Seshat's Secret

Solving the mystery of what the ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom was all about brings to light the true nature of the world’s favorite forbidden flower

I am not an Egyptologist, but I played one as a boy in the late 60s.  Attracted by the art, the mythology and the unsolved mysteries, I spent enough time in the Egyptian collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to recognize when objects were moved around or rotated off the floor.  One unsolved mystery is the meaning of the emblem symbolizing Seshat, the sexy and mysterious goddess of wisdom, writing and measurement.

I never paid the question much mind as a kid, but recently I stumbled on an image of a Seshat carving sporting what looked like a 5-point cannabis sun leaf; Northern Lights to be exact.  My work with legal cannabis patients and care growers in New England gives me access to such leaves, so I scanned a few and chose point counts to correspond with Seshat emblem silhouettes I made from online photos (see below). 

The notion that Seshat is the patron goddess of cannabis is not so far-fetched.  Her symbol is among the oldest hieroglyphs, and although cannabis is not native to North Africa, it would have grown well there—and been available through trade routes.  Indications for use of cannabis and instructions for preparation are in some of the oldest medical texts in existence.[i]

Temple walls depict festive royal spirituals featuring beer, wine, psychoactive concoctions[ii], ceremonial sacrifices, and exotic dancers including the Seshat priestess herself—turning heads in a dazzling leopard-skin number favored by funerary priests.  Lotus buds soaked in wine produced a spiritual effect of such importance that much of their art and architecture was devoted to the flower.

No temples to Seshat have ever been found, and the psychoactive use of cannabis in ancient Egypt is thought to be less well documented—or maybe the truth is all over the walls and we just can’t see it through the haze of drug war propaganda. 

Prohibition did not start with the banning of cannabis in the 1930s.  It began many centuries earlier with religious edicts that forbid—on pain of death—the use of psychoactive plants as spiritual sacraments.  The industrial revolution went even further by creating a propaganda campaign that turned the world against natural medicines, and by outlawing plants that could deliver euphoric and/or spiritual sensations. 

That’s where Seshat comes in.  We know the ancient Egyptians were intelligent, spiritual, and as a culture, very successful (For the United States to be half as long-lived, our Constitution would have had to date back to the mid-700s AD).  If cannabis was revered in those ancient times the way it is today (mostly in the shadows by people you’d never think…) that’s one more body slam against the crumbling walls of prohibition.

Establishing the Proof

Here are six Seshat emblems from their golden age; The New Kingdom (c.1550-c.1069)[1]

Artistic interpretations and dynastic variations are an excellent measure for eliminating popular guesses.  For example, if the top piece looks like a bow at Luxor and like horns at Karnak, it probably isn't representating either one; the explanation must work across all variations. (Condition 1) 

Since the two parts of the emblem never appear separately, the explanation must describe how the images work together to symbolize one concept. (Condition 2)

Seshat was the deification of wisdom; the goddess of writing, astronomy, architecture, and mathematics.  She was an exotic dancer with spirit-realm connections.  In the Coffin Texts, a collection of funerary spells written beginning in the First Intermediate Period (c.2181-c.2055), spell 10 states:  Seshat opens the door of heaven for you. [iii] The explanation for the symbol must reflect the whole of Seshat’s complex character. (Condition 3)

The human embodiment of the goddess was a royal priestess—a smart, creative and powerful top advisor to the king; the keeper of records and chief architect responsible for laying down measurements for royal projects.  The explanation must plausibly reflect the life and duties of an actual Seshat priestess. (Condition 4)  

First Inquiry:  What is that star-shaped thing?

It’s not a star because the base of the emblem is often not star-shaped at all.  Same for palm leaves.  As for papyrus, that is the least likely candidate since the hieroglyph for that sacred plant is everywhere and it looks nothing like the Seshat symbol. 

[2]

Cannabis hemp leaves have been called a match, but that food and fiber cultivar cannot begin to capture the full color spectrum of this goddess and her earth-bound representative.

Cannabis leaves vary greatly between strains, but point counts of 5, 7 and 9 are common.  Here are three representatives collected at legal grows in New England.[3]

Although the emblem renderings above differ widely in shape and artistic style, cannabis is a perfect match for every image in the set.  This satisfies the first condition of the proof.

Second inquiry:  How does the cannabis leaf work with the image above?

Unlike the leaf, the upper shape is portrayed in a variety of ways.  In the hieroglyph and in the emblem from the Red Chapel of Queen Hatshepsut (B) the top piece appears to be flowing down and around the leaf.  When the top is closed, either with a point (A & F) or a cap (C), the image still seems to be coming down from above, like a falling veil. 

Given that the message must be evident in all cases, this wide range of interpretations suggests that the image on top is symbolic rather than physical.  It also suggests that the answer lies in what the designs have in common.

In every carving the upper shape flows down from above and around an image that always looks like a cannabis leaf.  That leaf always rises straight from the crown of Seshat’s head, and always stands at attention under the veil.

The leaf is cannabis, and the veil is the wisdom it bestows.  Taken together the two images represent the source of Seshat’s creative ideas, cosmic intuition and spiritual connection.  This satisfies the second condition.

Third inquiry: Does this explanation reflect the whole of the Seshat mythology?

This might be a hard pill to swallow for nations of people raised to just say no, but nothing about this smart, colorful and spirited multi-tasker is inconsistent with cannabis use. 

This ancient truth is reflected in the lives of creative thinkers and people of action like Steve Jobs, John Lennon, and in the words of the late astronomer, mathematician, philosopher and novelist Carl Sagan.  Writing anonymously as Mr. X in the groundbreaking 1969 book Marijuana Reconsidered, Sagan described cannabis as a spiritual conduit for ideas and creative expression:

"I do not consider myself a religious person in the usual sense, but there is a religious aspect to some highs. The heightened sensitivity in all areas gives me a feeling of communion with my surroundings, both animate and inanimate…Many but not all my cannabis trips have somewhere in them a symbolism significant to me…a kind of mandala embossed on the high. Free-associating to this mandala, both visually and as plays on words, has produced a very rich array of insights.”[iv]

People who use cannabis to spark insights and creativity (artists, professionals, clergy, teachers…mostly all in hiding) would agree that the whole of Seshat—the writer, the spiritualist, the dirty dancer, as well as the no-nonsense nail-the-numbers professional getting baked on the job—are all well within the lifestyles and possibilities of people who use cannabis.  This satisfies the third condition.

Final inquiry: Does this explanation relate to real life in ancient Egypt?

Yes.  Cannabis was known as medicine and would have been available to people with resources and trade connections.  The famously fertile delta would have supported local cultivation, and the variety of point configurations in the drawings supports the notion of favored strains.  The notion of a private palace home grow is also consistent with the mythology; Seshat was known as a secretive goddess who preferred the company of royals.[v]  This satisfies the final condition.

Why this matters

This is more than an academic exercise.  Cannabis prohibition is a war of words and images, and until quite recently our government was in total control.  History will record the irony; the very communication system that was being used to broadcast lies about this so-called recreational drug was suddenly the means by which the people could learn and share the truth about what cannabis really is.

As we head into this new century, few things represent the future better than cannabis, an ancient plant that can deliver food, fiber, fuel, medicine, inspiration, and an occasional laugh.  Seshat reminds us that sometimes the best way forward is to look back and learn from the wise ones who came before.

Carl Hedberg is a writer, speaker and medicinal use explorer working with filmmakers to bring the truth about cannabis to the big screen. (see http://www.dailycamera.com/guest-opinions/ci_25298250/lights-camera-cannabis )

From the lecture; Cannabis Rising: Truth and healing on the front lines of the battle to restore our right to choose.  Twitter @cannabisrising 

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[1] A. Temple complex at Karnak/18th dynasty,  B. Red Chapel of Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458)/18th dynasty,  C. Luxor Temple; Ramesses II (1279-1213)/18th dynasty,  D. Medinet Habu mortuary of Ramesses III (1184-1153)/18th dynasty,  E. Temple complex at Karnak/18th dynasty,  F. Temple of Osiris, Abydos; King Seti I (1294-1279)/19th dynasty

[2] Comparison images (l-r):  Seshat emblem and papyrus hieroglyphs, 2 palm leaves, papyrus stem

[3] Cannabis sun leaves (l-r): Northern Lights (5 points), OG Kush (7), Jack Herer (9).  Not in relative scale to each other.

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[i] http://cannabination.com/2011/02/05/anceint-egypt-and-cannabis/

[ii] http://www.entheology.org/edoto/anmviewer.asp?a=65

[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seshat

[iv] http://marijuana-uses.com/mr-x/

[v] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seshat's_emblem (Note that the word "sesheta" means hidden things, mysteries, secrets, and through Seshat the Pharaoh was given access to the power of those mysteries).

Cannabis 451

Tincture boil in the shadows of prohibition. RI 20011

Ray Bradbury's great novel Fahrenheit 451 describes a hyper-controlling, fear-driven militaristic society hooked on pills and living vicariously through the lives of imaginary characters on big screens.  Substitute cannabis for books and it’s 2014 America in the waning years of prohibition.

Like Bradbury's book lovers, cannabis patients living under prohibition are fundamentally law-abiding citizens driven to secrecy by oppressive laws and social contracts that have neighbors watching neighbors for signs of moral decay.

The Tyranny of Prohibition

Washington has long operated on the assumption that what is good for big business will ultimately be good for the nation; jobs, revenue, growth, captive markets, and lots of consumer spending.  To make that work for big healthcare, they took away our right to grow our own medicine and created a farcical schedule of forbidden plants; don't even look.

At the heart of this global scheme to control for profit what we use for medicine is a deep-rooted propaganda campaign that has installed the societal impression that cannabis is a fringe issue; just pot, a smoked substance for slackers that crafty stoners are calling medicine in an effort to free up their favorite party drug. 

To keep the truth at bay and everyone in line, many doctors are forbidden by their insurance carriers to discuss cannabis options with their patients, and some willingly disavow their Hippocratic oath by refusing to treat patients who confess to using the banned flower for medicine. For proper New England Yankees, using weed is a fine practice for prep school and college, but if you’re a fifty-something professional with teens in the house, you’re probably tokin’ in the closet.

Cannabis the Exit Drug

The first generation of school children to go through the DARE program are now in college.  Given the popularity of the book Marijuana is Safer, and the proliferation of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) chapters around the world, it’s clear that younger generations are finally deciding to think for themselves—and fight for the right to add cannabis to the party mix.

Let’s be honest; consuming alcoholic beverages can be a fun way to celebrate, but let’s also cut the crap.  Alcohol kills; cannabis doesn’t.  Cannabis isn’t physically addictive; alcohol can be.  Cannabis-infused gatherings are famously peaceful, while alcohol-fueled celebrations are notoriously unstable. 

In 2009 researchers at the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley found that “medical cannabis patients have been engaging in substitution by using cannabis as an alternative to alcohol, prescription and illicit drugs [www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/6/1/35]  

In late 2011, Maia Szalavitz reported for Time Magazine that “states that legalize medical marijuana see fewer fatal car accidents, in part because people may be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol.” [http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/02/why-medical-marijuana-laws-reduce-traffic-deaths]

These findings are hopeful news for heavy drinkers and the people trying to help them—but many will first need to shake the notion that the only cure for alcoholism is sobriety.  Here’s an example from a prohibition state on the east coast:

An elderly Purple Heart veteran is dying of cancer; cared for by his daughter and her husband—in a cramped two-bedroom apartment.  For too long her old man has been dealing with his pain with a volatile mix of prescribed meds and Stoli shots, which he loudly raves for all day long. 

The weary couple can usually hold him to four or five, but every night he’s bitter, loud, and abusive.   Three months before her father dies, his daughter begins coloring his Stoli shots with a solid dose of alcohol-based cannabis tincture she found at a local freedom festival.

The change is miraculous.  The old guy is suddenly talkative, relaxed, and down to three shots a day.  In those final weeks he took a renewed interest in watching his favorite old war movie s.  He got some rest, and died in his sleep.

Truth, Healing and Enterprise

With no danger of a lethal overdose or physical addiction, cannabis is well-suited to personal exploration, including strains, edibles, raw juice, extracts, salves; whatever works.  Seeds, clones, home remedies and care strategies are being shared, sold and bartered through a cautious and well-hidden community of growers, patients, healers, and practitioners.  Weekend freedom festivals are the market square of the movement; a place to connect, toke, brag, haggle and sample kitchen creations made from flowers lovingly grown in private. 

The cannabis frontier, which Washington is simultaneously attempting to deny and crush, are nevertheless delivering jobs and opportunity to recession-weary carpenters, electricians, plumbers, practitioners, care growers, vendors, inventors, publishers, promoters, educators, online enterprisers…and a few are already making a very good living in the cannabis trades. 

Well aware that legalization is inevitable now that the truth can be found online, industrialists who have long benefited from prohibition are no doubt horrified to see how healthcare customer counts fall wherever cannabis freedom is restored. In Colorado, forty percent of the weed produced in the state is grown in private; not packaged, not regulated, not taxed. Ancient, non-toxic medicine freely produced at home and in private. What a concept.

Songs happen

A period of deep isolation in my late 40s gave me reason and opportunity to learn accoustic guitar.  No lessons, no sheet music, no theory; just chords swiped from established songs.  I found my first 'round' [G, Em Am, D] in the appropriately named fiddle tune; Poor Old Wayfaring Man of Grief.

Like Stephen King describes in On Writing, these creative works arrive as a bright flash; a premise or a phrase that immediately feels fully-formed, yet very well hidden.  Uncovering and assembling the pieces--the words, the chords, the story, the strum--becomes an obsessive journey that doesn't end until it's secure on the page. 

In six years around eight songs have come to me, and at least two remain unfinished.  Not exactly high production, except for the state I'm usually in when they arrive.  At first I play without a net; no pen, no paper, no recordings.  Good stuff is surely lost but that seems like a fair trade-off to the spontaneous combustion of exploration that is very much like the start of a new relationship--especially since these delightful episodes arrive by surprise and always leave me exhausted, unshaven, and way behind in my work...

Free the weed

Last summer Congressmen Ron Paul and Barney Frank introduced HR 2306, a bill that would give states the right to establish their own medicinal cannabis policies.  The measure was of course deemed dead on arrival as is usual with cannabis law reform initiatives, but Obama's decision to escalate the conflict next month by sending in Federal troops to close California dispensaries could ironically spark the beginning of the end of cannabis prohibition.

The truth is out about this safe and effective garden medicine that rarely harms and never kills, and that's bad news for the forces of an Industrial Age that sought to make shoppers of us all.  Patients who choose cannabis typically drink less and use fewer manufactured drugs.  This outlawed flower comes without a set of instructions, but with no danger of a lethal overdose or physical addiction, patients become pioneers, investigators and experimenters who treat themselves and bravely share their discoveries online.

Although the number of cannabis consumers in the US is probably less than ten percent of the total population, most Americans support the right of their fellow citizens to use cannabis for medicine.  Small-scale home cultivation for private use is taking off.  Seeds, clones and medicinal formulations are being shared through a peaceful, cautious and nurturing underground community straight out of Bradbury's visionary tale Fahrenheit 451.
 
Aided by wise healers with medicinal plant knowledge going back thousands of years, an increasing number of patients are using manufactured medicines as a last resort, and turning to their doctors for diagnoses and when needed, surgery. They rightly believe that making medicinal use of intelligently selected plants is not a radical practice any more than hoisting water from a clean well is a radical alternative to buying bottles at the store.

If mainstream Americans were to spend a week's worth of their TV time online investigating cannabis, they would discover a shocking and most convenient truth; our freedom to decide what we use for medicine, fun and stimulation was taken away not for the good of society or for our own protection.  The twisted reality of the Western healthcare model is that without laws, propaganda and military force to 'discourage' free choice and personal exploration, their monopoly power would evaporate.

The inevitable restoration of the right to choose cannabis will mark the beginning of a slow and painful decline of Americanized medicine.  Many will lose their jobs as last-century businesses fail, and as government agencies charged with drug enforcement and control are downsized or eliminated.  Not a pleasant prospect in the midst of possibly the worst recession in history, but staying the course is no longer possible in an age of instant communications, border-less social networks, and a rising populous cry for smaller, less intrusive government.

Now that the internet is brimming with cannabis testimonials from regular, honest and genuinely surprised survivors like Emily Sander (cancer) and Shona Banda (Crohn's), the big question is how many more US Administrations will be allowed to duck, dodge, bully, stammer and squirm away from the truth in service to a moralistic, commercialized, media-supported framework that from cannabis country looks like a Mel Brooks tollbooth?

Early on Obama pledged to leave medicinal cannabis decisions to the states.  This month he's threatening to spend more of our money to violently disrupt the lives of peaceful state-legal cannabis patients and entrepreneurs in California.  With activists already in the streets across America standing up against abuse and greed in general, this President may unintentionally spark a unified movement with the power to insist that America finally restore our basic human right to choose and responsibly use cannabis.

Free Cannabis Rising Lectures

In New England the movement to restore our right to choose is well underway but the vast majority of Yankees are woefully uninformed.  To help change that I have developed a series of ~40 min lectures followed by an open-ended Q&A/discussion.

The next scheduled lecture is at BU in Boston on Monday Oct 17th 7PM:

Cannabis Rising: How the Great Prohibition will end (sooner than you think) and why now is a critical time to support national law reform organizations

I am not affiliated with any group and I offer these lectures at no charge.  Here's what I need to support these outreach talks:


New England hosts  No charge. I cover costs with sponsors and an information/product table.

Unique/portable products  In the course of my travels I will be visiting 420 friendly shops all over the Northeast.  I am building a portfolio of products I can sell at my info table as well as offer wholesale to retailers, festival vendors.

Sponsors  Your logo on the welcome slide as people are taking their seats and then again on the last slide for the Q&A session.  $100 per lecture.

Contact email: hempseedventures@yahoo.com.

Medicinal cannabis in the movies; bit parts are better than a staring role

Now that the Internet has obliterated the anti-cannabis propaganda machine, advocacy-minded screenwriters and filmmakers have an opportunity to help dispel the mythology of the Great Prohibition by giving audiences something to Google.  How?  By quietly working medicinal extracts like tincture into the lives of their silver-screen characters.

Green dragon tincture, a Dionysian concentrate made with pure grain alcohol, clearly demonstrates in form and effect the medicinal reality of this herb.  Woven into the fabric of a scene as if it were a pack of smokes or a cold one, nonchalant use of this ancient emerald elixir could make a huge impression.

Here's an example:

Set up: In the marvelous film KILL BILL Vol 2 there is a great dialog scene where Budd (Michael Madsen) is in his trailer kitchen blending a potent smoothie for himself and Elle (Daryl Hannah).

Variation: After filling the two ball jars, Budd reaches up into the cabinet for a small tinted dropper bottle.  He shoots a couple of squirts into his jar and gives it a swirl.  It turns green.  Elle squints her one eye; "WTF is that?"  He shrugs; "It's cannabis tincture, liquid weed...takes the edge off...and you know, sometimes it makes me smile..."
"Yeah? No thanks..."

A brief big screen appearance like that would spark thousands of online searches.  Not long ago tincture and cannabis extracts were absent from the Internet.  That has changed to an amazing degree.  Now searchers will find the faces and testimonials of fellow citizens; brave patient-pioneers like Shona Banda, Rick Simpson and most recently Michael McShane, a Detroit man who used cannabis oil (fully evaporated tincture) to remedy skin cancer.

Compelling medicinal use testimonials are now commonplace at cannabis cups, festivals and rallies around the world, but mainstream folks in the heartland of America don't go anywhere near those events.  They need to learn the truth over the same channels they get the garbage on, and as tobacco promoters can attest, the most powerful medium for making subtle yet lasting impressions is film.

Need help making it real?  Have your people call my...cell.

Top 10 things you should know about people in cannabis country

People in cannabis country...

10. won't bother you, even if you don't use cannabis
9.  are in touch with the natural world
8.  are harmless unless they drink
7.  are colorful and entertaining
6.  like to barter and trade
5.  make their own medicine and aren't afraid to share their secrets
4.  see through the bullshit
3.  are highly creative and hate weed puns
2.  believe cannabis is a spirit medicine
1.  live free or die