Religious (Sacramental or Spiritual) Entheogen Cannabis

• Published on August 21, 2019

 

Shafeek Sandy Sanbar

Physician & Attorney, Adjunct Professor Medical - Legal Education. - OUHSC

1 article Following

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Religious (Sacramental or Spiritual) Entheogen Cannabis

Compiled by S. Sandy Sanbar, MD, PhD, JD, FCLM

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For thousands of years, cannabis and other psychoactive drugs[1] were used to induce religious, sacred and spiritual experiences. Religious cannabis (Marijuana, Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, THC) is an ‘entheogen’, in contrast to ‘medicinal’ or ‘recreational’ cannabis. Regardless of name, THC affects brain function and alters perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior.

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In Exodus 30:23 of the Bible, God directed Moses to make a holy oil composed of “myrrh, sweet cinnamon, kaneh bosm and kassia”. The root kan has two meanings in many Ancient languages; hemp and reed. In the original Hebrew Bible, kaneh bosm meant hemp (cannabis plant). Cannabis, as a kind of incense, was used in the temples of Assyria and Babylon because it’s aroma was pleasing to the Gods. The Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hebrews, among other Semitic cultures of the Middle East, acquired cannabis from Aryan cultures and have burned it as incense for 3,000 years. 

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Shamans in Northeast Asia transmitted the medical and spiritual uses of cannabis to the ancient Chinese. In ancient China, as in most early cultures, medicine has its origin in magic. Medicine men were practicing magicians. In northeastern Asia, shamanism was widespread from Neolithic down to recent times. Shamans were known in China as wu. This vocation was very common. In the far north, among the nomadic tribes of Mongolia and Siberia, shamanism was widespread and common until rather recent times. In China and Japan, the ingestion of cannabis resin was used for psychoactive, ritualistic purification. After Confucianism, around 500 BC, the rituals were suppressed in both countries.

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Around 2000–1400 BC, cannabis was regarded in India as one of the five sacred plants, which relieved anxiety and had a guardian angel residing in its leaves, according to the Atharva Veda, the knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas. Cannabis was a source of happiness, a joy-giver and liberator. 

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In the Indian subcontinent, bhang is the most commonly consumed beverage form of cannabis in religious festivals. Ganja, consisting of the leaves and the plant tops, is a smoked form of cannabis. The charas, or hashish, form consists of the resinous buds and/or extracted resin from the leaves of the marijuana plant.

In 1008 BC, the Indian king, Vallabha-raja, believed that the gods sent hemp to the human race so that they might attain delight, lose fear and have sexual desires.

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Cannabis brought down from the Himalayas was often consumed in devotional meetings, weddings or festivals honoring Shiva (Mahdeva – the great god), who was a supreme being within Shaivism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. 

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In Tantric Buddhism, a large oral dosage of cannabis is taken to facilitate meditation and heighten awareness of all aspects of their rituals or ceremony.

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Both early Greek history and modern archeology show that Central Asian peoples were utilizing cannabis 2,500 years ago.

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Mexican, Mayan and Aztec cultures used cannabis, along with magic mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote (mescaline) and other psychoactive plants in cultural shamanic and religious rituals. Certain Mexicans leave bundles of cannabis on church altars in religious ceremonies to be consumed by the attendees.

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Some Protestant churches and Jewish factions in America have supported the use of medicinal cannabis. But a number of religions prohibit the use of ‘intoxicants’, including Christians, Islam, Buddhism, Bahai, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Scientology, Sikhism and others.   According to the catechism of the Catholic Church, “The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.”[2]

The Sunni Islam considers cannabis to be permissible by the Bukhari laws. The Quran does not directly forbid cannabis. Some modern Islamic leaders state that medical cannabis, but not recreational, is permissible in Islam.

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Many churches and ministries founded in North America during the past century treat cannabis as a sacrament, including the Church of Cognizance, the Church of the Universe, the Church of Cognitive Therapy (COCT Ministry), the Santo Daime church, the THC Ministry, Cantheism, the Cannabis Assembly, Temple 420, Green Faith Ministries, the Free Marijuana Church of Honolulu, the First Cannabis Church of Florida World Wide, the Free Life Ministry Church of Canthe, the Church of Higher Consciousness, the inFormer Ministry Collective of Palms Springs, CA, the Temple of the True Inner Light, the First Church of Cannabis Inc. in Indiana, and the International Church of Cannabis in Denver.

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The Rastafari religion is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It uses cannabis as a sacred herb. It brings the users closer to God (Jah), and allows them to penetrate the truth of things more clearly.

In Mexico, followers of the growing cult of Santa Muerte regularly use marijuana smoke in purification ceremonies, with marijuana often taking the place of incense used in mainstream Catholic rituals.

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In California, organizations holding religious services claim they should be able to sell pot as “sacrament” and be exempt from paying taxes. Others say it is an excuse to run unlicensed dispensaries.[3] For example, Hundred Harmonies’s Protestant church has a fully-stocked, unlicensed marijuana dispensary, with strawberry pot gummies, glass jars of Versace OG buds, and $30 mega-blunts in a display case labeled “Sacrament.” The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department seized $30,000 of weed in a 2017 raid on Hundred Harmonies. The church’s parent organization, the Association of Sacramental Ministries, sued the county, claiming religious discrimination. In 2019, the movement for religious marijuana continues to grow in size and fervor.

 

References:

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[1] Peyote (mescaline), psilocybin and Amanita muscaria mushroom, oipioids, pipe uncured tobacco, bupropion, cannabis and hashish, ayahuasca, Salvia divinorum, iboga, and Mexican morning glory, cocaine, crack cocaine, methylphenidate, ephedrine, MDMA (ecstasy), LSD blotter, among other psychoactive drugs.

[2] http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a5.htm #2291

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_and_religion