Creating a Sacred Relationship with Cannabis: An Ode to the Tricky, Sticky Lady in Green

Art by emily million

Madame Marijuana, Goddess Ganja, the Green Lady, Cannabis Queen – she’s got a lot of names, but please don’t ever call her weed. Or pot. She deserves so much better than a nasty, disrespectful nickname.

Ganja is a gateway medicine, but not into the portal of drug abuse – no, that’s on us humans if it occurs. Instead, Ganja is a gateway teacher; she welcomes many of us into our first experience of an altered state of consciousness. She opens the doors of perception and invites us to know ourselves and the multiverse more intimately. She is ancient, wise, whimsical, healing, and oh so patient.  

It’s that last trait – her mind-blowing gift of patience – that is most impactful to us humans. Ganja will quietly reflect our lack of awareness and intention, and she’ll do if for lifetimes if we need her to. She’s not in a hurry. She’s got that molasses-quality sweetness and slow paced wisdom….unless we go to her asking from the depths of our being for the turbo lessons. She knows how to kick it into high gear, but she wants us to own our desire for this path. Otherwise she’ll hold our hand through the long, slow path for as long as it takes.

Marijuana is also the trailblazer of the decriminalization and legalization movements for entheogens and sacred plants. She’s shown us where we are aligned with nature, where we are starting to awaken around the sacredness and power of working with plants,…and of course, where we are not. Ganja is slowly but surely showing us the ramifications of growing her for profit. Of not allowing her to experience the light of day. Of segregating her compounds and attempting to synthesize her organic wisdom. She loves us enough to mirror back our ignorance and disrespect, but not to punish us for it.

Cannabis is one of the most profound yet challenging teachers in the plant kingdom. Forming a bonded relationship of love and respect with her may be difficult, but it’s indescribable the number of gifts she offers in return.

Let’s explore a bit more of these incredible benefits and superpowers, as well as lay the foundation for what a mutually beneficial and reverent relationship with the Lady in Green might look like.

The Complex Spirit of Ganja: Who She Is and How She Works

Marijuana / Cannabis / Ganja is a very complicated feminine plant spirit. She is highly sensitive to intention, and yet she’s the entheogen that is most often worked with sans intention. Ganja holds space for our lack of awareness around how sacred and sentient she is, but not without repercussions (reflected with love, of course.)

Art by sofia goldberg

Ganja is rare among Plant Medicines in that she can literally take away our pain. She doesn’t heal it per say, as much as she masks it. Cannabis holds us accountable for being our own healers, so if we go to her in a vulnerable state and ask her to show us why we are hurting to begin with, she can absolutely support us in releasing anything that ails us. But if we don’t have this integrity and accountability, she may suppress the suffering, but she will not take away the wisdom of our pain.

Think of Ganja as a partner in healing, not a healer herself. We can’t just run to her every time we experience discomfort. She’ll support that for a finite period, but without the desire to understand, this wise plant angel can actually amplify the suffering. She wants us to get the message, and she’ll stand for us by playing the role of the hero and the villain.

Ganja is an amplifier. And this amplification can extend in any direction. This why sometimes when we work with her, she amplifies the seedling of trust we have inside our hearts. She can amp up our joy and our giggle fits and our connection to source. When it’s time, however, she can also amplify our fears. She can find a subconscious story deep inside of us – something like “people don’t love me” and she’ll crank up the volume until it’s deafening. She’s not supporting these painful fears, instead she shows up what they really feel like as the fester and permeate beneath the surface. She brings such things into the light and magnifies them until we cannot hide from the truth of what we are telling ourselves any longer.

With any luck, as we come back into our bodies from dark and difficult experiences with Cannabis, we will have the courage to make some positive changes.

It’s never, ever Ganja’s fault that the darkness exists. Don’t shoot the messenger.

The Benefits of Working with Cannabis

Ganja is a staggeringly benevolent and potent partner in healing. The core of her magic is around helping us heal emotional wounds and trauma imprints, but she has loads of physical healing powers too. Here are just a few of her medicinal properties:

·      Blood pressure regulation: Cannabis helps us chill out, and that extends to our hearts. She can slow down the intensity and frequency of our heartbeats which then lowers our blood pressure.

·      Addiction: Clinical studies have actually proven that Ganja has the power to help curb various addiction cravings.

·      Inflammation and pain: This amazing plant can drastically reduce inflammation all over our bodies, which also helps to lower or completely eradicate our experience of pain.

·      GI issues: Cannabis is very gifted at calming our agitated bellies; conditions like IBS, Crohn’s, ulcers, and IBD are all often soothed by her medicine.

·      Anxiety: Cannabis is a well known ally to lower trauma and stress responses in the body, especially in microdoses. She is a friend to over-stimulated nervous systems.

·      Insomnia: Marijuana is a common remedy for insomnia; taken in moderate doses before bedtime, she is often a fantastic aid to soothe anxiety and a racing mind, helping thousands of people get much needed deep REM sleep.

·      Cancer: Studies have been limited due to her legal status, but thousands and thousands of people have had very positive effects from Marijuana when dealing with Cancer. Some believe strongly her cannabinoids are anti-cancer, and even the American Cancer Society reports Cannabis is helpful for curbing the side of effects of chemotherapy. Cannabis soothes nausea, vomiting, and other GI issues, and her ability to calm the nervous system is also priceless for folks dealing with Cancer.

These are really just the tip of the healing iceberg with Ganja. The Cannabis plant contains over 80 biologically active compounds, and she’s been used for healing and trauma for centuries. Since Marijuana is so sensitive to intention, from a spiritual perspective her limitations are a direct reflection of ours. Some people have very sincerely experienced healing miracles with Cannabis, so by all means, go to her with an open heart and allow for her magic to meet you. We can never guarantee healing with Ganja (or any other sacred medicine), but the degree to which we believe in their potency and our worthiness to feel better actually maximizes these possibilities. Dare to dream, without attachment. I know, no easy task, but this is part of the alchemy of healing.

The Most Important Elements in Any Relationship with Marijuana / Ganja

In a word, it’s about Respect. If you want the Green Lady to give you the keys to the kingdom of healing and expansion, you absolutely must show her the respect she deserves. Respecting her is actually respecting yourself, too. Reverence is reciprocal.

Showing reverence means embracing the following:

·      You have an intention each time you sit with her. This can be general or vague, but please have a calling in your heart. Don’t work with Cannabis out of habit, to escape, or to just “get high”. Your intention can absolutely about having a fun and letting go. It can be about healing, pain management, assistance with anxiety, and insomnia. You can ask for insights, for nervous system support, and for a deeper connection to the cosmos. If you work with her regularly, please also spend time asking who SHE is, and what she might need in return. Be curious about who she is as a spirit, ask her about her day – treat this like a relationship, because it is.

·      Work with Marijuana at a set/setting that is sacred, ideally an altar or in nature. Try not to smoke her in public or absentmindedly on your living room sofa. Give her your full attention.

·      Create a ritual before you connect with her; maybe have a favorite essential oil that you wear or put in a diffuser. Dress up or look nice for her. Burn some Sage, Palo Santo, Copal or Sacred Tobacco to set the scene. Have a mantra or opening prayer you send to her. Let her feel your heart, and do things that create a true atmosphere of holiness before you imbibe.

·      Truly receive the reflections she offers you. This is tricky because Ganja is such a supreme shadow worker, she reflects our shadows – often the parts of ourselves we least want to see. Things like relationship with food, memories of past events we don’t want to process, our ability to follow through and show up for our lives – she will stunt all of these things not because she’s punishing us, but because, on some level, we’re asking for it. If you’re experiencing unwanted results from working with Cannabis, that means she loves you enough to show you your shadow. Don’t blame the plant, look at what is unhealed in you.

Beyond this, a sacred relationship with Marijuana is simply a reflection of what is special and holy to you. 

I hope this truly inspires you to treat Ganja with the love and respect she deserves, as she will send that back to you tenfold. The Cannabis industry often treats Ganja like a drug mass-produced for profit, so that becomes doubly important for those of us that love her to alchemize the abuse and disrespect. She’s an ancient, powerful, highly conscious plant spirit. Treating her as such is good for everyone.

Now go give Cannabis some love!