Exotic Herbal Tobacco By International Oddities Mirrors Mysticism Through The Ages   by Bill Black

in Spirituality / Metaphysical    (submitted 2010-06-16)

Smoking has lost a great deal of its ancient mystique. Nearly everything that can be put in a pipe or cigarette has at one point or another been scrutinized as a potentially mystical experience. Herbal smokes have yet to lose this sense of mystery.

Native Americans have used a wide variety of plants in their mystical pursuits. Vision quests, communion ceremonies and every aspect of their spiritual and communal lives were punctuated with smoking. Typically, tobacco was used for this sacrament. In relatively recent times, this has become commercialized. The spiritual experience was sucked right out of it.

Much the same could be said for marijuana. All over the world, marijuana was used for communion with the cosmos and with the gods. In India, marijuana was, and still is, sacred to devotees of Shiva. In Japan, marijuana is sacred to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. It was also presumably used by the indigenous tribes of South and Central America-specifically the Toltec's.

In most of the world, marijuana is today considered to be illegal. It can be argued that it began as religious suppression. Certain religions frowned on communion with nature and "pagan gods," and saw this form of smoking as part of what needed to be removed from the conquered societies. While the religions faded into obscurity, marijuana use never really decreased entirely. The focus of its use merely shifted from the spiritual to the escapist.

Herbal smoking of other varieties has also enjoyed a historically spiritual status. Equally sacred to many cultures as marijuana and tobacco was, their use was never suppressed or capitalized. Perhaps they didn't represent the same kind of symbolic denial of the social order they sought to impress on the conquered society. Perhaps this practice of religious suppression fell out of favor by the time these cultures were encountered.

The desire for direct communion with the divine never truly went away. This was transferred into the vicarious practice of a multitude of rituals and traditional ceremony. The psychological imprint of smoke being a direct form of union couldn't be fully satisfied by traditions lacking depth or history.

From the shadows of the distant past, herbal smokes have re-emerged as the spiritual communion tool for the metaphysical smoker. They don't have the illegal imprint that marijuana prohibition has placed on pot. They don't have the commercial and addictive imprint that tobacco has. They answer to a different calling, so nothing gets in the way of your union with the universe.

International Oddities Bud may satisfy this need for the spiritual. To that end, you can expect nothing but a pure bud smoking experience. Their hybrids are not stepped on by humans for the sheer capitalism of selling mass quantities. They haven't been tainted with strange chemicals to alter what is pure.

If your goal is to commune with the divine, International Oddities may provide the best product for you. From the cultivation of plants with an herbal tobacco element which goes way beyond the unique, they put their full attention into an all-over quality experience-important considerations when you're approaching holy ground.

About the Author

Bill Black is a contributing writer and authority on the subject of smoking and legal buds for film, TV and movies. His views on herbal smoke as sacred have been considered revolutionary to an oftentimes overly commercialized industry. He states smoking should be regarded as an art form and is a consultant to the smoking industry.