Wicca and Pot (Or any religion)

Do you or anyone you know use Pot to increase your religous "high". I can imagine that it would be a great drug used to "connect" with whatever it is your connecting to. Espeically in religion. I've never smoked pot right before a ritual or even meditation, but, I think I may just do that tonight.

x-posted

 

I don't get in a very spiritual mood when I'm high, but you should try to see if it's different for you.

 

I agree with jneil. ummm when i'm high i feel its a rest for my brain. And when i am normal I find i have more clarity. A friend of mine told me that being high closes parts of your brian and that you can only see in one dimension or from one aspect when high but i am sure it is different for everyone. When i first started smoking weed I had a totally different reaction and now that i am used to it i feel different while on it. I also feel that if you are with the right people or the right mood it can help you. Im not really sure thats my two cents though
peace and love

 

I think it can help you connect with the earth.

 

I definitly agree
Smoking the ganj makes me feel more blended in existence with... everything
I feel that divine oneness feeling we all crave, and it definitly is magickal

 

I am not wiccan but I am considred "pagan."

I smoke only at night, I am about to smoke a bowl and set up an altar.

 

When I smoke I tend to feel more relaxed and open but I have never tried doing anything that relates to my religion when high.....of course I am just getting started down the wiccan path.

 

I myself, find it absolutely unproductive to ritual.

 

I personally don't have a set religion. But I do follow a belief of my own that Mother Earth aka Gaia is the founder of all things. When I go out into the woods to meditate I tend to take a j or 2 with me. I find that it allows me to concentrate more fully on the meditation, and that it increases my senses to our Mother more fully man.

 

I've had some very powerful and moving spiritual experiences when I was high, especially when I first started smoking.

However, I just can't tell anyone else that it is the right path to take. For me it opened doors and I found myself... but the hard part was knowing when to walk away. I realized that it no longer served any purpose for me spiritualy....at a price. But that's just my own understanding of things....life is different for everyone.

 

I don't like it. I find that it leaves me too unfocused to do what I intended to do. It also inhibits my creative visualizations.

 

I posted in a similar thread in another sub-forum about this.

In traditional Wicca, substance use is one of the eight-fold ways of making magick. Even within that path, "substances" have a pretty wide interpretation, ranging from the use of incense and aromatherapy to heavy psychedelics. Marijuana use is included in this path.

Not all Wiccans are tradtionalists, or necessarily even give two hoots about the Book of Shadows. Nonetheless its place in Wicca cannot be denied, even though it is perfectly valid to choose not to follow along that path. The eight-fold ways of making magick exist to demonstrate that options are available to all, and that no one single way can be declared the "right" way.

Hedgecraft, or "Hedge witchery" is a branch of witchcraft not necessarily related to Wicca. The "hedge" in hedge witchery refers to a boundary, specifically the boundary between worlds. "Riding the hedge" is the practice of crossing that boundary, and it involves consciousness alteration with or without the use of drugs. Given the close association hedge witchery also has with herb lore and wildcrafting, its safe to conclude that hedge witches who do choose substance in consciousness alteration may prefer natural, plants and fungus like marijuana, salvia, or magic mushrooms to sythetic hallucinogens like LSD, although I'm sure there are those that use that too.

I do not and will not claim or attempt to speak for all Wiccans or witches, but will point out that that aspect of Wicca and witchcraft does exist, and is in practice today.

 

drugs and alcohol will only dirty your channel...

many people do drugs thinking they are closer to some kind of divine entity, spiritual existence, natural force, et cetera; you're not. you're on drugs, your mind is weaving a tapestry of illusion. pure, unfiltered self is best.

but this is just my opinion.

 

That makes since al hallows. Kind of like, use what God gave you, principle. What you have is perfect, don't go fucking with it. That's a good point.

 

same here

 

I've smoked pot before rituals, however its really a touchy subject for me.

While smoking weed sometimes makes me feel more humbled and relaxed, that's not what I'm really looking for during ritual.

I feel that it really disturbs my mind. It sometimes races during meditation and interrupts me even during simple things such as purifying my sacred space, and makes my mind really wander.

While smoking weed is fun, I feel like it isn't something that's for me during purification or ritual. During a ritual, I feel like it should be just me, nature & the God and Goddess. After smoking weed, I feel much more compelled to become distracted. When high, simply exiting my circle for my closet for some salt or more incense distracts me and I could wind up in the kitchen with a sandwich and totally forget I was in ritual until I wake up and go upstairs and find my alter left a mess. Also, it's really dangerous for me to be leaving my lit candles and burning incense unattended since I have cats.

Also, I don't exactly find that I experience a 'divine oneness' feeling when I smoke weed. I feel like I wanna just explore, laugh and have fun. While I feel smoking weed has a learning aspect to it, I think that being high during a ritual skews my learning, and sometimes I feel like I'm not learning at all because I'm too focused on something else, no matter how hard I try to concentrate. When I preform a ritual, I'm looking to really learn, about myself, about our nature, just trying to find beauty and communicate when the divine-ness all around me. But if I'm high during a ritual, I can't concentrate and I feel like its an.. 'unsuccessful' ritual and I feel guilty, and the last thing I want is for my mind, soul and spiritual-ness to stagnate because I'm having trouble focusing.

So for me, I do everything I can to stay clear-minded and focused, so I've taken smoking weed out of the equation.


That's just me, though.

 

Aww, seized. I didn't know you were Wiccan. Thanks for giving this thread life again and blessed be!

 

rastafarians

 

Hmm, it definitely depends on the situation and setting.
Often, weed and psychedelics (not exactly on topic, but similar) can be a definite aid to meditation/ritual - after all, there's been documented use of mushrooms and the like for countless millennia, almost as long as there's been what we could consider 'paganism'.

However, if you're not careful you can get too caught up in the whole 'dude, the colours' kinda thing, which is distracting and more or less negates the whole thing.

 

Any substance that helps reduce the presence of ego and increase connection with things normally associated with "outside myself" is beneficial to such things, unless of course the unwanted side effects (nausea, sedation, "dude, the colors") outweigh it.