Holy pot has been smoked by Goddess worshippers since
before history, and was first banned by those who sought to subjugate
feminine spirituality.
In
most ancient hunter-gatherer societies, women balanced the male’s
supply of game with their collected harvest from the surrounding wilderness.
Women therefore became the first to learn the secrets of plants and
how they propagated themselves. This knowledge led to the development
of agriculture and the evolution from the animal totems of the hunter-gatherers
to images of the Great Mother, who with proper worship produced her
abundant harvest in the same way that women produced children. 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
intricately associated with Goddess worship in many cultures, throughout
history.
KALI-MA
The most ancient goddess still worshiped in the world today is the
Indian Kali-Ma, the Mother of Life and Death. Her worship stretches
back into pre-history, and is believed to predate that of her better
known consort Shiva, the longest continually worshiped god on earth.
Both Shiva and Kali are strongly associated with marijuana. Kali is
generally depicted with a girdle of human arms and a necklace of skulls
and represents the dark aspect of the goddess trinity of virgin-mother-crone.
Both ancient and modern devotees of Kali partake of marijuana in various
forms as a part of their worship. Devotional ceremonies to Kali involve
cannabis ingestion and ritual sex, which is directed at raising the
Kundalini energy from the base of the spine up into the higher centres
of the brain.
Other Pot-Goddesses
The worship of Kali, under various names, extended into the ancient
Near East, and cannabis was also used by many of the worshippers of
Kalis ancient Near East, and cannabis was also used by many of the
worshippers of Kalis ancient world counterparts. Kali is the Hindu
counterpart of the ferocious and sensual Canaanite goddess Anath,
(part of a similar trinity with Ashera and Astarte) who is also described
with “attached heads to her back, girded hands to waist.” In ancient
Germany, marijuana was used in association with Freya, the slightly
tamer Kali- like goddess of Love and Death.
Scythian Hempsters
It is generally accepted that it was the horseback-riding Scythians
who spread the combination of cannabis and goddess worship throughout
much of the ancient world. Amazon-like Scythian women fought alongside
their warrior mates, and that these “Hells Angels” of the ancient
world were known to have used cannabis in funeral rites, doing so
in veneration of their own variation of the Goddess Mother of Life
and Death, Rhea Krona. Showing cannabis strong ties with Scythian
mythology, 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 Father Time and the Grim Reaper still carrying Rhea Kronas
ancient hemp harvesting tool.
The Tree Of Life
In a cave where an ancient urn was found that had been used by the
Scythians for burning marijuana, there was also a massive felt rug,
which measured 5 by 7 meters. The carpet had a border frieze with
a repeated pattern of a horseman approaching the Great Goddess and
the Tree of Life is also found amongst other cultures with whom the
Scythians came into contact. The Ancient Canaanites and also Hebrews
paid particular reverence to the Near Eastern Goddess Ashera, whose
cult was particularly focussed around the use of marijuana. According
to the Bible itself, the ancient worshippers of Ashera included wise
King Solomon and other biblical kings, as well as their wives and
the daughters of Jerusalem. The Old Testament prophets often chastised
them for “offering up incense” to the Queen of Heaven. Like the imagery
on the Scythian carpet, icons dedicated o Ashera also have depictions
of a “sacred-tree”, most likely a reference to the cannabis that her
followers grew and revered, using it as a sacrament, as a food and
oil source, and also using the fibres in ritual weavings.
Eve: Cultural Hero
Among her other titles, Ashera was known as “the Goddess of the
Tree of Life”, “the Divine Lady of Eden” and “the Lady of the Serpent”.
Ashera was often depicted as a woman holding one or more serpents
in her hands. It was Asheras serpent who advised Eve to disobey
the male gods command not to partake of the sacred tree. The historical
record shows that the Old Testament version of the myth of Eve,
the serpent and the sacred tree was concocted as propaganda against
pre-existing Goddess cults. Originally, the outcome of the Eden
myth was not tragic, but triumphant. The serpent brought wisdom,
and after the magic fruit was eaten, Adam himself became a god.
What was originally involved was probably a psychedelic sacrament,
like the Elusian festival in Athens, in which the worshipper ate
certain hallucinogenic foods and became one with the Mother Goddess.
The rites associated with her worship were designed to induce a
consciousness open to the revelation of divine or mystical truths.
In these rites cannabis and other magical plants were used, and
women officiated as priestesses.
Roman Catholic Persecution
In early Christian times, the holy cannabis oil was ingested and used
by many Gnostic Christian sects, in honour of the Queen of Heaven.
With the rise of one of the more harshly ascetic and anti-female Christian
sects in Rome, and the subsequent development of the Roman Catholic
Church , such groups were forced out of existence, along with most
pagan religions and the cult of the Great Mother. The new Church of
Rome followed their Judaic predecessors in naming Eve (the representative
of all women) the Mother of Sin” as well as demonizing magical plants.
Their violent purges of Goddess worship and magical plant use persisted
into medieval times. It has been estimated that over a million female
practitioners of the older Goddess religions were burned as “witches”
for utilizing cannabis, mandrake, belladonna and other plants in their
“flying ointments”.
Even medieval French heroine Joan of Arc was accused of using cannabis,
mandrake and other plants in order to hear the voices which guided
her, and this eventually led the church to commit her to the flames.
Marrying your Goddess
Similar to its use in the spiritual techniques of India, medieval
European occult and alchemical masters used cannabis to aid in the
“Marriage of the Sun and Moon” in the individual. The Sun and Moon
represent the masculine and feminine aspects of the self. Tantril,
Zoroastrian, Gnostic, Alchemical and occult literature all refer
to “marrying your Goddess”, which means connecting an individual’s
feminine and masculine aspects together into a unified force. This
theme appears over and over again in medieval occult literature.
Even the Gnostic Jesus states’ when you make the male and female
one and the same then you will enter the kingdom.”(Gospel of Thomas)
Much like the woman’s liberation movement which has been taking
place in our modern world, individual self completion requires a
similar process to take place in our minds. The feminine aspect,
or right cortex, becomes a full partner with the masculine aspect,
or left cortex. Marijuana use can greatly assist in this process.
Is it any wonder then, that Shiva the Lord of Bhang, was known as
the god who was both man and woman? Or that cannabis has been associated
with worship of the Goddess since antiquity.
Now, as we begin a new millennium,
in what seem to be the death throes of the patriarchy, it is as if
the Goddess is once again reaching out her hand and offering her sacred
Tree of Like to us in our time of collective need. Like so many disobedient
Eves, numerous female figures such as Elvy Mussika, Hilary Black,
Mary Kane, Mountain Woman, The Holy Sisters of Hemp, Mama Indica,
Brownie Mary and many others have decided to challenge the commandments
of the male authorities and once again tempt us with the forbidden
fruits of cannabis. Indeed, it is likely not until we are once again
free to enjoy all the sacred fruits of Mother Earth that the liberation
of the feminine will fully take place, and we can restore Gaia, or
planetary matriarch, back to health.
The androgynous nature
of the human organism is re-emerging into consciousness in new ways
that have evolved from past experience. We are learning to recognize
and differentiate the opposites in our nature. It makes no difference
whether we call these opposites masculine and feminine, creative and
receptive, knowledge and wisdom, competition and cooperation, explosion
and implosion, or Logos and Eros. What is important is that they be
experienced in union as aspects of our own inner self. They are the
self-renewing possibilities of our own individuality. Yoked together,
they can fertilize each other to generate the creativity which is
the potential of human beings.
The return of such female values as cooperation and forbearance is
longed for in a world torn by war and threatened by nuclear disaster,
poverty disease and rape of the land. When the goddess of fertility
is reunited with the god of consciousness; the renewed culture will
have its conception. From -The Yoga of Androgyny, by June –Singer.
MARIJUANA AND THE GODDESS- By Chris Bennet.
