Hi! Do you know anything about the use of drugs (mainly marijuana) in witchcraft? Like certain rituals, symbolism, etc. Thanks so much and I love your blog!
Hello!!
I don’t know of anything specific to weed for witchcraft, but I’m sure there is alot out there and I’d love to learn anything about it myself. Any stoner witches out there - let us know what there is for weed in witchcraft!
-Kiaya
I don’t use it myself, but I recently came across a passage in a book about it. The book is called, “Hecate II: The Awakening of Hydra” by Jade Sol Luna. I did my best to write the section out verbatim, but occasionally the editing in the book causes some confusion, so I had to try to make sense of those areas, though these instances were pretty minor (punctuation, usually).
“The original purpose of cannabis was to remove the veil of this world to enter the next. What ever actions you must take to help you remove this veil is permitted, there is no negative karma in the attempt to realize the self. When cannabis is used for any other purpose it creates a greater veil of ignorance and fuels the shadow self. Cannabis should ONLY be used to pierce the veil! Only the intelligent should consider the use of Cannabis spiritually.” - Jade Sol Luna
In Greece, Hecate was often called Enodia, who in turn was a goddess of witchcraft, drugs and Cannabis in Thessaly (Johnston 24)
Cannabis has been apart of the Goddess in the Mediterranean since the Etruscan time and was first removed by those who sought to eliminate the Goddess from Religion. In most Ancient hunter-gatherer societies in Rome, women balanced the males’ hunting mentality with their shamanistic plants from the surrounding wilderness. Women therefore became the first to learn the secrets of plants and the mystical side of nature.
Cannabis is among humanity’s oldest and most useful cultivated crops, and so it is not surprising to find that cannabis, in all its forms, has been associated with Goddess worship in many cultures throughout history.
Hecate and Cannabis
One of the most ancient goddesses in the Mediterranean still worshiped in the world today is the Mother Hecate, the Goddess of life and death. Hecate is geberally depicted with three heads, and represents the dark aspect of the goddess trinity of virgin-mother-crone. Both ancient and modern devotees of Hecate partake of cannabis in various forms as a part of their worship.
Devotional ceremonies to Hecate involve cannabis ingestion which is directed at raising the power of Hydra from the base of the spine through the Chakras.
Hecate is the Greek counterpart of the ferocious and sensual Canaanite goddess Anath, (part of a similar trinity and Ashera and Astarte) who is also described with “attached heads to her back, girded hands to her waist.”
In ancient Germany, cannabis was used in association with Freya , the slightly tamer Hecate-like goddess of Love and Death.
In Scythian myth Rhea Krona came to reap her children in death with the scythe an agricultural tool named for its Scythian origin, and originally designed for harvesting cannabis. This scythe image has survived through patriarchal times and into our modern day with both Saturn and the Grim Reaper still carrying Rhea Krona’s ancient hemp-harvesting tool.
Ancient shamanic use
Several of the mummies found near Turpan in Xinjiang province of Northwestern China were buried with sacks of cannabis next to them. Based on this, archaeologists concluded that they were shamans: “The cannabis must have been buried with the dead shamans who dreamed of continuing the profession in another world.” The mummies were dated to circa 1,000 BCE.
The early Chinese pharmacopeia Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing referred to magical uses of cannabis such as seeing demons and communicating with spirits. Early Taoists also believed that combining cannabis with ginseng allowed one to see into the future. A 6th-century CE Taoist medical work, Wu Zang Jing, recommended cannabis for seeing demons or spirits, and in this Joseph Needham found evidence for the influence of cannabis in the communications with immortals recorded by a Taoist named Yangxi in the 4th century.
Herodotus wrote: “The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.” What Herodotus called the “hemp-seed” must have been the whole flowering plant, where the psychoactive resin is produced along with the fruit (“seeds”).
Ancient Pagan use
In ancient Germanic culture, cannabis was associated with the Norse love goddess, Freya. The harvesting of the plant was connected with an erotic high festival. It was believed that Freya lived as a fertile force in the plant’s feminine flowers and by ingesting them one became influenced by this divine force. The Celts may have also used cannabis, as evidence of hashish traces were found in Hallstatt, birthplace of Celtic culture. In Greece, Hecate was known as the Goddess of sacred herbs and cannabis was an instrument on experiencing her.
Hindu and Buddhist use
Cannabis was used in Hindu culture as early as 1500 BCE, and its ancient use is confirmed within the Vedas (Sama Veda, Rig Veda, and Atharva Veda).
Cannabis or ganja is associated with worship of the Hindu god Shiva, who is popularly believed to like the hemp plant. Ganja is offered to Shiva images, especially on Shivratri festival. This practice is particularly witnessed at temples of Benares, Baidynath and Tarakeswar.
Ganja is not only offered to the god, but also consumed by Shaivite (sect of Shiva) yogis. Charas is smoked by some Shaivite devotees and cannabis otself is seen as a gift (“prasad,” or offering) to Shiva to aid in sadhana. Some of the wandering ascetics in India known as sadhus smoke charas out of a clay chillum.
During the Hindu festival of Holi, people consume a drink called bhang which contains cannabis flowers. According to one description, when elixir of life was produced from the churning of the ocean by the gods and the demons, Shiva created cannabis from his own body to purify the elixir (whence, for cannabis, the epithet angaj or body-born). Another account suggests that the cannabis plant sprang when a drop of the elixir dropped to the ground. Thus, cannabis is used by sages due to association with elixir and Shiva. Wise drinking of bhang, according to religious rites, is believed to cleanse sins, unite one with Shiva and avoid the miseries of hell in the after-life. In contrast, foolish drinking of bhang without rites is considered a sin.
Researchers claim that in the 5th century BCE Siddhartha ate only hemp seeds fir six years, prior to becoming the Buddha. Cannabis continues to play a significant role in the meditation ritual of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, and has been a practice since 500 BCE when cannabis was regarded as a holy plant.
Ancient Hebraic use
According to Aryeh Kaplan, cannabis was an ingredient in the Holy anointing oil mentioned in various sacred Hebrew texts. The herb of interest is most commonly known as kaneh-bosem is mentioned several times in the Old Testament as a bartering material, incense, and an ingredient in Holy anointing oil used by the high priest of the temple.
The Septuagint (300 BCE) translates kaneh-bosem as calamus, and this translation has been propogated unchanged to most later translations of the Torah (1500 BCE+). However, Polish anthropologists Sula Benet published etymological arguments that the Aramic word for hemp can be read as kannabos and appears to be a cognate to the modern world ‘cannabis’, with the root kan meaning reed or hemp and bosm meaning fragrant. Both cannabis and calamus are fragrant, reed-like plants containing psychotropic compounds. While Benet’s conclusion regarding the psychoactive use of cannabis is not universally accepted among Jewish scholars, there is geberally agreement that cannabis is used in talmudic sources to refer to hemp fibers, as hemp was a vital commodity before linen replaced it.
Muslim use
In Islam, the use of cannabis is deemed to be khamr (intoxicant), and therefore haraam (forbidden).
Although cannabis use in some societies in Islamic countries has been present, often but not exclusively in the lower classes, its use explicitly for spiritual purposes is most noted among the Sufi. According to one Arab legend, Haydar, the Persian founder of the religious order to 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.
Sikh use
The Sikh religion developed in the Punjab in Mughal times. The common use of bhang in religious festivals by Hindus carried over into Sikh practice as well. Sikhs were required to observe Dasehra with bhang , in commemoration of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak.
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report describes the traditional use of cannabis in the Sikh religion.
Among the Sikhs the use of bhang as a beverage appears to be common, and to be associated with their religious practices. The witnesses who refer to this use by the Sikhs appear to regard it as an essential part of their religious rites having the authority of the Granth or Sikh scripture. Witness Sodhi Iswar Singh, Extra Assistant Commissioner, says: “As far as I know, bhang is pounded by the Sikhs on the Dasehra day, and it is ordinarily binding upon every Sikh to drink it as a sacred draught by mixing water with it. Legend–Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, the founder of the Sikh religion, was on the gaddi of Baba Nanak in the time of Emperor Aurangzeb. When the guru was at Anandpur, tahsil Una, Hoshiarpur district, engaged in battle with the Hill Rajas of the Simla, Kagra, and the Hoshiarpur districts, the Rains sent an elephant, who was trained in attacking and slaying the forces of the enemy with sword in his trunk and in breaking open the gates of forts, to attack and capture the Lohgarh fit near Anandpur. The guru gave one of his followers, Bachittar Singh, some bhang and a little of opium to eat, and directed him to face the said elephant. This brave man obeyed the word of command of his leader and attacked the elephant, who was intoxicated and had achieved victories in several battles before, with the result that the animal was overpowered and the Hill Rajas defeated. The use of bhang, therefore, on the Dasehra day is necessary as a sacred draught. It is customary among the Sikhs generally to drink bhang, so that Guru Gobind Singh has himself is said to have said to following poems in praise of bhang: “Give me, O Saki (butler), a cup of green color (bhang), as it is required by me at the time of battle.” Bhang is also used on the Chandas day, which is a festival of the god Sheoji Mahadeva. The Sikhs consider it binding to use it on the Dashera day-The quantity then taken is too small to prove injurious. As Sikhs are absolutely prohibited by their religion from smoking, the use of ganja and charas in this form is not practiced by them. Of old Sikh times, is annually permitted to collect without interference a boat load of bhang, which is afterwards distributed throughout the year to the sadhus and beggars who are supported by the dharamsala.
Rastafari use
Members of the Rastafari movement use cannabis as a part of worshiping of God, Bible study and Meditation. The movement was founded in Jamaica in the 1930s and while it is not known when Rastafarians first made cannabis into something sacred it is clear that by the late 1940s Rastafari was associated with cannabis smoking at the Pinnacle community of Leonard Howell. Rastafari see cannabis as a sacramental and deeply beneficial plant that is the Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible. Bob Marley, amongst many others, said, “the herb ganja is the healing of the nations.” The use of cannabis, and particularly of large pipes called chalices, is an integral part of what Rastafari call “reasoning sessions” where members join together to discuss life according to the Rasta perspective. They see cannabis as having the capacity to allow the user to penetrate the truth of how things are much more clearly, as if the wool had been pulled from one’s eyes. Thus the Rastafari come together to smoke cannabis in order to discuss the truth with each other, reasoning it all out little by little throughout many sessions. They see the use of this plant as bringing them closer to nature. In these ways Rastafari believe that cannabis brings the user closer to Jah, Haile Selassie I, and pipes of cannabis are always dedicated to His Imperial Majesty before being smoked. While it is not necessary to use cannabis to be a Rastafari, some feel that they must use it regularly as a part of their faith. “The herb is the key to new understanding of the self, the universe, and God. It is the vehicle to astronomical consciousness” according to Rastafari philosophy, and is believed to burn the corruption out of the human heart. Rubbing the ashes from smokes cannabis is also considered a healthy practice.
