#fun fact: lotus has sedative and calming properties when ingested

[acearohippo]

Tang Xuan smells like peaches.

Li Ling smells like lotus.

They both have the thought "I wonder if he tastes like..."

[thefatfeministwitch]

It's Kushcraft! Weed in Witchcraft

Today is 420 – the official weed holiday for people who love weed. Thanks to a group of teens (bless ’em) in San Rafael California who used to meet up after school to get baked, April 20th has become a day for stoners every where to partake in and brag about illicit drug use. No, it’s not in any way related to Bob Marley and the fact that it’s Hitler’s birthday has nothing to do with weed.

It’s not just fun and games for everyone, though, many cannabis activists use today to fight for their right to medicate or fully enjoy cartoons made for grown ups and considering the Canadian government has recently released a first look at the legislation for the upcoming legalization of cannabis in Canada I’d say weed is really getting shit done these days.

I wrote, and podcasted, about this subject once before – check out Weed, Women & Witches here

This is because, all jokes aside, Cannabis is an incredibly powerful and magickal plant that could be worked into your witchcraft, whether you smoke it or not.

Magickal Mystical Marijuana!

Cannabis has been used as a medicine and in ritual and religion for thousands of years. Archeological sites in Romania from 5000 years ago point to the people there using cannabis as a religious incense for generations even before that point. It found its way into Chinese herbal medicine via Emperor Shen-Nung and was prescribed for everything from menstrual problems, to constipation and even malaria. A Taoist priest also once described its spiritual uses in divination and necromancy. An ancient european tribal people, the Scythians, also heavily featured Cannabis in their death rituals by throwing stalks of the plant onto a fire after the funeral to pay homage and honour their fallen leaders. In ancient Mesopotamia the aroma of cannabis or hemp was believed to be pleasing to the gods. In ancient Egypt, it was featured in death rituals and was believed to have been a creation of the sun god Ra. Topical healing salves made from Cannabis were popular all over the ancient world, and some scholars believe that Jesus’s healing miracles can actually be attributed to weed!

Why is this important? Look, I’m not going to tell you what you should believe or feel about weed and legalization, or that smoking a joint and watching cartoons is an inherently spiritual experience, but there is ton of historical evidence that cannabis is magickal and powerful. As with any kind of herb or spell though, it’s all about intent.

The Sketchiest Herb of All!

Planets: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter

Zodiac Signs: Capricorn, Gemini

Elements: Earth and Water

Deities: Ra, Pan, Dionysus, Osiris, Shiva, Isis, Bastet, Hestia, Venus, Freyja

Uses: Magickal magnification, manifestation, programming, healing, money and abundance, clearing negative energy, love and sex, protection, sleep, death, communication with spirits, cursing and binding, meditation

Cannabis, magickally speaking, is like an herbal quartz crystal. It can serve multiple purposes based on your intent and “programming” of it. It also serves as a magickal amplifier and catalyst to beef up regular spells and energy! You can add the dried leaves or flowers to incense blends, mojo bags, herbal sachets, salts and other powders to amplify your intent and help you manifest your goals more quickly. Burn the herb on its own or along with things like sage, lavender, sweetgrass, or palo santo to help cleanse the area of negative energy.

Of course, you can’t ignore weed’s psychoactive properties! If you don’t want to smoke or ingest drugs that is totally up to you and you should never feel like you have to be a witch, but if you are already a regular user I’m sure you’re aware of the physical side effects. Cannabis can put you into a very relaxed state, physically and/or mentally, and is great for use right before meditation and divination. It’s psychoactive properties plus it’s long history as a ritual and magickal aid will help you truly relax and open up spiritually, if that’s your intention.

Smoke ‘Em if You Get ‘Em

The most popular use of Cannabis, by far, is smoking. The psychoactive chemical in weed that gets you high, THC, is activated by heat and fat and alcohol soluable. That makes smoking one of the easiest ways to use it. Anything you do in your mundane life can be a magickal act if you want it to be, and smoking is no different. Use weed’s calming and relaxing effect as part of your meditation ritual, before divination or spellwork, to initiate ritual, or with other members of your coven. (I swear to god if you call it a peace pipe and you’re not native I will astral project there and cuss you out though). Here are a few ways to incorporate a little kushcraft into the simple act of smoking a bowl.

💚 Pay attention to the strain! I know not everyone who buys and smokes weed knows exactly what strain they’re buying, and that’s ok! Most of the time the person selling it can at least tell you if it’s “heady” or gives a “body buzz”, which means it’s either and Indica or a Sativa. Indica is the body buzz, and tends to me much more calming and sedative. This is great for healing, self love, protection, meditation, and psychic work. Sativa strains are great for high energy spells and magick like love and lust, luck and money, creativity, curses, and hexes.

💚 Mix in other magickal herbs! This seems like a fairly simple idea, but if you think about it do you actually know other herbs you can smoke? Always be careful when smoking or ingesting ANY herb or plant and if you are in any way unsure about its safety, bail out immediately. Lots of herbs used for magick and witchcraft are safe to smoke and even eat, but just as many can have negative effects when smoked or are just outright poisonous. Some can also interfere with medications you’re taking (St John’s Wort interferes with many anti-depressants!), and some are only harmful if you’re pregnant or nursing (like mugwort, which is otherwise safe to consume) so don’t go forward without knowing what herb you’re using and how it works.

Smoking magickal herbs is much like burning them in incense or in a smoke cleansing ceremony, but you’re also taking that energy directly into yourself. Most of the herbs I recommend trying won’t actually make you high or affect how the weed makes you feel at all, but they will change the taste and smell of your smoke.

Lavender is good for healing, relaxation, and sleep

Rose petals are included in magick for love and beauty

Damiana will increase the calming and relaxing effects of the weed, and magickally is a strong inducer of lust and passionate love

Mullein is used for communicating with spirits and protecting oneself from evil spirits

Blue Lotus petals again will increase the euphoric feeling of the weed and is used for lunar magick, divination, connections with deities and opening (your mind, doors, the way, etc)

Wormwood and Mugwort can both be used for divination, magick, protection and psychic powers

Mint and peppermint are incredibly useful! Not only do they lend a refreshing minty flavour to the smoke, but mint is used for everything from good luck, money, energy, love, protection, travel, and clearing negativity

Ground cloves smell amazing, clear negative energy, attract money, stop gossip and have sexy vibes (to me anyways).

Red raspberry leaves are a common ingredient in tea for people with uteri to help ease symptoms of PMS and facilitate birth. Magickally, they lend power to those who identify as women, offer protection, and bring on feelings of love for the women in your life.

Catnip is good if you’re working with a familiar. Be sure to share it with them, though! This herb will help make the energy in the space more welcoming to your familiar, make you more open to communicating with them, and attracts goodness and happiness. Special bonus: smoking catnip relieves period cramps super quick

Motherwort can be used to help induce astral travel, channeling, and increasing psychic awareness. It’s also a protective herb that helps you feel confident and trust in the universe. It’s great before ritual to help with both anxiety and getting in a magickal head space.

When it comes to actually blending it together, I like the instructions given HERE, but even if you take a small amount of your cannabis and add in small portions of your chosen herbs you should be able to smoke it just fine. If you want to roll your herbal mixture into joint or cigarettes I suggest following the formula with the cannabis as your base herb. As you mix your blend focus on your intent and infuse that energy and intent into the mixture. When you light it, treat it with the same reverence you would a magickal candle. Feel or visualize the energy of the herbs you’re smoking surrounding you and filling your space and lungs with their energy.

💚 Cast your circle with weed! You’ll have to ask your other coven mates if this is ok, and be completely honest. Tricking anyone into ingesting drugs is illegal and unethical to the max. Get comfortable in a circle and bring your weed, any herbs you want to include, and everything you need to smoke as a group. I like adding blue lotus, mugwort, damiana, and motherwort for these purposes as they all help with opening, magick, and psychic energy. Pass the pipe/joint around clockwise/deosil to each member of the coven as you call the quarters or open the circle. Be sure to surround yourselves with the smoke to cleanse yourself and the space. (If you’ve never cast a circle before, here’s a simple little guide!)

💚 Draw sigils on rolling papers! Start with a natural and NON-TOXIC ink and draw your sigils and magickal symbols onto your papers before rolling them and smoking them. Burning the paper a sigil is drawn on is the number one way of activating them, which makes them perfect for this. As you smoke your joint visualize your wish or intent being released into the world/universe/god’s hands/whatever and cunt on cannabis’s powerful energy or manifestation to bring that to you.

💚 Channel your inner kitchen witch! Did you know that apples are a common ingredient in love spells and love magick? Making a pipe out of an apple just got a little more magickal didn’t it? You can also work your kitchen witchery into magickal and medicinal edible foods. Though it won’t get you high, you can also get the magickal effects of cannabis in teas and salads. Smoking out of an apple would be especially appropriate around Mabon and Samhain, since the apple is associated with this time and it’s a popular time for spirit communication.

Magic Rocks to pair with your Sketchy Herb!

What’s a sketchy herb without a magic rock to back it up, am I right? There are a couple of ways to use what you already know and do with crystals to make your smoking experience more pleasant, and also infuse it with some truly magical energy.

💚 First you can create crystal grids, or even just charge your weed with crystals while you’re not smoking it. If you grow the plants yourself you can stick certain crystals in the pot it’s growing in, the soil around it, or add crystal elixirs to its water supply. Avoid anything like malachite, which can be toxic to humans, or anything that might leave debris in your herb if it’s something you’re going to smoke or eat. Charging or clearing your weed with a crystal ensures that any negativity attached to herb from either the dealer or the production (which can be rife with corruption, greed, and human exploitation depending on where it comes from) and also injects whatever vibe you’re trying to get out of the weed into it. The weed also will cleanse and clear your crystals in return. If you want to clear your crystals and there’s no full moon coming, mindfully exhale over your crystals next time you’re smoking.

A few good candidates to charge your weed are:

Clear quartz – the crystal version of weed. It can be used for any purpose and is the ultimate healer and cleanser

Amethyst – divination or psychic work, or reducing anxiety and promoting restful sleep

Citrine – happiness, confidence and good luck

Rose Quartz – love, self-love, gentle affection

Moonstone – full moon magick, goddess connection, safety while traveling

Fluorite – mental clarity, psychic work, and calming anxiety

Obsidian – protection, scrying, working with spirits, absorbing negativity

Green aventurine – good luck, money, success

Garnet – depression, suicidal ideation, self confidence

Carnelian – fire, energy, passion, creativity, sex

💚 Now I want you to take all of those reasons it’s great to combine your weed with crystals and times them by a thousand when you learn CRYSTAL PIPES EXIST. Not only will the pipe have the benefits you see above, but because they’re often carved into points these crystals make excellent wands and energy conductors! If you like the circle casting idea above, imagine how great it would be with a ceremonial amethyst pipe? One that’s only used in ritual and blessed for that purpose! If you regularly do love or money spells for others, look into using a rose quartz or aventurine pipe. I also like the idea of a moonstone pipe for use during special cosmic occasions.

Plus they’re so pretty!

Hemp

The distinction between hemp and Mary Jane is a line that tends to get blurred, indeed it’s a little hazy. It’s really just semantics. Hemp and Marijuana are both Cannabis, but hemp has been bred and grown (yes, genetically modified) specifically for fibers and food and other uses but not to be an intoxicant. Basically the difference is legality and THC. If you’re not into breaking the law where you are, or aren’t into weed’s psychoactive benefits legal hemp can be used in its place.

I will say that, in my own opinion, hemp tends to have a more earthy and stable energy than its flighty counterpart. while weed definitely has earth vibes, it’s mysticism and tendencies for mayhem make it better for more metaphysical pursuits while I like hemp for more mundane things. Though both versions of cannabis can help attract wealth and abundance, I find hemp more appropriate for this purpose since it’s an incredibly profitable cash crop. I also find eating hemp hearts very nurturing and stabilizing, as opposed to mind altering.

💚 Hemp twine has a number of uses like knotwork or a witch’s ladder, it can be used in binding spells and rituals, and are great for wrapping your herb bundles for burning. You can also get hemp twine specifically for lighting pipes, cigarettes, and bongs so your magickal smoking ritual can do double duty.

💚 Use hemp paper for writing spells, activating sigils, and in your book of shadows. Use that magickal manifestation power!

💚 Put hemp oil in baths or on your skin, include it in flying ointments, room sprays, and floor washes. You can use this in all the same ways you’d use any other magickal oil.

💚 Use hemp cord and fabric to wrap and protect your magickal items, increase the potency of a sachet or mojo bag, create handles for your brooms or wands, create dream pillows, and even cleanse your body before ritual.

💚 Of course, dried hemp leaves can also be added to incenses and herbal smoking blends but are fully legal and do not contain THC

Other Fun Things

When it comes to working weed into your modern witchcraft, it’s a lot of trial and error and spontaneous internet finds. I regularly find great ideas for weed witchcraft on Twitter, Tumblr (especially!), and Pinterest.

💚 Bongs that have water are generally thought to symbolize the elements with the water inside, the smoke for air, the lighting for fire, and the herb for earth with you as the spirit.

💚 Speaking of bongs, try adding magickal water to yours! I don’t recommend anything with artificial perfumes but flower essences and crystal elixirs only require a few drops and I love the idea of using full moon water.

💚 The water in a bong that’s been used a few too many times is truly putrid and is an excellent addition to curses and hexes. Even just splashing that nasty stuff on someone’s house could be a curse if you will it. This is honestly one of my favourite tips.

💚 Orgonite is an interesting metaphysical tool that combines organic materials like crystals, or in this case a cannabis leaf, with inorganic materials like resin and metal, to create a cleansing tool that rids yourself or an object of negative energy. It often comes in the form of a pyramid or a plate, like mine. If you’re a fan of beat writers like Jack Kerouac or William S Burroughs you might have heard of it before in a mainly sexual context with some sketchy overtones. Orgonite can include any crystals or materials and be for any purpose! This one is used for cleansing or charging items and magnifying the energy of any spells I think need it.

💚 Save the ashes from your smoke to include in black salt, and other spells that include ashes. You might also find the ashes to be a better way to include cannabis in things like mojo bags, since they don’t have such an incriminating smell. Finally, you can put the ashes into your garden to bless your plants and accelerate growth!

I bet you thought you wouldn’t learn anything today, didn’t you?

So smoke up, witches! Maybe if we all get high and cast a pizza delivery spell at the same time we can all avoid the munchies!

  sources

Using Weed in Witchcraft – Tumblr

Making Herbal Smoking Blends

Herbal Smoking Blend Recipe

Magickal Properties of Hemp by AarTiana from Llewellyn Wiccan Almanac 2007

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham

The Pot Book: The Complete Guide to Cannabis by Julie Holland M.D.