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Hopi prophecies coming true? well we will be staying on the moon now....

2009-06-20T20:07:17Z

Hopi Prophecies, fullfilled
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1905344,00.html?cnn=yes

Cnn.com right now. Watch that space shuttle live at 5:30pm EST

"And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.

Hopi Elders pass warnings and prophecies from one generation to generation through oral traditions and reference to ancient rock pictographs and tablets.

Hopi Blue Star or Blue Kachina Prophecy

- White Feather of the Bear Clan

An ancient Hopi Indian prophecy states, "When the Blue Star Kachina makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge". This will be the Day of Purification. The Hopi name for the star Sirius is Blue Star Kachina. It will come when the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the plaza and removes his mask.

Hopi Prophecy speaks of twin Kachinas - white and blue. Twin - Merging of Self - Twin Pyramids - DNA - Twin Towers falling.

This is the First Sign: We were told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana -- men who took the land that was not theirs and who struck their enemies with thunder. (Guns)

This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. (Covered wagons)

This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. (Longhorn cattle)

This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron. (Railroad tracks)

This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider's web. (Power and telephone lines)

This is the Sixth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun. (Concrete roads and their mirage-producing effects.)

This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it. (Oil spills)

This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like our people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn our ways and wisdom. (Hippies)

And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of the Hopi people will cease.

These are the Signs that great destruction is here: The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle people in other lands - those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as the white man has made in the deserts not far from here. Those who stay and live in the places of the Hopi shall be safe. Then there will be much to rebuild. And soon, very soon afterward, Pahana will return. He shall bring with him the dawn of the Fifth World. He shall plant the seeds of his wisdom in our hearts. Even now the seeds are being planted. These shall smooth the way to the Emergence into the Fifth World.

Prophecy Rock

We Are All Related By Dr. Allen Ross

There is a sandstone cliff, near second mesa on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. On this cliff is etched a picture of the past, persent, and the future. This site is more commonly known as Hopi Prophecy Rock. The petroglyph depicts the Hopi as emerging from the underground to the surface of the earth. The actual place for this event is a religious site located in the Grand Canyon. The Sioux also say they emerged from underground at a place in the Black Hills known today as Wind Cave.

The story depicted on the prophecy rock continues on by showing how the leading clans of the Hopi migrated in the 4 directions, then turned left---forming a Swastika symbol. The clans that followed migrated in the 4 directions--then turned left---forming reverse Swastika symbol. After journeying in the 4 directions, they were to return to the center. When they reach the center it will be the end of the fourth age.

The Sioux, like the Hopi, traveled in the 4 directions after emerging from the underground. The Sioux also believe that man has evolved through 4 ages, calling them the Age of Fire, Age of Rock, Age of the Bow, and Age of the Pipe. The length of each age is unknown, but the prophecy is that during the time of each age, man would gradually become a "two-heart".

The Hopi Prophecy Rock clearly depicts three "two-heart" individuals. A two-hearted person is one who thinks with his head rather than his heart. This is in reference to the left-brain function of analytical thinking. A person who think with his heart usese the right-brain function of intuitive thinking. Currently modern man is out of balance because we live in a left brained dominated society. We place more emphasis on left-brain modes of thinking vs. right-brain modes of thought.

The Hopi Prophecy Rock shows a junction where the two-hearted people have a choice of choosing to start thinking with their hearts or continue to think with their heads only. If they chose the latter, it will lead to self-destruction; if they chose to think with their hearts they would gradually return to the natural way and their own survival.

On the Hopi Prophecy Rock are 3 circles which represent 3 world-shakings. The story is that people of the Earth would reach a time when they would lose the story of how "we are all related". The Creator would then cause 3 world-shakings to remind the people of our relatedness.

The first world-shaking would be recognized when a bug on ribbon is tossed into the air. This is interpretated as an airplane. The time when airplanes were first used in war was World War I. So World War I would be the first world-shaking.

The second world-shaking would be recognized when man used the Hopi migration symbol (swastika) in war. This was World War II, which is the second world-shaking. The great Oglala Sioux holy man, Nicholas Black Elk, had also foreseen the coming of World War I & II.

The third world-shaking would be recognized by a red cover or cloak.

Could this mean Communist China? Russia?

Sioux Elders tell us that Mother Earth is surrounded by negative energy which is given off by the human brain. One of the reasons for the Sioux Sun Dance is to give thanks to father sun for all he has provided us on Mother earth. By sending good thoughts to the sun, the Sioux could reduce the negative energy.

The Hopi Prophecy story also said that signs of the third-world shaking would be given when:

1. Trees will die. (Acid rain has taken a heavy toll on trees in some areas, but this could also refer to the demise of the rainforest).

2. Man will build a house in the sky. (Space station Mir, or the planned international space station to be built).

3. Cold places will become hot. Hot places will become cold. (Erractic weather patterns and global warming).

4. Lands will sink into the ocean and lands will rise out of the sea.

5. There will be an appearance of the Blue Star Kachina

The constellation of Orion's belt is the area of the sky known to the Sioux as the Heart of the White Buffalo constellation. The White Buffalo legend states that a sacred maiden brought a holy pipe to be used by the Sioux. When she departed she said she would return to help the people when they werer in trouble and turmoil. As she turned to leave she turned into a black buffalo, then a red buffalo, then a yellow buffalo, and finally into a white buffalo. Then she went back up into the clouds.

In August of 1994 a white buffalo was born in Wisconsin. Two more were born in May 1996 in South Dakota. One died but the other lived. Oglala Sioux holy man Dawson No Horse, stated that as we move into the next century, times would be very difficult. Sioux holy man, Black Elk, foresaw the Sacred Hoop of the world's nations coming together soon--- a reference to the thousand years of peace that is to follow the third-world shaking.

Another Hopi Prophecy

- Martin Gasheseoma

Hopi prophecy warns that nothing should be brought back from the Moon. If this were done, the Hopi warned, the balance of natural and universal laws and forces would be disturbed, resulting in earthquakes, severe changes in weather patterns, and social unrest. All these things are happening today, though of course not necessarily because of Moon rocks.

On August 7, 1970, a spectacular UFO sighting was witnessed by dozens of people and photographed by Chuck Roberts of the Prescott Courier. This occurred after a "UFO calling" by several Hopi Indians and was interpreted by some Hopis as being a partial fulfillment of a certain inscribed on Second Mesa, warning of the coming of Purification Day, when the true Hopi will be flown to other planets in "ships without wings."

The survivors of the Great Deluge thousands of years ago split up into four groups that moved in all four directions. Only one group completed their journey -- to the North Pole and back -- under the guidance of a brilliant "star" in which the Great Spirit Massau'u traveled. Upon landing, he drew a petroglyph on Second Mesa, showing a maiden riding in a wingless, dome-shaped craft. The petroglyph signified the coming Day of Purification when the true Hopi will fly to other planets in "ships without wings."

The Hopi also predicted that when the heart of the Hopi land trust is dug up, great disturbances will develop in the balance of nature, for the Hopi holy land is the microcosmic image of the entire planet; any violations of nature in the Four Corners region will be reflected and amplified all over the Earth.

Martin Gasheseoma said recently that Hopi "elders told us that when the plants blossom in the middle of winter, we would need to go to Santa Fe to warn everyone of suffering and destruction to come unless they change their ways. Last year, in the middle of winter the plants began to blossom."

How much suffering and destruction will accompany the time of the purification, and what will be its end result? Martin Gasheseoma foretells judgment in front of a big mirror and death to those who are evil and wicked, with only a handful of people surviving in every nation overseas who will then come to this continent, "which we call heaven."

"All the suffering going on in this country with the tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes is carried on the breath of Mother Earth because she is in pain," says Roberta Blackgoat, an elder of the Independent Dineh (Navajo) Nation at Big Mountain. She explains that the Four Corners area is particularly sacred because it literally holds Mother Earth's internal organs -- coal and uranium which the Bureau of Indian Affairs has allowed the Peabody Coal Mine to mine. "They are trying to take her precious guts out for money," says Blackgoat. "My grandfather told me that coal is like the liver, and uranium is both the heart and lungs of Mother Earth." Hopi and Navajo traditionalists are fighting the mining.

These life and death matters will be determined when Pahana returns, and theories abound as to Pahana's identity. Since Pahana has also been called the White Brother, and since he is to return from the east, Hopi of past centuries wondered whether he could have been a Spaniard or an Anglo and devised tests for determining the true Pahana, including knowledge of the greeting of brotherhood, similarities of religious beliefs, and possession of the missing piece of the stone tablet. Many were tested, including Catholics, Baptists, and Mormons, but none passed to the satisfaction of traditional Hopi.

Dan Evehema, Hopi Elder

The time will come when from the earth will arise a mystic fog which will dilute the minds and hearts of all people. Their guidelines of wisdom and knowledge will falter, the Great Laws of our Creator will dissolve in the minds of people. Children will be out of control and will no longer obey the leaders, immorality and the competitive war of greed will flourish.

When the end is near, we will see a halo of mist around the heavenly bodies. Four times it will appear around the sun as a warning that we must reform, telling us that people of all color must unite and arise for survival, and that we must uncover the causes of our dilemmas. Unless man-made weapons are used to strike first, peace will then come.

So the time will come when we will experience late springs and early frosts, this will be the sign of the returning Ice Age.

We believe militarism is born out of injustice, poverty and ignorance where absolute governments refuse to hear the grievances of minorities. So the people resort to violence, demonstrations and even terrorism when they see no other way to be heard. What can we do when our world leaders and the people are acting like fools in attempts to solve the problems confronting us? Once again we will quote the prophecy of our Elders. We hope it will interest you so that you will be more aware of it because it has been happening for some time.

According to prophecy, the day will come when people in high places will be hunted. This will get out of control. The hunting will gather strength and spread. This situation might even erupt on our land. Finally, this will lead us to the Biblical version of Armageddon (the Hopi version is closely related). A final decisive battle between good and evil. This will occur under one God or Chief. The prophets say we will speak one language and that this will happen in Hopiland, in the village of Oraibi , where the new life plan will be drawn, in the pattern and cycle of religion. Here also a final decision will be made for the wicked. They will be beheaded and speak no more. If this does not materialize there will be a total destruction through the acts of man or nature. Then new life will begin from a girl and a boy. This is a frightening prophecy and will not be supported by many.

It is in the prophecies of the Hopi that in a case like this the Navajo may help our cause. Also the Bahannas or the Paiute Tribe may help. We doubt that the U.S. Government will easily concede our sovereignty.

There are two water serpents, one at each pole with a warrior sitting on his head and tail. These command nature to warn us by her activities that time is getting short, and we must correct ourselves. If we refuse to heed these warnings, the warriors will let go of the serpents; they will rise up, and all will perish.

We are much concerned about the climate. No one seems to be able to predict the weather accurately from day to day. However, we know according to our time markers that it is past due for certain seeds to be planted at their proper time. In recent springs, we were reluctant to plant due to the late snow and cold weather. Once more maybe our ancient prophecy is right, that one day we will plant wearing finger sacks (gloves) clearing away snow with our feet before planting. The summers will become shorter for maturing the corn for harvest. The result is anybody's guess.

The question is, will this occur the world over? This would depend on the geographical areas. In the regions with different climates, things will happen in different ways. For instance, tropical land could become a land of ice, and the Arctic region could become tropical. This need not happen if we, the people, get our leaders to do something about the harmful things being done to the environment.

It is said that, if the future generations find out that we did nothing to preserve the good ways, they might throw us from our houses into the streets. This suffering will be of our own making. The lack of peace in our own spiritual being could trigger the revolution. Our True White Brother might come and find we have forsaken the sacred instructions. Then he will whip us without mercy.

Let us take a look into the future through the eyes of our prophets. Hopi were instructed to tell of the Great Purification just ahead of a time when Humankind would once again become highly civilized, tending to become careless and leading us to self-destruction. They said that, along the way, the industrialized world will have certain problems. People will be uncomfortable because of the changing times, and they will have to make adjustments to find new life styles.

Industrialized nations will become careless in getting more the resources out of the earth. Believing all these things will last forever, soon natural resources will be depleted. Fuel shortages will occur; industrial machinery will come to a standstill. The machinery used for planting, harvesting and transport will become useless. Supermarket shelves will become empty of farm produce. The farmers and those who grow their own food will not sell their produce. Money will become worthless. The white man with all his intelligence and technology will not be able to repair the damage. We will see extraordinary events in Nature and Earth, including humans.

Modern man looks upon old wisdom and knowledge as dead, useless and no longer respected. Modern man depends on the money system and no longer on Mother Earth for food. According to prophecy when this happens Mother Earth will hide her nourishment because of the view that ancient food is poor man's food. When all food disappears, modern man will try to correct his mistake, the conditions he caused upon the earth through his inventions. He will try to achieve some kind of method to heal the wound, but this will not be possible when we reach the point of no return.

The Hopi play a key role in the survival of the human race through their vital communion with the unseen forces that hold nature in balance. The pattern is simple: The whole world will shake and turn red and turn against those who are hindering the Hopi.

This prophecy is related to the Biblical version of that which may yet come to pass. It goes on to say that common people will become concerned and frustrated because of their hectic world. They will be particularly against the bloodthirsty policies and the deceitfulness of the world leaders. The common people the world over will band together to fight for world peace. They will realize that their leaders have failed. People in high places will be hunted down like animals, perhaps through terrorism. In turn leaders will retaliate and begin hunting each other. This condition will gather strength and spread far and wide. It will get out of control the world over. Revolution could erupt on our land.

The liberators will come in from the west with great force. They will drop down from the sky like rain. They will have no mercy. We must not get on the house tops to watch. They will shake us by our ears, like children who have been bad. This will be the final decisive battle between good and evil. This battle will cleanse the heart of people and restore our Mother Earth from illness, and the wicked will be gotten rid of.

If this fails to materialize, our Great Creator through nature will do the task according to their [sic] plans. It could be total destruction in any form. Only brother and sister will survive to begin a new way of life. This prophecy is frightening and doubtful. Perhaps it is of no value to most people.

Eventually a gourd full of ashes would be invented, which, if dropped from the sky, would boil the oceans and burn the land causing nothing to grow for many years. This would be the sign for a certain Hopi to bring out the teachings in order to warn the world that the third and final event would happen soon and could bring an end to all life unless people correct themselves and their leaders in time.

The final stage, called The Great Day of Purification, has been described as a Mystery Egg in which the forces of the Swastika and the Sun plus a third force symbolized by the color red culminate either in total rebirth or total annihilation; we don't know which. But the choice is yours; war and natural catastrophe may be involved. The degree of violence will be determined by the degree of inequity caused among the peoples of the world and in the balance of nature. In this crisis rich and poor will be forced to struggle as equals in order to survive.

The reality that it will be very violent is now almost taken for granted among Traditional Hopi, but man still may lessen the violence by correcting his treatment of nature and fellow man. Ancient, spiritually based communities, such as the Hopi, must especially be preserved and not forced to abandon their wise way of life and the natural resources they have vowed to protect.

The man-made system now destroying the Hopi is deeply involved in similar violations throughout the world. The devastating reversal predicted in the prophecies is part of the natural order. If those who thrive from that system, its money and its laws, can manage to stop destroying the Hopi then many may be able to survive the Day of Purification and enter a new age of peace. But if no one is left to continue the Hopi way, the hope for such an age is in vain.

Since mankind has lost peace with one another through conflict due to the new ways, the Great Spirit, the Great Creator, has punished the people in many ways. Through all of this there was always a small group who survived to keep the original ways of life alive. This small group is comprised of those who adhere to the laws of the Creator, who keep the spiritual path open, out from the circle of evil. According to our knowledge we are not quite out of the circle.

Now we enter the time of testing that only the Great Creator can confirm. The alignment of the planets, we were so kindly informed of by the star watchers has been awaited by the Hopi. As the time nears, the predicted behavior of the people accurately describes the behavior of people in the 1990's. When the end is near, we will see a halo of mist around the heavenly bodies. Four times it will appear around the sun as a warning that we MUST reform.

Ambitious minds will decrease, while the people of good hearts, who live in harmony with the earth, will increase until the earth is rid of evil. If the Hopi are right, this will be accomplished and the earth will bloom again. The spiritual door is open. Why not join the righteous people? The Horny Toad Woman gave Massau'u a promise that she would help him in time of need, saying she too had a metal helmet. After the Hopi have fulfilled their pattern of life, Massau'u will be the leader, but not before, for He is the First and He shall be the Last.

ROBERT GHOST WOLF

Hopi Theory Of Creation

August 1997

Robert has been called a holistic healer, teacher, ceremonial leader, prophet and Shaman. He is an internationally recognized author, speaker and artist. Ghost Wolf is a Metis, part Iroquois and Lakota. He has worked with the Apache, Lakota, Osage, Hopi and Ojibwa elders for many years.

Robert says that ETs are contacting us now. Almost all Native American cultures have ancient prophecies telling of interactions with "Star Brothers" and their coming which they have recorded on petroglyphs.

The Hopi Indians are the Record Keepers of the Native Americans. The Hopis call this the "The Fourth Age of Man". According to them the earth has been wipped clean 3 times already. First by Fire, next by Ice, most recently by the flood... approximately 11,000-12,000 years ago. Some believe that the actual date of the flood occured on June 5, 8498 BC. According to the Hopis we are about to enter "The Fifth Age", which they call "The World of Illumination", which seems to coincide with the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

The Hopis say that there will two more worlds after this. "The Sixth Age" which is "The World of Prophecy and Revelation" and "The Seventh Age" is "The World of Completion".

The Native Americans have been not only the forefathers of we Americans who came to this country a few hundred years ago but they have been the Keepers of the Earth for a long period of time. What they believe is very sacred to us. This knowledge is re-emerging at this time in the Earth's history.

The Hopi believe that they descended from the Pleiades and that even before that they came from Lyra which is the Ring Nebula that the Pleiadians have spoken to Bill Meier about. They call Lyra the "Eye of God".

Robert mentions volcanoes going off in the Pacific Rim. This warms up the water making fish change their migration patterns. For example salmon from Alaska are not as plentiful as before. The El Nino' is also swelling to record proportions. He says this means Hopi legends are being fulfilled and we are at the end of the Dream.

Asked what we can do about this, he said we need to return to the Earth and one way to do that is to restore our bodies to health by eating natural grains such as wheat, rice, millet, and corn. He travels around the world doing the Ghost Dance which is to raise the consciousness of people. He said we have got to stop fighting each other. He said people are not the enemy, the Corporation is the enemy because they are being greedy and taking profits now without regard to the future impact on our environment.

The 3 days of darkness of Hopi Prophecy will be 1998/1999. [This did not occur, but the concpet of three days of darkness may yet occur in aother timeline as it appears in other religions.

Phoenix Bird would raise its wings and fly. Fire that burned it was the consumption of human desires. We are still not in balance.

Hopi Clan Rocks were given out to all four races a long time ago.

They are stored by race in the following locations:
White - Switzerland
Black - Kilimajaro Mountains in Africa
Yellow - Tibet
Red - Hopi land

A white man will come and restore the Fire Clay tablet.

The Hopi Rock has a + sign and a - (minus) sign on it with a circle.

They represent positive, negative and neutral forces in a magnetic field.

Where they cross is a vortex into the next dimension.

Greatest thing we have for healing is the human spirit.

We are children of the Sun.

Prophecies which should have happened 10 years ago have been put off.

We have been given a window of opportunity.

Spiritual Love is the answer. True knowledge is beyond words.

Comets are a sign of prophecy.

Hale-Bopp was the twin Kachina, white and blue. [No! It is Sirius}

The next one will be red. It is the Purifier. It will stop and observe us.

If we are not purified enough it will finish the job for us.

If there is an Armegeddon it is within each of us.

We have 12 strands of DNA in our blood.

Scientists don't know what they are for since they are not being used.

But we can activate them ourselves.

One way is through drumming and ceremony.

End time should be seen as the Beginning time.

We are creating at this moment what our Tomorrow will be.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 2 replies

a warning about leaders

2009-06-18T08:54:41Z

Selling Out Native Americans
America is a capitalist society. We are product driven, consuming what we want, when we want it. We have even managed to commercialize spirituality -- especially that belonging to America's first people. Large department stores sell knock-off items of spiritual importance and well-known companies and sporting teams exploit Native images in the form of logos and mascots. Men and women without blood ties to Native cultures -- or those with a minuscule amount -- act as leaders, guides, medicine people and spiritual leaders, profiting from workshops, best-selling books, crafts, artwork, movies and false ceremonies.
Native people all over the country are outraged by such commercialization; their culture being stripped, pieces sold to gullible buyers. Their traditions and beliefs blend with others to form counterfeit concepts -- intertwined with stereotypes found in books or movies -- that is now marketed as an actual "religion." The so-called teachers gain authenticity from mainstream America (including publishers and the press) by fooling the public, staking claim to a heritage they truly know little about. They play Indian, looking the part, using buzzwords and stoic language -- yet steering away from "real" Indians, afraid of being challenged in front of their followers.
Mainstream American often accepts their "truths" at face value, without knowing the person is acting out of greed, arrogance and self-appointed superiority. Genuine spiritual leaders would not set out to turn a profit from their teachings. They would not sell a sacred ceremony or conduct a workshop on how to find your inner animal totem. They do not charge for their services, offer a "Shaman" website or create tarot cards. They will, however, instruct those who need instructing and heal those who need healing -- within their own community. Their lives are dedicated to their work. They are neither greedy nor looking for prestige. Their lives belong to their calling, and to the people within their community.
People to watch out for: Mary Summer Rain, Jamie Samms, Sun Bear and the Bear Tribe, Chief Red Fox, Iron Thunderhorse, Harley Swift Deer Reagan, Evelyn Eaton, O'Shinna, Ted Andrews, Jamake Highwater, Shequish Ohoho, Bird Brother, Mary Elizabeth Marlow, Vision Quest Inc, Sedonia Cahill, The Great Round Organization, Cyfus McDonald, Oshena, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Wallace Black Elk, Alonso Blacksmith, Carlos Casta~neda, Mary Thunder, Oceana, Ghostwolf, Barking Tree, Lynn Andrews and Barking Tree.
What they are peddling: Sweat ceremonies/ various workshops/ sun dances/ shaman healing/ power animals/ vision quests/ dreamcatchers/ medicine wheels/ CDs/ pre-made sweat tents/ medicine crystals/ tarot cards/ psychic readings/ Native American weddings or naming ceremonies/ pipe ceremonies/ and books on various topics.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

Which online N. rustica sources do you like best?

2009-04-09T03:07:46Z

I tried Basement Shaman's tobacco bundle and found it too mild, almost the same as N. tobaccum. Bouncing Bear's N. rustica is quite strong and I enjoy it, although I think I got a batch or two that smelled moldy.
What source of sacred tobacco have you enjoyed the most?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

Check this out

2009-03-25T22:08:35Z

So now, Camel, has 'dissolvable tobacco' 'orbs'. They are little pastilles of ground tobacco and a few different flavorings. I gotta say, even i do not like supporting commercial tobbaco, these are good little puppies. They taste pretty good, and i have watched some people experience the difference in eating tobbaco, as opposed to smoking it. mmmm. tasty little tings................

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

Hopi Prophecy

2009-02-07T23:02:21Z

Hopi Prophecy 2012 (Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB9gqjZ9_IQ

Hopi Prophecy 2012 (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETeuvmdKiRg

Hopi Prophecy 2012 (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LroV8LoHO0

Hopi Prophecy 2012 (Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeyrCw-gRAE

Hopi Prophecy 2012 (Part 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A0_cyuW1PU

Hopi Prophecy Rock 2012 by Thomas Banyacya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Vhivi6nws

Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacya
http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/tethys.htm

Hopi Interpreter Thomas Banyacya
http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/tbhopi.html

Thomas Banyacya
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-banyacya

Remembering Thomas Banyacya
http://www.sonic.net/~kerry/banyacya/thomas.htm

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

Kashimbas (amazonian sacred medicine pipes)?

2009-02-03T00:48:01Z

Anyone know of any online vendors that sell amazonian, shamanic pipes?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 5 replies

Seed!

2009-01-30T16:26:11Z

The N rusticas that groew in the garden this year I had to pull up before their seed was fully developed because the winter was coming- I hung them up in the cabin in a dark dry place and when I checked the other day the seed looks mature & beautiful! Our relationship feels deepened...

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

Shamanic intensive Training Course in Bolivian Andes & Amazon

2008-09-24T06:38:00Z

Sacha Runa Collective offers two Month-long Shamanic Intensive Training Courses a year
(Jan/Feb and August) in the Bolivian Andes& Amazon (www.sacharuna.com).
The course is indeed Intensive and deeply transformational.
It is intended to help train those people who trully want to entrust themselves to Spirit
and dedicate themselves to Service.
No prerequisite is necessary, except the absolute determination to face oneself
and do what is needed to allow spirit to flow through us and bless creation.
The next one is August1-30.
Have to fly in and out of la Paz, Bolivia.
Application letters are due ASAP.
The next course is Jan/Feb 2009

For serious apprentices who intend to become full fledged shamans and
conduct medicine ceremonies, at least 4 courses are recommended but it
ultimately dependes on everybody's skills.

For a description of the course, please visit www.sacharuna.com
Blessings:
Miguel A. Kavlin

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 13 replies

Singado

2008-07-03T18:01:33Z

Hello
i have read various articles and seen various films about peruvian curanderism that utulise the nasal ingestion of tobacco juice
mainly with san pedro use.
i woudl be interested in hearing any experiences and coments about the practice as it intrigues me, in particular to use with plant teachers like san pedro and ayahuasca.
In the Documentary "Jungle trip" by Piers gibbon Alan Shoemaker uses it after the ayahuasca ceremony to cleanse the body of toxins and then proceeds to use stinging nettle to cleanse the skin. he says it is all about the purge.
but in san pedro ceremonies the nasal infusion is used to enhance visions.
interesting i reckon.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 65 replies

Where can i find some quality peruvian smoking tobacco?

2008-06-28T16:22:00Z

Does anyone know any places online where i could order some?
Thanks so much ALL!
Much Love,
Rainbow Coyote

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

where can i get mapacho in australia .......

2008-06-21T08:06:35Z

hello
i tryed to recive some mapacho from peru last 4 month
but the paquet did arrived in australia and come back to my friend in peru
now i am in bowen in QLD
maby someone can help me
to find this extraordinary tabacco
thinks a lot
and sorry for my bad anglish

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 10 replies

Pregnancy

2008-06-12T08:46:52Z

Does anyone know if native american women, or any other indigenous woman for that matter, have a taboo against smoking tobacco while pregnant?

I see those labels on peoples' tobacco "products" saying it's known to cause birth defects . .
and my guess is what causes those birth defects is not the tobacco
but the blatant disregard for respecting it's power
wrapped up in godknowswhat kind of paper
mixed with all of those insane chemicals mad scientists get paid to implement.
+ their habitual addiction and chronic "use"

just curious . .

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

FUCK

2008-06-08T21:55:59Z

Had another guy tell me today that he will not date because I smoke.

So why did he answer my personal ad which clearly revealed all my flaws?

So, for me in this life it is clear that I get to choose. A husband or a smoking habit. Which will it be? It could go either way at this point.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 25 replies

Time to grow?

2008-06-08T16:51:03Z

When is it the best time to grow tobacco? I would like to give it a try. Buying pipe tobacco and cigars is getting a little played out.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

seed pods capsules stem and other bits

2008-05-30T11:46:52Z

anyone work in any way with these parts of the plant?
they are very sticky especially on mapacho.
makes me wonder if they are covered in goodies.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

anyone ever grow?

2008-05-08T05:28:39Z

anyone ever grow tobacco for personal use? i heard its illegal? whhaaat? so much for a free country, is this real?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

Culinary

2008-04-06T22:38:14Z

I'm curious if tobacco is ever used in cooking anywhere in the world?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 13 replies

Snus/Moist snuff

2008-04-02T00:02:30Z

I haven't tried making Swedish type snus yet. I'm still researching basic information and most of it is in Swedish. Web translators do have their limitations. I've had reasonable success with a variation of the following recipe from: http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/LofgrenFam/FamHist5.html Arvid's Snuff Recipe:
It turns out that snuff manufacture is surprisingly complicated, as you can see from Arvid's recipe:
Start the tobacco indoors in about March, because Minnesota's growing season is too short to grow tobacco outdoors from seeds. Transplant to the garden in late May or early June. The plants grow about 8 feet tall. Harvest the leaves around the time of first frost and hang them in the corncrib to dry until after Christmas. Grind the leaves in a Cuisinart (Joyce won't let him use one that's also used for food, so he had to buy another one at a garage sale). Add cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, garlic powder, cinnamon and no-salt (Arvid is on a low-sodium diet). Separately, mix 1 tablespoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon molasses, a little wine that someone gave you for Christmas, and hot coffee. Stir the liquid into the powder mix. Place the mixture in a baking pan and bake at 350 F for 45 minutes. After the mixture has cooled, stir in one box of Longhorn snuff and 2 tablespoons of Khaluha. Refrigerate until ready to use, at which time you scoop some into a re-used snuff box. If you chew snuff in the house, have an old bean can ready for spitting purposes.
My version of this is take a 1/2 cup of ground tobacco. Mix together 1 tbs. of sweetener (honey, molasses or maple syrup) 1/2 to 1 tsp. sodium bicarbonate, 3/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 teaspoon powdered tea masala with enough hot liquid to dissolve it all. (Wine is optional.) Stir the liquid into the tobacco in a baking pan, cover with foil and bake as per above. Remove the foil immediately after baking and let cool. Stir thoroughly and brake up any lumps. If necessary add more moisture. If too moist, spread the tobacco on a cutting board to dry out a little. You can put it into an oven at about 120 deg F. Transfer to a sealed jar and set in the refrigerator.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 37 replies

kawai - tobacco spirit

2008-03-31T05:59:00Z

so as mentioned in the snus thread
there is a recipe for kawai a chewable tobacco paste kinda similar to snus, made from green mapacho leaves

i gave it a go tastes really nice with a green tobacco salt flavour, with a nice strong tobacco kick

basically i washed the tobacco leaves, to get rid of any dirt etc.
shook of the water although the leaves were still wet then i layed them out on a pancake pan, and made a layer of tobacco leaves sprinkled salt over that, then layed more leaves over the top sprinkle a little more salt then repeated this until my leaves were all layed out in a pile wiht salt disperse in
i cooked it on the hotplate over a low heat, after a while i turned it over and let it cook more from that side the tobacco gets steamed in the pile, eventually i compacted it and made a cake out of the leaves, when i felt it was done i removed and cut into strips i then mashed it up with a mortar and pestle then made it into a block, and am now jsut drying it out some in the oven in a low heat, so far it tastes good and has a nice tobacco taste.

thought i would share

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

snuff recipes

2008-03-14T21:33:30Z

so im gonna make some snuff one day soon
and would lvoe to her of peoples experiments with snuff.
i amthinking mapacho air dried ground then roasted a little, powdered to a fine powder.
then i wish to experiment with some ash, what i would love to have is the wild cocoa bark they use in the amazon but i will look for local plants over the next few weeks and experiment with various ashes.
i am also thinking spidergrass piri piri root nodules dried and powdered

what do you all think and suggestions??

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 53 replies

nitrosamines in tobacco

2008-02-29T13:37:39Z

so i wonder how one can go about producing a tobacco that is low in nitrosamines? i have only recently learnt of these and still have alot to get my head around but if any of you fullas know of them and shit well would love to know

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 2 replies

curing fermentation and other bits

2008-02-13T21:19:39Z

so was doing some reading on snus and snus has 3 main ingredients ground tobacco water and salt.
the salt is said to aid the durabilty of the snus.
i read in an old journal that sometimes when fermenting tobacco leaves salt or saltwater is placed on the leaves apprently this allows for heat to be generated aiding in the fermentation process. this brings me to think about the snuff we been discussing here lately.
i wonder if salt would play any role in snuff?

has anyone heard of this method before adding salt or salt water to tobacco to aid in fermentation and curing processes?
in tobacco and shamanism in south america wilbert mentions salt being added to various tobacco preperations, i always thought he meant a base of some sort, but am now thinking he is meaning actual salt, which i spose would be mixed with trona possibly when gathered from the earth? i dont know much about this. maybe we can talk about trona as well.

Trona, hydrated sodium bicarbonate carbonate (Na3HCO3CO3·2H2O), is an evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced the Solvay process used in most of the rest of the world for sodium carbonate production.

Trona is found at Owens Lake and Searles Lake, California; Green River Formation, Utah; and the Nile Valley in Egypt. The trona near Green River, Wyoming is the largest known deposit in the world and lies in layered evaporite deposits from 800 to 1600 feet below ground, where the trona was deposited in a lake during the Paleogene period. Trona has also been mined at Lake Magadi in the Rift Valley in Kenya for nearly 100 years, and occurs in 'salt' pans in the Etosha National Park in Namibia.

The word "trona" comes to English by way of either Swedish (trona) or Spanish (trona), with both possible sources having the same meaning as in English. Both of these derive from the Arabic trōn which in turn derives from the Arabic natron, and Hebrew nun, tet, resh, nun pronounced natrun,which comes from the ancient Greek nitron, derived ultimately from the ancient Egyptian ntry (or nitry).

while we are at it i will write the way i like to cure/ferment tobacco.
leaves are gathered when ready with a slight yellow color.
put in a plastic bag and tied closed with air in it. i put it on the clothes line where it is exposed to the elements of the day mainly to the sun.
the leaves will turn yellow and get a stinky smell after a few days depending on the heat of the days.
every few days replenish the bag with fresh air.
when the leaves are good make sure they dont get stuck in any water collected at the bottom or they go rotten.
but when they are right the leaves can then be air dried.
produces a nice smoke those leaves do.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 2 replies

Don Solon

2008-02-08T17:57:39Z

this night i offer my prayers and love to Don Solon, who, at the tender age of 86, has fallen and broken his hip and is in serious condition. i know i am not alone in saying that i had the privilege of sitting with this humble and incredible curandero, teacher of our teachers' teachers, in his little room on a noisy iquitos sidestreet, as thrice per week he continued to offer medicine, blessings, and sopladas to the young and eager, while his own health was flagging, but certainly never his spirit.

no jungle maloca. no fancy retreat. just seven of us on a concrete floor, knees scrunched up, mototaxis screaming though the city night, marveling as this man, old as time , nearly blind, and practically unintelligible in speech, led us through a ceremony of pure light, love, and gratitude, with icaros so vibrant that it seemed they could not possibly have issued forth from his ancient lips. he asked for so little, but his blessings meant so much.

thank you, Don Solon, for being there those many, many nights, for opening your door the next morning when we needed more, for the cleansing tap of your shakapa, and the protective smoke of your mapacho. you swept away the cobwebs and chased away the demons. and you left something of yourself with us. thank you for the gifts. thank you for your icaros, especially the one you sang to me and permitted me to share with others. tonight, i wish to return the favour and share it with you. and henceforth whenever i chant it, i will feel your eternal vibration flowing within and through me. i only hope i can carry it with as much grace and dignity as you do.

"El Senor de los Milagros", por favor, cuidele a este hombre, a este curandero tan humilde, que nos ha dado tanto. Bendigale a el como el nos ha bendito a nosotros. Curelo a el, como el nos ha curado a nosotros. Protejalo a el y a su alma inmortal, y dele paz y amor para siempre. Con su Poder Santisimo, comparta con el su candela eternal, para alumbrar el camino hacia el gran Encuentro.

Don Solon, your space was a realm beyond rules, where the freedom to love and and heal opened up to us in all its simplicity and glory. get well soon. i will see you in Amazonia, where, cradled in the embrace of our beloved Mother, her lullabies shall rock us gently to sleep.

with deepest of blessings and respect to all,
~AyasminA

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

maso's and storage

2008-02-06T08:45:59Z

so its nearly harvest time for me and i wish to make a maso but i haev no idea i have spoken with LLB abotu this before where he says the tobacco is rolled into rolls ad cooked in some water to make a thick syrup which is dried over the maso, any other tips to making a nice strong roll of tobacco?
often i will roll leaves into rolls and let them dry like that works quite well but i am ready to eperiment with various methods of storage.

at ayahuasca forums i read a post by whiterasta where he makes his medicines in a tincture which is evapped and then honey is added to the tincture and reduced further to make an active honey, i wonder if tobacco could be done similar, and then the honey used to make singado, is it a good thing to drink honey through teh nose?
hmm so how do you all go with storing you tobacco?
i mainly chew tobacco but sometimes smoke it and drink it alot through the nose as you all know by now ;)

w hile back i read something i think it was an article by howard charing and the curandero he talks with says they take tobacco macerated in honey to make singado. anyone got more info on this and how they prepare this, there is so much to learn about tobacco i think it will be a lifelong passion for me. but yeah ideas anyone?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

In Search of the Divine Vegetal

2008-01-22T00:47:45Z

Hey Everyone!

Here's a link to a demo video my crew and I are working on (very rough, and dated by this point, but oh well...), as a follow-up to our audio documentary by the same name: In Search of the Divine Vegetal." Feedback welcomed!

www.dailymotion.com/panoramabox

Incidentally, the audiodoc is available as a podcast -- if you're interested in listening, go to:

www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcast.html

or simply google it by its name.

Cheers!
~Ayasmina

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

which tobacco is used for spiritual purposes

2007-10-15T09:21:17Z

any comments?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 18 replies

Ambil

2007-09-28T08:19:16Z

Friends,

Does anyone have any information on making Ambil?

I'm working my way through the Wilbert book, and would like to explore this medicine, but I'm not sure where to start. I know a few folks have mentioned it here before, and I was hoping someone could share any pointers they might have.

How much Tobacco & Water should I start with? Any ideas for other plants to add to the brew? From reading the Wilbert book the options seem fairly diverse, which I appreciate it. Reading about Salt & Ash being added, I thought I may try adding some Tequesquite (chloride & sodium carbonate, evaporated from Lake Texcoco). I also have some Edible Lime on hand as well.

Any suggestions you can give - where to start, what amounts, any other plants that you've added, etc. - would be appreciated.

Thanks all.

Love,
Veg

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 6 replies

shisha smoking

2007-08-06T10:28:39Z

anyone here like to smoke shisha tobacco, just bought a shisha pipe and some nice apple flavoured shisha tobacco
so anyone like to smoke tobacco this way?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

nu nu

2007-07-25T23:14:47Z

i was curious if anyone knew the process the maitzes (sp?) used to create the snuff nu nu?

i am guessing it is green mapacho leaves dried over a fire and then ground and mixed with some plant ash?

thanks

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 16 replies

How to make a mapacho or a smudging stick using Rustica?

2007-07-23T16:05:09Z

I'm growing Rustica in my garden for the first year I would like to make a mapacho or a smudging stick out of its leaves. I'm wondering if there's any special method to it or should I just roll the fresh leaves together, tie them up and let them dry in the shade?

Thank you!

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

just sendin a signal

2007-07-10T03:53:00Z

hiya tribe

i thought i would stop smoking a few days back but changed my mind yesterday, so i'm back at it.. n stoked to find this tribe. i tried to tell myself my cigarette wsn't a smudge stick but i knew i was lyin..i smoke gudang garams they're sweet n the butt is dipped in honey.. yep its bliss n i bless every one before i light it. for real.

peace
(-_-)

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 8 replies

THANK YOU SUN!

2007-07-01T22:18:05Z

Hello my dear friends,

As someone who had smoked since age 13 (yes yes you can go ahead and criticize me), I have grown to appreciate quality tobacco. When I stumbled across American Spirits "yellow" (the lights) about 7 years ago, my world turned upside down... or should I say, right side up :-) I switched, and smoked them for a while, but eventually found that they are a bit too harsh on my system.

Then I had discovered the AS organics, the orange pack. I would mail order them from Virgnina -- not really to avoid paying NYC prices (~$7/pack), but to have the normal paper, not the new self-extinguishing horror which is now required for all NY State cigarette sales (www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/cigarettes/cigarettes.pdf). Still, after a while of smoking them, I had found that they taste kind of weird and make me want to puke (I think someone in this tribe made that comment about AS organics...)

About 2 years ago, a good friend gave me a package of some tobacco, a roller, papers, and some filters. He also taught me how to operate all of that equipment to make cigarettes myself, and where to buy this tobacco: a store in Manhattan, called De La Concha (http://www.delaconcha.com). The store specializes in cigars, and as a side business sells cut loose leaf cigarette tobacco. I have tried buying American Spirit tobacco, but it's always been dry. De La Concha's tobacco is always fresh, moist, and wholesome. 8 ounces go for $25, and lasts me a good month. From what I understand, the tobacco is grown in USA, then shipped to Denmark for processing, and then shipped back and sold here.

I confess, I've deeply fallen in love with this tobacco. When going to work, I would pre-roll 7 cigarettes for the day, and store them in a special container to help preserve freshness. I've made it a point to offer my self-made stogies to everyone I cared about. When I went to Burning Man last year, I brought my tobacco with me, and rolled a cigarette for everyone who cared to ask for one. My theme camp is arThou phine TOBACCO: http://tribes.tribe.net/tobacco2112

I don't know if De La Concha's tobacco is organic, though I am quite convinced it is natural. It dries very quickly if left open, and so I believe the preservatives are minimal or absent. A rolled cigarette should be used within 30 minutes, or else the taste changes and becomes more bitter. The taste of this tobacco is amazing, and it does not remind me of perfume like many commercial smokes do.

... But I believe there is still more out there to discover. I am looking for a fully organic, as-close-to-nature-as-possible tobacco to enjoy and share with my friends. Now that I have stumbled across your wonderful tribe, I feel I am in good hands. I've checked out the site http://www.sotoyatobacco.com/ and definitely plan to make some purchases shortly.

SUN: THANK YOU FOR CARRYING FORTH THE TRADITIONS OF YOUR FOREFATHERS! YOU ARE SO NEEDED IN THIS CRAZY WORLD!

Love,

-onTonca

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

tobacco 'amares' ties

2007-06-29T20:46:36Z

posted some info from interview notes by Amazonian shaman Artidoro, with pics, on the vegetalismo tribe.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

Where can you get Mapacho in the US?

2007-06-19T14:48:42Z

Where can you get Mapacho in the US?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 31 replies

life span of a mapacho roll

2007-06-17T09:45:59Z

any thoughts on how long a roll of mapacho will be "good"? i have a roll from ecuador that i got about a year and a half ago that i have never opened and another that is opened that i have been using. there isn't any mold, and it does not really seem stale--if that would matter.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 11 replies

Growing Rustica

2007-05-26T00:02:24Z

I have some Rustica seeds, and they are pretty small. What's the best way to sprout it?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

Curing Rustica

2007-05-23T11:49:48Z

I have purchased a small bundle of Rustica (not a moldy one) from a vegetalista, removed the sticks but it is not cured. Any tips on how to cure it? It's already dried...

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 23 replies

Rare Nicotiana species

2007-05-11T01:50:43Z

Seeds available here: http://www.alliesonline.net/sol-nicotiana.html

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 18 replies

north american big cigars

2007-04-02T06:21:50Z

hello, anyone have any ideas on what to roll huge cigars in besides actual tobacco leaves? i know they use a certain palm in south america but is there something someone could thing of to use?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 58 replies

Nicotine as medicine for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's

2007-03-30T21:22:20Z

http://www.biopsychiatry.com/nicotine/neuroprotective.html

Study Supports New Theory For Nicotine's Protective Effect Against Neurodegenerative Disorders

Tampa, FL (March 15, 2004) – While the health risks of tobacco are well known, several studies have shown that people with a history of cigarette smoking have lower rates of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. However, the explanations for nicotine's neuroprotective effects continue to be debated.

Now a team of neuroscientists at the University of South Florida College of Medicine presents new evidence of an anti-inflammatory mechanism in the brain by which nicotine may protect against nerve cell death. Their study was published today in the Journal of Neurochemistry.

In laboratory experiments, the researchers demonstrated that nicotine inhibits activation of brain immune cells known as microglia. Chronic microglial activation is a sign of brain inflammation that is a key step in nerve cell death. The researchers also identified the specific site, the alpha-7 acetylcholine receptor subtype, to which nicotine binds to block microglial activation.

"We propose that nicotine's ability to prevent overactivation of microglia may be additional mechanism underlying nicotine's neuroprotective properties in the brain," said USF neuroscientist R. Douglas Shytle, PhD, lead author of the study.

"This finding lets us explore a new way of looking at neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's," said Jun Tan, PhD, MD, principal investigator for the study. "A better understanding of the therapeutic aspects of nicotine may also help us develop drugs that mimic the beneficial action of nicotine without its unwanted side effects."

Nicotine mimics the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, a chemical messenger that is critical to communication between brain cells. Acetylcholine is the major neurotransmitter lost in Alzheimer's disease.

The prevailing hypothesis among researchers is that nicotine helps protect the brain by binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors that sit on the end of nerve terminals. This action by nicotine, similar to turning up the volume of a radio signal, causes brain cells to increase the release of neurotransmitters depleted in diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The USF study suggests that nicotine may also protect the brain through another, more indirect route -- by quelling the hyperactivity of immune cells (microglia) that have turned against the brain.

In the normal, healthy brain microglia support and maintain neurons. They also help wipe up excess beta amyloid protein that accumulates in the brain with aging.

"Microglia can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on the signals they receive," Dr. Shytle said. "The analogy is that you keep talking to them they will take care of you, but if you stop talking they are more likely to get aggressive and have a toxic effect on the brain."

The USF researchers hypothesize that acetylcholine acts as an endogenous anti-inflammatory substance to help prevent microglia from attacking the brain. This neurotransmitter may consistently signal brain's immune system that everything is OK -- no need to activate more microglia, Dr. Shytle said. But, he said, if the neurons that communicate using acetylcholine begin to die and the acetylcholine signal fades, the microglia may become hyperactive and give rise to chronic inflammation that further aggravates the destruction of brain cells.

"In those at risk for Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, nicotine may act much like the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. It may send signals to help suppress microglial immune response and limit excessive brain inflammation," Dr. Tan added.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

I PAY RESPECT TO THE LAND

2007-03-09T03:51:33Z

Blow smoke to the northeast
to assuage the beast
wendigo in the trees,
you cease to breath
i pay respect to the land with a dead yeti
tobacco use spiritual enhancement indigenous machete

tobacco gives me gusto and spirit.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 2 replies

Tobacco Origin Myth

2007-02-20T03:45:54Z

Tobacco Origin Myth

retold by Richard L. Dieterle
http://www.hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.TobaccoOriginMyth.html

Version 1. When Earthmaker created the various spirits, he appointed each to be in charge of some particular power. Man was the very last of his creations, and there was nothing left for him to command. He had almost no power at all: even insects can see four days into the future, but man doesn't even have foreknowledge of the next day. Then Earthmaker created a weed called tanî, "tobacco." He showed the spirits how this was to be used by mashing up the leaves in a pipe and smoking them. All the spirits wanted to be in charge of this weed, and many of the most powerful thought they would surely be given control over it. However, Earthmaker said, "Since man is the only one of my creations that is poor, I shall give him charge of tobacco; and whenever men shall offer tobacco and ask for something, we shall not be able to refuse it." Thus tobacco is the natural possession of man, and he can use it to gain power from the spirits. [1]

Version 2 (of the Nebraska Hotcâgara). After Mâ'ûna (Earthmaker) created the world, he fashioned all the living things that inhabit it: the birds, the animals, and the insects. To each of these he assigned a purpose, and ever after they have lived in pursuit of the ends they were given. When he had done with this, Mâ'ûna created the two-legged walkers. He gave them free minds with which they could on their own discover their Creator and by which they could learn to do things for themselves. Yet Mâ'ûna did not create the two-legged walkers with some specific purpose that they were to fulfill. This they had to find for themselves with their free minds.

It saddened Mâ'ûna to see that the creatures with free mind were the lowest and weakest of all creatures, so he set out to bring some balance to the cadenza of his creation. Mâ'ûna created a special plant which he gave to the two-legged walkers in order that they might obtains blessings through it. This plant was tobacco. Because of the odor of the smoke of this plant, Mâ'ûna instilled in all other creatures a desire for it. He said to all the spirits, "Whenever the two-legged walkers offer you so much as a pipe full of tobacco, you are going to grant their wishes even before you have taken in the smell of its incense. You must bless them with what they request even before you receive their offering. Neither shall you have the power to take the tobacco from him, no matter what forces lie at your disposal. I, Mâ'ûna, cannot take this gift from them. This is my promise." [2]

Version 3 (of the Medicine Rite). When Earthmaker created all things he ordained that every one of the spirits, as many as there are, should long for the taste and the aroma of tobacco. The spirits asked one another, "Who shall control this Life-evoking herb? Surely none other but we ourselves," they said. When they met together, Hare stood up among the spirits and said, "It is my aunts and uncles who shall control tobacco. No spirit shall take any tobacco unless something is offered the two-legged walkers in return. Thus has the Creator made things. Indeed, not even he shall receive tobacco except from the humans. So when any of you spirits accept a pipe full of tobacco, smoke it heartily, but do not fail to give the humans something in return. Thus has the Created ordained things." In this way did Our Nephew speak.

The lives of men were short, but by this Life-evoking herb did the Creator extend the lives of the two-legged walkers through the gifts of the spirits. [3]

Version 4 (of the Medicine Rite). When the Creator made us we were naked and without any possessions. When the Creator distributed power among all creatures, he bestowed upon man so little life that it was no more than what the smallest insects that cover the earth have. Indeed our lives were shorter than even these insects. By the time he had reached his last creation, the Creator had bestowed almost all the life power that there was, leaving but little for us. We had but half a life and could not even see into the future. Thus we were the least of all creatures. Then the Creator bestow upon us that prayer compelling gift, tobacco, the mean by which we may obtain great Life. Thus did our ancestors obtain the prayer compelling means of Life. [4]

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 5 replies

Questions from a tobacco novice

2007-02-18T22:10:30Z

I have my quarter pound of organic American Spirit tobacco.
can i soak it in steaming water for a few hours and then drink it?
or can i drink it the way amazonian shamans drink mapacho?
i wanna nicotine poison myself so that i break the point-of-no-return mark
and journey with Tobacco into realms of unbelievable power.
I don't know any tobaccqueros though so I thought the only thing
i can do for now is to go ahead with my experiments and see what happens.
I feel such profound healing from smoking tobacco, especially
american spirit, that i wanna start digesting it in soup form.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated,
thank you
Om

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 33 replies

Warning: Nicotine may seriously improve health

2007-02-14T02:45:19Z

Warning: nicotine seriously improves health

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday July 18, 2004
The Observer

Nicotine could soon be rehabilitated as a treatment for schizophrenia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, as well as hyperactivity disorders.

Research shows that the chemical that has addicted millions to smoking has a powerful impact on brain activity in patients who suffer from psychiatric and degenerative disorders.

Some experiments have shown that nicotine can slow down the onset of Parkinson's symptoms; others have had revealed its power in curtailing the hallucinations of schizophrenics.

'A whole range of psychiatric conditions seem to be helped by nicotine,' said Dr Dan McGehee, a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago. 'However, such benefits do not justify smoking. The lethal effects of cigarettes far outweigh any help they provide. On the other hand, our research does suggest that derivatives of nicotine, administered medically, could help to alleviate a range of psychiatric problems.'

Nicotine is known to switch on receptors on the surface of cells in certain parts of the brain, causing these neurones to release the neuro-transmitter dopamine, a chemical that is associated with feelings of pleasure. This effect leads to a person's addiction.

More than 50 per cent of people suffering from clinical depression smoke, while the figure rises to 95 per cent for schizophrenics. But smoking among the general public has dropped to about 25 per cent. 'The assumption is that people with psychiatric conditions are self-medicating,' said McGehee. 'They are smoking because the nicotine in particularly helpful in alleviating their condition.'

This point is backed by Dr Tony George, of Yale University. 'Smoking is a marker for psychopathology,' he states in the current issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

Similarly, it has been found that nicotine can sometimes slow the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's, a disease caused by the slow destruction of certain types of brain cells.

'Either nicotine stimulates other types of brain cells to compensate for the loss of the cells involved in Parkinson's, or it is somehow providing protection to remaining healthy Parkinson's cells,' said McGehee. 'Either way, the effect is noticeable.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/smoking/Story/0,2763,1263918,00.html

These reported brain effects may have some connection with the way the nicotine patch can be used while sleeping to help induce lucid dreaming.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 14 replies

making cigars

2007-01-31T06:34:45Z

does anyone know how to make cigars or those big mapacho logs they use in ayahuasca ceremonies?

any online steps to making cigars
like a how to or something

thanks

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 26 replies

N. Rustica

2007-01-31T00:56:42Z

Hey guys. Does anyone know where I can get some good N. Rustica seeds? I'd like to grow some of my own.

Also, any good suggestions where I can get some good N. Rustica tobacco?

Thanks for your suggestions.

Matt

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 7 replies

gardening tips

2006-12-18T07:46:51Z

I have not grow tobacco yet. A friend grew some a few years back in Vancouver and it did quite well with plants reaching 6 feet or more. I was told that tobacco is a protector plant, and also that the other plants in the garden prefer that tobacco be grown by itself, of to the side. I was also told that a native tradition was to harvest the tobacco plants by first slicing them vertically about halfway down the stalk and letting them die and dry out this way.
As far as nutritional requirements I am guessing they need a high nitrogen food source, like soybean meal for instance, just enough (and not too much) nitrogen so that the plant can leach out (use) the chlorophyll from it's leaves late in the season.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

Cigarette additives

2006-12-16T09:43:14Z

A partial list of additives to commercial cigarettes.

On average, additives constitute between 15% and 25% of the dry weight of a cigarette, but US law permits up to 33%.

* Acetanisole
* Acetic Acid
* Acetoin
* Acetophenone
* 6-Acetoxydihydrotheaspirane
* 2-Acetyl-3- Ethylpyrazine
* 2-Acetyl-5-Methylfuran
* Acetylpyrazine
* 2-Acetylpyridine
* 3-Acetylpyridine
* 2-Acetylthiazole
* Aconitic Acid
* dl-Alanine
* Allyl Hexanoate
* Allyl Ionone
* Ambergris Tincture
* Ammonia
* Ammonium Bicarbonate
* Ammonium Hydroxide
* Ammonium Phosphate Dibasic
* Ammonium Sulfide
* Amyl Alcohol
* Amyl Butyrate
* Amyl Formate
* Amyl Octanoate
* alpha-Amylcinnamaldehyde
* Amyris Oil
* trans-Anethole
* Anisyl Acetate
* Anisyl Alcohol
* Anisyl Formate
* Anisyl Phenylacetate
* 1-Arginine
* Asafetida Fluid Extract And Oil
* Ascorbic Acid
* 1-Asparagine Monohydrate
* 1-Aspartic Acid
* Benzaldehyde
* Benzaldehyde Glyceryl Acetal
* Benzoic Acid, Benzoin
* Benzoin Resin
* Benzophenone
* Benzyl Alcohol
* Benzyl Benzoate
* Benzyl Butyrate
* Benzyl Cinnamate
* Benzyl Propionate
* Benzyl Salicylate
* Bisabolene
* Borneol
* Bornyl Acetate
* 1,3-Butanediol
* 2,3-Butanedione
* 1-Butanol
* 2-Butanone
* 4(2-Butenylidene)-3,5,5-Trimethyl-2-Cyclohexen-1-One
* Butter, Butter Esters, and Butter Oil
* Butyl Acetate
* Butyl Butyrate
* Butyl Butyryl Lactate
* Butyl Isovalerate
* Butyl Phenylacetate
* Butyl Undecylenate
* 3-Butylidenephthalide
* Butyric Acid
* Cadinene
* Caffeine
* Calcium Carbonate
* Camphene
* Capsicum Oleoresin
* Caramel Color
* Carbon Dioxide
* beta-Carotene
* Carvacrol
* 4-Carvomenthenol
* 1-Carvone
* beta-Caryophyllene
* beta-Caryophyllene Oxide
* Castoreum Extract, Tincture and Absolute
* Cedrol
* Cellulose Fiber
* Cinnamaldehyde
* Cinnamic Acid
* Cinnamyl Acetate
* Cinnamyl Alcohol
* Cinnamyl Cinnamate
* Cinnamyl Isovalerate
* Cinnamyl Propionate
* Citronella Oil
* dl-Citronellol
* Citronellyl Butyrate
* Citronellyl Isobutyrate
* Cuminaldehyde
* para-Cymene
* 1-Cysteine
* 2-trans, 4-trans-Decadienal
* delta-Decalactone
* gamma-Decalactone
* Decanal
* Decanoic Acid
* 1-Decanol
* 2-Decenal
* Dehydromenthofurolactone
* Diethyl Malonate
* Diethyl Sebacate
* 2,3-Diethylpyrazine
* Dihydro Anethole
* 5,7-Dihydro-2-Methylthieno(3,4-D) Pyrimidine
* meta-Dimethoxybenzene
* para-Dimethoxybenzene
* 2,6-Dimethoxyphenol
* Dimethyl Succinate
* 3,4-Dimethyl-1,2 Cyclopentanedione
* 3,5- Dimethyl-1,2-Cyclopentanedione
* 3,7-Dimethyl-1,3,6-Octatriene
* 4,5-Dimethyl-3-Hydroxy-2,5-Dihydrofuran-2-One
* 6,10-Dimethyl-5,9-Undecadien-2-One
* 3,7-Dimethyl-6-Octenoic Acid
* 2,4 Dimethylacetophenone
* alpha,para-Dimethylbenzyl Alcohol
* alpha,alpha-Dimethylphenethyl Acetate
* alpha,alpha Dimethylphenethyl Butyrate
* 2,3-Dimethylpyrazine
* 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine
* 2,6-Dimethylpyrazine
* Dimethyltetrahydrobenzofuranone
* delta-Dodecalactone
* gamma-Dodecalactone
* para-Ethoxybenzaldehyde
* Ethyl 10-Undecenoate
* Ethyl 2-Methylbutyrate
* Ethyl Acetate
* Ethyl Acetoacetate
* Ethyl Alcohol
* Ethyl Benzoate
* Ethyl Butyrate
* Ethyl Cinnamate
* Ethyl Decanoate
* Ethyl Fenchol
* Ethyl Furoate
* Ethyl Heptanoate
* Ethyl Hexanoate
* Ethyl Isovalerate
* Ethyl Lactate
* Ethyl Laurate
* Ethyl Levulinate
* Ethyl Maltol
* Ethyl Methyl Phenylglycidate
* Ethyl Myristate
* Ethyl Nonanoate
* Ethyl Octadecanoate
* Ethyl Octanoate
* Ethyl Oleate
* Ethyl Palmitate
* Ethyl Phenylacetate
* Ethyl Propionate
* Ethyl Salicylate
* Ethyl trans-2-Butenoate
* Ethyl Valerate
* Ethyl Vanillin
* 2-Ethyl (or Methyl)-(3,5 and 6)-Methoxypyrazine
* 2-Ethyl-1-Hexanol, 3-Ethyl -2 -Hydroxy-2-Cyclopenten-1-One
* 2-Ethyl-3, (5 or 6)-Dimethylpyrazine
* 5-Ethyl-3-Hydroxy-4-Methyl-2(5H)-Furanone
* 2-Ethyl-3-Methylpyrazine
* 4-Ethylbenzaldehyde
* 4-Ethylguaiacol
* para-Ethylphenol
* 3-Ethylpyridine
* Eucalyptol
* Farnesol
* D-Fenchone
* Food Starch Modified
* Furfuryl Mercaptan
* 4-(2-Furyl)-3-Buten-2-One
* Galbanum Oil
* Geraniol
* Geranyl Acetate
* Geranyl Butyrate
* Geranyl Formate
* Geranyl Isovalerate
* Geranyl Phenylacetate
* 1-Glutamic Acid
* 1-Glutamine
* Glycerol
* Glycyrrhizin Ammoniated
* Guaiac Wood Oil
* Guaiacol
* 2,4-Heptadienal
* gamma-Heptalactone
* Heptanoic Acid
* 2-Heptanone
* 3-Hepten-2-One
* 2-Hepten-4-One
* 4-Heptenal
* trans -2-Heptenal
* Heptyl Acetate
* omega-6-Hexadecenlactone
* gamma-Hexalactone
* Hexanal
* Hexanoic Acid
* 2-Hexen-1-Ol
* 3-Hexen-1-Ol
* cis-3-Hexen-1-Yl Acetate
* 2-Hexenal
* 3-Hexenoic Acid
* trans-2-Hexenoic Acid
* cis-3-Hexenyl Formate
* Hexyl 2-Methylbutyrate
* Hexyl Acetate
* Hexyl Alcohol
* Hexyl Phenylacetate
* 1-Histidine
* Hops Oil
* Hydrolyzed Milk Solids
* Hydrolyzed Plant Proteins
* 5-Hydroxy-2,4-Decadienoic Acid delta- Lactone
* 4-Hydroxy-2,5-Dimethyl-3(2H)-Furanone
* 2-Hydroxy-3,5,5-Trimethyl-2-Cyclohexen-1-One
* 4-Hydroxy -3-Pentenoic Acid Lactone
* 2-Hydroxy-4-Methylbenzaldehyde
* 4-Hydroxybutanoic Acid Lactone
* Hydroxycitronellal
* 6-Hydroxydihydrotheaspirane
* 4-(para-Hydroxyphenyl)-2-Butanone
* Immortelle Absolute and Extract
* alpha-Ionone
* beta-Ionone
* alpha-Irone
* Isoamyl Acetate
* Isoamyl Benzoate
* Isoamyl Butyrate
* Isoamyl Cinnamate
* Isoamyl Formate, Isoamyl Hexanoate
* Isoamyl Isovalerate
* Isoamyl Octanoate
* Isoamyl Phenylacetate
* Isobornyl Acetate
* Isobutyl Acetate
* Isobutyl Alcohol
* Isobutyl Cinnamate
* Isobutyl Phenylacetate
* Isobutyl Salicylate
* 2-Isobutyl-3-Methoxypyrazine
* alpha-Isobutylphenethyl Alcohol
* Isobutyraldehyde
* Isobutyric Acid
* d,l-Isoleucine
* alpha-Isomethylionone
* 2-Isopropylphenol
* Isovaleric Acid
* Labdanum Absolute and Oleoresin
* Lactic Acid
* Lauric Acid
* Lauric Aldehyde
* Lavandin Oil
* 1-Leucine
* Levulinic Acid
* Linalool
* Linalool Oxide
* Linalyl Acetate
* 1-Lysine]
* Mace Powder, Extract and Oil
* Magnesium Carbonate
* Malic Acid
* Malt and Malt Extract
* Maltodextrin
* Maltol
* Maltyl Isobutyrate
* para-Mentha-8-Thiol-3-One
* Menthol
* Menthone
* Menthyl Acetate
* dl-Methionine
* Methoprene
* 2-Methoxy-4-Methylphenol
* 2-Methoxy-4-Vinylphenol
* para-Methoxybenzaldehyde
* 1-(para-Methoxyphenyl)-1-Penten-3-One
* 4-(para-Methoxyphenyl)-2-Butanone
* 1-(para-Methoxyphenyl)-2-Propanone
* Methoxypyrazine
* Methyl 2-Furoate
* Methyl 2-Octynoate
* Methyl 2-Pyrrolyl Ketone
* Methyl Anisate
* Methyl Anthranilate
* Methyl Benzoate
* Methyl Cinnamate
* Methyl Dihydrojasmonate
* Methyl Ester of Rosin, Partially Hydrogenated
* Methyl Isovalerate
* Methyl Linoleate (48%)
* Methyl Linolenate (52%) Mixture
* Methyl Naphthyl Ketone
* Methyl Nicotinate
* Methyl Phenylacetate
* Methyl Salicylate
* Methyl Sulfide
* 3-Methyl-1-Cyclopentadecanone
* 4-Methyl-1-Phenyl-2-Pentanone
* 5-Methyl-2-Phenyl-2-Hexenal
* 5-Methyl-2-Thiophenecarboxaldehyde
* 6-Methyl-3,-5-Heptadien-2-One
* 2-Methyl-3-(para-Isopropylphenyl) Propionaldehyde
* 5-Methyl-3-Hexen-2-One
* 1-Methyl-3Methoxy-4-Isopropylbenzene
* 4-Methyl-3-Pentene-2-One
* 2-Methyl-4-Phenylbutyraldehyde
* 6-Methyl-5-Hepten-2-One
* 4-Methyl-5-Thiazoleethanol
* 4-Methyl-5-Vinylthiazole
* Methyl-alpha-Ionone
* Methyl-trans-2-Butenoic Acid
* 4-Methylacetophenone
* para-Methylanisole
* alpha-Methylbenzyl Acetate
* alpha-Methylbenzyl Alcohol
* 2-Methylbutyraldehyde
* 3-Methylbutyraldehyde
* 2-Methylbutyric Acid
* alpha-Methylcinnamaldehyde
* Methylcyclopentenolone
* 2-Methylheptanoic Acid
* 2-Methylhexanoic Acid
* 3-Methylpentanoic Acid
* 4-Methylpentanoic Acid
* 2-Methylpyrazine
* 5-Methylquinoxaline
* 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran-3-One
* (Methylthio)Methylpyrazine (Mixture Of Isomers)
* 3-Methylthiopropionaldehyde
* Methyl 3-Methylthiopropionate
* 2-Methylvaleric Acid
* Myristaldehyde
* Myristic Acid
* beta-Napthyl Ethyl Ether
* Nerol
* Neroli Bigarde Oil
* Nerolidol
* Nona-2-trans,6-cis-Dienal
* 2,6-Nonadien-1-Ol
* gamma-Nonalactone
* Nonanal
* Nonanoic Acid
* Nonanone
* trans-2-Nonen-1-Ol
* 2-Nonenal
* Nonyl Acetate
* 9,12-Octadecadienoic Acid
* 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic Acid
* delta-Octalactone
* gamma-Octalactone
* Octanal
* Octanoic Acid
* 1-Octanol
* 2-Octanone
* 3-Octen-2-One
* 1-Octen-3-Ol
* 1-Octen-3-Yl Acetate
* 2-Octenal
* Octyl Isobutyrate
* Oleic Acid
* Olibanum Oil
* Opoponax Oil And Gum
* Origanum Oil
* Palmitic Acid
* omega-Pentadecalactone
* 2,3-Pentanedione
* 2-Pentanone
* 4-Pentenoic Acid
* 2-Pentylpyridine
* Petitgrain Absolute, Mandarin Oil and Terpeneless Oil
* alpha-Phellandrene
* 2-Phenenthyl Acetate
* Phenenthyl Alcohol
* Phenethyl Butyrate
* Phenethyl Cinnamate
* Phenethyl Isobutyrate
* Phenethyl Isovalerate
* Phenethyl Phenylacetate
* Phenethyl Salicylate
* 1-Phenyl-1-Propanol
* 3-Phenyl-1-Propanol
* 2-Phenyl-2-Butenal
* 4-Phenyl-3-Buten-2-Ol
* 4-Phenyl-3-Buten-2-One
* Phenylacetaldehyde
* Phenylacetic Acid
* 1-Phenylalanine
* 3-Phenylpropionaldehyde
* 3-Phenylpropionic Acid
* 3-Phenylpropyl Acetate
* 3-Phenylpropyl Cinnamate
* 2-(3-Phenylpropyl)Tetrahydrofuran
* Phosphoric Acid
* alpha-Pinene, beta-Pinene
* D-Piperitone
* Piperone
* Potassium Sorbate
* 1-Proline
* Propenylguaethol
* Propionic Acid
* Propyl Acetate
* Propyl para-Hydroxybenzoate
* Propylene Glycol
* 3-Propylidenephthalide
* Pyridine
* Pyroligneous Acid And Extract
* Pyrrole
* Pyruvic Acid
* Rhodinol
* Rum Ether
* Salicylaldehyde
* Sclareolide
* Skatole
* Smoke Flavor
* Snakeroot Oil
* Sodium Acetate
* Sodium Benzoate
* Sodium Bicarbonate
* Sodium Carbonate
* Sodium Chloride
* Sodium Citrate
* Sodium Hydroxide
* Solanone
* Styrax Extract, Gum and Oil
* Sucrose Octaacetate
* Sugar Alcohols
* Sugars
* Tagetes Oil
* Tannic Acid
* Tartaric Acid
* alpha-Terpineol
* Terpinolene
* Terpinyl Acetate
* 5,6,7,8-Tetrahydroquinoxaline
* 1,5,5,9-Tetramethyl-13-Oxatricyclo(8.3.0.0(4,9))Tridecane
* 2,3,4,5, and 3,4,5,6-Tetramethylethyl-Cyclohexanone
* 2,3,5,6-Tetramethylpyrazine
* Thiamine Hydrochloride
* Thiazole
* 1-Threonine
* Thymol
* Tobacco Extracts
* Tocopherols (mixed)
* Tolualdehydes
* para-Tolyl 3-Methylbutyrate
* para-Tolyl Acetaldehyde
* para-Tolyl Acetate
* para-Tolyl Isobutyrate
* para-Tolyl Phenylacetate
* Triacetin
* 2-Tridecanone
* 2-Tridecenal
* Triethyl Citrate
* 3,5,5-Trimethyl -1-Hexanol
* para,alpha,alpha-Trimethylbenzyl Alcohol
* 4-(2,6,6-Trimethylcyclohex-1-Enyl)But-2-En-4-One
* 2,6,6-Trimethylcyclohex-2-Ene-1,4-Dione
* 2,6,6-Trimethylcyclohexa-1,3-Dienyl Methan
* 4-(2,6,6-Trimethylcyclohexa-1,3-Dienyl)But-2-En-4-One
* 2,2,6-Trimethylcyclohexanone
* 2,3,5-Trimethylpyrazine
* 1-Tyrosine
* delta-Undercalactone
* gamma-Undecalactone
* Undecanal
* 2-Undecanone, 1
* 0-Undecenal
* Urea
* Valencene
* Valeraldehyde
* gamma-Valerolactone
* Valine
* Veratraldehyde
* Vinegar
* Xanthan Gum
* 3,4-Xylenol

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 12 replies

N. langsfordii

2006-12-15T10:53:33Z

does anyone one of the use of this plant? i gto some seeds of this one and i think i recall readoing somethign abotu this platn as it being a very potent and sacred tobacco but i cant recall where i read this. anyone?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

overdoing it

2006-12-10T21:32:54Z

i like to work with tobacco when i'm carving weapons - boomerangs, spears, waddis, etc. gets me in that headspace. i leave tobacco at the trees where i cut a branch or stem, to pay for it. i've just come in from making a spear as the sun set and the big ol moon rose up behind the gum tree where about fifty pink galahs ritually gather to negotiate sleeping space each day. magic. i like to share that ritual with them when i carve.

but i chewed a bit too much today i think, and i feel sick now. i'm tryiing to decide if i need to have a purge - but that wasn't my intent today, so i think i'll just ride it out.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 28 replies

Mesoamerican use of Sacred Tobacco

2006-11-16T00:46:38Z

Reference to Mazatec / Mesoamerican Tobacco use:

[The Mazatecs] have incorporated many features of their traditional beliefs into their conceptions of God and the Saints, whom they consider to have been the first healers. The most prominent among them is San Pedro, or Saint Peter, who is said to have cured a sick and crying infant Jesus through the ritual use of tobacco (Nicotonia spp.).

Tobacco is considered to be a health problem in the United States and many other countries, and its acute pharmacological effects are due to the alkaloid nicotine (Larson et al., 1961). Yet for the Mazatecs, as well as for almost all Mesoamerican Indians, it is the most important curing tool in the "pharmacopeia". The fresh tobacco leaf is ground, dried and mixed with lime to form a powder known to the Mazatecs as San Pedro (Saint Peter); the "best" is prepared on the Saint's day, June 29th (Inchaustegui, 1977). This preparation is more familiarly known by its Nahuatl name, picietl (piciete). It is worn in charms and amulets as a protection against various "diseases" and witchcraft, but its most important use is in limpias, or ritual cleansings. It may be used alone with a prayer and copal (an incense prepared from the resin of Bursera spp.) (Diaz, 1975b), or in conjunction with herbs such as basil (Ocimum spp.) or marijuana (Cannabis sativa)*, eggs or various other substances.

from ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY OF SKA MARIA PASTORA (PART 2)
LEANDER J. VALDES III, JOSE LUIS DIAZ and ARA G. PAUL
College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (U.S.A.)
(Accepted July 10, 1982)
posted at http://www.iamshaman.com/salvia/mazatecs.htm

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

Chimo

2006-11-15T23:29:22Z

I was talking to a good friend recently about Tobacco juice and snuffs and he mentioned to me a reciepe for chimo and how he used it. i cant remember the other herbs added but it sounded like a very good preparation that could be used alone or in conjunction with Achuma and Aya. Does anybody have anymore recipes and or info about Chimo/Ambil. Would be interested to read about its traditional use and culture.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

Can nicotiana rustica be chewed?

2006-11-15T08:27:20Z

I recently procured a twist of rustica from a Native American festival in tennessee, I smoked a bit of it, and I really enjoyed the experience, but I'd like to know if it's of chewing quality, and at least, if it is palatable enough to try it.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 5 replies

tobacco and passion flower

2006-09-30T16:46:24Z

i met a guy today who told me he read along time ago that columbus had met people who smoked tobacco with passion flower, stateing that it gave powerfull dreams... but he could not figure out where he had read this... nay one know anythinig about this... sounds interesting...

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 13 replies

thinning out

2006-09-29T03:20:13Z

i just thinned out some tobacco seedlings, any use for the thinned out plants?
i spose they are too young for any proper use?
they would haev been about 10 - 20cm

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 3 replies

Nicotina's anatomy.

2006-09-28T07:55:10Z

hello,

thank you to OnTheRoad, H-Street for pointing me to this tribe. here is a piece i wrote about Nicotina.
Enjoy:)

===

Thoughts of an ex-smoker concerning tobaco, Nicotina, our practices and traditions. Bits of modern stories mixed with original ancestral magic.

A smoker since a teen, now in my 30’s, I have been with a non-smoking partner for a couple years. I smoked rolled tobaco, without filter, thank you. Even being a smoker, I was always aware of the cigarette stinck, the dozens of extra chemicals added to the already little amount of Nicotina we get in our smokes, the yellowed fingers and teeth, oh so sexy, and of course the health risks which cigarettes cause. However, I still smoked. One of my tiny escuses was that I rolled my own smokes instead of buying packs. Not only do I not like filters, but I also like the ritual of rolling a smoke. I was never really a big smoker, just an average one. Rolling made me feel as if i smoked less, then moving in with a non-smoking companion made me smoke even less.

Everybody knows. Cigarettes are discusting, bad for your health and some even say it polutes. In case you don't know this yet, you might want to open a window and start thinking about getting out of your box, or maybe just kill yourself after reading those words, because you seem too fucking stupid to stay alive.

So, what does finally make someone stop? What if you live with a non smoker that projects your bad habits like a reflection in smoked mirors? And who's in the yellowed miror anyhows?
I often tried to stop smoking. I always started again, eventually, as if a part of me "the smoky one" didn't want to drop the smoking business. Like a locomotive with a heart of fire, going and going, roaring it's mechanical engine through my bodylandscape. Like a dragon smoking eons aways, chasing it's own tail. The "smoky one" was part of me.
I don't know what to do, waiting for this or that, I light one up. I feel shy, wierded out in a place public, I light one up. I am bored, I light one up. The act of lighting a smoke is not only related to nicotine dependencie, and it goes much deeper than chemically induced levels. Quitting is to be re-created, it's entering a new identity free from the old nicotine and smoke dependencie.
Re-creating one self is a task much more difficult than fighting the few desires, even if sometimes very intense cravings, desires created by the chemical laboratory we all are.
Finally, after many tries "at quitting smoking, but without really wanting it", I have not smoked on a regular base for 6 months or so. I say "have not smoked", but to be precise I still smoke a cigarette here and there when I am offered one. But I do not have packs at home any longer.

No patches, no drugs, nothing. I just slowed down till it eventually wasn't there any more. It was not too hard, because I had already lowered my use of nicotine after moving with my non-smoking companion. I spent a few days really wanting a smoke, just looking at the desire making it's way through my mind. In fact the very idea of a smoke, the habit of the idea, was much stronger than the actual physical desire to smoke one. Like any familiar idea, it's comforting, it's reassuring, as any repetition; it can also become tedious, as any repetition. You stick to it, it is easy. You'd like to leave it, but that's all you can think of. You become this repetition and the only way to escape it is maybe to accept that there is no escape. You are that repetition.

I looked at this desire like I'd look at any other thoughts, and as any other thought, it eventually passes, then returned, then I looked at the waves of thoughts pass again, one after the other. Then the waves slowly dissolved into the ocean of thoughts, again.

During the first couple monthes of not smoking, a thing that helped me, is to have remained honest with myself. Hanging out with friends or going to a party, I knew that with some glasses of alcohol helping, I'd eventually want a smoke. Then, since I am not too masochist in that way, I bought myself a pack here and there. Sometimes the pack would last more than the party evening, and I'd find myself looking at my smoke mirror again. Still asking : "what is it this cigarette and me?!?" Like some dying love story, slowly and naturally, we were putting distance between each other. Quickly enough, there wasn't any more after party packs.
After the occasional pack period, I am now in my "after a meal" cigarette phase, or a couple party smokes, if somebody has a cigarette to offer. I don't tell myself "I quit", but rather "for now, I don't smoke"; that works fine for me. Each time I "quit", I was disapointed when I started again; at least, if I don't smoke for the moment, then the next moment remains a surprise.

I thought that monthes later the desire for a smoke would have completely disapeared, but no, the desire is sometimes still present, it returns, I never know when or why. I must accept it like a part of my self, a part of me is smoky. A part of me remembers the ritual smoking, it's magic before the marketing and the additions in the sacred plant that is Nicotina. Sometimes I see Maria Sabina through a wall of smoke, like Chinese puppet shadows dancing in a historical miror of our practices, an ancestral miror of communion with the spirits and plants.
The way in which the indigenous people used tabaco, and still use it today, was never as harmful as the modern uses we make of tabaco in our modern cigarettes. The little tabaco we get in today's smokes has nothing to do any longer with the original tabaco uses of the indegenous societies.

It is not the tobaco that kills, it's the dozens of additions in the tobaco, the additives are what makes it so dangerous for our health. Also the way in which we use tobaco is what makes it so dangerous, the intention behind the use being almost opposite to it's ancestral uses. Tabaco is not being respected as the powerful plant it is, we don't even think of it, we puff a smoke after the other as we'd piss on a tree. For the majority of the modern smokers, the act of smoking doesn't have any spiritual value any longer, except to nourish this lack of nicotine for a few minutes, filling an existential vacuum, and even a phallic desire if you listen to some of the modern priests of the mind, the psychiatrists and others psys.
That's what the diference between abuse of tobaco and the use of tobaco is. The abuse is to be unaware of our act, it is to smoke one after the other, it is to destroy oneself by puffing on chemicals. The use of tobaco is the plant's and self-respect, it is a communion with the world of Nicotina. It is the diference between the conscious and the unconscious, it is a fundamental diference in intentions.

For the moment, I do not live in an indigenous environment, eventhough I do see some quite colorful birds at times, and I don't grow Nicotina. For the moment I don't smoke. I do not know if I'll start again on a regular base, and for the moment I don't care. For the moment I don't smoke, and that's just fine with me.

All that cigarette talk almost makes me think of having a smoke, a nice lucky strike or cheap generic with no filter. I don't have any, oh well.. it's just fine like that, for the moment...:)

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabacco
http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/sabina_maria/sabina_maria.shtml
originally published in http://www.gamatron.net/wordpress/?p=12

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

curing in the amazon

2006-09-15T02:05:50Z

just wondering the process used by traditional people to cure thier mapacho?
is it treated the same way as tobacco from other places in the world?

thanks

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

best way to store

2006-09-10T01:06:55Z

a friend just gave me a heap of tobacco leaves, what is the best way to store these leaves?
i spose i shoudl use the search engine but thought i would just ask here to get your opinions

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

Tabaquero shamanism

2006-08-21T17:55:58Z

The Tobacco shamanism of South America is a secret hidden in plain sight. It is mentioned by practically every anthropologist who has done work with Indians in the Upper Amazon, yet it is invisible to them. Books about Amazonian ethnobotany and entheogen use often omit Tobacco altogether.

Tobacco is used as a universal curing plant by some Amazonian peoples. I was reading a book by French anthropologist Philippe Descola about his work with the Achuar. in one part he talks about collecting information on medicinal plants. He was introduced to several dozen medicinal plants. Then at some point, it dawned on him that he never saw any of those plants actually used. The Achuar used Tobacco as the medicine for every sickness. So Descola lost interest in investigating Achuar plant medicine further. (Jeremy Narby in "The Cosmic Serpent" is practically the first anthropologist to question why Tobacco is dismissed this way.)

My friend was initiated as a tabaquero (Tobacco-using) shaman in Ecuador. I talked to him today.

<<The secret of Tobacco is that the less you use the more powerful it becomes. Smoking on a daily basis accustoms the body to tobacco and we do not perceive the message of the plant as clearly when our brain is be-sotted with 1 pack a day level of nicotine in our bloodstream. Smoking once a day or less, you will feel the connection between here and now and the spirit world when you have that smoke. You will be 100 times more attuned to every flavor and aspect of that one cigarette than if you smoked the rest of the pack. If you learn something about your tobaccos and use a pipe or roll-you-own you will deepen your enjoyment even more. Eventually you may become so sensitive to tobaccos power as to experience it while holding a pinch in your hand, and offering thanks to the four directions. Many who pray with tobacco only touch the pipe to their lips and do not inhale. But they look forward to the time they spend praying and making small prayer bundles with tobacco. The less you use, the more powerful Tobacco becomes.>>

Amazonian Tobacco shamanism is based on the other end of the scale. First, it is good to know about how herbalism in general is learned among Indians of the Upper Amazon. It is learned through what is commonly known as "dieta." The Napo Runa Indians I lived with call it "sasina," which literally means fasting, although it is not usually a complete fast. "Dieta" is a practice used throughout the Upper Amazon. It has many variations, but the core is always the same, which is remarkable considering that these are cultures who are extremely varied in other aspects of their culture. Essentially, dieta involves abstaining from foods with flavor, especially salt and hot peppers, and from sex, even with oneself. A person learning herbalism usually begins with dieta with Ayahuasca, one of whose functions is to teach humans how to communicate with plants (another of her functions is to teach plants how to communicate with humans). Then the person learning herbalism will do dieta with various plants, living alone in the jungle on a semi-fast drinking huge quantites of a single medicinal plant for a week to two weeks, to the point where they become sick from overdosing on that medicine, and then they know that Plant spirit, or really that spirit is like part of them. It is kind of like a vision quest for each medicinal plant.

Tobacco shamanism is learned something in this way -- using Nicotiana rustica, Amazonian wild Tobacco, which is 15 to 18 times as high in nicotine as Nicotiana tabacum. Nicotine can be a deadly poison if ingested into the stomach in sufficient quantity (it would take much less pure nicotine to kill you than arsenic or cyanide). But nicotine also creates a tolerance. Nicotine is a poison, a nerve poison, and that is connected to his power. The Tobacco shaman is basically poisoned, and survives this poisoning and comes out changed, with Tobacco's power connected to his power. My friend who was initiated in Tobacco shamanism compared it to the Sun -- you could get harmed standing out in the sun too long if your body was not used to it, but once your body is adapted, it can take any amount of sunlight. Tobacco shamans can drink quantities of nicotine that would kill a non-initiated person; and no amount of nicotine will kill them, it only keeps increasing their power.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 9 replies

New Pesticide Residues Found In Tobacco

2006-08-19T13:34:58Z

The following article presents new evidence of dangerous levels of pesticides and plant growth regulators in conventional tobacco. If you smoke non-organic tobacco, these chemicals are in every puff.

Pesticides Found in Cigarette Smoke
[April 19, 2006 NEWSWISE/Science News/Colorado School of Mines]
http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cdachId=4&id=13294&type=News&page=1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEWSWISE Science News, 18-Apr-2006

Previously undetected pesticides in tobacco smoke have been found by researchers at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo.

The research has just been published online in the American Chemical Society journal, Analytical Chemistry, in an article by John Dane, Crystal Havey and Kent Voorhees.

Using electron monochromator-mass spectrometry, the scientists found three pesticides - suspected of being toxic to the human endocrine system as well as carcinogenic - in a wide sampling of experimental and commercial cigarette smoke samples.

The three nitro-containing pesticides, commonly used in tobacco farming practices, survive the combustion process.

When the three unidentified compounds turned up in the smoke, the researchers utilized a unique selective and sensitive instrument to analyze the chemical "fingerprints" of the substances and identify the new compounds as dinitroaniline pesticides.

They found the three pesticides in both the mainstream and sidestream smoke, with the sidestream showing the higher levels for all three compounds. Although the pesticides are reduced in quantity, they survived the combustion at an estimated level of 10 percent of the original residue on the tobacco.

Flumetralin, a suspected endocrine disrupter already banned for use on tobacco in Europe, belongs to a class of chemicals that may be active at miniscule levels, the researchers say.

Endocrine disrupters can produce adverse effects on early development, reproduction and other hormonal processes.

Pendimethalin and trifluralin are the other two pesticides identified in this study. Pendimethalin has been identified as an endocrine disrupter that specifically affects the thyroid. Trifluralin is also an endocrine disruptor that affects the reproductive and metabolic systems. Both compounds are suspected human carcinogens.

None of the three pesticides has been previously reported in either the mainstream or sidestream smoke from current U.S. tobacco.

"No information exists for long-term low-level inhalation exposures to these compounds," said Voorhees, "and no data exists to establish the possible synergistic effect of these pesticides with each other, or with the other 4,700-plus compounds that have been identified in tobacco smoke."

A targeted newswire featuring breaking science news stories from over 150 leading academic and research institutions including: MIT, NASA, the National Science Foundation and Rockefeller University.

(c) 2006 Newswise. All Rights Reserved.

For more information about chemicals, additives and foriegn material in commercial/conventional tobacco see ' What's In Your Tobacco ?' at http://organicsmoke.blogspot.com/

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

I allways HATED tobacco!

2006-08-09T20:23:00Z

Well maybe just ciggys, but during a not so recent planetary leave, i rediscovered its sacredness, and its place here in the plant spirits......WOW....Big medicine.....almost too much....It makes things clear and opens a portal to spirit guide entities..(for me anyway) and is a great way to envoke spirits of any sort. i have a new found respect for this sweet plant......ommmm shiva!

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

Hummingbird

2006-08-03T01:16:20Z

Hummingbird is associated with Tobacco in many traditions. I see the Cherokee legend on sun's page, and other peoples as well have legends involving Hummingbird bringing Tobacco, recovering it, etc. My friend who was initiated into Amazonian tabaquero shamanism learned about the connection between Hummingbird and Tobacco. Hummingbirds are obviously attracted to Tobacco blossoms. So Tobacco nectar is part of the Hummingbird. Sun, do you see many Hummingbirds around your plants?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

growing the tobaccos

2006-07-28T20:26:51Z

i ma interested in growing tobacco
i have a various amounts different tobacco seeds
can anyone offer and helpful tips with growing this plant?
from personal experience

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 6 replies

Tobacco as a psychoactive

2006-07-28T15:04:11Z

http://www.biopsychiatry.com/tobacco

Tobacco

from
The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances
by Richard Rudgley
Little, Brown and Company (1998)

Whilst tobacco (Nicotiana spp.) is certainly a stimulant, in sufficient quantities (such as those used traditionally by American Indians, for which see below) it can have what, for all intents and purposes, may be called hallucinogenic properties. Certainly the South American Indian shamans see it as such, but this appears not just to be due to cultural conditioning (apprentice shamans are instructed beforehand of the nature of the visions they are going to see) but also to the actual chemistry of tobacco. Tobacco contains the harmala alkaloids harman and norharman, and the closely related harmine and harmaline are known hallucinogens. The levels of harman and horharman in cigarette smoke are between forty and 100 times greater than in tobacco leaf, showing that the burning of the plant generates this dramatic increase. The effects of nicotine on the central nervous system are still far from being understood. The hallucinogenic effects of tobacco become far more explicable when it is borne in mind that the strains of tobacco smokes by the American Indians were far more potent than our commercially produced varieties. Furthermore, the amounts consumed by them were often considerably greater than even the most ardent chain-smoker is able to manage.

Petum was a widely used early European word for tobacco and is said to be derived from the Tupi-Guarani Indian word for the plant. The word nicotine is derived from the surname of Jean Nicot de Villmain, who brought back Nicotiana rustica to France in 1560. Although he was not the first to do this, he nevertheless got the dubious honour of having this poisonous substance named after him. The word tobacco is first mentioned (in the form tabaco) by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes (1478-1557) who uses it as a term for the act of smoking and also, in his later writing, for the leaves of the plant itself. The origin of the word tobacco was once believed to derive from a place name (the two candidates being Tabasco in Mexico and Tobago, one of the Lesser Antilles), although this is now rejected as a theory.

It is well known that tobacco is, by nature, an American plant, the use of which, when discovered by the Europeans, was rapidly spread across the globe. Less well known is the fact that there was another region of the world in which wild tobacco not only grew but was used by humans completely independently of any American influence. That region is the arid interior or 'outback' of Australia. Records from Captain Cook's 1770 expedition record that the Aborigines chewed a herb, most likely a reference to tobacco (probably Nicotiana suaveolens).

The cultural history of tobacco use begins was back in the prehistory of South America. According to current archaeological understanding, humans first made their way south to Chile around 13,500 years ago. These Palaeoindians, as they are known, reached the lowlands of Patagonia, the Pampas and Gran Chaco by 11,000 years ago. This is the natural home of the tobacco plant, from where it would spread to enchant and addict humankind the world over. According to Johannes Wilbert, the leading expert on the use of tobacco by the South American Indians, these Palaeoindian hunter-gatherers did not make immediate use of the plant. Instead such a use did not emerge until the Indians began to cultivate and tend it in their gardens some 3,000 years later. These pioneer horticulturalists grew some twelve different species, Nicotiana tabacum and N. rustica being the most significant. Unlike many anthropologists and ethnobotanists who have worked closely with native peoples who use psychoactive plants in their religious life, Wilbert does not trace the origins of shamanism to the use of such substances. He sees the Palaeoindians as following an ascetic path to the spirit world; the shift to using entheogens only came with the advent of horticulture.

Not only were the Indians of South America the first to domesticate tobacco, they also discovered all the ways of using it, even some which are almost unknown in the West today. As Wilbert says, they: 'chew tobacco quids, drink tobacco juice and syrup, lick tobacco paste, apply tobacco enemas, snuff and smoke. In addition, they administer tobacco products topically to the skin and to the eye.' Their appetite for tobacco is staggering and even the most inveterate chain-smoker pales by comparison. Shamans on the Orinoco have been seen to smoke five or six three-foot cigars in a single ritual session.

The toxic effects of tobacco are well understood by the shamans of South America and, as Wilbert says: 'masters take their apprentices after months or even years of progressive nicotine habituation to the very brink of death.' Shamans, whether they use psychoactive substances or not, seek 'near-death' experiences in order to gain spiritual insight into the origins and causes of disease. This is the rationale behind the systematic use of the intoxicating effects of nicotine. The strength of native tobacco and the great quantities of it used can induce hallucinogens which are seen to be of great importance by the tobacco shamans.

South American shamans believe that, whilst the human hunger is for food, the hunger of the spirits is for tobacco. Thus, by taking tobacco in its various forms, the shaman is making direct and intimate contact with the spirits. Before the arrival of the Europeans in the New World tobacco use seems to have been restricted to ritual use. The secular use of it was largely due to the influence of Europeans; this holds true for both South and North America.

Despite the prominence of tobacco in world history and the enormous amount of research conducted on the native peoples of North America, there are still some unsolved mysteries concerning its early use in Indian culture. The widespread custom of smoking in other parts of the world does not, of course, always involve the use of tobacco. The smoking of cannabis and opium are two obvious examples of this. Whilst neither of these substances existed in the New World before the European contact period, the continent was not without various other plants suitable for smoking. The spread of tobacco northwards into North America from its southern homeland is a highly complex issue; the exact routes which it took and the time scale in which this culturally dramatic event took place are still obscure. The discovery of pipes, for example, does not simply indicate the presence of tobacco; other plants could have been smoked in this way before tobacco became known in the areas in which such artefacts have been discovered. The numerous smoking plants that are known to have been smoked by North American Indians on their own or in conjunction with tobacco are a further issue. Another mystery in the history of tobacco use concerns the chewing of the plant with lime by the Haida and the Tlingit peoples of the north-west coast. Chewing tobacco was a comparatively unusual habit in traditional North American Indian societies and the use of lime even more so. Lime (or similar alkali preparations) is added to a number of other stimulating substances throughout the world as it releases more of the psychoactive properties of the plant in question. Such a use of an alkali is found in the Asian and Oceanic use of betel, the Australian Aboriginal use of pituri and the South American use of coca. There are those who believe that the chemically highly effective use of lime was discovered in a single place and then the knowledge passed on to other cultures. This kind of argument (known as diffusionism) was once put forward to explain the use of lime among the Haida and Tlingit, the idea being that they borrowed it from the South Americans (presumable by long-distance communication by sea) and, even more improbably that coca-chewing had its ultimate origins in the western pacific use of betel. That the Australian Aborigines used an alkali additive in their pituri preparations in near-total isolation from the rest of the world shows quite clearly that such discoveries were made independently.

To return then to the north-west coast. The Haida Indians inhabit the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of Canada and the Tlingit live on the southern coastal mainland of Alaska. Both peoples were chewing tobacco when they were first contacted by Europeans and their respective mythologies attest its cultural importance. Tobacco was apparently the only plant cultivated to any significant degree by these groups before their adoption of some European customs. Both societies lived in a rich environment with access to abundant and varied foods and so had no need to toil away in gardens to supplement their diet. Thus, their motivation for cultivation was not for staple foods but to fulfil their desire for a steady supply of tobacco. Similar motivations for taking up the practice of agriculture have been found elsewhere in the world. The origin of agriculture and the reasons why it occurred are universally seen as among the most critical questions in human history. Why did people give up the millennia-long hunting-and-gathering lifestyle and suddenly start growing and cultivating plants? The standard answer has been that they did so to replace a precarious lifestyle with one based on security, with staple crops as their guarantee. Whilst this was no doubt true in many cases, the motivation seems to have been rather different. In the case of the Haida and Tlingit it is clear that the driving force was the need for tobacco.

The Haida planted their tobacco seeds at the end of April, each separate pod being put in a mound of earth. The tobacco gardens were weeded regularly until September, when the crop was harvested. The leaves were dried by placing them on a timber frame over a fire. When dry they were put in stone mortars and pounded with a pestle. The lime admixture was made by burning shells and then crushing them into powder form. In order to avoid the burning sensations of the lime it was put in the middle of the tobacco quid and not, therefore, in direct contact with the inside of the mouth. Surviving records do not, unfortunately, tell us much about the psychoactive effects of their chewing tobacco, but it has been suggested that because they abandoned the cultivation of their local species (botanists think it was most likely Nicotiana quadrivalvis), when they encountered commercially produced trade tobacco it was weaker in its psychoactive effects than the newly available strains. The Tlingit are reported to have sometimes used the inner bark of pine instead of lime but this is highly unlikely to have made the resulting quid stronger in its psychoactive effects. In the extreme north-west of North America (Alaska and the Yukon) both Indians and Eskimos chew tobacco mixed with the ashes of a fungus but this is almost certainly a post-contact habit.

When Columbus discovered America in 1492 (which had actually been discovered much earlier by the Vikings and, of course, millennia earlier by the first explorers of the New World, the Palaeoindians), members of his expedition became the first Europeans to witness the – to them – curious habit of smoking tobacco. When, in his journal, Columbus describes Indians: 'who always carried a lighted firebrand to light fire, and perfume themselves with certain herbs they carried along with them', he was not writing from his own observations but from the accounts relayed to him by Luis De Torres and another Spaniard who had been sent ashore on 2 November 1492. Jerome Brooks, a historian of tobacco use, has some interesting comments on this passage. He notes that De Torres was a learned man who knew not only his classical sources but also read Hebrew and Arabic. Since the voyagers had thought they would land in Asia, De Torres had been brought along to act as interpreter for Columbus when, as they hoped would happen, they gained an audience with the Great Kahn. The phrase 'perfumed themselves' is seen by Brooks to be that of De Torres rather than Columbus. De Torres would have known the work of the Greek historian Herodotus, who describes the ancient Scythian inhalation of cannabis smoke, and attempted to relate the wholly exotic New World practice of tobacco smoking to this Asian custom. There does not appear to be any evidence that either Columbus or any of his entourage brought back the novel plant to Spain on their triumphant return, although it is possible that some sailors in this or later crews brought it home in small quantities, an occurrence that would have gone unrecorded and therefore is impossible to confirm or deny.

Amerigo Vespucci reached the mainland of South America in 1500 (his claim to have done so earlier is now rejected as a falsehood) and therefore met with tobacco-using peoples, but again there are no records of it being taken back to Europe by him. In 1518 Oviedo, the leader of the Spanish expedition to Mexico, provides us with the earliest description of what we know as a cigarette: 'a little hollow tube, burning at one end, made in such a manner that after being lighted they burn themselves without causing a flame.' Later reports give further details concerning such cigarettes, which were made of reeds and highly ornamented. One of the captains under the command of Cortez saw them for sale in the markets of Mexico – a very early reference to a tobacconist's!

The generally accepted entry of the plant onto European soil occurred when Oviedo brought tobacco leaves back to Spain in 1519. In 1556 Andre Thevet brought seeds from Brazil to France and initiated its cultivation in Europe. Two years later it was first grown in the Royal garden in Lisbon. With the Europeans entering a whole new phase in their quest for global colonisation, they took tobacco on their travels and instigated its rapid spread across Asia. As this is a largely separate story it is detailed below, and for the moment I shall return to the Europeans' own views on the plant and their interpretation of its use by the Indians who had initiated them into the tobacco cult.

The sixteenth-century physician Nicholas Monardes wrote that the Indian priests made liberal use of tobacco. He cites a case in which such a priest was asked questions which his patients expected him to be able to answer by means of a tobacco-induced trance. After inhaling tobacco the priest 'fell downe uppon the grounde, as a dedde manne, and remainyng so, accordyng to the quantitie of the smoke that he had taken, and when the hearbe had doen his woorke, he did revive and awake, and gave theim their answeres, according to the visions, and illusions whiche he sawe.' He also says that the Indians would chew tobacco and coca together, which would make them 'out of their wits' as if drunk. The early black slaves that were sent to the Americas were banned from drinking wine and, according to Monardes, used tobacco in a similar way to the Indians, namely to get intoxicated and enter trance states. Other early accounts paint a similar picture of the native use of tobacco. Edmund Gardiner, writing at the beginning of the seventeenth century, describes native 'enchanters' (i.e. medicine men) as getting drunk on tobacco smoke and then falling into a deep sleep. On awakening they would tell those present of the visions they had seen and interpret their divinatory meaning. Whilst Gardiner, in line with most of his contemporaries, interprets Indian experiences with tobacco as delusions caused by the devil, his and similar accounts make it clear that tobacco was attributed with inebriating and hallucinogenic properties by early Europeans as well as the Indians themselves. The modern smoker experiences neither of these effects, which seem to be caused by more potent strains of the plant, greater quantities consumed and cultural conditioning within a ritual context.

Tobacco was gaining its adherents in Europe but supplies were not always forthcoming. As tobacco was both expensive and scarce the early British pipes were so small they became known as fairy pipes. In Scotland they were called elfin pipes and, apparently, later generations in Ireland saw them as the handiwork of the leprechauns and destroyed them when they came across them. In this early phase of tobacco use it was perceived in numerous conflicting ways as a manna from heaven or the smoke of hell itself, from panacea to poison. The fading echoes of its entheogenic use among the American Indians can be heard in this early phase of Europe's enchantment. Tobacco was certainly the muse of Sir John Beaumont, who described it as 'the philosopher's stone of the alchemists'. He was by his own admission enraptures by 'tobacconalia', as he called it. In an extract from his long (and undistinguished) poem The Metamorphosis of Tobacco (1602) he invokes tobacco:

By whom the Indian Priests inspired be,
When they presage in barbrous Poetrie:
Infume my braine, make my soules powers subtile,
Give nimble cadence to my harsher stile:
Inspire me with thy flame, which doth excell
The purest streames of the Castalian well,
That I on thy ascensive wings may flie
By thine ethereall vapours borne on high,
And with thy feathers added to my quill
May pitch thy tents on the Parnassian hill,
Teach me what power thee on earth did place,
What God was bounteous to the humane race,
On what occasion, and by whom it stood,
That the blest World receiv'd so great a good.

Tobacco was seen by some as a medicinal plant of great value. Because of its association with henbane it was used in similar ways; for example, henbane smoke had long been used to alleviate toothache, and tobacco was said to be even more effective for this. To describe the effects of tobacco use as drunkenness was widespread in Europe. John Gerard, author of a famous herbal, also likened its effects to opium. One of its most vociferous opponents was King James I of England, who attacked tobacco smoking in no uncertain terms in his pamphlet A Counterblast to Tobacco (1604) describing it as: 'a custome lathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmeful to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.' Yet even the sovereign himself was powerless to prevent the spread of the habit and had to console himself by putting taxes on tobacco.

Another opponent of tobacco was Barnabie Rich, who wrote in 1606: 'I thinke Flatterie at this day be in as good requeste as Tabacco, two smokie vapours, yet the one purgeth wise-men of their witte, and the other fooles of their money.' An anonymous diatribe of the 1640s describes tobacco as the most pernicious plant of all, with the one exception of hemp. Yet this is not a reference to the psychoactive effects of cannabis but to the use of the plant's fibre in making the hangman's rope – hemp being seen to attack the throat from without, tobacco from within.

Tobacco smoking was no longer an exotic custom, it had become an integral part of English social life. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it is estimated that there were no fewer than 7,000 shops and other outlets where tobacco could be bought in the London area alone. Tobacco smoking had by now become such a commonplace habit throughout English society that Joverin de Rochefort, a French visitor, wrote in 1671 that in the town of Worcester children were sent to school with a pipe in their satchel. Even the most famous school in all of England was not immune to propagating the habit. A seventeenth-century English diarist by the name of Hearne wrote that during the Great Plague tobacco was considered such a medicinal boon that: 'Even children were obliged to smoak. And I remember that I heard formerly Tom Rogers, who was a yeoman beadle, say that when he was a schoolboy at Eton that year when the Plague raged all the boys of that school were obliged to smoak in the school every morning, and that he was never whipped so much in his life as he was one morning for not smoaking.'

Although the pipe had been the most popular way to use tobacco it was, for a time, to be eclipsed by the habit of snuffing. By the mid-1680s it was integrating into the more exclusive English coffee-houses. In his History of England Macaulay haughtily wrote: 'The atmosphere was like that of a perfumer's shop. Tobacco in any other form than that of a richly scented snuff was held in abomination. If any clown, ignorant of the usages of the house, called for a pipe, the sneers of the whole assembly and the short answers of the waiters soon convinced him that he had better go elsewhere.' There were opponents to the habit who contemptuously referred to snuff users as 'snivellers'. A mid-eighteenth-century detractor, who described tobacco as a narcotic akin to opium, warned that snuff-taking was liable to cause the loss of the sense of smell, addiction, nasal tumours and cancer. Despite these early health warning a particular kind of snuff called Spanish sabillia was used to treat toothache. More generally the taking of snuff and the inevitable sneeze that it caused were seen as therapeutically clearing the head of 'superfluous vapours'. It was not just in the sphere of medicine that snuff was the subject of controversy. In 1686, during debates concerning the proposed canonisation of a Franciscan monk named Father Joseph Desa of Cupertino, moral concerns were raised about his use of snuff. These objections to his piety were dismissed on the grounds that, rather than his habit being a vice it was, in fact, a means of keeping alert during prayers and suppressing carnal lust. The conclusion was that the use of snuff should not stand in the way of his canonisation.

Snuffs were classified according to their grain – fine (fine grain), demigros (medium grain) and gros (coarse grain). Many snuffs got their particular fragrance from the blending of the tobacco alone, whilst others had numerous odoriferous additives. The various names under which the great diversity of snuff brands were marketed (such as Old Paris, Cuba, Letter F and Dieppe Scented Bergamotte) foreshadows the evocative epithets that were later to be given to cigar and cigarette brands. In fact, the hundreds of different labels and wrappers that snuffs were packaged in represent the first phase of large-scale tobacco advertising. As is the case with tea and coffee, there were snuffs for different times of the day and different occasions. So too there were snuffs for the old, snuffs for the young, snuffs for ladies and so on. To use the wrong snuff at the wrong time or even the right snuff at the wrong time was considered a sign of vulgarity and ignorance. The extravagance of the age is epitomised by the lavish and luxurious consumption of snuff. The bill for the snuff used at the celebrations that accompanied the coronation of George IV came to the then enormous sum of £8,205.15. Lord Petersham, perhaps the greatest snuff connoisseur of them all, owned a snuff box for every day of the year, and, on his death, left behind some £3,000-worth of snuff.

The snuff boxes of the era have become highly collectable objects on account of their intricate craftsmanship and the precious materials of which they were made. Many were decorated with motifs derived from classical legend. Experts consider the French gold snuff boxes to be the best, most other continental examples are seen to be derivative of them; only the English boxes were made in a markedly different style. Glass snuff bottles were also made but never had a comparable role as the snuff boxes, which stood out as socially charged emblems of class. Yet among the Chinese (who had been introduced to snuff by Portuguese merchants and Jesuit missionaries) the glass bottle was the main container used for storing snuff. For the Chinese the use of snuff has many parallels with its role in European societies. It was popular among the class of Chinese officials and, as in Europe, was intimately connected with ostentatious behaviour, snobbery and status. The habit reached its zenith in the middle to late eighteenth century and inspired developments in craftsmanship that even surpass the snuff and equipment of the French. The most striking Chinese innovation was in the making of glass snuff bottles with colour decoration painted on the inside of the glass. This was done by the artist holding up the bottle with one hand and painting the design with the other, using a brush that had its tip made at right angles to the handle. In the European case, although the other paraphernalia of the snuff user could not match the snuffbox either socially (as a means of advertising one's wealth and status) or artistically (in terms of refined craftsmanship), it was, nevertheless, essential kit for the aficionado. Although the rasp, pestle and mortar (for use at home), and miniature knife (for removing snuff from under the fingernails) all played their supporting roles in preparing and administering snuff it is the delicate snuff spoon that resonates with twentieth-century sensibilities. For it is an ancestral form of the silver cocaine spoon that was an integral part of the pretentions of the 'glamorous' phase of cocaine use during the 1970s.

There were scares concerning the safety of snuff that also foreshadow later concerns with the quality of cocaine and other street drugs. In 1712 the Dauphine of France was poisoned after taking a pinch from a box of Spanish snuff presented to her. The news spread like wildfire and the Spanish snuff was portrayed as an insidious means of politically motivated assassination blamed on the (long-suffering) Jesuits. Certain other snuffs were apparently not the genuine article, containing no tobacco at all; even worse, its adulterants were rumoured to include ground glass – which, according to the lore of the modern drug scene, is also found in some batches of street drugs.

Snuff use reached its zenith in the eighteenth century. At this time the average London tobacconist was making about 90 per cent of its profit from snuff. Similar figures have been recorded in the accounts of Fribourg and Treyer, the most exclusive snuff shop in London. In its first hundred years of business (from 1720-1820) only 10 per cent of sales were of tobacco and cigars. The patronage of King George IV consolidated the status of the shop as second to none. Other great historical figures who are said to have indulged in snuff include Napoleon, Dryden, Pope, Swift, Burns, Swedenborg, Dr Johnson, Congreve, Sheridan and Gibbon. Despite the fact that the popular image of snuff has it inextricably linked with the delicate and decadent figures of high society, snuff was also widely used by the lower classes. 'Irish Blackguard', distributed by Lundy Foot of Dublin, was the name given to a mixture popular with the Irish working class.

Tobacco was, of course, popular among the leading lights of the arts and sciences. Among reported smokers were Isaac Newton, Jonathan Swift, John Milton, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain. Those who opposed the habit included Rousseau, Voltaire, Goethe, Ruskin and, rather improbably, the inveterate drinker Swinburne.

We have to go back in time to pick up the European introduction of tobacco to Asia (something which now, with full knowledge of its harmful effects, we could compare with the spreading of a plague), which was an element of the interaction between the two continents. Tobacco conquered Asia as it had conquered Europe. So complete was this colonisation by tobacco that the orientalist Berthold Laufer, writing in 1924, claimed that there was only one Asian people that did not use it. This tiny tobacco-free zone was said to be found among the Yami people of Botel Tobago, an island thirty-five miles east of Taiwan (although the name of this island makes one think that this is a leg pull).

Laufer sketched out the three routes by which tobacco diffused through Asia. The first route began in Mexico, from where the Spanish took tobacco (mainly in the form of cigars) to the Philippines in the sixteenth century. Via the Philippines it reached Taiwan, parts of mainland China, Korea, Burma and south India. The beginning of the seventeenth century saw the Portuguese introducing tobacco by way of the maritime routes to many parts of Asia. According to Javanese sources, tobacco had arrived in Java in 1601. By around 1605 it was known in India and eventually filtered through to the more remote tribal areas of the subcontinent, where it was to play an important role in local mythologies. Its arrival in Japan – also around 1605 – was not particularly welcome, according to an account preserved in the diary of Captain Richard Cocks. In an entry dated 7 August 1615, he describes the Emperor ordering the large-scale burning of tobacco. Nevertheless, like James I, the Emperor seems to have been powerless to stop the growth of the habit, as at the same time Kyoto craftsmen were already manufacturing smoking pipes. Interestingly, tobacco chewing did not catch on in Tibet and the Far East (Korea, China and Japan) but was keenly taken up by the Indians and south-east Asians who had long-established traditions of chewing another stimulant, namely betel. Tobacco and betel are often chewed together, a habit which is also popular in New Guinea. The third and mostly northerly route was across Siberia. When the Russians introduced tobacco into Siberia (although the influence of the Chinese use of tobacco had already entered some parts of north Asia) the local shamans were quick to see its shamanic applications and added it to their traditional practices, despite the fact that to their Russian colonisers it was a drug with no religious connotations.

Despite its overtly secular role in the modern world, tobacco is still referred to by a mixture of personifications, metaphors and folklore. J.M. Barrie, the creator of the eternal youth Peter Pan, had as his own elixir 'My Lady Nicotine', whom he describes with all the epithets worthy of a lover. He felt obliged to abandon his mistress tobacco on the eve of his marriage, lest his wife become jealous of his bachelor vice. In the 1950s Jerome E. Brooks, a historian of tobacco, describes the neophyte smoker becoming an 'incense worshipper paying tribute to the goddess Nicotine'.

There are also a number of superstitions and folk tales surrounding tobacco and its use. Everyone knows that it is supposed to be unlucky to light three cigarettes from one match (for the third person) and almost everyone is aware that the usual explanation for this is that the time it takes from the striking of the match to the third light is just enough time for a sniper to take aim and fire. This is said to have originated in the trenches during the First World War, but Boer War veterans remember it from their day. It seems that it actually stems from a much earlier belief (traced back to the seventeenth century but most likely to be even earlier) that it is a bad omen to light three candles or lamps with a single taper. This belief may have been transferred to the cigarette as electric lights tended to restrict the instances in which the old form of the superstition could be put to use, thus the superstition survived by moving with the times. Another piece of folklore that has sprung up around the cigarette concerns the packet of the Marlboro brand which, if one had the eyes to see – and an active imagination – can be seen as being invested with hidden messages from the extreme right wing. Immediately suggestive are the very colours of the packet (red, white and black – exactly the same colours used in the Nazi swastika symbol); then, if the packet is opened out flat, the triangular interfaces between the red and white parts of the box are revealed as Ks, signifying the Ku Klux Klan. If this were not evidence enough (for the highly gullible), then if one reads the word Marlboro on the pack afterwards and upside down it spells out the anti-Semitic 'horrible Jew'. The best thing that can be said about this 'reading' is that, for creativity, it beats most of the daydreams conjured up by bored drinkers sitting around in bars picking apart their cigarette packets.

In the botanical order of things, tobacco lies midway between the innocent potato and tomato on the one hand and a sinister cluster of hallucinogenic weeds on the other. The social standing of tobacco has swung from one extreme to the other throughout European history. Often, even in recent times, smoking has been widely accepted as an innocuous or even positive pastime. It has been in times of social upheaval that the cigarette has really come into its own. During the World Wars tobacco was seen as an indispensable part of the soldier's staple diet, helping him combat the combined assaults of cold, hunger, fear and boredom. The morale of the troops often depended on the uninterrupted supply of cigarettes to the front line. Smoking provided a solace that food simply could not. In times of mass poverty and unemployment we might expect that smoking would decline for economic reasons. This would make sense if we acted in such a utilitarian fashion as some would have us believe, but human nature is altogether too capricious to function in such a straightforward way.

In the current social climate, tobacco-smoking is one of the most exemplary acts of political incorrectness (and this, in itself, might suggest that it is due for a short-lived revival, for there is no better way to get people to do something – particularly for the young – than admonish them for even contemplating it) and medical opinion has swung the pendulum firmly (and probably permanently) back towards the negative pole. Tobacco is now seen as one of the most virulent of poisonous plants, surpassing its relatives (such as the old witches' herbs henbane and belladonna) by its sheer popularity and ubiquity. The clear-cut liberal argument to the anti-smoking lobby, namely that it is a citizen's own private business if he or she wishes to smoke such a dangerous but licit substance, has collapsed in the wake of the discovery of the phenomenon of passive smoking, which makes the habit interfere with the rights of other citizens.

In recognition of its awesome properties, native Americans traditionally restricted their use of tobacco by smoking only in the context of sacred ceremonies. Our secular society, with no recourse to such means, has sought to limit it via medical repudiation: a message that seems slowly to be getting through. Yet the genie of tobacco shows no signs of disappearing overnight in a puff of smoke. With more deaths to its name than all the illicit narcotics put together, there can be no doubt that tobacco is the most dangerous drug in the world.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 0 replies

question regarding mapacho

2006-07-28T15:02:43Z

in my last ceremony, after we drank and were in the waiting..
a shaman sitting next to me lit up immediately
i began to feel the effects of the brew
he started blowing so much mapacho in my face and up my nose that i was actually getting pissed and could not understand it
then a little voice inside said i needed to succomb to this
so i softened and inhaled..
this led me to break through...
i still do not understand what role mapacho plays nor how it facilitates movement between doorways/worlds

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply

Occasional and Ceremonial Tobacco use.

2006-07-27T03:02:42Z

Re: Full DisclosureYesterday, 5:17 PM dowritewomyn
"One thing I loved about smoking was how close I always felt to other smokers. I sure wish I felt like I could have that feeling sometimes... without winding up needing to smoke ALL the time! If anyone could tell me how to be an occasional smoker and not really struggle with my addiction, I'd be very grateful! As is, I can barely spend time with people I really like who are smoking, because I'm so drawn to it! Anyway, I wish I could smoke that pipe with you, and any advice would be great! That's what I'm here for! "

Reply
On a metabolic level, nicotine acts on certain pleasure areas of our brain to stimulate feelings of good will and comradery among people who share tobacco. On a spiritual level, the ceremony of offering and smoking tobacco builds a powerful bond among participants whether in pipe ceremony or enjoying a smoke on the porch with friends. Together these re-enforcements do exert a strong pull or drawing us to enjoy the kinship of our local smoking clan. Is this truly fellowship, or just sharing an addiction?

If you are among the percent of the smoking or have-smoked population who knows from experience that you cannot smoke on less than an occasional basis, then you should not inhale tobacco or hang out with smokers. If you are not susceptible to nicotine's habit forming effects and many of us are not, then occasional, respectful use of tobacco in ceremony and fellowship can be a soothing and re-affirming meditation. More often than not it is the ritual of smoking and the opportunity it brings to take a break and socialize that is as attractive as tobaccos physiological effects. This need for reflection and comradery can be filled without chain-smoking.

The secret of Tobacco is that the less you use the more powerful it becomes. Smoking on a daily basis accustoms the body to tobacco and we do not perceive the message of the plant as clearly when our brain is be-sotted with 1 pack a day level of nicotine in our bloodstream. Smoking once a day or less, you will feel the connection between here and now and the spirit world when you have that smoke. You will be 100 times more attuned to every flavor and aspect of that one cigarette than if you smoked the rest of the pack. If you learn something about your tobaccos and use a pipe or roll-you-own you will deepen your enjoyment even more. Eventually you may become so sensitive to tobaccos power as to experience it while holding a pinch in your hand, and offering thanks to the four directions. Many who pray with tobacco only touch the pipe to their lips and do not inhale. But they look forward to the time they spend praying and making small prayer bundles with tobacco. The less you use, the more powerful Tobacco becomes.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 2 replies

Tobacco addiction and consumerism

2006-07-26T01:05:59Z

Someone suggested a connection elsewhere. I think it was LLB, speaking about tobaco addiction people who were moving through the world in a (perhaps) too materialistic/consumeristic way. Gayle wrote elsewhere about tobaco in very "human" terms. Ask lettuce to go addict a lot of people and bring you their money, she said. It won't work. But tell tobaco to do the same -- tobaco has the power to do that, she said. Gayle and LLB, you can definitely do your own thoughts more justice than I'm doing here. Can you talk more about why our friend tobaco would be willing to addict us and kill us? To be clear, I'm not blaming tobaco for human addiction. I'm feeling there is something that needs clarification, though, about what tobaco might be trying to tell us, when we wind up using it to kill ourselves in such great numbers.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 8 replies

Full Disclosure

2006-07-25T07:07:20Z

As a tobacco grower and leaf dealer I make my living from tobacco. Is this offends you please visit another website. I am also the owner of Sotoya Ceremonial and Grandad's Tobacco Company through which I sell whole leaf organic tobacco and tobacco-making supplies direct to my customers. My intent in starting Sacred Tobacco Tribe is to provide a forum for alternative discussion of tobacco's dangers and benefits. While it is not my intent to advertise my business here, I may on occasion refer to information on one of my websites, or others that carry my advertising. Be aware that links I refer too may have commercial content.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 11 replies

Glad to see this tribe!

2006-07-23T21:54:58Z

Maybe renaming it "Sacred Tobacco" would make the meaning (and message) clearer?

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 4 replies

The Food of the Spirits

2006-07-22T17:33:36Z

Tobacco is the number one power plant of the world. Tobacco is the Plant of Power. The name he has told me is Power Food. Tobacco is food for the spirits. That is why we offer pinches of Tobacco to herbs when we gather them. Tobacco is nourishment that feeds the spirits and strengthens them. You can use it for protection against negative energies, because if you dedicate it to Protection it will feed the energies of Protection. Like feeding your watchdogs to make them strong. In the same way, it makes prayer-energies more Powerful. If you place prayer intentions and songs in Tobacco when it is growing, it absorbs that energy and acts like a kind of spiritual megaphone for your prayers when you release them. You can enlist the help of elemental-type spirits that don't care about you normally by offering them Tobacco as a kind of payment. The same thing is said among peoples here in Turtle Island and in the Amazon, that the reason humans were placed on Earth was to cultivate Tobacco for the spirits, because they cannot do it themselves.

Tobacco feeds our own spirits when we consume it. We can become addicted to his food, more so if our spirits are starving, then we may crave him and his food. The trouble is, consuming Tobacco unconsciously means that only a little bit of the Power comes in, and, more important, it doesn't reach your Spirit, the depths within you that are crying to be fed. Consuming Tobacco unconsciously is like the unconsciousness of compulsive eating, and it becomes compulsive for the same reasons. Both of these compulsions are manifestations of a starving spirit. (You even see how people who stop smoking often gain weight because they take up overeating instead.)

It also, because it magnifies the power of prayer and intention, magnifies the intention of Tobacco companies to make people addicted and funnel money to them. The commercial Tobacco growers and companies dedicate this intention to the Tobacco they grow -- to feed the spirit of addiction in us. That addiction is intentional and it is because the Tobacco companies put that intention in, both physically (through the hundreds of additive chemicals that can legally constitute 20% of dry weight, not to mention tons of pesticides) and spiritually (through their Intent) dedicate this most sacred of Power Plants to this purpose, of creating addiction. This is a spiritually Powerful plant -- you tell a lettuce leaf to addict people and place them under your command and intention, well, you might not get much results. You take the most Powerful of Power plants and say, "Addict millions of people and place them under our command so they have to feed us money" -- that Power plant will give you Powerful results.

Tobacco also shows how when sacred powers are used carelessly and unconsciously, they can cause harm and sickness. There is only one Power, which can be shaped and used in different ways, up to us.

Blaming Tobacco for how he is used is like blaming electricity for how it is used.

And with some sacred things, most sacred things, the power is fragile and must be protected. Tobacco's Power is not fragile. It remains intact no matter how it is used or misused, no matter what other contaminants are also present. This is why ordinary cigarettes can even be used in ceremony. The Intent put in it by the commercial grower and cigarette companies can be cleared by your Intent. (And there are many ways to use Tobacco besides smoking.)

Tobacco is a plant that involves true secrets in its practice. There are things about his practice that are genuine secrets. What I have spoken of is only the public side of the shamanic use of Tobacco, and that is Powerful enough. I don't smoke cigarettes, except under certain circumstances, but I can never say "no" when someone offers me a cigarette, because they are offering me something so sacred, even if they don't know it.

posted in Sacred Tobacco Tribe - 1 reply