My tobacco Journey

I discovered my favorite plant to work with recently: tobacco. Modern-day society has stigmatized and given a negative connotation to an extraordinarily sacred and medicinal plant: tobacco. We have every right to have had our perception of this plant contorted as it has been monopolized and turned into an industry to make money. The tobacco in cigarettes we know of has additives, chemicals, and poisons added to it to keep us addicted and coming back for more. For millennia, tobacco has been considered a sacred medicine mediating between humans, gods, and the spirit world. Tobacco has immense power in its curative role in psychotherapeutic processes and to aid in the pressing search for existential questions of life. The spirit of tobacco is known to be a masculine and fatherly plant that guides us, giving us strength, clarity, and protection. In the indigenous shamanic traditions, you must start by drinking the tea, learning, and connecting with the spirit before being initiated into using it in its smokeable form. We have it all backward in modern-day culture, going straight to smoking it like a glutton. When used correctly, tobacco can mediate between the inspiring powers of the invisible spirit world to embody the messages and revelations to enrich and transform our everyday existence. When the procedure is reverted, matter and consciousness move towards disembodiment and, ultimately, death. It is like trying to build a house by starting with the roof.

Shamanic traditions believe that going straight to smoking is like aspiring to access the plant's knowledge for possession and mental enjoyment, which burns the wings of the spirit and inflates the ego more. I was a casual cigarette smoker long ago, but I have developed a deep reverence for the plant used in different, more sacred, and traditional forms. My new outlook on tobacco began ten years ago utilizing a medicine known as hape, and you can read more on this medicine here (https://www.sanahata.com/rapeh). During my most recent medicine excursion in the Amazon jungle, I had the opportunity to experience my first tobacco purge. A tobacco purge is drinking a condensed tea to induce vomiting, an expression of "giving back" what the patient has improperly seized, restoring what was wrongfully appropriated, and order is reestablished in the patient's spirit. My first tobacco purge was one of the most profound experiences, leaving me feeling incredibly clear and robust. My first purge opened my curiosity and research into the history of this plant. I recently decided to start my journey once over with this plant, beginning to drink the plant in small amounts a few times a week, as well as one tobacco purge a week over the last few months. I am excited to continue my relationship with a plant that has given me immense strength and comfort over one of my life's most unexplainably challenging, mysterious, and beautiful times. I will keep you all posted on my tobacco journey.