Note: This post discusses the smoking of tobacco and other legal substances (such as mugwort) by adults. I do not condone the smoking of anything by minors. It is not intended to promote illegal actions of any kind.
I normally abhor the smell of tobacco smoke. I had asthma as a child. The act of smoking anything never appealed to me, despite the fact that I love incense. Tobacco use has led to health problems with some of my family members. Even knowing that non-tobacco substances like mugwort can be smoked in a pipe, I never considered that it might be something I could or would do until recently.
I have begun to wonder more about ritual smoking in the last few years. I have a lot of respect for most things done for ritualistic purposes, even or especially if they aren’t things I could see myself doing. I am often curious about how others practice and interact with their gods and spirits. I have been able to witness practitioners include it in their practice in some way.
I once had a roommate who had a very curated taste in cigars. She didn’t use smoking as part of a ritual practice, but she had a lot of knowledge about and respect for the act of enjoying a good cigar. The way she smoked made it a ritual of sorts. She offered to let me smoke a bit of a cigarillo to try it out. When I finally came around to the idea of trying, I found the mechanical aspect of sucking in but not inhaling to be a bit of a challenge. My curiousity was sated. I determined that it was not a practice for me
Cut to recently. I found myself sharing in the process of smoking clove cigarillos for the ancestors and spirits. There were one or two natural tobacco cigarettes being smoked as well, but I was not put off by the scent. I was pulled in, drawn in. Perhaps the ancestors were pulling me in a bit, perhaps it was just the general atmosphere. This experience showed how it feels to smoke as a sacred act. It was much more visceral than I was expecting, connecting with the spirits through breath.
I don’t know if ritual smoking of any sort will become a part of my practice. I do know that this experience has shown me there is more to explore with it. Whether I choose to engage with it again or not is uncertain, but the book is still open.