Sacred Tobacco: A misunderstood and abused teacher plant worth resurrecting

One man's poison...is another man's panacea.

White people misused tobacco, the sacred medicine of the native people, and it made them sick. When native people misused white peoples’ medicine, the sacred wine of the mass, it became their undoing.

~Sun Bear

The take home message...we must respect one another’s medicines.

Two major lessons I've learned since I started wild-harvesting, growing and processing my own medicines...

Lesson 1:

Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy.

This is a famous quote by Paracelsus a famous Swiss physician, in the 1500's, referred to as "the father of toxicology". He observed that everything considered a poison, had medicinal benefits in small, controlled doses. The principle relies on the finding that all chemicals—even water and oxygen—can be toxic if too much is eaten, drunk, or absorbed.

When one embarks on a path to study herbalism, one may notice stark differences of opinion amongst herbalists. On one end of the spectrum, some might say an herb is a panacea, and on the other end one might say that same herb is toxic. And then there are a lot of people in between who say dose and individuality is key.

Lesson 2:

The way a medicine is grown, processed or combined with other herbs makes all the difference in the potency, side-effects, and reputation.

There are many examples of herbs that have been misused and abused by modern man. Often times, if an herb is grown with pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, it will cause health problems unrelated to the herb itself.

Also, when certain herbs are processed with additives, the herb can be blamed for negative side effects.

If one component of a plant is isolated and overused as a supplement, this can often lead to problems as well, and again, the herb is labeled "toxic" or "harmful".

The reality is...the sum is greater than the parts in the natural world. You cannot isolate one part of a plant and expect it to behave as the whole.

Common examples of this misuse of plants/plant compounds are tobacco, ephedra, peyote, coffee, coca leaves, cacao, opium, and cannabis. Lesser known examples are chaparral, San Pedro, and comfrey.

Unfortunately these herbs/medicines are so shrouded in controversy that many are afraid to touch them.

Tobacco has taken such a huge hit in the past 50 years that, sadly, it may take some thorough advocacy to bring this plant back to the Sacred status that it once held for thousands of years.

Tobacco is the primary shamanic plant of the New World. And Shamanism is the oldest form of spiritual practice in the world. Ritual tobacco use in shamanism is probably as old as the beginning of horticulture, some 8000 years ago. These three facts, in my opinion, make it well worth understanding and resurrecting this Sacred plant for its medicinal and spiritual uses.

Portrait of Maria Sabina by Zenon Matias Jiminez

As the use of ayahuasca makes its way into the mainstream, it's important to note that tobacco water is commonly inhaled prior to and during the ayahuasca ceremony to clear the mind, focus, and prepare the participant. Sometime tobacco smoke is blown on the face of the recipient by the Shaman. This is an extremely important aspect of the ceremony in most shamanic rituals.

It is my intent, in this post, to clarify some of the confusion surrounding tobacco. And hopefully... not to turn anyone into a chain-smoker...but to open minds to the many benefits of this teacher plant when used ceremonially/for spiritual purposes and when used for its medicinal and nutritive properties.

First, a general summary of tobacco's history as a medicine and symbol of peace...

The history of tobacco or “Uppa-woc”, Native America’s most sacred plant begins with its cultivation along with squash and beans around 5000 BC.

According to paleo-botanical records it appears to have existed 2 million years ago.

Throughout South and North America, for thousands of years, tobacco was used and consumed in a diversity of ways. It was chewed, sniffed, smoked, eaten, juiced, smeared over bodies, and used in eye drops and enemas. Its use varied depending on the culture and location - it ranged from medicinal as a remedy for many ailments, to purely recreational consumed by both men and women, and also mystical - a connection to the spiritual world.

Its purifying smoke was blown over fields before planting, over women prior to sex, blown into warriors' faces before battle, it was offered to gods as well as accepted as their gift.

In other words, tobacco smoke was believed to carry blessings, protection and most of all purification.

The Aztecs cultivated special tobacco plants so they could use the fragrant flowers as ceremonial ornaments, while the Native Americans often used tobacco smoke in lieu of incense. Spiritually speaking, tobacco is a sacred plant, and is said to facilitate communion with the astral planes and the spirit world.

Detail of a Mayan Plate with intoxicated deity holding tobacco leaf.

Even today it is widely used by shamans in the Amazon, where shamans who specialize in ceremonies with tobacco are called tabaqueros. They master the spirit of tobacco and heal illnesses with his/her blow of tobacco. There tobacco is considered a Planta Maestra, i.e. Teacher Plant.

These plants are considered key protective spirits, allies and guides to the world of health and healing.

Tobacco also sealed peace treaties between tribes and agreements between individuals. The achief of a tribe carried a long-stemmed pipe, referred to as a "Peace Pipe" for these purposes. Smoking together was also a way to seal bargains or agreements between leaders of different groups, and offering a pipe to someone meant an end to hostilities.

Nicotine: the primary medicinal compound in tobacco

The popularity of tobacco is likely owed to nicotine, one of its potent ingredients. It also occurs in edible plants, such as those in the Solanaceae family, which include eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes in smaller amounts.

Nicotine is an alkaloid that in lesser doses produces a relaxing and stimulating effect, and increases the level of dopamine and serotonin, which probably accounts for its addictive properties. In higher doses it can be harmful. Even though labeled addictive, its benefits seem to outweigh the risks. In fact, it seems to have no more health risks than caffeine.

Nicotine is an anti-inflammatory agent and has been shown, among other things to prevent and treat Alzheimer's, as well as delay the onset of Parkinson's disease according to Wikipedia.

Nicotine has been studied with positive results (in cognitive and motor skills) in patients with schizophrenia, depression, Tourette's, and Parkinson's disease.

Applying tobacco as a paste or infused into a salve can be a very effective analgesic and anesthetic.

This is my favorite method of delivery.

What happened to tobacco's reputation as Sacred medicine?

This is a wonderful documentary on the traditional use of tobacco and how it became abused and villainized.

Tobacco, was one of the most important cash crops in American farming. It first became known to the rest of the world when European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries saw it being used as a medicine and as a hallucinogen by Native Americans. The explorers returned to Europe with the new-found plant and it quickly was adopted by rich and poor alike as a drug of choice.

Banned at first by kings and popes, its economic effects and broad popularity forced acceptance among all cultures. It quickly spread throughout the civilized world and became a foundation for the growth of the American economy.

When European's first arrived in a North America, the use of tobacco in religious and public ceremonies was nearly universal throughout the Americas among the various tribes of Native Americans. Its use as a medicine was also universal. The European explorers reported back that tobacco, in its various forms was used to cure almost every ailment known to man.

Early European settlers immediately discovered the powerful medicinal uses, especially the effects it had on ones state of being, and this made it highly addictive.

The development of tobacco as an export began in Virginia in 1614 when one of the English colonists, John Rolfe, experimented with a plant he had brought from the West Indies, 'Nicotania tabacum. In the same year, the first tobacco shipment was sent to England. The British prized tobacco, for it was a way to display one's wealth to the public. Only those of high status could afford the new product.

In fact, tobacco was so important to the colonists that it became the legal currency in Maryland and Virginia. Local men could use tobacco to buy their groceries and, for a period of time, to purchase rights to the English women who were imported by the company, looking for husbands in the colonies.

Without the understanding of the medicine's sacredness, it was ultimately disrespected and mass produced using harmful chemicals to grow it and process it. Here's a list of 599 additives in commercial tobacco from Wikipedia.

The confusion about nicotine specifically comes from anti-smoking activists who equate nicotine and smoking (although this is just one of numerous applications of the medicine).

And the confusion about tobacco comes from the abuse of tobacco by the white settlers who, according to many Native American historians, "stole" the medicine from the Indians. They ignorantly began to smoke the tobacco casually and daily. In many accounts of sacred use of tobacco, it was not typically inhaled directly, it was puffed in a pipe then blown into the air or onto a surface for purification.

Furthermore, when the colonists began to mass produce tobacco for trade and exportation, growing it was even banned amongst certain Native Americans tribes. And those members were forced to smoke the commercial tobacco, which led to illness and addiction amongst Natives.

For a long period of time, close to 500 years now, tobacco has been abused and misunderstood by the masses, leading to lung cancer, COPD, emphysema, birth defects and heart disease...all the while, a comparatively smaller amount of Shaman and Native Americans have been using it respectfully and in moderation with powerful benefits.

This imbalanced perspective of tobacco has been building a metaphorical prison around this plant, causing many of us to view her as an enemy to the public, and something you "better not touch...or else you'll get addicted!!!"

More recently, a statement in 1964 by the Surgeon General, emphasizing all of the negative effects of tobacco and smoking, biased the public perspective on this plant even more so.

A turning point

Luckily we are at a point in history where people are starting to see past the propaganda with many so-called "drugs" including tobacco, marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. We're recognizing and remembering the importance of cultivation practices, dose, application, and processing.

AND again...the importance of...RESPECT...for these living beings that possess a spirit and intelligence far beyond our comprehension.

I have so much hope that these medicines will be collectively valued enough that scientists will be able to study them on humans and use them more often than toxic pharmaceuticals.

More importantly, I have hope for the plant nation, that their contributions to our well-being and Spiritual enlightenment as individuals and as a collective, will be recognized and their bonds will finally be released.

What we've noticed since growing tobacco in the growing dome is that she has some of the most fragrant and beautiful flowers. We've found some companies that even sell her essential oil for the fragrance alone.

And it appears that she attracts insects in her resin and absorbs them into her leaves.

A few ideas we're pondering are tobacco's potential for use as a natural pesticide and green manure.

Thanks you for reading! I'd love to hear from you. Have any of you had personal experience with this medicine/plant teacher?

Aloha plant lovers!!!

I'm off to process this beautiful beast into some salve for topical application.

Pachee and Family

If you would like to see tobacco growing in our greenhouse in live video, check out @rawutah's recent Vlog update here.