotus in the fifth century B.C. observed the Scythians throwing hemp on
heated stone to create smoke and observed them inhaling this smoke. Although he does
not identify them, Herodotus states that when they “have parties and sit around a fire,
they throw some of it into the flames. As it burns, it smokes like incense, and the smell of
it makes them drunk, just as wine does us. As more fruit is thrown on, they get more and
more intoxicated until finally they jump up and start dancing and singing.” (Herodotus,
Histories 1.202)
Tracing the history of hemp in terms of cultural contacts, the Old Testament must
not be overlooked since it provides one of the oldest and most important written source
materials. In the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament there are references to hemp,
both as incense, which was an integral part of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant
(Benet, Sula, 1936).
Cannabis as an incense was also used in the temples of Assyria and Babylon
“because its aroma was pleasing to the Gods”. (Meissner 1925 [II]:84).
As George Andrews, editor of the classic texts, THE BOOK OF GRASS, (1967
and DRUGS AND MAGIC, (1975\1997), wrote after some thirty years of research into
the subject; “In recent years many eminent scholars have expressed the opinion that, far
from being a minor or occasional ingredient, hashish was the main ingredient of the
incense burned in temples during the religious ceremonies of antiquity, and was also
routinely used in Hebrew ceremonies until the reign of King Josiah in 621 B.C., when its
use was suddenly suppressed in the Hebrew tradition (Andrews 1997).
The 1902 INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF REFERENCES VOL. III, states
under fumigae and fumigation: “to apply smoke to; to expose to smoke or gas; to purify
from infection; to medicate or heal by vapors...In this manner the burning of
incense....belong[s] to the class of what are called agents of fumigation.”
Incense, used religiously by the ancient Babylonians, was made from cannabis
psychoactive resins collected by hand from the flowering female cannabis plants. This
highly fragrant sticky entheogenic resin was rolled into balls and short finger-shaped rods
that were traded throughout the ancient world since the remotest of times. The ancients
called it incense; we call it hashish. It is still traded throughout the world, still prepared in
the same manner- collected by hand and rolled into balls, short rods or pressed into thin
slabs. The legendary hashish balls are still called Napalese temple balls. For thousands of
years temple balls have been used for religious contemplation burned in ornate incensors
by devotees in temples. (Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judy Osburn-Greengold The
Tree of Life. )
Among the goods of the caravan trade between Babylonia, Egypt, Syria, and Asia
Minor was incense for the 'delection of gods and man'. (Historian M. Rostovtzeff
CARAVAN CITIES, London:Oxford, 1932, as cited by Sula Benet in Early Diffusion
and Folk Uses of Hemp at p.42; also, Schultes and Hofmann, PLANTS OF THE GODS.)
EVIDENCE INDICATING THE SEMITIC ORIGIN OF
CANNABIS
In 1903, British physician and biblical scholar Dr. C. Creighton released a book
entitled “Evidence of the Hashish Vice in the Old Testament”. In this volume, Dr.
Creighton put forth a theory that cannabis was the grass eaten by Nebuchadnezzar, was
responsible for Jonathan and Samsons' strength and the Prophet Ezekiels vision (“ I will
raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in
the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more”--Ezekiel 34:29).
Like the ancient Greeks, the Old Testament Isrealites were surrounded by
marijuana-using peoples. Dr. C. Creighton, concluded that several references to
marijuana can be found in the Old Testament. Examples are the “honeycomb” referred to
in the Song of Solomon, 5:1, and the “honeywood” in I Samuel 14:25-45. (Others have
suggested that the “calamus” in the Song of Solomon was in fact cannabis).
Mention of Creighton's book can be found in “Licit and Illicit Drugs”, by the
Editors of Consumer Reports and “Marijuana Reconsidered”, by Lester Grinspoon.
Cannabis use in the Old Testament was again looked at in 1936, by Sula Benet, who
stated that the original Hebrew text contains references to hemp as both an intoxicant
and incense. Similar results were found in 1946 by Sara Benetowa [Sula Benet], of the
Institute of Anthropological Science in Warsaw, Poland referring to the Old Testament
word “kaneh bosm” (fragrant reed).
The name cannabis is generally thought to be of Scythian origin. Sula Benet in
Cannabis and Culture argues that it has a much earlier origin in Semitic languages like
Hebrew, occurring several times in the Old Testament. He states that in Exodus 30:23
that God commands Moses to make a holy anointing oil of myrrh, sweet cinnamon,
kaneh bosm, and kassia. He continues that the word kaneh bosm is also rendered in
traditional Hebrew as kannabos or kannabus and that the root “kan” in this construction
means “reed” or “hemp”, while “bosm” means “aromatic”. He states that in the earliest
Greek translations of the Old Testament “kan” was rendered as “reed”, leading to such
erroneous English translations as “sweet calamus” (Exodus 30:23), sweet cane (Isaiah
43:24; Jeremiah 6:20), and calamus (Ezekiel 27:19, Song of Songs 4:14.) Benet argues
from the linguistic evidence that cannabis was known in Old Testament times at least for
its aromatic properties and that the word for it passed from the Semitic language to the
Scythians, i.e. the Ashkenaz of the Old Testament.
Sara Benetowa [Sula Benet]of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in
Warsaw is quoted in the Book of Grass as saying:
“The astonishing resemblance between the Semitic ‘kanbos’ and the Scythian
‘cannabis’ leads me to suppose that the Scythian word was of Semitic origin. These
etymological discussions run parallel to arguments drawn from history. The Iranian
Scythians were probably related to the Medes, who were neighbors of the Semites and
could easily have assimilated the word for hemp.
Taking into account the matriarchal element of Semitic culture, one is led to
believe that Asia Minor was the original point of expansion for both the society based on
the matriarchal circle and the mass use of hashish.”
Another piece of evidence regarding the use of the word kaneh in the sense of
hemp rather than reed [or calamus] is the religious requirement that the dead be buried in
kaneh shirts. Centuries later linen was substituted for hemp (Klein 1908) (Benet, 1975).
Calamus is not a fibre plant. We have also noted the association that hemp fibre
has with purity in other religious traditions and in funeral rites. .
Anthropologist Vera Rubin noted, that cannabis 'appears in the Old Testament
because of the ritual and sacred aspect of it. (Rubin 1978)
The ancient Israelites were a Semitic people. Abraham, the father of the Israelite
nation, came from Ur, a city of Babylonia located in Mesopotamia. .
THE ISRAELITE USE OF INCENSE
In the temples of the ancient world, the main sacrifice was the inhalation of
incense. Incense is defined as the perfume or smoke from spices and gums when burned
in celebrating religious rites or as an offering to a deity. Bronze and gold incense burners
were cast very early in history and their forms were often inspired by cosmological
themes representing the harmonious nature of the universe.
It was said that Moses, at the direction of Almighty God, first brought in the use
of incense in public worship, and that the other nations of antiquity copied the practice
from him. It was however a practice that began with Adam.
The “Book of Jubulees”, an Apocryphal book, (the Aprocrypha was considered
canonical by the early church and is to this day by the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church)
states that “on the day when Adam went forth from the Garden of Eden, he offered as a
sweet savour an offering of frankincense, galbanum, and stacte, and spices, in the
morning with the rising of the sun, from the day when he covered his shame”.
And of Enoch we read that “he burnt the incense of the sanctuary, even sweet
spices, acceptable before the Lord, on the Mount”.
Incense was assigned miraculous powers by the Israelites. It was burned in
golden bowls or cauldrons placed on or beside the altar. It was also burned in hand-held
censers. In the Blessing of Moses, a poem belonging to the Northern Kingdom of Israel,
and written about 760 B.C., the sacrificial smoke is offered to the God of Israel.
“Let them teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law; Let them offer sacrificial
smoke to thy nostrils, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.”
King Solomon, who reigned from 960-925 BCE, made 20,000 gold censors for
the temple of Jerusalem and 50,000 others in which to carry burning incense.
(International Library Reference (1902) at p.609, citing the writings of Josephus).
Throughout the Bible the ancient patriarchs were brought into communion with
God through smoking incense and at Mt. Sinai God talked to Moses out of a bush that
burned with fire(Exodus :1-12). After Moses brought the Israelite people out of Egypt he
returned to Mt. Sinai at which time God made a covenant with Moses in which the Ten
Commandments were revealed. Exodus 19:8 describes the conditions at the time of this
covenant.
(Exodus 19:8) And Mt. Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as smoke of a furnace, and the
whole mount quaked greatly.
The mysterious smoke mentioned in the covenant on Mt. Sinai is also referred to
as a cloud.
Scriptures make it abundantly clear that the cloud and the smoke are related to the
burning of incense. Exodus 40:26 describes Moses burning incense, a cloud covering the
tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle. Leviticus 16:213 describes how God appeared in a cloud and refers to it as the cloud of incense.
Numbers 16:17-19 describes how every man of the congregation had a censer full of
burning incense and that the glory of the Lord appeared unto the entire congregation.
Isaiah 6:4 describes how Ezekiel saw God in a smoke-filled inner court. Numbers 11:15
describes how God was revealed to Moses and the seventy elders in a cloud; and that the
spirit rested upon them and that they prophesied and ceased not.
The Book of Grass by Andrew and Vinkenoog includes a section on Ancient
Scythia and Iran by Mircea Eliade, one of the foremost experts on the history of religions.
On pages 11-12 is the following:
“On one document appears to indicate the existence of a Getic shamanism: It is
Strabo’s account of the Myssian KAPNOBATAI, a name that has been translated, by
analogy with Aristophanes’ AEROBATES, as ‘those who walk in clouds’; but should be
translated as ‘those who walk in smoke’! Presumably the smoke is hemp smoke, a
rudimentary means of ecstasy known by both the Tracians and the Scythians . . .”
This passage should be carefully noted. Biblical passages make it abundantly
clear that the ancient Israelites also walked in clouds and smoke. In fact, it was in the
clouds of smoke that God was revealed to the ancient Israelites.
Hebrew scholar Ralph Patai (1967) points out that Yahweh traveled in a cloud
which was produced from copious incense smoke; “that gods ride on clouds is an old
mythologem, traces, of which can be found among many peoples. Among the Canaanites
it is attested in the 14th century B.C.E. Vgarith myths, in which “Rider of the Clouds” is
one of Baal's . The same epithet, “Rider in the clouds”, refers to Yehweh in one of the
Psalms... In fact, the desert sanctuary was called the Tabernacle (Hebrew, mishkan;
literally, “dwelling place”) because of the divine cloud that abode (Shakan) over it and in
it.... It (Exodus40) says that God's presence in the Tabernacle was indicated by a cloud
which both seemed to hover over the tent and to fill it, and which at night glowed like
fire. This conception of the manifest presence of God in the Tabernacle closely parallels
that of God's presence on Mt. Sinai: there too, cloud covered the mount, and in that
cloud was God: “He came to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
The words “smoke” and “smoking” appear fifty times in the King James version
of the Bible and two separate times the Bible says of the Lord, “There went up a smoke
out of his nostrils.” II Samuel 22:9, Psalms 18:8.
In Isaiah 6:6 “Seraphim” means literally “Smoke Drinker”.
Sara Benetowa mentioned that in the Old Testament, Isaiah refers to hemp as coal
or incense. It is in Isaiah we find the following; the setting is a temple filled with smoke.
Isaiah 6:4 “And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and
the house was filled with smoke; 5. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone; because I
am a man of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.;6. Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar, 7. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Look, this
hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”
Those of us who are familiar with hashish know that it burns in a similar way to
both incense and coal. We have seen in previous chapters that in various religious
traditions cannabis has been used to cleanse its users from sin.
There are numerous other places in the Bible that mention the burning of incense,
the mysterious cloud, and smoke. This common thread is found throughout the Bible,
including the New Testament.
(St. Matthew 24:30) And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven:
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming
in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
(Revelations 1:7) Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him,
and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, amen.
(Revelations 8:-43) And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a
golden censer: and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of
the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the
angel’s hand.
(Revelations 15:8) And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God
and from His power.
HOLY ANOINTING OIL
God was not only found in the mysterious smoking cloud of incense but also in
the Holy anointing oil. The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church did not use Holy anointing oil
in its service or ritual. The author has been made aware of this by others. Special thanks
to Chris Bennett and for a much more indepth discussion of Cannabis and its connection
to Holy anointing Oil see Cannabis and the Soma Solution.
Also special thanks to Michael Alberto-Puleo, M.D., for this chapter. Michael
Alberto-Puleo did not make a direct connection to cannabis, only that it was some mind
altering substance that was in the holy anointing oil. For a more thorough understanding
of the holy anointing oil see his book The Anointed Ones.
Holy anointing oil is cited throughout the Bible, the Apocrypha, the works of
Josephus, the Talmud, Gnostic and post Apostolic Christian texts and many other
Christian writings. For an inclusive list of ancient citations, see: (Kutsch, Ernst. Salbung
als Rechtsakt. Verlag Alfred Topelmann, Berlin, 1963.pp. 73-78.
In some Gnostic texts like the Pistis Sophia and the Books of Jeu, the “spiritual
ointment” is a prerequisite for entry into the highest mystery (Mead, Fragments of a
Faith Forgotten, 1900)
No mention of the holy oil is made in the Bible prior to the book of Exodus,
compiled after the Egyptian stay. This seems to indicate that this was a new way to
invoke the spirit of God and that Moses learned it from the Egyptians.
Holy anointing oil was known in Egypt from the earliest of times.
The oil is represented by many ankhs, the hieroglyph for life and immortality
(Wilkinson, J.G. A SECOND SERIES OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.)
The dead were anointed as well as the living, and the presence of the oil on their
bodies was believed to assist their resurrection. [In Egypt} the anointed one became holy
because a holy substance had been incorporated in him; among the Hebrews anointing
was believed to endow the man chosen by them to be their King with the Divine Essence,
and Jesus the “Messiah”, the Anointed One,” i.e. Christos, was endowed with the Holy
Spirit. (Budge, E.A. Wallis. THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE CRAFT OF THE
HERBALIST. Society of Herbalist, London, 1928.pp. 30-31.
However far we trace back religious ideas in Egypt, we never approach a time
when it can be said that there did not exist a belief in Resurrection. (Budge Wallis,
Egyptian Religion, London 1900)
From the earliest ages it was an article of faith amongst Egyptians that man
existed after death. [Erman, Adolf. Life in Ancient Egypt. H.M. Tirard, trans. MacMillian
and Co., London, 1894; p.306.
As early as 3500 B.C.the Egyptians believed that gods became incarnate in man.
(E.A. Wallis Budge, OSIRIS AND THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION, Vol. I. Pp.
Xxxiiixxv.)
The first century historian, Josephus, said the Pharoah took special interest in
Moses and he was educated with great care. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians (Acts 7:22)
It is very likely that the formula for the Holy Anointing Oil was revealed to
Moses in Egypt and contained four medicinal herbs (myrrh, keneh bosem, cinnamon, and
cassia.) mentioned in Exodus( 30:23)
We have noted that keneh, bosem has been identified by some as cannabis.
Considerable academic support has emerged for Benet's theory on the identification of
kaneh bosem with cannabis. In 1980 the respected anthropologist Weston La Barre
(1980) referred to the Biblical references in an essay on cannabis, concurring with Benet's
earlier hypothesis. In that same year respected British Journal New Scientist also ran a
story that referred to the Hebrew Old Testament references: “Linguistic evidence
indicates that in the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament the 'holy oil'
which god directed Moses to make (Exodus 30:23) was composed of myrrh, cinnamon,
cannabis, and cassia” (Malyon and Henman 1980). A modern counterpart of the word is
even listed in Ben Yehudas Pocket Dictionary and other Hebrew source books. Further,
online, the Internet's informative Navigating the Bible, used by countless theological
students, also refers to the Exodus 30:23 reference as possibly designating cannabis. This
online text is largely based on the very popular The Living Torah, by Rabbi Aryeh
Kaplan, a popular gift at bar mitzvahs, which correctly notes that “On the basis of
cognate pronunciation and a Septuagint reading, some identify Keneh bosem with
English and Greek cannabis, the hemp plant” (Kaplan, 1981).
As well, William McKim noted in Drugs and Behaviour; an introduction to
behavioral pharmacology, “It is likely that the Hebrews used cannabis...In the Old
Testament (Exodus 30:23), God tells Moses to make a holy oil of 'myrrh, sweet
cinnamon, kaneh bosem and kassia: (McKim, 1986) A Minister's Handbook of Mental
Disorders also records that “Some scholars believe that Gods command to Moses
(Exodus 30:23) to make a holy oil included cannabis as one of the chosen
ingredients”(Ciarrocchi, 1993). In the essay “Psychoactive Agents and the Self,” in The
Lost Self: Pathologies of the Brain and Identity, (which deals with the biological basis of
the human mind) Roy Mathews notes “The Holy oil God instructed Moses to make ….is
believed to have contained cannabis. (Chris Bennett, CANNABIS AND THE SOMA
SOLUTION)
Around 1980, etymologists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem confirmed that
cannabis is mentioned in the Bible by name, Kineboisin (also spelled Kannabosm), in a
list of measured ingredients for 'an oil of holy ointment, and ointment compound after the
art of apothecary' to be smeared on the head. The word was mistranslated in King James
version as 'calamus.-Exoduus 30;23 (Latimer 1988)
The sacred character of hemp in biblical times is evident from Exodus 30:22-23,
where Moses was instructed by God to anoint the meeting tent and all its furnishings with
specially prepared oil, containing hemp. Anointing set sacred things apart from secular.
The anointment of sacred objects was an ancient tradition in Israel: holy oil was not to be
used for secular purposes.....Above all, the anointing oil was used for the installation rites
of all Hebrew kings and priests. (Sula Benet, Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp)
Most recently, author and Professor of Classical Mythology at Boston University,
Carl Ruck, who is also a linguist, has summarized:
Cannabis is called kaneh bosem in Hebrew....The translators of the bible translate
this usually as 'fragrant cane,' an aromatic grass. Once the word is correctly translated,
the use of cannabis in the bible is clear. Large amounts of it were compounded into the
ointment for the ordination of the priest. This ointment was also used to anoint the holy
vessels in the Inner Sanctum or Tabernacle ('tent'). It was also used to fumigate the holy
enclosed space. The ointment (absorbed through the skin) and the fragrance of the vessels
(both absorbed by handling and inhaled as perfume) and the smoke of the incense in
confined space would have been a very effective means of administering the
psychoactive properties of the plant. Since it was only the High Priest who entered the
Tabernacle, it was an experience reserved for him, although as the chrism of priestly
ordination it was probably also something experienced in a different way by the whole
priesthood. This same psychoactive chrism was later used for the coronation of the
kings.(Ruck, 2009) (Also taken from Cannabis and the Soma Solution by Chris Bennett.)
Besides its role in anointing, the holy oil of the Hebrews was burned as incense,
and its use was reserved to the priestly class (Russo, 2007)
Moses' “Egyptian education must...have supplied him with much of the ritual of
the Israelite religion (Smith, William. Ed. A DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE. The Penn
Publishing Co. Philadelphia, 1884, p.585.
The Jews spent 430 years in Egypt.
The original priestly rites of anointing undergone by Aaron and his sons took
seven days, and during this time they were instructed not to leave the tabernacle. “And
ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until
the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.
That these ceremonies lasted seven days may at least in part, point to a peculiarity
associated with the use of any medicine that relies on absorption through the skin. In all
likelihood these ancient shamans were also breathing in the sacred incense and perhaps
eating or drinking preparations of the cannabis plant.
Many pharmacologically active substances are readily absorbed through the skin.
Contraceptic patches, testostorone gel and narcotic patches for pain are modern day uses.
Many plant essential oils possess marked pharmacological properties that can be readily
absorbed through the skin. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
If this oil was heated and rubbed in (laying of hands) it would also increase the
absorption. Cinnamon also an ingredient of the holy oil would also have helped in
absorption.
The consequences of the anointing is a spiritual insight into Divine things. Marsh,
F.E. EMBLEMS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 197. P.75.
After their Egyptian stay, the Jews maintained trade with India at least thru the
reign of Solomon (2 Chronicles, 8:18; 1 Kings 9:26)
Solomon was anointed with oil (1 Kings 1:39). Solomon is known for his great
wisdom. It has been hinted that Solomons great wisdom was due to the anointing oil (De
Claremont, Lewis. LEGENDS OF INCENSE, HERB AND OIL MAGIC. Dorene
Publishing Co. 1938. p.29.
The fact of the anointing made for many Messiahs. Moses, Aaron, Saul, David,
Solomon-all looked upon as sacrosanct beings, in Hebrew, the “hakohen hamashia,” the
Anointed One,”And which evolved into the English word “Messiah.” Hebrew word
mashah means “to wipe or stroke with the hand,” a description of the manner in which
the unguent was massaged into the skin, and preserved into the modern Christian era as
“the laying on of hands” (THE ANOINTED ONES)
After the Isrealite nation rebelled against God they were taken into Babylonian
captivity. The Messiah Medicine was, like many other “archaic mixtures lost to the
fortunes of war. (Mathison, Richard. THE ETERNAL SEARCH. (THE SHOCKING
HISTORY OF DRUGS) Ballantine Books, New York, 1958. p.17.)
In the Old Testament the holy anointing oil was reserved to the priest and the
kings. When Christ came he reinstituted the holy anointing oil and opened it to all.
It was a religion of revelation for the common man and woman. All were considered
equal, and they were equal by virtue of their possession of the Holy Spirit engendered by
the oil, that “taught all things”. This was the pinnacle rite of consecration, reached only
after each penitent had passed through manifold teachings, preparations and preliminary
ceremonies. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
Jesus promised that his disciples would be equal to him-sons and daughters of
God. He asks “Did I not say that ye shall be gods?” and, “The disciple is not above his
teacher nor his servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his
teacher, and the servant like his master” (Matthew 10:16) For the early Christians, there
existed no priestly caste, for all were considered to be priests and so had the right to
anoint others and make new Messiahs. It was more then the authorities could stomach
when Christ anointed every man and worse, every woman, for Christian documents prove
that females were routinely consecrated as Messiahs. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
Faith in God, or faith in Jesus, was not enough to be a Christian. Reading
scripture was likewise of no avail. The way to Oneness with God was through anointing
with the Holy Spirit. Only by undergoing the experience of salvation with the unguent
could one know the ineffable, an idea that persists in the fact that in modern times a
number of Christian branches of the Native American Church identify peyote with the
Holy Spirit. (La Barre, Weston. The Peyote Cult, Schocken Books, New York, 1959,
1964, THE ANOINTED ONES)
“But the anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need
not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is
true, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (1John 2:27)
At first salvation meant, quite literally, “the spreading of the ointment over the
skin,.” In fact the English word “salvation” is not derived from a word-root meaning “to
save”, but rather from one meaning “to anoint”. (Palmer, A. Smythe. FOLK
ETYMOLOGY. George Bell and Sons, London, 1882. p. 338. “salve; to anoint, bears a
deceptive resemblance to Latin salvus, sound well, salvare, to save, salvere, to be well,
but is really akin to Goth, Salbon, German, salben....to anoint.”
A strict tenant of the early Christians was that unless one was anointed, and
underwent a type of “death,” one could not be reborn to eternal life. At the core of this
was the perceived death of the individual ego, and the identification of consciousness
with the Infinite, resulting in a unshakable belief in the immortality of the soul. (THE
ANOINTED ONES)
The idea of death and rebirth, of being “born again,” has long been a core tenant
of Christianity. This concept emerged directly from the anointing experience, for a
common theme in many psychedelic “trips” is the perceived “death” of the “normal” self
and the “birth” of a new, enlightened being. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
Jesus said, “verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born anew he cannot
see the Kingdom of God.”
Anointing Oil was looked upon as the key to the Kingdom of God. It was the
holiest of holies, the central sacrament, the magical God-given oil from the Tree of Life
that infused the consecrant with the Holy Spirit of God (THE ANOINTED ONES)
The primacy of the unguent can be discerned throughout the New Testament. On
the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them. In Corinthians
excessive use of the ointment prompted Paul to warn the Corinthian Christians to use
caution lest people “think them mad.” (THE ANOINTED ONES)
The unguents medicinal properties were used to heal the sick and to reduce the
agonies of dying.
And they caste out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and
healed them (Mark 6:13).
Is any among you sick: Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:14).
The words of scholar J.G. Davies, “If I am correct in characterizing unction as
one of 'the powers of the age to come' [foretold in Hebrews 6:5], in that it is the means of
restoration through the Spirit to wholeness, then it follows that unction is concerned with
the whole person. It is a means of both bodily and spiritual healing and any attempt to
confine it to either the physical or spiritual is to be rejected as unbiblical (Davies, J.G.
THE SPIRIT, THE CHURCH, AND THE SACRAMENTS. The Faith Press, Ltd.
Westminster, 1954. P. 208.
The East views optimum wellness as the ultimate state of alert calmness or
“enlightenment,” the goal of yoga, meditation, and devotional service. Marijuana, with its
simultaneous sedative and stimulant effect, has been the constant companion of these
spiritual disciplines for as long as their recorded history-from 5000 to 10,000 years ago.
(The Benefits of Marijuana, Physical, Psychological and Spiritual.)
As discussed at length in Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible with comparative
medical documentation, cannabis has been shown to be effective in the treatment of not
only epilepsy, but many of the other ailments that Jesus and the disciples healed people,
such as skin diseases (Matthew 8, 10, 11; Mark 1; Luke 8:43-48), eye problems (John
9;6-15) and menstrual problems (Luke 8;43-48) (Bennett and McQueen, 2001).
“The oil as a sign of the gift of the Spirit was quite natural within a Semitic
framework, and therefore the ceremony is probably very early....In time the biblical
meaning became obscured” (Chadwick, The Early Church, 1967).
“The anointing with oil was the introduction of the candidate into unfading bliss,
thus becoming a Christ” (Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, 1900)
The apocryphal book, the Acts of Thomas, refers to the ointment's entheogenic
effects as being specifically derived from a certain plant: “Holy oil, given us for
sanctification, hidden mystery....you are the unfolder of the hidden parts. You are the
humiliator of stubborn deeds. You are the one who shows the hidden treasures. You are
the plant of kindness. Let your power come by this [unction]. In reference to the 'plant of
kindness' it is important to note that the account where the above reference occurs, takes
place in India! (Cannabis and the Soma Solution)
The Greek term for ointment is enchrista, and so they were called Christians
meaning “those who have been anointed. Greek Christos gives us “Christ”-meaning the
anointed one. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
THE SYMBOLISM OF FIRE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
J.C. Cooper, in his book of symbols, writes: “Fire manifested as flame symbolizes
spiritual power and forces, transcendence and illumination, and is a manifestation of
divinity or the soul, the pneuma, the breathe of life; it is also inspiration and
enlightenment.”( Cooper J.C. AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
TRADITIONAL SYMBOLISM. Thames and Hudson, Ltd. London, 1978.p.66.)
“Fire has connections with the baptism of Jesus; in a good deal of Greek thought
[the Greek word for Holy Spirit] and [the Greek word for fire] are closely related; and so,
too, fire is bound up with the experience of ecstasy. In e.g.; Philo, de Vit. Mays., and the
Mithras Litury. Barrett, C.K. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE GOSPEL TRADITION.
London, 1947. p.125.
The word “fire” is mentioned several hundred times in the King James Version of
the Bible. The sacrifice of the Lord is made by fire (Exodus 29:18, 25); Leviticus 2:1011; Leviticus 6:13; Numbers 28:6; Deuteronomy 4:33; Joshua 13:14; I Samuel 2:28; II
Chronicles 2:4; Isaiah 24:15; Matthew 3:11; Luke 1:9; Revelations 8:4-5)
Abraham, the father of the Israelite nation, came from Ur, which was a city of
ancient Sumer in South Babylonia. For the Babylonians, fire was essential to sacrifice
and all oblations were conveyed to the gods by fire. Girru-Nusku, whose presence as an
intermediary between the gods and man was indispensible. Girru-Nusku, as the
messenger of the gods, bore the essence of the offerings upward to them in the smoke of
the sacrificial fire.
At Babylon: “The glorious gods smell the incense, noble food of heaven; pure
wine which no hand has touched do they enjoy.” (L. Jeremias, in Encyclopaedia Biblica,
i.v. 4119, quoting Rawlinson, Cuneif. Inscrip. IV, 19 (59).)
The most important of the ancient East Indian gods was Agni, the god of fire,
who like the Babylonian god Girru-Nusku acted as a messenger between men and the
gods. The fire (Agni) upon the altar was regarded as a messenger, their invoker.
“. . . For thou, O sage, goeth wisely between these two creations like a friendly
messenger between two hamlets.”
MYSTICISM
Mysticism is defined as the theory or belief that man can intuitively know God or
religious truth through the inward perception of the mind, a more immediate and direct
method than that of ordinary understanding or sense perception; any seeking to solve the
mysteries of existence by internal illumination or special revelation.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the section on “Mysticism”:
“The Vedas (Hindu sacred writings are hymns to the mystic fire and the inner
sense of sacrifice, burning forever on the ‘altar Mind’. Hence, the abundance of solar and
fire images: birds of fire, the fire of the sun, and the isles of fire. The symbol system of
the world’s religions and mysticism are profound illuminations of the human-divine
mystery. Be it the cave of the heart or the lotus of the heart, ‘the dwelling place of that
which is the Essence of the Universe, “The third eye”, or the eye of wisdom – the
symbols all refer back to wisdom entering the aspiring soul on its way toward progressive
self-understanding. ‘I saw the Lord with the Eye of the Heart. I said, “Who art thou?”
And he answered, “Thou.’”
The ancient Indian mystics said, “. . . that in the ecstasy of bhang (marijuana) the
spark of the Eternal in man turns into light the murkiness of matter or illusion and the self
is lost in the central soul fire. Raising man out of himself and above mean individual
worries, bhang makes him one with the divine force of nature and the mystery ‘I am he’
grew plain.” (Taken from the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report, which was
written at the turn of the twentieth century.)
Hallmarks of the mystic are ecstasy-of standing outside ones normal self-or of
rapture-of seizure by things beyond-Angus Samuel. THE MYSTERY RELGIONS AND
CHRISTIANITY. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1925.p.x.
The concept of spiritual or inner light was found throughout the ancient world.
As we shall see that spiritual light was directly related to the burning of incense.
According to Lucie Lamy in “Egyptian Mysteries”, page 24:
“The Pharaonic word for light was akh. This word, often translated as
“transfigured,” designated transcendental light as well as all aspects of physical light; and
in the funerary text it denotes the state of ultimate sublimation.
The word akh, first of all, is written with a glyph showing a crested ibis, ibis
comata. This bird – the name of which was also akh – lived in the southern part of the
Arabian side of the Red Sea (near Al Qunfidhah) and migrated to Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
during the winter. Both these places are near the regions from which sacred incense
came, and were called the “Divine Land”. The bird’s crest, together with its dark green
plumage shot with glittering metallic specks justifies the meanings ‘to shine’, ‘to be
resplendent’, ‘to irradiate’; of the root akh in the hieroglyphic writing.
Akh indeed expresses all notions of light, both literally and figuratively, from the
Light which comes forth from Darkness to the transcendental light of transfiguration. It
is also used to designate the ‘third eye’, the ureaeus, related in old tradition to the pineal
body and to the spirit.”
In the next chapter we will see that the sacred cloud of incense was instrumental
in the transfiguration of Christ.
MARIJUANA AS THE CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT
According to Jack Herer in The Emperor Wears No Clothes or Everything You
Wanted to Know about Marijuana but Were Not Taught in School, “The Essenes, a
kabalistic priest/prophet/healer sect of Judaism dating back to the era of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, used hemp, as did the Theraputea of Egypt, from where we get the term
‘therapeutic’.”
The Theraputea of Egypt were Jewish ascetics that dwelt near Alexandria and
described by Philo (1st Century B.C.) as devoted to contemplation and meditation.
Alexandria is where St. Mark is traditionally held to have established the Coptic Church
in 45 A.D.
The Coptic Church has been neglected by Western scholars despite its historical
significance. This has been due to the various biases and interest of the Catholic Church
which claimed Christianity for its own. The result is that for the Coptic Church there is
very little history. It is however assumed that the Coptic religious services have their
roots in the earliest layers of Christian ritual in Jerusalem and it is known that the Coptic
Church is of ancient origin going back to the time of the first Christian communities and
even before.
Tradition states that “Coptic” was derived from “Kuftaim”, son of Mizraim, a
grandchild of Noah who first settled in the Nile valley, in the neighborhood of Thebes,
the ancient capital of Egypt. At one time Thebes was the greatest city in the world and
history records that by 2200 B.C. the whole of Egypt was united under a Theban prince.
The splendor of Thebes was known to Homer, who called it “the city with a hundred
gates.” (Richard Schultes states that in ancient Thebes marijuana was made into a drink.)
According to E. A. Wallis Budge in The Divine Origin of the Herbalist, page 79,
“The Copts, that is to say the Egyptians who accepted the teachings of St. Mark in the
first century of our era, and embraced Christianity, seem to have eschewed medical
science as taught by the physicians of the famous School of Medicine of Alexandria, and
to have been content with the methods of healing employed by their ancestors.”
The Essenes were an ascetic sect closely related to the Theraputea that had
established a monastic order in the desert outside of Palestine and were known as
spiritual healers. It has been suggested that both John the Baptist and Jesus may have
been of the Essene teachings. The scripture makes no mention of the life of Jesus from
the age of 13 to 30. Certain theologians speculate that Jesus was being initiated by the
Essenes, the last fraternity to keep alive the ancient traditions of the prophets.
Every prophet, however great, must be initiated. His higher self must be
awakened and made conscious so that his mission can be fulfilled. Amongst the Essenes’
ritual lustrations preceded most liturgical rites, the most important one of which was
participation in a sacred meal – an anticipation of the Messianic banquet.
Throughout the ancient world sacrifice was a sacramental communal meal
involving the idea of the god as a participant in the meal or as identical with the food
consumed. The communion sacrifice was one in which the deity indwells the oblation so
that the worshiper actually consume the divine. The original motive of sacrifice was an
effort toward communion among the members of a group, on one hand, and between
them and their god, on the other. At its best, sacrifice was a “sacrament” and in one form
or another life itself.
The central focus of the early Christian church was the Eucharist or the “body and
blood” of the Lord. This was interpreted as a fellowship meal with the resurrected Christ.
In meeting the Resurrected One in the Eucharist meal the Christian community had the
expectation of the Kingdom of God and salvation.
Christ communicated life to his disciples through the Eucharist or Christian
sacrament. Christ said in describing the sacrament, “Take, eat, this is my body, this is my
blood. Do this as often as you will in remembrance of me.” (I Corinthians 11:24-25)
Baptism is defined as the Christian sacrament used in purification and the spiritual
rebirth of the individual. I Corinthians 10:1 makes it clear that the smoking cloud of
incense was directly related to baptism.
(I Corinthians 10:1-3) “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be
ignorant, how that our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed thru the sea; And were
all baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual
meat; for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was
Christ.”
John 'called upon his followers 'to be united by baptism', but the phrase itself in
Greek baptismo synienai, meant a rite of initiation of some kind....' (Carmichael 1989)
In the Biblical story of Creation, God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed and to you it will be for meat.” (Genesis 1:29) Marijuana is technically an
herb and was considered a spiritual meat in the ancient world.
From I Corinthians 10:1-3, we see that the spiritual cloud resulting from the
burning of incense was instrumental in the baptism of the Israelites. This baptism is also
compared to the “eating and drinking” of the spirit of Christ.
Spirit is defined as the active essence of the Deity serving as an invisible and lifegiving or inspiring power in motion. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the
sacrificial cloud or smoke contained the Spirit of God (Christ) and was instrumental in
inspiring, sanctifying, and purifying the patriarchs.
In Numbers 11:25 the cloud results in the Spirit resting upon Moses and the
seventy elders. This passage indicates that they prophesied ecstatically. “Prophesy” is
defined as follows: To utter or announce by or as if by divine inspiration; to speak for
God or a deity; to give instruction in religious matters. Throughout the Holy Bible,
prophets of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The smoking burning
cloud of incense contained the spirit and was instrumental in bringing about the spiritual
revelations of the prophets. In the ancient world, marijuana was used to enhance speechgiving and inspiration of mental powers.
“Psychoactive” is defined as affecting the mind or behavior. When we of the
Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church think of mind or behavior, we think of that inward essence
or element that makes up the individual. This is the person’s spirit. We are all spiritual
beings. It is just as important to keep the spiritual part of a person healthy as it is to keep
the physical body healthy and, in fact, they are related. Hence, we have marijuana and its
relationship to spiritual food.
In the Apocrypha (Book of Jubilees), Chapter 10, God tells an angel to teach
Noah the medicines which heal and protect from evil spirits. Surely, God taught Noah
about marijuana. In the ancient world marijuana played an important role in purification
and protecting from evil influences.
Note the following concerning the transfiguration of Christ:
(St. Mathew17:1-5) “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his
brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And was transfigured before
them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as light. And, behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and
said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three
tabernacles; one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias. When he yet spake, behold a
bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, ‘This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.”
The Bible Dictionary by John McKenzie, page 898, says concerning the
transfiguration that the cloud and the formula of the utterance of the father are derived
from the baptism of Jesus. He says that the change described in the appearance of Jesus
suggests the change which is implied in the resurrection narratives.
Some of the synonyms for transfiguration are transformation, metamorphosis,
transubstantiation, and avatar. These terms imply the change that accompanies
resurrection or deification. Across the world, legends of godlike men who managed to
rise, in a state of perfection, go back to an era before human beings had cast away from
the divine source. Hence, the gods were beings which once were men, and the actual
race of men will in time become gods. Christ revealed this to the people of his day when
he told them to whom the word of God came, “Ye are gods.” (St. John 10:34)
St. Matthew 17:2 says that during the transfiguration of Christ that his face did
shine as the sun. The face of Moses also shone when he returned from the cloud on Mt.
Sinai (Exodus 30:34). The shining countenances are the result of their resurrections, of
their being spiritually illuminated in the cloud of smoking incense.
Most people are under the impression that Christ baptized with water. As you can
see from the following account of John the Baptist, this isn’t so. John the Baptist
baptized with water, and Christ baptized with fire.
(St. Matthew 3:11) “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh
after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Baptism by fire restores primordial purity by burning away the dross and is
associated with passing through fire to regain Paradise which, since it was lost, has been
surrounded by fire or protected by guardians, with swords of flame, which symbolizes
understanding barring the way to the ignorant or unenlightened. Cooper, J.C. AN
ILLUSTTATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TRADITIONAL SYMBOLISM. Thames and
Hudson, Ltd. London. 1978. p62.
It is only logical that this baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire is related to
the baptism of Christ in the burning, smoking cloud of incense and to the baptism of the
patriarchs in which the patriarchs did all eat of the same spiritual meal (incense). In the
section dealing with the “Holy Spirit”, the Encyclopedia Britannica states that Christian
writers have seen in various references to the Spirit of Yahweh in the Old Testament an
anticipation of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It also says that the Holy Spirit is viewed
as the main agent of man’s restoration to his original natural state through communion in
Christ’s body and, thus, as the principle of life in the Christian community.
The patriarchs were recipients of a revelation coming directly from the Spirit
(incense) and this was expressed in the heightening and enlargement of their
consciousness. It is clear from Scripture that this spiritual dimension was also evident in
the life of Jesus, in whom the experience of the Hebrew prophets was renewed. Through
the Eucharist Christ passed this spiritual dimension on to his apostles. One of the apostles
even makes mention in Philippians 4:18 of a sweet smelling sacrifice that is well pleasing
to God.
Christ compares his baptism to the drinking of a cup.
(St. Mark 10:38) “But Jesus said unto them, ‘Ye know not what ye ask: can ye
drink of the cup that I drink of? And be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with?’”
This cup is referred to as the cup of salvation in Psalms 116:12.
(Psalms 116:12) “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward
me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.”
It is called the cup of blessing in connection with the Eucharist.
(I Corinthians 10:16-17) “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the blood and the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and
one body; for we are all partakers of one bread.”
Here we see a connection between the cup of blessing and the communion of the
blood of Christ. Blood is the life-giving substance of the living being. Christ
communicated life to his disciples through the Eucharist or Christian sacrament.
In I Corinthians 10:16, we note the mention of bread as the communion of the
body of Christ and that we are all partakers of one bread. This is the spiritual bread or
food used by Christ and his disciples. (A synonym for the Eucharist or Body and Blood
of the Lord is the bread of life.) It is interesting to note that the finest marijuana in
Jamaica is called Lamb’s bread.
(I Corinthians 12:13) “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to
drink into one Spirit.”
(I Corinthians 11:25) “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had
supped, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye
drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do
shew the Lord’s death till he come.”
If these passages are compared to I Corinthians 10:1-4, it is plain that the “eating
of one bread: is the same as the patriarchs “eating the same spiritual meat” and the
“drinking of one Spirit” (the cup) is the same as the patriarchs “drinking of the Spiritual
Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” By making this comparison we see
that the terminology of the Eucharist is directly related to the smoking cloud of incense
used in the baptism of Christ and the patriarchs.
It is interesting to note that smoking was referred to as “eating” or “drinking” by
the early American Indians. Peter J. Furst in “Hallucinogen and Culture” states the
following:
“Considering its enormous geographic spread in the Americas at the time of
European discovery, as well as the probable age of stone tobacco pipes in California, the
inhaling (often called “drinking” or “eating”) of tobacco smoke by the Shaman, as a
corollary to therapeutic fumigation and the feeding of the gods with smoke, must also be
of considerable antiquity.”
In Licit and Illicit Drugs, page 209, the following is quoted: “Columbus and other
early explorers who followed him were amazed to meet Indians who carried rolls of dried
leaves that they set afire – and who then ‘drank the smoke’ that emerged from the rolls.
Other Indians carried pipes in which they burned the same leaves, and from which they
similarly drank the smoke.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica states in the section on “Sacrifice” that the
interpretation of sacrifice and particularly of the Eucharist as sacrifice has varied greatly
within the different Christian traditions because of the sacrificial terminology in which
the Eucharist was originally described became foreign to Christian thinkers.
We of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church declare that the true understanding of the
Eucharist has been passed down from generation to generation so that we are able to give
an accurate interpretation of the sacrificial terminology used to describe the Eucharist.
We have shown, using history and Biblical passages, that his terminology is directly
related to burning smoking incense. We have shown that the “eating” or “drinking”
contained in the terminology concerning the Eucharist is associated with the inhalation of
smoke. We have shown that marijuana was used as incense and that it was the number
one spiritual plant of the ancient world.
We of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church declare that the cup that Christ baptized
his disciples with in the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire was in fact a pipe or chillum
in which marijuana was smoked. This is a bottomless cup and soon as it is emptied; it is
filled again and passed in a circle. Like the pipe of the ancient North American Indians,
this cup was a portable altar.
Christ was the Father of the doctrine of the Eucharist which is a communion that
Jesus gave his brethren. Jesus taught that the communion is his body and blood. Jesus
was not speaking of His physical body and blood. He was speaking of his spiritual body
and spiritual blood that was the communion of his holy church. The supper that Jesus
celebrated with his disciples “on the night that he was betrayed” (I Corinthians 11:23)
inaugurated the heavenly meal that was to be continued.
(I Corinthians 11:23-29) “For I have received of the Lord that which also I
delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took
bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, “Take, eat, this is my body,
which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me.” After the same manner also he
took the cup, which he had supped, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood;
this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,
and drink of this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever
shall eat of this bread and drink of this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and let him eat of the bread,
and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
Christ said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” Here the original unity of man with
God is restored. In general the reception of the Holy Spirit is connected with the actual
realization, the inward experiencing of God. Marijuana is the plant the ancients used to
realize that God or Goddess within.
Marijuana has been referred to as a mild euphoric (the producer of a feeling of
well-being) that produces a profound religious experience of a mystical and
transcendental nature. This religious experience is said to be brought about by the
stirring of deeply buried, unconscious sensitivities so that one experiences ultimate reality
or the divine and confirms the feeling of the worshiper that he has been in the presence of
God and has assimilated some of his powers.
To be lifted above sense to behold the beatific vision and become “incorporate” in
God is the end sought in ecstasy. The priest or mystic in enthusiasm or ecstasy enjoys the
beatific vision by entering into communion with God and by undergoing deification. The
experience of ecstasy, states Mircea Eliade, one of the foremost authorities on religion, is
a timeless primary phenomenon. Psychological experience of rapture, he continues, is
fundamental to the human condition and hence known to the whole of archaic humanity.
(Some of the synonyms of rapture are bliss, beatitude, transport, exaltation.)
Baudelaire, a member of the Club Des Hashichins (Hashish Club) founded in
Paris around 1835 and writer of Artificial Paradises states the following about hashish:
Hashish is the unadulterated resin from the flowering tops of the female hemp plant.
“One will find in hashish nothing miraculous, absolutely nothing but an
exaggeration of the natural. The brain and organism on which hashish operates will
produce only the normal phenomena peculiar to that individual – increased, admittedly,
in number and force, but always faithful to the original. A man will never escape from his
destined physical and moral temperament: hashish will be a mirror of his impression and
private thoughts – a magnifying mirror, it is true, but only a mirror.”
He cautions that the user must be in the right frame of mind to take hashish, for
just as it exaggerates the natural behavior of the individual, so too does hashish intensify
the user’s immediate feelings. Baudelaire describes three successive phases a hashish
user will pass through. He says the final state is marked by a feeling of calmness, in
which time and space have no meaning, and there is a sense that one has transcended
matter. He says that in this state, one final supreme thought breaks into consciousness.
“I have become God.”
Realization of one’s union with God is necessary in understanding the true
Christian sacrament. The understanding of man’s relationship to God and God’s
relationship to man (God in Man and Man in God) was quite prevalent in the ancient
world, particularly among the religions that utilized marijuana as part of their religious
practice.
Said the great Hindu sage, Manu, “He who in his own soul perceives the Supreme
Soul in all beings, and acquires equanimity toward them all, attains the highest bliss.” To
recognize oneness of self with God was contained in all the teachings of Guatama
Buddha. In the Liturgy of Mithra (the Persian god of light and truth) the suppliant prays
“abide with me in my soul; leave me not,” and “that I may be initiated and that the Holy
Spirit may breathe within me.” The communion became so intimate as to pass into
identity: “I am thou and thou art I.” Athanasius, a theologian, ecclesiastical statesman,
and Egyptian national leader who was closely tied to the Coptic Church in Egypt said,
“Even we may become gods walking in the flesh,” and “God became man that man might
become God.”
Western theology (Catholic and Protestant) teaches that the spirit created matter
but remained aloof of it. In Hinduism and other Eastern religions, the spirit is the inside,
the matter is the outside; the two are inseparable. Eastern theologians have rightly
perceived that the God one worships must possess all the aspects of his worshipers’
nature as well as his own divine nature. Otherwise, how can he create beings whose
nature is entirely foreign to his own? What, then, would be the meaning of the Biblical
phrase: “God made man in his own image”?
The fact that modern Christiandom has no sense of union with God has led to
numerous churches without the understanding for building a Christian culture and
kingdom to replace the confusion of modern politics. This was not lacking in the ancient
church and was a major source of enthusiasm for the prophets of old. In fact, the power
of the early church was manifested due to this understanding of the spirit of God dwelling
in man, the temple of God. To the ancient prophets it was not a God above, nor a God
over yonder, but a God within. “Be still and know that I am God” – for the visionaries
and mystics of every time and place, this has been the first and greatest of the
commandments.
In I Corinthians 11:28 Christ said, “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat
of the bread, and drink of the cup.”
Probably the most relevant study to date about what might be considered typical
marijuana experience concludes that marijuana gives spontaneous insights into self (Dr.
Charles Tart, “On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication,”
Science and Behavior, 1971).
The sacramentality of marijuana is declared by Christ himself and can be
understood only when a person partakes of the natural divine herb. The fact is that the
communion of Jesus cannot be disputed or destroyed. Marijuana is the new wine divine
and cannot be compared to the old wine, which is alcohol. Jesus rejected the old wine
and glorified the “new wine” at the wedding feast of Cana. Cana is a linguistic derivation
of the present day cannabis and so it is. (Some Biblical scholars – and there is a certain
amount of support in early tradition for the view – have looked upon the miracle of Cana
as a sign of the Eucharist.)
Note the references to new wine in the Bible: (Isaiah 65:8) “Thus saith the Lord,
As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in
it; so will I do for my servant’s sake.
(Acts 2:13) “Others mocking said, ‘These men are full of new wine.’”
Isaiah 65:8 declares that the new wine is found in the cluster and that a blessing is
in it. When one mentions clusters, one thinks of clusters of grapes.
Webster’s New Riverside Dictionary, Office Edition, defines marijuana: 1. Hemp
2. The dried flower clusters and leaves of the hemp plant, esp. when taken to induce
euphoria.
The Encyclopedia Britannica says the following about hemp: Seed producing
flowers form elongate, spike like clusters, growing on the pistillate, or female plants;
pollen producing flowers form many branched clusters or staminate, or male plants.
Here, and in Webster’s, marijuana fits the description of new wine and as history has
shown a blessing is in it.
Baudelaire said the following about the effects of hashish:
“This marvelous experience often occurs as if it was the effect of superior and
invisible power acting on the person from without . . . This delightful and singular state
gives no advance warning. It is as unexpected as a ghost, an intermittent haunting from
which we must draw, if we are wise, the certainty of a better existence. This acuteness of
thought, this enthusiasm of the senses and the spirit must have appeared to man through
the ages as the first blessing.”
In the books of Acts, the apostles were accused of being full of new wine. Acts
2:13 was the time of the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.
Numerous outpourings of the Spirit are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles in which
healing, prophesy, and the expelling of demons are particularly associated with the
activity of the Spirit. Incense (marijuana) was used by the ancients for healing, prophesy,
and the expelling of demons. Holy anointing oil was also used for healing, prophesy and
the expelling of demons. .
When Christ ascended into heaven in the cloud (Acts 1:9-11) he sent his disciples
the Holy Spirit with the “gift of tongues” (Acts 2:3) and there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were filled with the Holy
Spirit and were given the power to speak a language that all men could understand. The
fiery tongues expressed the power to prophesy or witness. (Marijuana has been credited
with speech giving and inspiration of mental powers.)
The first two gifts of the Holy Spirit are traditionally said to be wisdom and
understanding, which no doubt are the two things most needed by the human race. In
Jamaica today, marijuana is referred to as the “weed of wisdom” and is reputed to be the
plant that grew on Solomon’s grave, a man known for his great wisdom. Marijuana
expands consciousness and enhances the capacity for mystical and creative inspiration.
In Acts 2:3, Fire speaks figuratively of the Holy Spirit. Fire was also a means in
which to transport a saint to heaven.
(II Kings 2:11) “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that,
behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted asunder; and Elijah
went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”
Recent writers have speculated that this passage was in a reference to flying
saucers. That is because they look at this passage physically. This ascension of Elijah,
like the ascension of Christ in the cloud into heaven, is the “withdrawal” from the
external or physical world, to the inner or spiritual world, to be the inmost reality of all.
This can be referred to as ecstasy, rapture, or transport and is a result of the Holy Spirit.
Ecstasy, rapture or transport, therefore, agree in designating a feeling or state of intense,
often extreme, mental and emotional exaltation. Rapture is defined as ecstatic joy or
delight; joyful ecstasy. Some of the synonyms of rapture are bliss, beatitude, transport,
and exultation. The true rapture is therefore one in which one is spiritually transported to
the heavens. Don’t expect to float up into the sky.
Marijuana as history has shown is the catalyst used to achieve the spiritual
journey into the heavens. That is why in India it was referred to as the Heavenly-Guide,
the Poor Man’s Heaven, and the Sky-Flier. That is why Professor Mircea Eliade, perhaps
the foremost authority on the history of religion, suggested that Zoroaster may have used
hemp to bridge the metaphysical gap between heaven and earth.
One dictionary defines marijuana as the leaves and flowering tops when taken to
induce euphoria. Euphoria is defined by the same dictionary as great happiness or bliss.
(In India, marijuana has been referred to as the joy-giver and the soother of grief.) Bliss
is defined as the ecstasy of salvation, spiritual joy. Some of the synonyms of bliss are
beatitude, transport, rapture, ecstasy, paradise, heaven.
Throughout the ancient world, there is mention of “magical flight”, “ascent to
heaven” and “mystical journey”. All these mythological and folklore traditions have
their point of departure in an ideology and technique of ecstasy that imply “journey in
spirit”.
The pilgrimage from earth to heaven is not a journey to some other place or some
other time, but is a journey within. One must realize that “death” through which we must
pass before God can be seen does not lie ahead of us in time. Rather, it is now that we
have a man of sin within us that must be killed and a new man free from sin that must be
born. This is actualized in baptism and the sacramental life in the church. For as many of
you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). The effect of
baptism is spiritual regeneration or rebirth, whereby one is “enChristened”, involving
both union with Christ and remission of sins. In Titus 3:5, baptism is the “bath of
regeneration” accompanying renewal by the Spirit. Some of the synonyms of
regeneration are beatification, conversion, sanctification, salvation, inspiration, bread of
life, Body and Blood of Christ.
Sara Benetowa of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw is quoted
in the Book of Grass as saying:
“By comparing the old Slavic word ‘Kepati’ and the Russian ‘Kupati’ with the
Scythian ‘cannabis’ Shrader developed and justified Meringer’s supposition that there is
a link between the Scythian baths and Russian vapor baths.
“In the entire Orient even today to ‘go to the bath’ means not only to accomplish
an act of purification and enjoy a pleasure, but also to fulfill the divine law. Vambery
calls ‘bath’ any club in which the members play checkers, drink coffee, and smoke
hashish or tobacco.”
St. Matthew’s account of the institution of the Eucharist attaches to the Eucharist
cup these words: “Drink of it, for this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the remission of sins (St. Matthew 26:27). Drinking the sacramental cup,
therefore, serves like baptism (Acts 2:38) where Peter said unto them, “Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church declare a three-part doctrine of the Holy
Herb, the Holy Word, and the Holy Man (Woman).
The present and future benefits to the individual communicant have their
importance given them by Jesus, who said, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:54) As such we must see
that the divine person who is active in creation, in renewal, and in human rebirth and
resurrection, is also active in the Eucharist.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the section on “Roman Catholicism”:
“To understand the meaning and use of the Eucharist we must see it as an act of
universal worship, of cooperation, of association else it loses the greater part of its
significance. Neither in Roman Catholic nor in Protestant Eucharist practice does the
sacrament retain much of the symbolism of Christian unity, which it clearly has.
Originally, the symbolism was that of a community meal, an accepted social symbol of
community throughout the whole of human culture.”
Marijuana has been used as a sacrifice, a sacrament, a ritual fumigant (incense), a
good will offering, and as a means of communing with the divine spirit. It has been used
to seal treaties, friendships, and solemn binding agreements and to legitimize covenants.
It has been used as a traditional defense against evil and in purification. It has been used
in divinations (1. the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or
discover hidden knowledge; 2. unusual insight; intuitive perception.) It has been used
and praised for its medicinal properties.
Most Christians agree that participation in the Eucharist is supposed to enhance
and deepen communion of believers not only with Christ but also with one another. We
must, therefore, ask the question, “What substance did the ancients use as a community
meal to facilitate communion with one another and with the Lord?” The answer to that
question is marijuana. Hemp as originally used in religious ritual, temple activities, and
tribal rites, involved groups of worshipers rather than the solitary individual. The
pleasurable psychoactive effects were then, as now communal experiences.
Practically every major religion and culture of the ancient world utilized
marijuana as part of their religious observance. Marijuana was the ambrosia of the
ancient world. It was the food, drink, and perfume of the gods. It was used by the Jews,
Christians, Hindus, Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, Moslems and the Zoroastrian religions. It
was used by the Africans, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Asians, the Europeans, and
possibly the Indians of the Americas.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
The Holy Spirit is ranked by many Western Christian faiths as being equal in
power and grandeur to the Father and the Son, a status memorialized in the Catholic
Trinity. The exact identity of the Holy Spirit or Ghost has often presented a conundrum
and provoked controversy for centuries. Yet, throughout the ages, all Christians have
agreed that the Spirit was the true teacher of the Christian mysteries, which consisted not
of intellectual knowledge, but rather a spiritual lesson beyond words or argument.
(Michael Alberto-Puleo, M.D., THE ANOINTED ONES.)
Throughout the Bible, the Spirit is most consistently presented as the force of
God that takes hold of a person and infuses him or her with power, wisdom, and strength.
(THE ANOINTED ONES)
That the Holy Spirit is the bond which unites the ascended Lord to his followers
and the agency through which they become His members, sharing in His Messianic
unction, is the general teaching of the New Testament as a whole. G.W.H. Lampe, THE
SEAL OF THE SPIRIT. Longmans, Green and Co. London, 1951.
Spirit is defined as the active essence of the Deity serving as an invisible and lifegiving or inspiring power in motion. Spirit comes from spiritus-breathing; and the
biological meaning of inspiration is to breathe or inhale. (The Living Webster
Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English language, 1977)
There was a profound change in America when marijuana smoking started on a
large scale in the late 1960s. A large number of people resisted the draft, resisted the war
. . . started letting their hair and beards grow . . . became interested in natural foods . . .
the ecology and the environment. What we really saw was the awakening of our
generation to the beginning of Christian mentality through marijuana smoking. The
earmarks of this mentality are: I don’t want to go to war; I really don’t want to be part of
the political-military-economic fiasco you call society.(Bro. Louv – main American
spokesman for the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church around 1980 -deceased )
The following piece was taken from the article Marijuana: The Symbol and the
Ritual, by U. Ballante of the Psychology Department of the San Francisco State College
(Journal of Secondary Education, May, 1968, Vol 43, No. 5)
...The time we live in also has an effect on the current upswing of marijuana use.
Does the current milieu require, and yet lack, a ceremonial activity to bring people back
together; not just physically, but in such a way as to yield a real feeling of interpersonal
relatedness and connectedness?....It must be realized that simply carrying out a series of
common actions does not establish a state of ritual. Ritual cannot be detached from its
ends. It is only when the series of actions yields a derived sense of personal
interrelatedness and a sense of moral connectedness that the pattern of action can be
designated as a ritual. Should these effects cease there is no longer ritual; there is no
longer meaning. For many, if not most, the rituals of church and state can no longer
function as rituals. Not many are any longer profoundly moved, at least positively, by the
pledge of allegiance or the national anthem......Because marijuana is a physiologically
rather innocuous drug, because its effects are readily influenced by the environment,
because it has history rich in mystery, because it exist principally outside the system, and,
most of all, because it has a nature and tradition ideally suited for a highly social
“happening”, marijuana has become the focal point and symbol for solving a most urgent
historical crisis. This crisis is none other than man's separation from his fellowman, and ,
just as disastrous, his separation from himself. The highly social nature of marijuana is
unmistakable; one of the most striking features of the drug is that marijuana is rarely
consumed alone. For a variety of reasons, but particularly because of its adaptability to a
social ritual, marijuana is almost always consumed in the form of smoking. It is passed
from hand to hand, making the elements of sharing and giving central and crucial to the
experience. The setting of the situation also tends to promote a feeling of being relaxed
and comfortable. A typical setting will find the people sitting on the floor in circular
fashion. A refreshing gentleness tends to pervade the atmosphere. Flickering candles, the
mellow and often child-like facial expressions, music-- all tend to contribute to the
sensation of peace. It is not unusual to seek out a natural environment in which to “turn
on”. The beaches, parks, and woods are frequent choices. No matter what the choice of
setting, the intent and preference is to seek out a place of relative peace and beauty. This
choice of setting has much to do with the derived effects. Marijuana is also a form of
social offering. To refuse it in such a situation, is to turn down one of the few remaining
instances where people still reach out to one another. The social component of ritual is
more than amply satisfied by the circumstances surrounding and encompassing marijuana
smoking. The direct goal of the marijuana ritual in distinction to traditional ritual seems
to be the strengthening and creation of personal ties. ….So far we have pointed out the
highly social and ceremonial aspects of marijuana smoking. Earlier we designated one
additional factor that is crucial to defining a state of ritual. We mentioned that the
activity must serve as a basis for linking the individual up with a higher moral order.
Another way of stating the same thing is that the ceremony must serve to kindle positive
and optimistic forces in the individual....One way in which the total marijuana smoking
environment seems to prompt a transcendental experience, is by seemingly generating a
state of increased aesthetic awareness. Sometimes it appears to be more than a simple
kindling of increased awareness of nature and beauty. At these moments the intensity
seems to become so great that one no longer senses a distinction between one self and
nature. A certain continuity of experience is effected. In another manner, the marijuana
environment seems capable of extending feelings beyond the people immediately present.
Frequently, a person will not only experience a profound warmth for the people around
him, but will simultaneously feel a deep-rooted connectedness to a much larger group.
Sometimes the sensation extends to the whole subgroup, sometimes encompasses all of
humanity, and sometimes, in that most cherished instance, embraces the entire cosmos....
Like the Indians Hemp Drug Commission, three quarters of a century earlier, the
Canadian Le Dain Commission conducted an inquiry into the use of marijuana. On page
156 of the report is the following:
“In the case of cannabis, the positive points which are claimed for it include the
following: It is a relaxant; it is disinhibiting; it increases self-confidence and the feeling
of creativity (whether justified by objective results or not); it increases sensual awareness
and appreciation; it facilitates self acceptance and in this way makes it easier to accept
others; it serves as a sacramental function in promoting a sense of spiritual community
among users; it is a shared pleasure; because it is illicit and the object of strong
disapproval from those who are, by and large, opposed to social change, it is a symbol of
protest and a means of strengthening the sense of identity among those who are strongly
critical of certain aspects of our society and value structure today.”
On page 144 of the Report, marijuana is associated with peace.
“In our conversation with (students and young people) they have frequently
contrasted marijuana and alcohol effects to describe the former as a drug of peace, a drug
that reduces tendencies to aggression while suggesting that the latter drug produces
hostile, aggressive behavior. Thus, marijuana is seen as particularly appropriate to a
generation that emphasizes peace and is, in many ways, anticompetitive.”
A research finding much publicized in the past few years is that marijuana use
may decrease blood levels of the male hormone testosterone in men. Again, these are
contradictory experiments, and the issue is not settled. Of course, even if marijuana does
have this effect, its significance is not clear. High testosterone levels may correlate more
with aggressiveness than with sexual adjustment; some men in our society might benefit
from a reduction in this hormone.
Loye states that many of the investigators into precognition have reported that the
psychically sensitive (those able to predict the future) are usually more open than
nonsensitives. Other attributes are warm, empathetic, good natured, talkative, relaxed,
spontaneous, composed, and a “readiness to accept incoming impressions without critical
censorship.” Comparatively, the attributes applied to marijuana smokers by the Canadian
Le Dain Commission and others are talkative, cheerful, relaxed, disinhibited, cool and
composed attitude, peaceful, feelings of creativity (clears the brain for thought) thoughts
more intuitive, and empathy for others. (Bennett, Greengold:The Tree of Life)David
Loye, THE SPHINX AND THE RAINBOW.
Recent psycho-pharmacological studies have discovered THC (active ingredient
of marijuana) has its own unique receptor sites in the brain, indicating man and marijuana
have a precultural relationship (Jack Herer, THE EMPEROR WEARS NO CLOTHES).
The receptors are found mainly in the cerebral cortex, which governs higher
thinking, and in the hippocampus, which is the locus of memory. (L. Grinspoon, M.D.,
and J. Bakalar, MARIJUANA: THE FORBIDDEN MEDICINE)
In the article The Chemistry of Reefer Madness (Omni Magazine-August , 1989)
Miles Herkenham is quoted saying of the marijuana brain button, “What really struck me
was the front-brain loading. It's sort of a high-brow receptor. The binding sites are
incredibly numerous compared with other neurotransmitter systems, which suggest they
are receptors for an important, ubiquitous transmitter”.
Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have identified a
naturally occuring chemical in the body that binds to the cannabinoid receptors found just
two years ago. The newly discovered compound is being named anandamide, from
anande, the Sanskrit word for bliss. (The New York Times, Dec. 22, 1992 c-8)
Bliss is defined as 1. complete happiness 2. heaven, paradise
The ancient Egyptians had a word to designate the 'third eye', the ureaeus, related
in old tradition to the pineal body and to the spirit. Perhaps modern science has
discovered what the ancients knew. That man has a third eye or spiritual eye, and that
marijuana can play a part in opening this eye.
In a magazine article by G. S. Chopra entitled, “Man and Marijuana” on page 235
is a section dealing with Human Experiments. One hundred persons with an established
marijuana smoking habit smoked marijuana. They described the symptoms as follows: “I
have done things today which I usually dislike but which I rather enjoyed doing today.”
“Nothing seemed impossible to accomplish.” “I assumed a cool and composed attitude
and forgot all mental worries.” “I behaved in a childish and foolish manner.” “It relieves
sense of fatigue and gives rise to feelings of happiness.” “I feel like laughing.” “My
head is dizzy.” “I feel like taking more food.” “The world is gay around me.” “I feel
inclined to work.” '”I am a friend to all and have no enemy in the world.
Less restriction, more tolerance, less fear, more compassion, all qualities of higher
consciousness, are functions of long-term marijuana use. (Bello, Joan, The Benefits of
Marijuana , Physical, Psychological and Spiritual.)
Probably the most relevant study to date about what might be considered “typical”
pot experience is the one made by Dr. Charles Tart, reported in his book ON BEING
STONED [Science and Behavior Books] Skip intermediate steps in problem solving,
insights into others, thoughts more intuitive, ideas more original, converse intelligently,
learn a lot about what makes people tick, say more profound appropriate things, intuitive
empathetic understanding of people, sexual love union of souls as well as bodies,
inhibitions lowered, mind feels more efficient in problem solving, at one with the world,
events actions become archetypal.
Ken Kesey provides the ultimate pot commercial: “But good old grass I can
recommend. To be just without being mad...to be peaceful without being stupid; to be
interested without being compulsive; to be happy without being hysterical...smoke grass .
( Psychedelics Encyclopedia by Peter Stafford 1977)
Come together brothers , sisters, time is gliding on. (saying of the Ethiopian Zion
Coptic Church)
THE GODMAN AND REVELATION OF JESUS
The Godman is a very important concept; the concept of the God in Man or the
living god, as opposed to the God outside of man-the sky God or unknown God. Jesus
said to the multitudes “Know ye not that you are the temple of God”..”Know ye not that
ye are Gods?
Philippians 2:5-6-”Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
Matthew 1:23-They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is,
God with us.”
Jes-us is by interpretation JUST-US, the collective body of Christ (many
members and one body) as opposed to worshiping one man. For Christ was trying to
enlighten all mankind. He was the Logos, Jes-us Christ, the DIVINE WORD.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.
God became flesh (i.e., man was created) when the first word was realized out of
early homo sapiens gutteral utterances. The brain's neuro-net whereby the first word
became manifest (the Word made flesh) was most likely energized by the catalytic action
of an entheogen. Kali/Shiva's holy bhang, with 'its virtue of clearing the head and
stimulating the brain to thought.' was such an entheogen in ancient India (J.M. Campbell.
p. 31. )
Professor Oliver, L. Rieser was the head of the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Pittsburg and Chairman of the International Committee for Scientific
Humanism when he made the following comments:
Evolution is not yet finished with the human organism, for still higher functions
are in process of development. Futhermore, we surmise that Humanity is God in embryo,
a developing being with those psychic powers of omniscience and omnipotence which
man has hitherto assigned to his gods . (The Integration of Human Knowledge, reprinted
in the Book of Grass, p. 201-2, reprinted in Greengold p. 293)
The article goes on to state that examples of ESP illustrate “The Integration of
Human Knowledge.” This integration is often speeded up with the use of cannabis.
Whenever a “joint” is lit and passed within a group of people, a circle inevitably forms,
and people are brought into friendly communion. And let us not forget the famous
contact high where individuals become high just from being in the presence of a group of
marijuana consuming people. (Greengold)
John1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. 13. Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten
of the Father), full of grace and truth.”
Revelation 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,
and he shall be my son.
So you see Christ was a prototype. He was the first fruit of many to come. Truly
god and truly Man. God incarnate, man divine.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, one of the greatest leaders in the history of India and a
student of religion could not accept the idea that Jesus was the only incarnate son of
God. “If God could have sons, all of us were his sons, “he said. On a close examination
of the Bible, it is revealed that in fact anyone who walks in the word of God is worthy to
be called a Son. (Calvin Kytle, GANDHI, SOLDIER OF NONVIOLENCE)
The biggest falsehood perpetrated by Christiandom is the concept of a Sky God,
an unknown God, a God separate from mankind. This is completely contrary to the
teachings of Christ and the Bible. The Bible speaks against idols and idolatry, and that is
exactly what was embraced. Man was pointed to pictures, crosses, statues, walls, rocks,
relics and Sky Gods. In the name of religion there has been war, torture, slavery,
prejudice, oppression, etc.
The Tree of Life for the Healing of the Nations
Revelation 22:2 On each side of the river (of life) stood the tree of life, bearing
twelve crops of fruit, yielding it's fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the
healing of the Nations.
As scholar E.K. Bunsen pointed out as long ago as 1867:
The records about the “Tree of Life” are the sublimest proofs of the unity and
continuity of tradition, and of its Eastern tradition. The earliest records of the most
ancient Oriental tradition refer to a “Tree of Life,” which was guarded by spirits. The
juice of the sacred tree, like the tree itself, was called Soma in Sanskrit, and Haoma in
Zend; it was revered as the life preserving essence. (Bunsen 1867) The Keys to Saint
Peter As quoted in (Doane 1882))
Chris Bennett in Cannabis and the Soma Solution makes a convincing argument
that the ancient Soma and Hoama were cannabis preparations and further ties cannabis to
the Tree of Life. . .
Dr. M. Aldrich, an authority of marijuana and Mircea Eliade, one of the foremost
authorities on the history of religions both believed that the Hoama, Soma drink was a
cannabis beverage. The Hoama, Soma was a Protector, a guide to immortality, a mediator
between God and man, a Benefactor to the world and a means for mankind to obtain
union with his divinity.
The ancient Egyptians had their legend of the 'Tree of Life'. It is mentioned in
their sacred books that Osiris ordered the names of some souls to be written on this 'Tree
of Life', the fruit of which made those who ate it to become as gods. (Prog Relig. Ideas,
vol. I p.159.)
Among the most ancient traditions of the Hindus is that of the 'Tree of Life',
called Soma in Sanskrit and Hoama in Zend, the juice of which imparted immortality.
This most wonderful tree was guarded by spirits (Bunsens Keys of St. Peter, p.414)
As also noted in the Legends of the Old Testament by Thomas Lumisden
Strange:
The tree of life is traceable to the Persian Paradise. “the haoma is the first of the
trees planted by Ahura Mazda in the fountain of life. He who drinks its juice never dies:
(Muir, Sansk. Texts, II....)....The original is the Soma of the Hindus, early deified by
them, the sap of which was the beverage of the gods, and when drank by mortals made
them act like gods immortal....The Hebrews have exactly adopted the idea: “And Jahveh
Elohim said, 'Behold the man has become one of us to know good and evil; and now, lest
he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore
Javeh Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden....and he placed at the east of the
garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way
of the tree of life”....(Strange, 1874)
In Sumerian the words for 'live' and 'intoxicate' are the same, TIN, and the 'tree of
life;', GESHTIN, is the 'vine'. (Allegro 1970)
Amongst the first to connect the sacred and unnamed tree in Assyrian art with the
mythical Tree of Life, was Sir A.H. Layard, who described and commented on the
symbol over a century and a half ago. “I recognized in it the holy tree, or tree of life, so
universally adored at the remotest period in the East, and which was preserved in the
religious system of the Persians to the final overthrow of their Empire....The flowers were
formed by seven petals” (Layard 1856, NINVEH, as quoted in (Mackenzie 1915))
The 'seven petals', referred to by Layard, can be seen to be more likely stylized depictions
of the seven distinct spears of the cannabis leaves. Likewise, the pine cone-like objects
held by the figures often surrounding the plant, represent the pinecone like buds of the
sacred qunubu. (Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, Chris Bennett.)
In the second quarter of the first millennium B.C., the 'word qunnabu (qunapuy,
qunubu, qunbu) begins to turn up as for a source of oil, fibre, and medicine. (Barber
1989)
Legends of the Tree of Life figure in the stories of the Hebrews and Christians
along with certain Gnostic sects and pagan Mystery Religions. “The idea of anointing
was frequently connected in these circles with the old notion of a saving unguent
emanating from the Tree of Life.” (Lampe, G.W.H.. THE SEAL OF THE SPIRIT,
S.P.C.K., W. Clowes and Sons, London, 1967)
In the Gospel of Nicodemus, and other ancient Hebrew and Christian writings, it
is the Tree of Life that exudes a miraculous oil of immortality. John intimates that the
anointing oil could cure spiritual blindness. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the
fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white rainment that thou mayest be clothed, and that
the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see (Rev. 3:18) The “gold tried in fire” refers to the baptism of fire. (THE
ANOINTED ONES)
Erwin Goodenough notes that:
Ringgren has...pointed out the importance of the tree of life in the whole Hebrew
tradition of Wisdom: “She carries long life in her right hand (Proverbs3:16), she is the
life of the disciple of wisdom (Proverbs 4:13), the one who finds her finds life (Proverbs
7:35) (Goodenough, Erwin R. JEWISH SYMBOLS IN THE GRECO-ROMAN
PERIOD. VOL. 5., Bollingen Series 37, 1956. Vol. 7. p. 126.
The qualities of the fruit of the sacred tree remind us of the qualities assigned to
the juice of the Soma plant. It was a magic fruit, and like Paradise itself, came down
from heaven...The fruit which Eve partook of, and then gave to Adam, was therefore the
equivalent of an intoxicating drink which the early men, both Semitic and Aryan naively
supposed to exhilarate the gods, and to confer immunity from sickness. The Babylonian
sages, too spoke of a 'purifying oil of the gods, and later Jewish and Christian writers of a
'tree of mercy' distilling the 'oil of life'. (Cheyne, T.K. TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS OF
ANCIENT ISRAEL. Adams and Charles Black, London, 1907.p.78.
The Apostle John refers directly to the unction as “golden vials full of odours,
which are the prayers of the saints, “ Revelation 5:8) He also writes: “He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; to him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7)
In the testament of Levi, it is written that : “He will open the gates of Paradise,
remove the threatening sword, and give the saints to eat of the Tree of Life; then the
Spirit of the Lord will be upon them. (Lampe. G.W.H. THE SEAL OF THE SPIRIT)
The following was taken from The Benefits of Marijuana Physical, Psychological
and Spiritual by Joan Bello.
So many people, in all walks of life, from all social strata, in every country of the
world, from the young to the old (for as long as there has been recorded history) have
been and are now partakers of marijuana. They may have considered their enjoyment
solely recreational without understanding that this magnificent natural remedy is actually
and undeniably (in the strictest sense of the word) a medicine. It is “a substance used to
treat disease, “ wherein disease is literally loss or lack of “ease” (which defines disruption
of the entire person-body/mind/spirit). Marijuana as medicine is especially needed in
today's stress-filled, fast-paced, competitive and insecure manner of daily living......
As the way marijuana works, in complete compatibility with the healthy
functioning of all facets of humanness, it is intended that the various, divided segments of
the population espousing the employment of cannabis for different purposes will realize
that medicinal, recreational, and sacramental utilization of this plant are actually
identical. To be healthy is to be happy is to be holy, all which are connected to cannabis
use. Although modern life has divided up the three-fold nature of man and woman, in
fact, there is no division. Our bodies are the temples of the Divine, to be kept in the
utmost health, and our minds are the tools by which we recognize the essential values, if
we are happy. The path of righteousness and happiness is the Medicine Path!.......
Although this book barely addresses the miraculous healing ability that
hemp/marijuana can contribute to the deforestation, pollution and devastation of our diseased planet (see The Emperor Wears No Clothes and Lifeline to the Future), this fact
must let us understand that the gift of nature in the form of a plant is a remedy, a holistic
medicine of limitless extensions for healing the earth itself.....
Those of us who know the truth have a commitment to expose it. Our
commitment runs as deep as our souls. We enjoin you to further your knowledge and take
your place among us. Joan Bello, THE BENEFITS OF MARIJUANA, PHYSICAL,
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL, section Medicine for the Whole World, chapter
1)
As we heal ourselves we will be able also to heal the planet. And cannabis is the
plant to do that. Cannabis (hemp) is the only known annually renewable natural resource
that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all
of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously
reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time.
(The Emperor Wears No Clothers, Jack Herer) On the back of Jacks book is a 50,000
dollar challenge to the world to prove him wrong. No one has taken the challenge.
Popular Mechanics called it a Billion dollar crop in 1938 in reference to all its
commercial applications. It can provide food, clothing, shelter, energy, etc. Henry Ford
built a car out of it.
“Here in America there's ….a revolution in materials that will affect every home,”
reported Popular Mechanics in 1941, citing Henry Ford's prediction that he would some
day “grow automobiles from the soil.” After 12 years of research, Ford Motor Company
had completed an experimental car with a plastic body. Its tough panels were molded
from a mixture of 70 percent cellulose fibers from hemp, wheat straw and sisal, plus 30
percent resin binder, under hydraulic pressure of 1500 pounds per square inch. The
plastic withstood blows 10 times as great as steel could without denting. (Hemp:Lifeline
to the Future)
Pot seed is the single healthiest food on the planet and can grow on land that
cannot grow anything else profitably. Pot seed is the highest in enzymes and amino acids
of any food on our planet (including soybeans), and can be made like soybean to taste
like chicken, steak, pork, tofu, margarine, etc. An excellent hemp milk is made.
Marijuana;aka; cannabis, hemp is the most useful plant on the planet. Truly a
miracle plant. It is defined in the dictionary as a tall Asiatic herb. On the first page of the
Bible God said “I have given you every herb bearing seed on the face of the earth and
God said it was good.”
The United States Congress called it evil and made it a schedule I substance, the
most highly prohibited. Like Judas they have sold out for a piece of silver. They have
sold their soul to the special interest that will lose their monetary grip on mankind when
this remarkable God given herb is finally free. Fortunately, when the Creator made the
hemp plant, there were no politicians and lobbies for multinational corporations around to
advise, and no ignorant congressional committees in executive session to declare it
illegal.
The prison industry is booming, the police-state tactics are escalating, lawyers and
judges are inundated with work as our inner cities are starving, our corporate giants are
downsizing to maintain their profit margins, the medical profession is closing ranks
around the pharmaceutical synthetics even as the death toll in side effects reaches
horrendous proportions-all while one natural plant could ease the pain and suffering of so
many sick and dying people around the globe, and cleanse the toxins from the air we
breathe-and certainly increase the breathing capacity of us all. (Bello, Joan, The Benefits
of Marijuana)
Jesus preached that to change the world, a change of heart and mind was needed.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Love, along with the visions of Infinity engendered by the Holy Spirit, are the
twin stars revolving around each other in the universe of the Anointed Ones that Jesus
brought to man. The anointing would teach all things. And love alone, in all its
manifestations-from the love of oneself to the the love of God to the love of one's family
to the love of one's people and land-to the love of one's planet-is the only hope for
human kind. Those who have this love are the light of the world. They care for their
fellow beings, contemplate the world of tomorrow, and plant trees for the great-great
grandchildren they never know. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
The heart chakra which loves, and the throat chakra which creates, are the energy
centers or states of being that marijuana usually vitalizes. At these levels, the ego is
transcended, allowing the higher emotions to come into play.....While marijuana often
raises our inner spark of Divine energy to levels of love and creativity, attainment of the
highest level of being, Cosmic Consciousness, requires that a pureness of receptivity be
in place. Over time, and with intense cultivation of one's character, marijuana can help us
achieve enlightenment. ( Bello, Joan, The Benefits of Marijuana)
We as gods and goddesses need to take our rightful place and turn the weapons
into plowshares and be our brothers keepers. We need to heal the planet. We are on the
verge of pollution free energy; solar, wind, bio-mass, geothermal, waves etc. With the
resources that have been wasted on war and weapons of war we can make the deserts
bloom. We can feed, clothe and shelter all. We can no longer afford to wait for the return
of the Son of God. He/She is with us and has always been with us.
Chris Bennett in his conclusion in SEX, DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND THE BIBLE
puts it like this.
“The idea of a Cosmic Being in which we all play a part is a very good one. If
people were to recognize their own divinity and themselves as part of the cosmic plan
and guardians of creation, and not as destroyers, then they would be forced into the
responsibility of taking care of the many serious problems that we as a species have
created in our ignorance, instead of waiting for some sky God and his armies to come
down from the heavens to save us.”
MAN AN ANGEL
Revelation 22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had
heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me
these things. 9. Then he saith unto me, See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow servant,
and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book;
worship God.
SUMMARY
Due to the prosecution of God’s church from the beginning of the Christian era
and due to the persecution against marijuana, the true understanding of the Eucharist has
remained hidden from Christiandom and the world, only to be revealed in these times, the
culmination of all human history.
Persecution followed persecution, first at the hands of the Jews who opposed the
belief in Jesus as a New Messiah, and then by the Romans, reaching a bitter climax
during the reign of Diocletian from 303-311, when many sacred texts were burned. Lot,
Ferdinand, The End of the Ancient World and the Beginning of the Middle Ages, Philip
and Mariette Leon, trans.and Brothers , New York, 1931, 1961. p24.
The Inquisition, which was not formerly abandoned until 1820, left a stain of
blood that all the tears of the saints can never wash away. Translation and publication of
the Bible was long opposed by the Church of Rome, on pain of death, (or worse,
excommunication which meant you went to hell forever. (THE ANOINTED ONES)
Anyone that did not adhere to the Church of Rome were labeled as heretics and
persecuted and driven underground.
While embracing wine as a sacrament, and tolerating beer and hard liquor, the
Inquisition outlawed cannabis ingestion in Spain in the 12th Century, and France in the
13th. Anyone using hemp to communicate, heal, etc. was labeled “witch”. In 1484, Pope
Innocent VIII singled out cannabis healers and other herbalist, proclaiming hemp an
unholy sacrament of the second and third types of Satanic mass. This persecution lasted
for more than 150 years. (Jack Herer , The Emperor Wears No Clothes)
The fact that cannabis was an entheogen and that one could know the God within
was a threat to the Church of Rome. One no longer needed the priesthood to make
intercession.
Alan Watts' said, “Nothing could be more alarming to the ecclesiastical
authorities than a popular outbreak of mysticism, for this might well amount to setting up
a democracy in the Kingdom of heaven. (Watts, Alan, Psychedelics and religious
experience in Psychedelics, Barnard Aaronson and Humphrey Osmond, eds. Doubleday
and Co., Garden City, New York, 1970. p. 139)
In 1945 a jar of ancient Gnostic codices was discovered near the Nile river.
Tucked away beneath a stone, these text expand our view of Jesus and reveal a once
thriving form of Christianity that emphasized a personal “knowledge” or “gnosis”.
As we have seen marijuana has been used since ancient times for spiritual and
religious purposes. It has been used to reveal the God or Goddess within. It is essential to
the evolution of mankind and realizing heaven on earth. Walter Wells (deceased elder) in
the opening “Offering of Devotion” was quoted as saying “Marijuana is the only
peacemaker among the entire generation.”
The fact that the authorities have outlawed the churches sacrament means that the
political governments are fighting against Gods saints and the setting up of Gods peaceful
Kingdom here on earth. We seek to build a Kingdom of Peace, of Brotherly Love, an
uncompetitive world in which we help one another, in which the weapons of mass
destruction are turned into plowshares...a truly United Nations in which all nations,
kindreds and peoples come together for the common good. This is prophesied in the
Bible and we owe it to our children and their children to usher in this truly spiritual and
enlightened Age.
When one undertakes the study of the worlds religions they find an undertone of
truth that resonate with the same vibration through all of them. Yet because so many
people are up to their knees in dogma, religion has become a catalyst for many a war.
There is the Sufi tale, by the poet Rumi, that illustrates this. It tells of some men who
stumble upon an elephant in the dark. Each man sought to examine the elephant by touch
alone (from one perspective), each thought the one part that they examined was the total
reality of the object. For one, the elephant was only a fan (ear), for another, a rope (tail),
for a third, a pillar (leg), and so on. They all failed to understand the whole elephant and
were therefore lost in bickering about its true identity.
All major religions are one.
Christianity-Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye
even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12)
Islam- No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for
himself (Sunnah)
Buddhism- Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful(Udana Varga
5:18)
Confucianism- Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: do not unto others that you
would not have them do unto you (Analects 15:23)
Taoism-Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your
own loss (T'ai Shag Kan Ying P'ien)
Brahmanism- This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain
if done to you (Mahabharata 5:1517)
Judaism- What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the
rest is commentary (Talmud, Shabbat 31:a)
Zorastrianism- That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another
whatsoever is not good; for itself (Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5)
Wicca- As it harm none, do what thou wilt (The Great Rede)
We are living in an age of instant communication. We have computers and social
networking. It is possible that in the not too distant future the majority of the earths
peoples will be connected. We can have a truly United Nations. In our Church we were
taught that the “Voice of the People is the Voice of God”. It is our belief that when
presented with the facts the people will make the right decision.
Even with all the lies told about marijuana the people have woken up to the fact
that marijuana is not the evil that the political governments have maintained it is and the
majority at least in the United States support its use for medical use. If enough become
aware of its spiritual and commercial applications they will support it for that as well. In
fact a lot of major industrial countries already allow the growing of hemp for its
commercial uses.
BEHOLD THE TREE OF LIFE FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS
About the Author and the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church
I Jeff Brown joined the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (EZCC) when I was 20
years old. I am now 56. I grew up in Miami where I met some of the American members
of the church in 1975. I started smoking marijuana when I was 15 and liked it a lot. It
relaxed me, made me laugh, gave me the munchies, food tasted better, music sounded
better, I enjoyed being in nature, smelling the flowers, listening to the birds. It brightened
up my day. I was a young hippie, opposed to the war in Vietnam, the corruption of
politics (polytricks), interested in saving the environment , etc.
The members of the church told me that marijuana was the true sacrament, that it
wasn' t wine or grape juice and that if I was looking for God I was to look for him within.
This made sense to me and I ended up becoming a member of the church. The church
reached the pinnacle of its power around 1980. The church received extensive publicity
as 60 Minutes did a segment, Life, Science, Omni, Rolling Stone and other magazines did
articles, numerous newspaper stories were written about the church and Brother Louv, the
main American spokesman for the church was on various tv shows. The church put out a
free paper called Coptic Times.
It was in 1980 that various brothers and some sisters were arrested for possessing
and importing the churches sacrament. I was one of those arrested and ended up doing 5
years in federal prison. While there I taught myself to type and did most of the research
that went into the first edition of Marijuana and the Bible.
At this date, 2011 all the Jamaican elders of the church have passed away and the
church has scattered to the winds. It no longer exist as an organized entity.
One of the brothers, Carl Olsen has continued the work of the church. He
presently resides in Iowa and has worked to free up the plant on religious grounds. He
has also worked on the behalf of medical patients to have marijuana removed from
Schedule I of the controlled substances act. Through his work he was able to get the Iowa
board of pharmacy to make a unanimous decision that marijuana should be removed from
Iowa schedule I. He is continuing his work. He has two websites for more information
on the church and his work.
www.ethiopianzioncopticchurch.org
www.iowamedicalmarijuana.org
I would also like to hear from anyone that likes this work and would like to help
in distribution and/or putting this work into other languages. I had one brother from
Brazil who liked the first edition, ask if he could put it in Portuguese and I told him to go
for it.
Sincerely Jeff Brown
jab@lcia.com
There are also other groups that believe in the sacramentality of marijuana and
have set up churches and/or religions. Some can be reached at Cannabis Churches.
Google Cannabis Churches and you should find the cannabis churches website as well as
websites for various groups that believe in the spiritual use of cannabis.
I would also like to direct you to the website of Joan Bello who has been fighting
the good fight for years.
www.benefitsofmarijuana.com
Also two sites for Terry Winger who put together the film The Fire Baptism.and
Lost Sacraments- The film is about cannabis being the Fire Baptism and the Holy
Anointing Oil.
freeanointing.org
Marijuanaplanet.us
Carl Olsen filed a legal case against the DEA seeking an exemption for marijuana
like the Native American Church has for peyote. Two excellent reviews of the case are,
Marijuana as a Holy Sacrament by Cindy Mazur, Vol. 5, Notre Dame Journal of Law,
Ethics and Public Policy, No. 3 (1991), page 693, and Accomadating Religious Drug Use
and Society's War On Drugs, by Lesley Frank, Vol. 58, George Washington Law
Review, page 1019 (June 1990). I have included the Conclusion of “Marijuana as the
Holy Sacrament.”`
Notre Dame Journal of law, ethics and public policy [vol. 5]
MARIJUANA AS A “HOLY SACRAMENT”
CONCLUSION
Congress and the DEA have accorded a sacramental drug exemption to Native
Americans regarding peyote. The EZCC (Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church) has tried for
years to obtain a similar exemption regarding marijuana. This past June, the Supreme
Court denied certiorari to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision denying the
EZCC a sacramental drug exemption similar to that held by the NAC.
The D.C. Court of Appeals decision to deny an exemption to the EZCC violates
the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. This court's reliance on the DEA's
statement that it has greater law enforcement control problems with marijuana will not
satisfy an application of strict scrutiny. The DEA must explain why a very narrow
exemption extended to one-hundred to two-hundred people would undermine it's
interest in preventing drug abuse, when an unlimited exemption for peyote extended to
300,000 to 400,000 people does not. Additionally, there must be a forth right analysis of
the current trends regarding the public's abuse of marijuana and the growing body of
information concerning marijuana's use for medicinal purposes.
The appeals court set forth various aspects of the NAC (Native American Church)
which made it particularly well suited for an exemption, and then failed to recognize that
the EZCC has demonstrated significant similarity to the NAC regarding these aspects.
For example, the EZCC views the recreational use of its sacrament as sacrilegious, has
much stricter controls on its membership, and regards marijuana as a deity as does the
NAC concerning peyote. Additionally, as a result of its proposed exemption, the EZCC
would exercise much greater control over its ceremony than the NAC.
The EZCC is being denied a benefit accorded to another church because of its
ritual, its traditions, because it is not indigenous, and because of the abuse of its
sacrament by non-members. The EZCC has proposed to modify its traditions and ritual,
to adhere to practices which are much more restrictive than those of the NAC, and help
with monitoring problems, to no avail.
The reasons for the denial appear to flow from the fact that the EZCC is a
relatively new religion to this country, of black origin, small and unpopular. The
establishment clause was specifically written to protect these very types of religions from
being denied benefits extended to more politically popular religious groups. If the EZCC
were accorded the basic protections guaranteed by the establishment clause, its right to
partake of marijuana as its holy sacrament, in accordance with it's narrow exemption
proposed by Olsen, could not be denied.
MORE RECENT REQUEST FROM THE DEA BY MYSELF
DEA RELIGIOUS PETITION
Joseph T. Rannazzisi
Deputy Assistant Administrator
Office of Diversion Control
Drug Enforcement Administration
8701 Morrissette Drive
Springfield, Virginia 22152
Pursuant to DEA publication, “Guidance Regarding Petitions for Religious Exemptions
from the Controlled Substances Act Pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
In recent years, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seen an increase
in request from parties requesting religious exemptions from the Controlled Substances
Act (CSA) to permit the use of controlled substances. The Religious Freedom Restoration
Act (RFRA) provides that the “Government shall not substantially burden a person's
exercise of religion” unless the Government can demonstrate “that application of the
burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive
means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.” 42 U.S. 2000bb-1. In
Gonzalez v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal, 126 S. Ct. 1211 (2006), the
Supreme Court held that government action taken pursuant to the CSA is subject to
RFRA. In order to obtain an exemption under RFRA, a party must, as a preliminary
matter, demonstrate that its (1) sincere (2) religious exercise is (3) substantially burdened
by the CSA.
My name is Jeff Brown and I live in Central Florida. I am 52 years old and have
used cannabis since I was 15. I grew up in Miami, Florida and in public schools was
subjected to anti marijuana films. So at first I was a little scared to try it. Reefer madness,
etc. I finally tried it and must admit that I liked it a lot. It relaxed me, gave me the
munchies and made me laugh a lot. It brightened up my day. I took more time to listen to
the birds sing and to smell the flowers. Music sounded better, food tasted better, my
senses were enhanced.
When I was about 18 I got interested in the Bible. I was raised in a Christian
Church and went to Sunday school as a young man. I truly believed in God and
remember praying to him on occasion . One of my prayers was that I asked God to help
me help others.
Anyway I read a book called the “Great Late Planet Earth” by Hal Lindsay which
took biblical prophesy and related it to this time. My interest was stoked and I read the
Bible from cover to cover.
When I was 19 I met some spiritual brothers that belonged to the Ethiopian Zion
Coptic Church. The church was famous in Miami and Jamaica back around 1980. It was
a church that used marijuana as its sacrament. The church received extensive publicity;
Sixty Minutes, Omni and Science magazines. The Church was a Rasta Church. Rastafari
was one of the churches name for God. It was the churches belief God had many different
names and does have many different names in the Bible.
The brothers told me that if I wanted to know God that I would have to look
inside. That I was the temple of God, that the holy spirit was within me. They also told
me that cannabis was a tool for looking within., for finding the God that lives within.
That cannabis was the holy spirit, that cannabis was the tree of life spoken of in the book
of Revelation. That it was the incense burned in the Bible. That cannabis was a healing
herb. They taught me many many things.
I grew up liking marijuana and this religion made perfect sense to me. The main
teaching being to love one another. To love thy neighbor as thyself.
For many reasons the church has all but broken up. Jamaican elders have all
passed away. Other members have also died, gotten married, started new lives, etc. I am
sure there are others that still believe the basic teaching of the church. But we have been
scattered. Government persecution of the churches sacrament had a detrimental effect.
One of the things I did with my life was to write Marijuana and the Bible. It has
been posted on the web by various individuals in various places. Google Marijuana and
the Bible.
Marijuana and the Bible goes into thousands of years of history of the spiritual
and religious use of cannabis. It is a historical fact that marijuana has been used by many
different cultures and religions around the world. Volumns have been written on the
subject.
It has been used as a healing herb, it has provided food in times of famine (seed),
clothing, paper, tents, etc. Popular Mechanics in 1938 called it a billion dollar crop in
reference to all its commercial applications. Plastics, bio-mass etc.
It is my personal belief that cannabis is truly the tree of life for the healing of the
nations. Spiritual, medicinal and environmental healing of the soul and planet. It is
undoubtably the number one most useful plant in existence. Volumns have been written
on the subject. See “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer
The marijuana laws substantially burden my beliefs. I pray that one day cannabis
will no longer be illegal and that free people in a free country will no longer be
persecuted for it. I especially pray for all those people who truly benefit from its
medicinal use. I know God is praying for the same thing.
The people of the country have spoken. Time and time again, in poll after poll the
people support another persons right to the medical use of this beneficial herb. The voice
of the people is the voice of God.
It is known for helping those with glacoma to keep from losing their sight, it has
helped those undergoing cancer therapy to eat , to sleep, it has brightened up their day.
Volumns have been written on the many medicinal benefits that can derive from
cannabis. In fact Eli Lilly and Park Davis pharmaceutical companies made preparations
from cannabis before it was made illegal in 1938. It was in the pharmacopeia of the
United States. How has this become a crime in a free country?
The governments own reports have concluded that adults should be able to use
this herb in the privacy of their homes.
The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse concluded over 50
studies and surveys of opinions of professional experts, district attorneys, judges,
probation officers, clinicians, and public officials.
The report of the Commission on Marijuana found that “no sufficiently social
reason, predicated on existing knowledge, justifies intrusion by the criminal justice
system into the private lives of individuals who smoke marijuana” and “marijuana use is
not such a grave problem that individuals who smoke marijuana, and possess it for that
purpose, should be subject to criminal procedures”. (Marijuana, A Signal of
Misunderstanding, March 22, 1972, at page 150. )
“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active
substance known to man.” Recommended Ruling at pages 58-59. The DEA's own
Administrative Judge, Francis Young “In Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling, DEA
Docket No. 86-22. Sept. 6, 1988. He also recommended that marijuana be moved to
schedule II so that it could be prescribed.
What I want from the DEA is an exemption for my personal growing and use of
marijuana in the privacy of my home. I also would like to be able to smoke marijuana in
a national forest when I am camping and communing with nature. This of course means
that I should be able to carry a certain small amount for personal use. I also want to be
able to share my sacrament with like minded individuals whether in my private home or a
church setting.
It is my understanding that medical patients in California are allowed to carry a
certain amount when they board an airplane. Some of these medical marijuana states
allow the growing, possession, transporting, and use. Some even allow the distribution
for medical use.
It is my understanding that the Obama administration now recognizes the medical
use of marijuana under state law. That the administration has no intention of persecuting
these citizens. All I want is the same thing for my religious use.
If you can't give me that exemption I would like to know what your compelling
interest is and if you have a least restrictive means of allowing me to practice my
religion.
I hereby declare under penalty of perjury that the information provided herein is
true and correct. See. 28 S.S.C. 1746.
Sincerely yours
Jeffrey Allan Brown
656 E. Highway 50
Clermont, Florida 34711
dated Oct, 29, 2009
U.S. Dept. of Justice
Drug Enforcement Administration
stamped Dec. 18, 2009
Dear Mr. Brown
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has received your petition dated
Oct. 29, 2009, in which you request an exemption to use marijuana for religious
purposes.
DEA's Guidance Regarding Petitions for Religious Exemption from the
Controlled Substances Act Pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
(“Guidance”) provides that petitions that do not conform to the Guidance will not be
accepted for filing. See Guidance, 4. Because your petition lacks certain basic
information requested by the Guidance, we are unable to accept your petition for filing at
this time. Below, we provide a brief description of the deficiencies of your petition.
Section 2 of DEA's Guidance request that a petition include “detailed information
about...(1) the nature of the religion (e.g.its history, belief system, structure, practice,
membership policies, rituals, holidays, organization, leadership, etc, and (2) each specific
religious practice that involves the manufacture, distribution, dispensing, importation,
exportation, use or possession of a controlled substance.” Your petition discusses your
interest in the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and the fact that you learned “many things'
from the Church. Other statements that you make in the petition suggest that your a
member of the Church, but you do not explicitly state that you are a member. Your
petition also lacks detailed information about your religion's belief system, structure,
practices, membership policies, rituals, holidays, organization, and leadership. Further
more, while you discuss a number of ways in which people have used marijuana, you do
not provide any detailed information about your specific religious practices (as opposed
to your beliefs) involving marijuana.
DEA's Guidance further request that a petition address “the amounts, conditions,
and locations of (the substance's) anticipated manufacture, distribution, dispensing,
importation, exportation, use or possession.” You state that you would like an exemption
for 'personal growing and use' and “to smoke marijuana in a national forest” when you
are 'camping and communing with nature.” You also note that you want permission to
share marijuana “with like minded individuals whether in (your) private home or in a
church setting.” Your petition does not address the amounts of marijuana you expect to
use for each of these purposes, the frequency of that use, or the specific conditions and
specific locations of the anticipated use.
Because of these deficiencies, we cannot accept your petition for filing at this
time. If you wish, you may resubmit a corrected petition. We urge you to carefully
consider 2 of the Guidance which addresses the content of petitions for religious
exemptions. Please note that you are not limited to topics outlined in 2, and you may
submit any information that you believe to be relevant to DEA's determination under the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Controlled Substances Act. Please provide
any and all information (including attachments) that you believe would be helpful. If you
choose to resubmit your petition and DEA accepts it for filing, please be aware that DEA
reserves the opportunity to request additional documents or written statements of fact that
DEA deems necessary to determine whether the petition should be granted See Guidance
5.
Sincerely Joseph T. Rannazzisi
Deputy Assistant Administrator
MY REPLY
Dear Mr. Rannazzisi
Thankyou for your reply to my Religious Petition in which I ask for a DEA
exemption to use my religious sacrament which is cannabis. I will try my best to meet the
Guidance that you request.
First of all for the record let me state that I do consider myself a member of the
Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church but as a practical matter the EZCC does not exist as an
organized religious entity. I know of no place where worship services are being
conducted under that name.
The EZCC had no restrictions on the use of its sacrament and had three prayer
services daily in which copious amounts of cannabis were used. To become a member of
the EZCC one had to confess his or her sins and to start life afresh-to repent from those
sins. The EZCC observes no special holidays. The main teaching of the EZCC is to love
one another, even your enemies. Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.
If you know about Christianity you know that the early Christian church was led
by Christ and his disciples, that they traveled around healing and doing good, that they
met in private homes and that they partook of the sacrament. In that perspective my
religion goes back to the time of Christ. To be a Christian one does not need to go to
church. We were taught that we are the temple of God, that God lived in Us. He lives in
Me and He lives in You and He lives in a big old Rascal too. Rastafari!
As I pointed out in my first petition all the elders of the EZCC have passed away
and the church has scattered to the winds. It was recognized as a bona-fide religion by the
Florida Supreme Court in Town v. State, 377 So. 2D 649 (Fla. 1979).
The parties agree and the trial court expressly found that (1) the Ethiopian Zion
Coptic Church represents a religion within the first amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, (2) the use of cannabis is an essential portion of the religious practice (8)
members of the church believe that cannabis is the mystical body and blood of “Jes-us”
and (9) through cannabis members purportedly find a spirit of love, unity and justice,
which bring them closer to their god.
Further, the EZCC is not a new church or religion but the record reflects it is
centuries old and has regularly used cannabis as a sacrament. The trial court also found
that petitioners property was used as a church in violation of the zoning ordinances of the
City of Miami Beach. For this reason, the court enjoined further use of petitioner's
property as a church but permitted Ms. Town to worship in her home with family and
friends.
Second of all for the record I also consider myself to be a member of all
churches, organizations, religions, individuals who use cannabis as a sacrament or
spiritual plant. In my first petition I pointed out that I had written “ Marijuana and the
Bible” posted in various places on the web and if you have taken the time to read that 40
page document you would be aware that cannabis has been used for thousands of years
by many different cultures and religions for spiritual purposes.
At the turn of the twentieth century , the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission set up
to study the use of hemp in India contains the following report.
….it is inevitable that temperments would be found to whom the quickening spirit of
bhang is the spirit of freedom and knowledge. In the ecstacy of bhang the spark of the
Eternal in man turns into light the murkiness of matter.
…..Bhang is the Joy-giver, the Sky-flyer, the Heavenly Guide, the Poor Man's Heaven,
the Soother of Grief....No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of bhang...The
supporting power of bhang has brought many a Hindu family safe through the miseries of
famine...To forbid or even seriously to restrict the use of so gracious an herb as the hemp
would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to large bands of worshipped
ascetics, deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace in discomfort; of a cure in
sickness; of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attack of evil
influences.
I consider myself to be a Christian who believes in Rastafari the God of the EZCC
and other sects of Rastafari. See United States v. Bauer, 84 F. 3d 1549, 1556 (9th Cir.
1996) Rastafarianism is a legitimate religion, in which marijuana plays a necessary and
central role. Rastafarianism is among 1, 558 religious groups sufficiently stable and
distinctive to be identified as one of the existing religions in this country. The Bauer
court found that in the case of simple possession the Bauer defendants were entitled to
the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
See United States v. Raynard Earl Valrey, (Order No. CR-96-549Z) in which
the judge modified the terms of Mr. Valrey (a Rastafarian) supervised release. The court
allowed his personal use and possession of marijuana exclusively in connection with the
practice of his religion. United States District Judge Thomas S. Zilly signed the Order on
Feb. 22, 2000 (Western District of Washington at Seattle)
For the above reasons , the Court MODIFIES the conditions of Mr. Valrey's
supervised release. The Court will allow Mr. Valrey's personal use and possession of
marijuana exclusively in connection with his practice of his religion. Mr. Valrey shall (1)
self report his marijuana use (affirming that such use is in the context of his continuing
participation in the Rastafarian religion), (2) undergo regular urine testing for controlled
substances, (3) report monthly, (4) submit to periodic criminal history checks, and (5)
comply with all of the other conditions of supervision.
I was taught in the EZCC that the sacrament Christ shared with his disciples was
cannabis. Take eat this is my body, this is my blood, do this as often as you will in
remembrance of me. As long as cannabis is used in remembrance of what Christ stood
for -to love one another- to do unto others as you would have them do unto you- to
forgive one another- to pray for one another- etc., it is lawful.
The Catholic Church was allowed its sacramental use of wine during prohibition.
It is my understanding that they were allowed to possess, manufacture, transport,
distribute and use their sacrament without government interference.
I do believe that cannabis is a gift of God, the sacrament that Christ shared with
his disciples, and the Biblical tree of life for the healing of the Nations-all EZCC
teachingsNow I find myself alone with no organized structure, no elders other then myself,
but with beliefs and the use of cannabis as a practice. How do I use cannabis? As often
as I will in remembrance of Christ. Like Christ I should have the lawful right to find
disciples and to share my sacrament with them. At the current time I have offered to
confine my practice to my home or the home of another that believes the same as myself.
At the current time I have no real need of any great amount of sacrament. However
religions and churches do grow. As times change and the sacrament becomes more
accepted, whether medical, religious or for its commercial applications I may decide to
buy land, make a church building and institute prayer services to the public. At that time I
will notify the DEA of my intention. At the current time I see no need for the
importation or exportation of cannabis. If that changes I will notify the DEA.
If you did not have the power to grant an exemption you would not ask for
religious users to send Petitions. What I am asking for is easy for the DEA to do. Grant
me a religious exemption for growing, possession, sharing in my home and carrying
enough for personal use. A number of states already allow this for medical use and the
federal government has said they will not interfere with that.
It is my understanding that the federal government currently supplies 300 joints a
month to each of five compassionate use patients and that these patients are allowed to
smoke pretty much any time they have the need. See attached exhibit. Orlando Sentinel
article of Nov. 28, 2002 “Stockbroker uses pot to ease pain with Uncle Sam's blessing.”
If a law allows secular exemptions government must have a compelling reason for
refusing religious exemptions. Lukumi, 508 U.S. at 537. Thus, where a rule requiring
police officers to be clean-shaven had an exemption for medically motivated beards
Lukumi required an exception for religiously motivated beards. Fraternal Order of
Police v. City of Newark, 170 f. 3d 359, 366 (3rd Cir.) cert. denied 120 S. Ct. 56
(1999)
We are not talking about a dangerous substance. The federal governments own
National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse 1972 recommended that the
possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense. It also recommended
that casual distribution of small amounts for no renumeration or insignificant
renumeration not involving profit would no longer be an offense. The recommendation
was endorced by the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, the
American Association for Public Health, the National Education Association and the
National Council of Churches.
The DEA's own administrative law judge Francis Young In Marijuana
Rescheduling Petition 1988 found marijuana in its natural state to be one of the safest
therapeutic substances known to man and that no one has ever overdosed. He also
recommended that it be rescheduled to schedule II.
I am asking for no more then what is being allowed under medical use. I would
like to grow up to ten plants in the privacy of my home, to share that with like minded
individuals in the privacy of my home or in the privacy of their home, to be able to carry
up to an ounce, to be able to practice my religion in a national forest, to do that at any
time when moved by the spirit or when in communion with others. Where ever two or
three are gathered together in my name I am there to bless them and do them good.
What is the DEA's compelling interest in total prohibition of cannabis when that
is not the status quo.? Thirteen states currently make provision for medical use and
another 10 have decriminalized small amounts. For years Alaska has allowed the growing
and private use in the privacy of ones home. California is going to vote next year on the
complete legalization of cannabis. The majority of the citizens of this country support
medical marijuana and close to 50 percent outright legalization.
What I am proposing is no threat to health and safety. Your job concerns
diversion and control of dangerous substances. You need not worry about cannabis.
There are many dangerous drugs including legal pharmaceuticals that are being abused
and causing much suffering and death. If total legalization or country wide medical use is
allowed the DEA will be able to concentrate on the truly dangerous substances.
I solemnly swear under penalty of perjury that the foregoing information is correct.
I leave you in One Love
Jeff A. Brown
dated Jan. 14, 2010.
I sent this revised petition certified mail and it was received. I received no
reply.
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