"Follow the smoke toward the riff-filled land." -Sleep
“No other plant has been with humans as long as hemp. It is most certainly one of humanity's oldest cultural objects. Wherever it was known, it was considered a functional, healing, inebriating, and aphrodisiac plant. Through the centuries, myths have arisen about this mysterious plant and its divine powers. Entire generations revere it as sacred: the power of hemp has been praised in hymns and prayers.” -Christian Ratsch
"The Gates of Delirium" by Roger Dean
Ancient Usage of Bhang
In the Ancient world, ranging from Zoroastrianism in the Middle East (Bhang), Scythian (Haoma), Vedic (Bhang/Soma), Egyptian (Shemshemet) and Mesopotamian Religions, as well as Hebrew, Roman, Greek, and even very early Christianity, power plants were used to access indescribable states of being, glimpsing etheric realms and accessing other-worldly states of consciousness, administered by priests using secret recipes that has become a major topic of debate among modern scholars. In Vedic religions, the power plants were mixed into a drink commonly called "Soma" or "Bhang". Gordon Wasson, later discovered as a close associate of banking conglomerate J.P. Morgan, was a major proponent during the 1970s that Soma was none other than the Fly Agaric mushroom, which led decades of scholars to focus on this misleading idea. However, recent excavations have revealed that secret rooms at the backs of temples were used for grinding cannabis with mortar and pestle, as Chris Bennett exhaustively proves in his epic 500-paged guidebook Cannabis and the Soma Solution. For example, in Greek cultures, smoke-diviners were called Kapnobatae, three types of which were:
Kapnobates: Smoke walker
Kapnomantis: Smoke diviner
Kapnoauges: Smoke-seer
Kapnomancy: Divination by smoke.
Bennett writes: "The kapnobatae were Thracian shamans who accessed their trance through the medium of an inspiring smoke and there can be little doubt that this was Cannabis and the other terms designate similar phenomena.” Another usage is known as fumigation, where Scythians were known to retreat to an area called High Altai to purify burials after the death of loved ones using smoke as the purifying element.
J. M. Campbell explains further uses of cannabis in On the Religion of Hemp:
“To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy. A guardian lives in the bhang leaf... the bhang leaf is the home of the great Yogi or brooding ascetic Shiva. To forbid or even seriously to restrict the use of so holy and gracious a herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to the 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 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 [Sanskrit for "Illusion"] 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 having of self and receives him into the ocean of Being. ”
Bernart Amygdalah Digital Art
Recipes for Bhang varied across time and cultures, but enough evidence has been found in recent years to pinpoint four major ingredients of Bhang, including Syrian Rue, Opium, Hashish, and Ephedra, and sometimes Wine. Recently, the oldest cookbook ever was found to contain a recipe for a cannabis beverage. Because the recipes were kept a secret among the priest class, there is no consensus on an official recipe. As author Lise Manniche points out, “...For it was among the priests that the medicinal properties of plants was cultivated.”
Time-Altering Effects Through The Ages
Ancient uses of cannabis have unknowingly shaped many modern day traditions, including the grim reaper, who actually represents how the experience of time is radically altered when perceived while under its influence. Chris Bennett writes:
“A common effect noticed by novice users of cannabis is a differentiation in the usual experience of time; i.e. “It seemed like an hour but it was only a minute,” or vice versa. Noticing a difference in the experience of linear time may have well played a role in the conception and formulation of the idea of time itself (Likewise, a deeper awareness of seasonal time may have developed alongside agricultural). Interestingly, both Father Time and the Grim Reaper hold a scythe, an ancient tool used for harvesting cannabis whose imagery and name go back to the Scythian cult of the Dead, who used hemp for ritual ecstasy. In the ancient world, such an effect on the experience of time [enhanced] cannabis' reputation for containing magical properties."
With time wriggled loose from its false and constricting grip, the Bhang-user becomes imbued with an overload of inspiring images and profound communion with the heavens. .Researcher Ahmet Karamustufa, author of God's Unruly Friends, writes:
"Hashish was a means to find respite from the unreal phenomena of time and space and to attain the hidden nature of reality."
When returning from their voyage to euphoric states, the Bhang user would be enraptured with uplifting sensations. According to John Porter:
“The first intention of Hasheesh was evidently not as a stimulant. It was intended as a 'spiritual' soporific, producing that quiescence of a soul so dear to Orientals, and known throughout all the regions under Arabian influence by the name of “Kaif (Keef)” These found a higher power in the drug- that of raising the imagination until it attained to a beatified realization of the joys of a future world.”
Initiation Using Cannabis
Worship of the Tree of Life dates back to early Babylonian, Mayan, and most likely pre-history civilizations. The Tree of Life refers to a state of immortality, which the effects of Bhang/Soma were known to induce, and cannabis was often secretly considered the Tree of Life. The experience was so profound that initiates had to reach this stage. Riane Elser writes that: “Like the tree of life the tree of knowledge was … a symbol of the goddess in earlier mythology … groves of sacred trees were an integral part of the old religions so were rites designed to induce worshippers a consciousness receptive to the revelation of divine or mystical truths-rites."
Oliver Bland writing in 1920 explains:
“In the mystery schools the initiate “died,” but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state of stupor or deep trance brought about by the fumes of keef.”
Bennett writes: “Like the temple gardens of the Assyrians, where the “Tree of Life” was reputed to grow, the Egyptians likely cultivated Shemshemet (Bhang) and other sacred plants.”
Mesopotamian Frieze of the Tree of Life
Of the nomadic Dervishes, Bennet writes: "The effects of the drug are produced much more rapidly when it is smoked than when it is eaten. Subjectively, it produces an extraordinary dislocation of the ideas of time, space and the personality. It seems that all those present in the assembly are in a reality animated by one spirit and that the barricades of personality and individuality are, in some inexplicable way, broken down. It is this sensation or illusion which is specially craved after the Dervishes, who found there is a foretaste for Nirvana, or absorption into the universal spirit."
In Latin American countries, herbsmen are referred to as Curanderos. Juan Flores Salazar speaks of his experience as a Curandero: "The spirits of plants move about the world talking with one another, and if you (meditate) sincerely with them they teach this art. For a curandero, plants sustain life....plants, with their roots in the soil and their branches spreading to the sky, act as bridges between the worlds."
Cynic's "Traced in Air" Inner Jacket by Robert Venosa
Persian shamans predicted much of later Christianity while on the effects of Bhang. Bennet writes: “In fact, many such Christian beliefs such as Heaven and Hell, a coming savior, the devil, all have their origins in ancient persian tradition. The ancient Persian shamans who have the visions in which these concepts originally occurred, were stoned out of their gourds on psychedelic doses of cannabis when they had them. In fact, the Persian Magi were so adept at use of magical plants that they have been referred to as the Great Drug Peddlers of the Ancient World.”
Filling the void left by the modern era's lack of Bhang, 1970s metal bands like Black Sabbath have tipped their hat to cannabis through songs such as Sweet Leaf, down-tuned and distorted in a stoned haze, have inspired generations afterwards to tap into the "stoner metal" resonance and create music in a ceremonial dirge. Twenty years later, Mythical stoner doom metal band Sleep (composed of members Al Cisneros, Chris Hakius, and Matt Pike) have churned out an epic 1-Hour and 3-minute long song entitled "Dopesmoker", telling in archaic words of a planet whose sole function is the cultivation and worship of hemp. The lyrics are incomplete, like a fractured relic or Rosetta stone. The lyrics that are decipherable, however, yield copious wisdom towards a peaceful world:
"Herb bails tied to the backs of beasts
Rides out believer with the spliff aflame
Marijuanaut escapes Earth to cultivate
Groundation soul finds trust upon smoking hose
Assembled creedsmen rises prayer-filled smoke."
The music literally resonates in a cannabis-induced trance - exactly how it was recorded. On the inside of the album, they give simple instructions to their fans: 'So get high, Crank it up, and Listen with open ears and open mind -Sleep.'
