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The Assembly of the Church of the Universe, an entheogen religion, was established by Walter Tucker in 1969 in the Canadian province of Ontario. The Church uses marijuana as a sacrament and promotes nudity as a demonstration of human honesty.
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The guiding rules of the church are variations on the Golden Rule:
Although often quoting from the Bible and other scriptures, the church denies a direct connection to Christianity. It also accepts as valid sources of inspiration ancient and modern sources such as the culture of Sumer, pagan holidays of the solstices, Canada Day, the Knights Templar, Chaldeans, Gnostic Gospels and the Desiderata.
Their sacrament is cannabis, and followers are encouraged to smoke it and use hemp products. They draw on accounts in Genesis and associate the Tree of Life with the hemp plant, additionally quoting Psalm 22:30 and Revelation 22:2,14.
Nudity also finds its origins in Genesis, since Adam and Eve were unclothed until they ate from the Tree of Knowledge rather than the Tree of Life. However, members are enjoined to cover their heads on any official occasion or when interacting with government agents. Each person is encouraged to do so as God directs. Nudism is no longer practiced in many communities within the Church of the Universe.
Since all members joining the church are simultaneously considered to be ordained as ministers, there is theoretically no distinction made between "clergy" and "ordinary members". However, founder Walter Tucker and leading member Michael Baldasaro have partially developed a system of structured religious titles derived from Catholic Christianity, such as reverend, archbishop, bishop and abbot.
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Tucker founded the church at a water-filled former quarry in Puslinch, Ontario in Wellington County between Hamilton and Guelph in 1969. After he leased the site for a nominal fee, he renamed it Clearwater Abbey.
Clearwater Abbey's presence in the area was not without controversy, including allegations of noisy ceremonies on the property, the discovery nearby of human remains in 1975, the termination of its lease in 1982, and the final forcible removal of members from the property by police and sheriffs in 1986. [1] An attempt to relocate to a disused foundry, renamed Hempire Village, in Guelph in 1994 met a similar fate. The church is now located in north Hamilton.
Today Clearwater Abbey, in north Flamborough on the border of Puslinch, is known as the environmentally sensitive Fletcher Creek Conservation Area and is owned by Hamilton Region Conservation Authority. [2]
The church's ritual use of cannabis and its occasional practice of nudism has attracted attention from both the media and police. Because of members' regular possession and use of cannabis as a sacrament, legal charges of criminal possession and trafficking in marijuana laid against individual members are a common occurrence.
Frequent court challenges, based on charges or the exercise of political rights, have created an additional pair of intertwined activities: the Legal Self-Defence fund and the University of Universe. Members who defend themselves or others in court are granted degrees from this non-accredited university, the level depending on the level of court involved.
In the past, both Baldasaro and Tucker have utilized political candidacy for various public and party offices as a platform for espousing their religious beliefs.[ citation needed ]
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: Cannabis sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis. Alternatively, C. ruderalis may be included within C. sativa, all three may be treated as subspecies of C. sativa, or C. sativa may be accepted as a single undivided species. The genus is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from Asia.
Entheogens are psychedelic drugs—and sometimes certain other psychoactive substances—used for engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts. They have been used in various ways, e.g., as part of established religious rituals or as aids for personal spiritual development. Anthropological study has established that entheogens are used for religious, magical, shamanic, or spiritual purposes in many parts of the world. Entheogens have traditionally been used to supplement many diverse practices geared towards achieving transcendence, including healing, divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as those experienced in meditation, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences. Ego dissolution is often described as a key feature of the psychedelic experience.
The THC Ministry, founded by Roger Christie from the Religion of Jesus Church, is a religion which considers cannabis to be a sacrament. Members base their practices on what they see as an eclectic mixture of ancient wisdom, modern science, and the enlightening and healing properties of cannabis sacrament. Its mission includes "liberating the Cannabis plant and the minds of those who do and of those who do not revere it," and is actively involved in the legal and social discussions surrounding cannabis use in society. On July 8, 2010, Christie and 13 other individuals allegedly associated with the THC Ministry were indicted by a Federal grand jury in Honolulu on Marijuana Possession and Trafficking charges. Christie served four years in jail following an April 2014 sentencing, and was on probation until 2018.
Roger Christie is an American ordained minister in the Religion of Jesus Church, which regards marijuana as a "sacramental herb." In 2000, he founded the THC Ministry, which offered cannabis as a part of its services. On July 8, 2010, Christie and 13 other individuals associated with the THC Ministry were indicted by a Federal grand jury in Honolulu on marijuana possession and trafficking charges. On Sept. 27, 2013, Christie pleaded guilty to marijuana trafficking and two counts of failing to file income tax returns. On April 28, 2014, Christie was sentenced to a term of five years in federal prison, with credit for time already served at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a plant in the botanical class of Cannabis sativa cultivars grown specifically for industrial and consumable use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants on Earth. It was also one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 50,000 years ago. It can be refined into a variety of commercial items, including paper, rope, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, paint, insulation, biofuel, food, and animal feed.
Michael A. James Baldasaro was a Canadian political and religious figure from Hamilton, Ontario. He presided over a religious sect known as the Church of the Universe. Baldasaro received significant media coverage over his lifetime for his advocacy on behalf of marijuana legalization, as well as his status as a perennial candidate in numerous Hamilton-area elections.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana or weed among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive component of cannabis, which is one of the 483 known compounds in the plant, including at least 65 other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract.
The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a religious movement that originated in Jamaica during the 1940s and later spread to the United States, being incorporated in Florida in 1975. Its beliefs are based on both the Old and New testaments of the bible, as well as the teachings of Marcus Garvey, self-reliance, Afrocentricity and Ethiopianism. Their ceremonies include bible reading, chanting, and music incorporating elements from Nyahbinghi, Burru, Kumina and other indigenous traditions. The group holds many beliefs in common with the Rastafari, including the use of marijuana as a sacrament, but differ on many points, most significantly the matter of Haile Selassie's divinity.
The holy anointing oil formed an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood and the High Priest as well as in the consecration of the articles of the Tabernacle and subsequent temples in Jerusalem. The primary purpose of anointing with the holy anointing oil was to sanctify, to set the anointed person or object apart as qodesh, or "holy".
Different religions have varying stances on the use of cannabis, historically and presently. In ancient history some religions used cannabis as an entheogen, particularly in the Indian subcontinent where the tradition continues on a more limited basis.
Many religions have expressed positions on what is acceptable to consume as a means of intoxication for spiritual, pleasure, or medicinal purposes. Psychoactive substances may also play a significant part in the development of religion and religious views as well as in rituals.
The Church of Cognizance (COC) was founded in 1991 by Danuel & Mary Quaintance in Graham County (Pima) Arizona, United States.
Cannabis is a plant used in Australia for recreational, medicinal and industrial purposes. In 2019, 36% of Australians over the age of fourteen years had used cannabis in their lifetime and 11.6% had used cannabis in the last 12 months.
John H. Long is a Canadian political figure. He has sought election to the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on five occasions and has run for the leadership of the Social Credit Party of Canada, the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and the Canadian Alliance. He is strongly influenced by social credit economic theories and has often called for reform of the Bank of Canada.
Cannabis in Kentucky is illegal for recreational use, and legal for medical use under executive order, with full medical legalization statute taking effect in 2025. Non-psychoactive CBD oil is also legal in the state, and Kentucky has a history of cultivating industrial hemp for fiber since 1775.
Cannabis in New York has been legal for medical purposes under New York law since 2016, and recreational purposes since 2021. As of 2022, recreational cannabis is for sale legally in the state, only through state-approved dispensaries.
In Judaism, there is debate that cannabis may have been used ritually in ancient Judaism, and the use of cannabis continues to be a controversial topic in modern Judaism.
Cannabis has served as an entheogen—a chemical substance used in religious or spiritual contexts—in the Indian subcontinent since the Vedic period dating back to approximately 1500 BCE, but perhaps as far back as 2000 BCE. It was introduced to the New World by the Spaniards in 1530-1545.
Terms related to cannabis include:
Women have been active in the cannabis industry, cannabis legalization, cannabis testing, and cannabis rights since the earliest days of commercialization, but they have also faced gendered obstacles impeding their growth in an industry worth over 12 million dollars since 2019. "The American cannabis industry accounted for $10 billion of 2018’s [global] figures, with the average U.S. dispensary pulling in $3 million a year."
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