This is a discourse around the meaning of tobacco, how it's sacredness has been contrived - as with the other bastardised drugs and potent plants that we use to over-exert our body-mind-spirits in the modern world, and how we can return to our powerful and meaningful relationship with the plant (and Life).
I'm talking in this video about how tobacco and other sacred plants/ materials are turned into something other than what they have the potential to be for us - and are used within the consumer culture as means to overstimulate our mind-body-emotions, and to quell our connection to spirit through overloading us with added toxins.
It's in response to @naturalmedicine (on Hive.blog)'s competition to write about tobacco, for World Tobacco Day:
"You could write a vehement post about the unethical tactics of the tobacco industry, or a post exploring the use of tobacco across history. You might like to dive deep into it's therapeutic qualities, or it's dangers. You could write about your own experiences with this weed, or refute the imposed bans on what essentially is a civil liberty - a person's 'right' to smoke. Or perhaps you believe no-one has a right to smoke, as it can endanger others! Maybe you even want to write a post convincing people the superiority of the other 'weed' to the more socially accepted tobacco. Maybe you have a tried and true recipe for giving up, or tobacco alternatives."
For more of this sort of thing, see my podcast, art and courses on www.claregalloway.com