History Lesson: Ritual Uses of Cannabis

By Justine Sutton

Over the eons and around the world, many religions and spiritual teachings have held cannabis as a sacred element and used it to conduct ritual, facilitate meditation, and communicate with spirits.

TIMELINE OF THC TRADITION

HINDU - 1400-2000 BCE : In Hinduism, cannabis is a sacred plant and legends tell how the god Shiva brought it down from the Himalayas for the people’s use and enjoyment. The earliest Indian allusion to its mind-altering influence is in the Atharvaveda, written between 2000 and 1400 BCE. It calls cannabis one of the “five kingdoms of herbs...which release us from anxiety.”

TAO - 1st Century CE: In the 1st century CE, Taoists added cannabis seeds to their incense burners. Their hallucinations were highly valued as a means to achieve immortality.

GREEK - 500 BCE: Herodotus, a Greek historian in 500 BCE, described a unique Scythian post-war purification ritual where sauna-like tents were raised and cannabis seeds placed onto the hot stones. He said the resulting vapors caused the soldiers to “howl with joy.”

CHINESE - 300-500 BCE: The first incidence of the use of cannabis plants as a “shroud” in a human burial was in northwest China. Radiocarbon dated to between 500 and 300 BCE, the grave contained a man laid out with thirteen large cannabis plants placed diagonally across his body.

THE VATICAN - 1484: The Inquisition outlawed cannabis in Spain (12th century) and France (13th century). In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII targeted healers and other herbalists. Anyone using cannabis in any way was labeled “witch.”

IRELAND: In 18th century Ireland, women who wanted to know whom they would eventually marry were advised to seek revelation through the use of cannabis.

BRAZIL - 19th Century: The Catimbo Indians of Brazil were recorded in the 19th century using cannabis in their practices to receive spirits and induce divination, revelation of secrets, and mystic hallucinations.

JAMAICA - 1930: Ganja (cannabis) became important to the Rastafarian movement, which began to take shape around 1930 in Jamaica, and its use became a religious sacrament.

While it is rare to find cannabis in sacred ceremony today, an elder of the Cinco Putas tribe in California recalls his grandmother’s daily ritual when he was a child. She’d roll cannabis flower in handmade corn paper, light it, and watch the rising smoke, praying, “Oh thank you, Great Mother!”

In modern life, ritual use of cannabis has largely shifted to social gatherings, where the passing of a joint can feel like sacred community-building. More likely during the COVID pandemic, we are lighting up alone—twisting smoke and expansive mindset connecting us with the ancestors and bringing visions of our own personal mysteries.

Justine Sutton graduated from UCSB in 1988 and adopted Santa Barbara as her hometown. She has been a freelance journalist since her editorial internship at the SB Independent in 1991, writing for a variety of local media outlets since then. In addition, she writes fiction, poetry, and memoir, and is working on her first novel. Also trained as a voice actor, Justine is a certified LifeCycle™ Celebrant, performing customized weddings, funerals, and ceremonies for any important moments in life.