Entheogenic Healing in Rastafari: Decolonization through Cannabis, Consciousness, and Collective Ritual

Abstract

Rastafari is a Pan-African spiritual, socio-political, and ecological movement that uses the Herb (Cannabis spp.) as an entheogenic agent for decolonizing consciousness to promote well-being. The movement counters the centuries of injustice and oppression perpetrated through the trans-Atlantic slave trade with a power derived from links to African livity, a core spiritual lifestyle that challenges the global system of Black oppression. In Rastafari, smoking the Herb is a spiritual practice of knowing, healing, and decolonizing, which counters the historical effects of colonialism and its legacy of oppression. The healing powers of the Herb are enhanced by “reasoning,” a discursive process that can identify the root causes of illness, disease, injustice, etc.; and through participation in Nyahbinghi drumming, chanting, and dancing. In these rituals, participants smoke the Herb together to regulate their emotions and enter a collective state of InI-consciousness, an entheogenic connection between individuals and the divine. Features of Rastafari language shift consciousness towards positivity, a decolonial mindset that is the basis of healing. This cultivation of InI-consciousness combines the effects of the Herb with those of music as a powerful complement for entering altered states of consciousness that produce healing and facilitate the transmission of Rastafari knowledge and social ethos.