Cannabis: Some History
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA

THE PRIESTS OF POT

The above Old testament passage makes the sacredness of this ointment quite clear. Moses and the Levite priesthood jealously guarded its use, and enforced this discriminatory prohibition with God's commandment that any transgressors be 'cut off from his people'. This law amounted to a death sentence in the ancient world.

SMOKE IN THE TENT

Lacking the invention of pipes, it was the practice of some ancient peoples to burn cannabis and other herbs in tents, so that more smoke could be captured and inhaled. In the last installment of this column we discussed such a group, the ancient Scythians. The Scythians were a nomadic people who travelled and settled extensively throughout Europe, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and Russia. They burned cannabis inside small tents and inhaled the fumes for ritualistic and recreational purposes.
Moses and his priests burned incense and used the holy ointment in a portable 'tent of meeting', the famous Tent of the Tabernacle. As cannabis is listed directly as an incense later in the Bible, it seems likely that Moses and the Levite priesthood would have burned cannabis flowers and pollen along with the ointment and incense which God commanded them to make.
And Aaron shall burn incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the lord throughout your generations. (Exodus 30:8-10)

THE SCYTHIAN CONNECTION

Given that the Scythians and Israelites were involved in a trade of goods and knowledge, it is not surprising to find the similar technique of using tents to retain smoke. Benet commented on the often overlooked connections between these two groups.
The Scythians participated in both trade and wars alongside the ancient Semites for at least one millennium before Herodotus encountered them in the fifth century BC. The reason for the confusion and relative obscurity of the role played by the Scythians in world history is the fact that they were known to the Greeks as Scythians but to the Semites as Ashkenaz.
The earliest reference to the Ashkenaz people appears in the Bible in Genesis 10:3, where Ashkenaz, their progenitor, is named the son of Gomer, the great-grandson of Noah.

GOD WITHIN A CLOUD

A reading of the Old Testament reveals that Yahweh "came to Moses out of the midst of the cloud" and that this cloud came from smoke produced by the burning of incense. As scholar Ralph Patai commented in his book The Hebrew Goddess, "Yahweh merely put in temporary appearances in the tent of meeting. He was a visiting deity whose appearance in or departure from the tent was used for oracular purposes."
One is reminded of the ancient Persian sage Zoroaster, another monotheist like Moses, who heard the voice of his god, Ahura Mazda, while in a state of shamanistic ecstasy produced by cannabis. The Greek oracle of Delphi also reve aled her prophecies from behind a veil of intoxicating smoke.
The insights achieved from the use of cannabis, whether inhaled in the Tent of the Tabernacle or applied topically, could have been interpreted by Moses as messages from God. This is similar to modern shamans who interpret their experiences with plant hallucinogens as containing divine revelations......The Second Appearance of Cannabis
The next Biblical account of cannabis comes under the name kaneh and appears in relation to King Solomon. In Solomon's Song of Songs, one of the most beautifully written pieces in the Old Testament, Solomon mentions kaneh in describing his bride:
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from lebanon. Descend from the crest of amana, from the top of senir, the summit of hermon..... How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your ointment than any spice!. . .
The fragrance of your garments is like that of Lebanon..... Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, kaneh and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree.....

SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN

In The Temple and the Lodge by Baigent and Leigh, the authors state that Solomon's 'Song of Songs' is a hymn and invocation to the Phoenician mother goddess Astarte. Astarte was known as "Queen of Heaven", "Star of the Sea" and "Stella Marris".
The authors show us that Astarte was conventionally worshipped on mountains and hilltops, and then point to a quote from I Kings 3:3.
Solomon loved Yahweh; he followed the precepts of David his father, except that he offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.
I Kings 11:4-5 offers an even more explicit example of Solomon's ties to Astarte:
When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his god as his father David's had been. Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians.
THE SPIRIT OF THE SCYTHIANS
Solomon's practice of burning incense on high to the Queen of Heaven may have been a custom done in the same spirit as that of the Scythians, who burned cannabis in mountain caves and consecrated the act to their version of the Great Goddess, Tabiti-Hestia (9).
Archeological finds show that the worship of the old Canaanite gods was an integral part of the religion of the Hebrews, through to the very end of Hebrew monarchy. The worship of the Goddess played a much more important role in this popular religion than that of the gods.

The Third Reference to Cannabis

GOD WANTS HERB

The next direct reference to kaneh-bosm appears in Isaiah, where God is reprimanding the Israelites for, among other things, not supplying him with his due of the Holy Herb.
You have not brought any kaneh for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offences. (Isaiah 43:23-24)

The Fourth Reference to Cannabis

KANEH FROM A DISTANT LAND

The fourth appearance of cannabis in the Old Testament is in Jeremiah, by which time it seems that Yahweh's taste for the herb had declined. In the same way that God rejected Cain's offering of grain in favour of Abel's blood sacrifice, the cannabis also is rejected.
What do I care about incense from sheba or kaneh from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.
(Jeremiah 6: 20) ...............

The Final Reference to Cannabis

TRADING WITH TYRE

The final Biblical reference to kaneh appears in Ezekiel 27, in a passage called A Lament for Tyre. The kingdom of Tyre had fallen into disfavor with Yahweh, and cannabis appears as just one of many of the wares received by Tyre, the merchant of peoples on many coasts.
Both of these passages refer obliquely back to the story of King Solomon. The mention of Sheba brings to mind Solomon's love affair with the Queen of Sheba, and the King of Tyre played a pivotal role in Solomon's building of the temple.
Danites and Greeks from Uzal bought your merchandise; they exchanged wrought iron, cassia and kaneh for your wares.
(Ezekiel 27:19)

FROM FAVOUR TO DISFAVOUR

Of these five references to kaneh and kaneh-bosm, the first three have cannabis appear in Yahweh's favour, the fourth definitely in his disfavour, and the fifth on a list from a kingdom that had fallen from grace in the eyes of the Israelite God. One might wonder at the reason for these apparent contradictions, and the answer can be found within the story of the suppression of the cult of Ashera, or Astarte, the ancient Queen of Heaven.
In "The Chalice and the Blade", Riane Eisler explains this as follows:
There are of course some allusions to this in the Bible itself. The prophets Ezra, Hosea, Nehemiah, and Jeremiah constantly rail against the "abomination" of worshipping other gods. They are particularly outraged at those who still worship the "Queen of Heaven". And their greatest wrath is against the "unfaithfulness of the daughters of Jerusalem," who were understandably "backsliding" to beliefs in which all temporal and spiritual authority was not monopolized by men. But other than such occasional, and always pejorative, passages, there is no hint that there ever was - or could be - a deity that is not male.
The ties between cannabis and the Queen of Heaven are probably most apparent in Jeremiah 44, where the ancient patriarch seems to be concerned by the people's continuing worship of the Queen of Heaven, especially by the burning of incense in her honour.
Keep in mind the documented use of cannabis by the shamanistic Ashera priestesses of pre-reformation Jerusalem, who anointed their skins with cannabis mixtures as well as burning it as incense....
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation. . .
Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they wanted to burn incense, and to serve other gods..... Therefore now..... Wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls..... In that ye provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt?
Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, saying, as for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the lord, we will not hearken unto thee.
But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour drink offerings unto her, as we have done. We, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the city of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
(Jeremiah 44:15-23) .....