NUMBERS, MAGICK & MOTION-4

The Great and Wild Beast 666 and the Devil’s Weed

An Essay by Chris Bennett

"The action of hashish is as varied as life itself and seems to be determined almost entirely by the will or mood of the "assassin" and that within the hedges of his mental and moral form. I can get fantastic visions, or power of mind - analysis, or spiritual exaltation, or sexual excitement of various kinds, or ravenous hunger, or vigor of imagination, whichever I please, absolutely at will, on a minute dose of the Parker Davis extract. This is simply because I have discovered the theory and perfected the practice of the instrument." (Aleister Crowley 1920).

Born at the height of the Victorian era in 1875, into the household of a strict religious sect of Plymouth brethren, the young Aleister Crowley was given little to read as a child besides the Holy Bible. Being a somewhat both a prodigious and rebellious lad, and having mastered the contents of the “Good Book”, he concluded at an early age that his mother’s references to him being a “beast”, indicated his identification with the “Beast, whose number is 666” of the New Testament’s book of Revelation.  A horrendous role he strove to fulfill for much of his controversial life.

        A world class mountain climber and master chess player, Crowley was both a fit and intellectual individual who took a scientific approach to the emotionally and imaginatively charged art of magic, (which he himself renamed magick, to differentiate it from the popularized entertainment form.)  A pioneer of free love and the mystical use of drugs, Crowley was amongst the weeds that broke the pavement of the stodgy and morally repressed Victorian era.  Although like both forms of alternative sex and drugs, Crowley’s writings are often shadowed with taboos, it is often found that many of his harshest critics are unfamiliar with his writings.  It should be noted that I myself, at one time, fell into this category, and only changed my mind when I forced myself to read through some of his books looking for a good cannabis quote well researching GREEN GOLD THE TREE OF LIFE; Marijuana in Magic and Religion. Upon actually reading what the man himself wrote, instead of that which was written about him, I was surprised to find the words of a witty and wise sage who had drawn many similar conclusions about the historical use of “drugs”, that I myself had through my earlier research.

Modern occult writer Francis King has speculated that Crowley may have been initiated into the magickal use of drugs, (possibly including the fly agaric mushroom), by chemist and student of pharmacology C.G.Jones, who also introduced the young Aleister Crowley into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.  In relation to the Golden Dawn, a magical order whom Crowley would later find himself in a court battle with after publishing some of their secret writings, it is interesting to note that other famous Golden Dawn members can also be tied to the use of cannabis.  The British poet W.B. Yeats experimented with cannabis as an aid in the development of psychic powers, and the writer Lewis Carroll incorporated a cannabis puffing caterpillar and a magical mushroom that turned the psychological effects of the amanita muscaria into physical ones, in his famous Alice in Wonderland.

        In a 1907 Essay, The Psychology of Hashish Crowley wrote that in his extensive studies into the history of the occult he

“Found this one constant story. Stripped of its local chronological accidents, it usually came to this--the writer would tell of a young man, a seeker after hidden Wisdom, who, in one circumstance or another, meets an adept; who, after sundry ordeals, obtains from the said adept, for good or ill, a certain mysterious drug or potion, with the result (at least) of opening the gate of the other world. This potion was identified with the Elixir Vitae of the physical Alchemists, or one of their 'tinctures' most likely the 'white tincture' which transforms the base metal (normal perception of life) to silver (poetic conception)....”(Crowley 1907).

        After “poisoning” himself with ”every drug in (and out of) the Pharmacopoeia” in search of the above preparation, Crowley came to believe that this substance was a “sublimated or purified preparation of Cannabis indicia”.   Preceding the theories of Gordon Wasson, Jonathan Ott, Terrence McKenna and others by more than half a century, The “Beast” went so far as to speculate, “this ceremonial intoxication constitutes the supreme ritual of all religions”(Crowley 1907). He further hypothesized that this mysterious herb may in fact have been one of the prohibited trees in the Garden of Eden; “.... if not the Tree of Life, at least of that other Tree, double and sinister and deadly…” In question of Jehovah’s ancient taboos, the “Beast” retorted; “Nay! For I am of the Serpent's party; Knowledge is good, be the price what it may.”

        In The Psychology of Hashish Crowley indicates a vast knowledge of the esoteric history of the herb, quoting the works of fellow hemp enthusiasts such as Zoroaster the medieval alchemists, the works of members of Paris’ Hashish Club and other 19th century literary figures. Unfortunately, he was forced into holding back much of this knowledge, due to his association with certain occult groups, who believed that secrets revealed equals power lost.  'In order to keep the paper within limits', he wrote, it would be necessary to keep the article to a scientific nature and use information that was already quite available to the public at large '...lest the austerity of such a Goddess be profaned by the least vestige of adornment.'(Crowley 1907).

        Unable to openly discuss the esoteric history of the herb, Crowley decided to look at other areas of interest.  Having spent some years practicing yoga, ceremonial magick and other techniques of exploring the workings of the mind, as well as studying scientific literature on the subject, Crowley felt confident in discussing the effects of cannabis on the psyche of man. Noting that “Yogis employed hashish… to obtain Samahdi, that oneness with the Universe”, Crowley focused on cannabis’ ability to invoke different mental states, which he compared to similar states of consciousness associated with meditative and magickal practices.

        The first of the Cannabis consciousness states is termed by Crowley as “The volatile aromatic effect”, which he saw as being marked by an “absolutely perfect state of introspection… of an almost if not quite purely impersonal type”.  The next state of consciousness attainable with cannabis, “The toxic hallucinate effect” which begins with thoughts and images passing “rapidly through the brain, at last vertiginously fast.  They are no longer recognized as thoughts, but imagined as exterior….  The fear of being swept away in the tide of relentless image is a terrible experience.”  Crowley felt the best combatant against this delusional and paranoid state was a meditatively attuned and magickally trained mind, as both these techniques “lead the mind to immense power over its own imaginations”.  In the third and final level of consciousness attainable from cannabis, “The Narcotic effect”, “One simply goes off to sleep”.  Crowley noted that certain preparations of cannabis seemed to favorably elicit these different states of consciousness even more than dose size did, and believed that the effects themselves may be due “to three separate substances” in the plant, with differing strains having differing amounts of each.

        In relation to his own work and psychological goals, Crowley saw the most desirable of these states of consciousness to lie in the introspective state produced by “The volatile aromatic effect””.  Crowley, like other occultists of the time, saw this impersonal introspective state as ideal for the act of astral traveling, and offered instruction in his essay for its experimental practice.  More importantly, Crowley saw cannabis as having the potential of aiding the mind in achieve the ultimate state of consciousness referred to by adepts of all ages in which “Ego and non-Ego unite”, and duality, or ego-bound consciousness is transcended and Samahdi is achieved.

“If [the] hashish-analogy [is] able to assist us here, it is in that supreme state in which man has built himself up into God.  One may doubt whether the drug alone ever does this.  It is perhaps only the destined adept who, momentarily freed by the dissolving action of the drug, obtains this knowledge which is his by right, totally inept as he may be to do so by any ordinary methods”. (Crowley 1907).

        Utilizing cannabis, mescaline and a variety of other substances Crowley would create and perform mythological imbued occult rituals, which were directed at bringing the devotees closer into contact with higher states of consciousness.  He had hopes of perfecting a method, which would make the mystic frame of mind available to humanity at large.  Far from seeing his work as something new and novel, Crowley rightfully saw such drug induced ritualistic initiation as being part of the ancient mystery schools which had been largely suppressed by the Catholic Church at the commencement of the Dark Ages.  Considering that the Father of LSD has speculated that the ancient Elysian rites may have utilized a sacrament containing an ergot, which held LSD like alkaloids, it is interesting that Crowley put on a performance art style ritual the “Rites of Ileuses” which included mescaline and a variety of other substances administered in a “loving cup”.  Crowley, probably not realizing what a strong influence it would have on a generation, is reputed to have introduced the young Aldous Huxley to mescal in a pre-Hitler Berlin Hotel room. (As well, the Beast is said to have turned the science fiction writer H.G.Wells on to the mysteries of hashish).

        Considering the strong role it played in his magickal techniques, it is curious to note that after Crowley wrote The Psychology of Hashish there are only a few scattered direct references to cannabis in his writings. But, interestingly, there are some esoteric ones that have been little commented on.  With a little cross-referencing it can be shown that cannabis use is at the core of many of this famed magician’s most celebrated occult texts, a fact that many modern Crowley enthusiasts are sadly unaware.

        Undeniably, the most important of all of Crowley’s esoteric writings is his short and mysterious Book of the Law. Crowley produced the book in Cairo during 1904; well he was traveling with his first wife. He claimed the text was channeled by an unseen entity known as Aiwass… I claim that both he and his wife, who aided in the transmission, were stoned out of their gourds! First off in my blaspheming against the great Blasphemer, Crowley, as indications of the text being produced by Crowley himself under the inspiration of hashish, rather than it being channeled by a messenger of Egyptian deities, is the texts references to the word “Thelema”, and the Law of Thelema, “Do what Thou Wilt”.  Unless Aiwass took time from his duties as messenger of the Egyptian gods during the 16th century to familiarize himself with the works of the mortal Francois Rabelais, from whence these terms originate and where Crowley himself learned them, then we can be sure that the work is the product of a poetically (and cannabis) inspired human hand.  In relation to Rabelais, it is important to note that this medieval monk and bachelor of medicine was more than a little familiar with the use of hemp, in fact so much so he could reasonably be considered a sort of medieval Jack Herer. Chapters, which esoterically revealed his vast hempen knowledge in his humorous parody of the grail myth, Pantagreul, were for a long period banned by the church.  Interestingly, as shall be discussed Crowley would find reason to esoterically refer to Rabelais in relation to cannabis in future writings.

        Further evidence of cannabis reference can be found elsewhere in the text, including this request from the Queen of Heaven  "if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest my incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom...".  Interestingly, in the numerology of the Cabala, which Crowley deeply adhered to, the value of the name of the angel which channeled the Book of the Law to Crowley, Aiwass, is 93, has the same value as the word “incense”, (see Crowley’s 777) and in Cabalistic logic, this indicates a correlation. The serpent symbolism is likely used in reference to the serpent like kundalini energy, as the use of cannabis and other intoxicants as aids in raising the kundalini energy, are as old as the concept of kundalini itself.  The serpent imagery is used again elsewhere in the text in reference to intoxicants: "I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness.  To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! ...”

 As well in the closing comment in the second of the Book of the Law's three small chapters, Crowley recorded the following curious comment: "There is an end to the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat, lightening the girders of the soul’’.     A few short years after writing this comment Crowley speculated in his essay on hashish that ‘’Perhaps hashish is the drug which ’loosens the girders of the soul’.’’ This phrase is borrowed from the Persian mage Zoroaster, who used  bhang (cannabis) in order to receive revelations from his god.   Some years later in his exquisite Cabalistic treatise, Little Essays Towards Truth Crowley would again make similar comments in relation to hemp ‘’... such drugs as Cannabis Indica and Anhalonium Lewini [mescaline] do actually ‘loosen the girders of the soul...’"

 In Liber VII, The Book of Lapis Lazuli, another supposedly channeled work, Crowley again gives us esoteric references to cannabis and indications that this is the drug which ‘’loosens the girders of the soul’’; ‘’By the burning of the incense was the word revealed and by the distant drug.. These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris...’’ Here from Crowley’s words we can decipher that he felt other intoxicants besides cannabis, could aid in the unbinding from the material world. The “distant drug” is likely an esoteric reference to mescal, which Crowley became familiar with well traveling in Mexico.  Like hemp, mescaline came to play an important role in Crowley’s work, and as mentioned, he is said to have introduced the drug to the advance garde of Europe.  On the other hand in the 19th and early twentieth century, occultists for astral travelling used various preparations of cannabis, so Crowley was far from alone in his use of this technique.

        Elsewhere in Liber VII, The Book of Lapis Lazuli, at the height of his cannabis induced voyages into the psychic realm and quite obviously indicative of his inspiration source, Crowley recorded ‘’I am Gargantuan great; yon galaxy is but the smoke-ring of mine incense, Burn Thou Strange Herbs, O God!’’  The reference to Gargantuan here can be seen as a tribute to Rabelais, and his first book Gargantuan, as the term still in use, is derived from the name of the main character in Rabelais’ classic, the giant Gargantuan.  In fact Crowley uses this term again in a direct reference to cannabis’ ability to make one laugh at oneself:

’’Oh the huge contempt for the limiting self which springs from the sense of gargantuan disproportion perceived in this Laughter!  Truly it slays, with jolliest cannibal revels, that sour black-coated missionary the serious Ego, and plumps him into the pot. Te-he! --The Voice of Civilization---The Messenger of the white Man's God--bubble, bubble, bubbles!  Throw in another handful of sage, brother!  And the sweet-smelling smoke rises and veils with exquisite shy seduction the shameless bodies of the Stars!"(Crowley 19)

        It was not until the twenties and the completion of his books THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY and the Tarot of the Egyptian's, THE BOOK OF THOTH that he again wrote at length on hashish. A piece entitled 'De Herbo Sanctisimo Aribico', 'The Most Holy Grass of the Arabs', appears in both these books. Again indicating the source of his inspiration, in The Book of Thoth, in a paragraph directly preceding this essay there appears the name Alcofribas Nasier, which rewritten spells Francois Rabelais an anagram used by the hemp lover Rabelais himself during his controversial lifetime.  The following piece of esoterica, which we have taken from the beginning of The Most Holy Grass of the Arabs, is steeped with occult symbolism:

'Recall, O my Son the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the city Babylon, how Nebuchadenezzar the great king, being afflicted in Spirit, did depart from among men for seven years space, eating grass as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose number is Zero, and whose Name is Maat, Truth or Maut, the Vulture, the All-Mother, being an image of our lady Nuit, but also it is called the Fool, who is *Parsifal "der reine Thor", and so refereth to him that walketh in the way of the Tao. . Also he is Harpocrates, the child **Horus walking upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in unity with his own secret nature..........

        Here in a few brief words, Crowley gives us a taste of his knowledge and beliefs about his beloved hemp. Notably, Crowley refers to the Egyptian Goddess Maat, whose devotees were reputed to have partaken of a sacramental drink that was comparable to the Indian Soma.  As well Crowley begins the essay with a reference to Biblical indications of hemp use by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, whom history has shown to be a cannabis consumer through the Babylonian “sacred rites”, in which all kings partook and which utilized cannabis.  The “Beast” further sees the Biblical analogy to the Ox in the story, as being a cabalistic reference to the Hebrew letter Aleph, which in fact is symbolic of an Ox and whose number is zero. Each of the twenty-two glyphs of the Hebrew alphabet has both a number and a symbol attributed to it.    Crowley’s comment is seemingly inconsequential to the uninitiated but to those familiar with the Qabalah it is loaded with implications.

        In Crowleyian view, the number zero, symbolized amongst other things, the number of the perfected initiate, who through rigorous work had undone his view of dualism and construct of personality, has achieved Samahdi and walks in the “Tao”.  In the Tarot deck, the “Fool”, and thus the reference to the “Fool” in Crowley’s esoteric piece of cannabis lore, and its location under the heading of the “Fool”, in Crowley’s explanation of the Tarot, The Book of Thoth, symbolizes such an individual.  Crowley further relates the cannabis initiate to Parsifal, the hero who restores the hero of the Grail myth, a story which was also connected to cannabis in Green Gold, and Horus, a key figure in the earlier Book of the Law, and who symbolizes the same state of unitited consciousness as the Fool, yet in the Book of the Law, Horus is also represented as the figurehead of our own age, when this state of consciousness becomes widespread throughout humanity, instead of achieved by a relatively few adepts.  Again from the Book of the Law, we see cannabis in association with the Egyptian sky-goddess Nuit, who, as looked at earlier, commanded that her “incense” be burned in order to, kindle “the serpent flame”.

   The occult essay continues on with Crowley’s admission that

"Yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabians, and by the virtue of the Bewitchment thereof behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One hour of our Terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Aeon, and in ten lives I could not declare it.”

Despite the professed inability to adequately explain the contents of his vision, Crowley, goes on to describe seeing the “Sun of all being” surrounded by “little crosses”, which churned the Universe into the ‘’Quintessence of Light’’.  I would suggest that what Crowley is here referring to is a transformational experience which he referred to elsewhere as the “Vision of the Star Sponge”, or the “Vision of Paequay”, in which Crowley had the experience of becoming a star in the heavens, and from which he took his axiom, “Every man and woman is a star”.

        Crowley ended The Most Holy Grass of the Arabs with the comment that, 'a man must first be an Initiate, and established in our Law, before he may use this method'. Crowley is likely here referring to codes of initiation in one of the occult organizations to which he belonged, and this again is also apparent by the veiled nature of his text.  As well, this comment indicates Crowley’s belief, stated earlier that drugs alone will not enable the devotee to reach the mystical goal, but also vigorous psychological preparation and study are needed.

        In this last respect I agree whole heartedly with the Beast, and think that cannabis and drugs in general as tools for exploring the mind, are of far more positive cultural significance, than they are as drugs used by Cheech and Chong like stoners to meditate on Beevis and Butthead videos and computer games.  Here at the dawn of the New Age, that Crowley and his like only dreamed of, as a whole new generation begins to explore the unconscious of humanity with cannabis and even more potent substances, they might do themselves well to read from the works of this turn of the twentieth century pioneering psychonaut and consider some of his advice and techniques in relation to their own travels in the “astral realm”.  But, remember, as Crowley himself ended his essay on hashish, “…take my word for nothing: try all things; hold fast that which is good!”  Either way, we can be sure that with Crowley, as it is with many modern hempsters, cannabis was a key seed and indication of the dawning of a New Golden Age. 

Boom Shiva!

Crowley A., 777 & Other Qabalistic Writings,  (Weiser, 1977)
Magick in Theory and Practice
The Book of Lies, 1913
The Book of Wisdom and Folly, (1919, Samuel Wieser, 1962)
The Psychology of Hashish, 1908
The Book of the Law, 1904
Little Essays Towards the Truth,
The Holy Books of Thelema
Francis King, The Origins of Tantra, Drugs and Western Occultism. (Destiny Books; 1986)

Forbidden Fruit Publishing.Com

Cannabis and the Christ: Jesus used Marijuana?

Part 4 of "When Smoke Gets in my I" a series on the history of cannabis and human consciousness

"If you know the truth, the truth will make you free." (John 8:32)

Jesus used Marijuana

As doubtful as the following hypothesis might first seem to the reader, I might as well boldly state my case right from the start: either Jesus used marijuana or he was not the Christ. The very word "Christ", by the implication of its linguistic origins and true meaning, gives us the most profound evidence that Jesus did in fact use the same herb as his ancient Semitic ancestors, and which is still used by people around the world for its enlightening and healing properties.

The Greek title "Christ" is the translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which in English becomes "The Anointed" D. The Messiah was recognized as such by his being anointed with the holy anointing oil, the use of which was restricted to the instillation of Hebrew priests and kings (See CC#5). If Jesus was not initiated in this fashion then he was not the Christ, and had no official claim to the title.

D The title "Messiah" is much older than Christianity, as all the ancient kings of Israel are referred to as the "Messiah". "Christos - Anointed One, a title of many Middle-Eastern sacrificial gods: Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris . . ." 12

The ancient recipe for this anointing oil, recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus (30: 22-23) included over nine pounds of flowering cannabis tops, Hebrew "kaneh-bosm" B, extracted into a hind (about 6.5 litres) of olive oil, along with a variety of other herbs and spices. The ancient chosen ones were literally drenched in this potent cannabis holy oil.

B The "m" is a pronounced plural, and the singular kaneh-bos sounds remarkably similar to the modern cannabis. Although often mistranslated as "calamus", the word has been translated as "fragrant-cane" in most modern bibles, and specifically designates the fragrant flowering tops of cannabis.

From the time of Moses until that of the later prophet Samuel, the shaman Levite priesthood to receive the “revelations of the Lord” used the holy anointing oil. At the dawn of the age of Kings, Samuel extended the use of the anointing oil to the Hebraic monarchs by anointing Saul (and later David) as "Messiah-king". These kings lead their people with the benefit of insights achieved through using the holy anointing oil to become "possessed with the spirit of the Lord."

"Anointing was common among kings of Israel. It was the sign and symbol of royalty. The word 'Messiah' signifies the 'Anointed One', and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed."1 The title was clearly only given to those "having the crown of God's unction upon them" (Leviticus 21:12).

After the fall of the Jewish kingdoms, and the bloody purges following the forged discovery of the Book of the Law (1 Kings 23), the cannabis holy oil was prohibited as associated with pagan worship. Yet it seems that certain sects retained the topical entheogen, and continued to practice the older religion, silently awaiting the return of a Messiah-king in the line of David.

The ministry of Jesus marked the return of the Jewish Messiah-kings, and thus the re-emergence of the holy oil. Jesus was called the Christ because he violated the Old Testament taboo on the cannabis oil and distributed it freely for initiation rites and to heal the sick and wounded.

Although there is some evidence of Jesus' use of this Judaic cannabis oil in the traditional New Testament, we get a clearer picture of its importance when we also look at surviving Gnostic documents. The term Gnostic, meaning "knowledge", refers to a variety of early Christian sects, which had extremely different beliefs about both Jesus and his teachings than those, which have come down to us through modern Christianity.

Other Christian Sources

For the first four hundred years after Jesus' birth, the term "Christian" was used to describe a wide variety of sects and a large volume of different documents. Through the acceptance of one of the more ascetic branches of Christianity by the Roman ruling class, Christianity eventually became the state religion of its former persecutors.

In an effort to unify the faith into a controllable mass, the newly formed Roman Catholic Church held a number of councils. These councils prohibited not only pagans, but also differing Christian sects, and edited a wealth of Christian literature down to the few meager documents, which have survived as the modern New Testament. Z

Z The New Testament in its present form was composed and edited between 367-397AD, about twelve generations after the events in question.

In an attempt to save their manuscripts from the editorial flames of the Roman Catholic Church, certain Christians, now considered Gnostic heretics, hid copies of their scrolls in caves. One of these ancient hiding places was rediscovered in our own century, and the large collection of early Christian documents was named the Nag Hammadi Library,2 after the Egyptian area where it was found. Prior to this discovery, what little was known of the Gnostics came from a few fragmentary texts, and the many polemics written against them by the founders of the Catholic Church.

There is no reason to consider these ancient Gnostic documents as less accurate portrayals of the life and teachings of Jesus than the New Testament accounts. In a sense, the rediscovery of the Nag Hammadi Library marks the resurrection of a more historical Jesus, an ecstatic rebel sage who preached enlightenment through rituals involving magical plants, and who is more analogous to the Indian Shiva, or the Greek Dionysus, than the pious ascetic that has come down to us through the Bible's New Testament.

The Anointed One

Contrary to the depiction given in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was likely not born as the Messiah. He received this title through his initiation by John the Baptist, and so it is not surprising that both Mark and John are conspicuously absent of the virgin-birth mythology, and begin their stories of Jesus' short career with his initiation by John.

Although their version of Jesus' baptism by John describes it as involving submersion under water, the term "baptism" has connotations of "initiation", and Gnostic scriptures indicate that the original rite was performed in conjunction with the kaneh-bosm anointing rite, "the anointing taking place either before or after the baptismal ceremony."3 Some Gnostic texts also specifically state that Jesus received the title Christ "because of the anointing,"4 not because of a water baptism.

Conceivably, the washing off of the oil with water would have been a means to begin the termination of ritual and the oil's effects.

The description of the after-effects of the rite clearly indicates that Jesus underwent an intense psychological experience, more than one would receive from a simple submersion in water.

K The reference to a dove may have connotations of the Goddess tradition, which was continued by the Gnostics, who paid special attention to Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom. In earlier times the dove was sacred to Astarte, Aphrodite, Ishtar and other forms of the Goddess. "Gnostic Christians said Sophia was incarnate in the dove . . . that descended on Jesus at his baptism to impregnate his mind." 12

Jesus came from Nazareth Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. K And a voice came from heaven "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with wild animals, and angels attended him. (Mark 1: 9-13)

It should be noted that the vision and words described were seen and heard only by Jesus, as it specifically states, "he saw".

The role played by John the Baptist, as priest and prophet, is very similar to that of the Old Testament prophet Samuel. Just as Samuel's anointing of Saul and David marked them as Messiah-king, so did Jesus' initiation by John make him the Christ.

In the events after Jesus' vision and his overwhelmed recluse into the desert, there are clear parallels with the story of the prophet Samuel's initiation of Saul with the cannabis-rich holy ointment, and Saul's ensuing madness in the form of possession by the Spirit, and wandering off to make nabi (act in a frenzied ecstatic manner) (1 Samuel 10).

The tale of Saul's possession by the spirit is an example of how the ancients interpreted the effects of cannabis and other entheogens. What we perceive as being "high" or "stoned" the ancients called "possessed by the Spirit of the Lord."

"As a result of the spiritual 'anointing' Jesus expected to be different; and he was different. The prophecies had said that the Messiah would receive from God wisdom and insight, the power to heal and to subjugate evil. The faith of Jesus was so strong that he did not question that these capacities had now been conferred upon him." 6

The entheogenic effect of the cannabis anointing oil would have immensely magnified both Jesus' own expectations, and the ensuing experience with John.

J The same proclamation is stated of the Anointed One, or King in Psalm 2: 7.

In some authoratative texts of the Gospel according to Luke, after the Baptism the voice of God declares, "This day I have begotten thee." J This indicates that the event of Jesus' encounter with John marks the true beginnings of Jesus' mission and his acknowledgement as the Messiah.

The importance of the anointing, and Jesus' own acknowledgement of it, is again exemplified in the gospel of Luke.

According to the New Testament Jesus began his ministry in Nazareth, by reading the following passage from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaiming, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:16)

The Spirit of Yahweh God is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound... (Isaiah 61:1-2)

[To Be Continued…]

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Updated 10/06