astafarians who experience the vibrations of the burning bush as a euphoric and mystical sacrament, capable of enlightenment and alleviation of the crucial reality of social alienation and abject poverty. (Faristzaddi) For Rastafari, the use of Herb represents a sacramant of the Church,Triumphant, serving creative thinking relaxation and reasoning amongst the Brethren. It is interpreted as a “Hola Herb” given to man by the Creator for the "healing of the nations". REVELATION Chapter 22; Verse 2: "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Millard Faristaddi) As a general rule, the educated and more affluent classes shun any encounter with the Herb, laboring in trepidation before the mass media's adverse publicity of opposition and hysteria which has always accompanied the reality of the Marijuana plant. The steady flux of governments which have come and gone, have never up to this date "legalized it". There are periods of leniency, alternating with periods of criminalization when users are charged for possession of varying amounts. Ganja is taken as each individual sees fit. It can be prepared in the form of Ganja tea or Ganja wine, or used in foods. Usually the Herb is cut and cleaned of excess seeds on a wooden "suru' board. It is then blessed with a few drops of water, recut and rolled into conical-shaped "spliffs" of varying sizes or packed into the cup of a makeshift water-pipe known as a "cutchie" pipe or "chalice". The act of passing the chalice and sipping from the cup has become a reverential practice amongst the Brethren of Rastafari, who look upon this act with reverence towards the Creator as an invocation of his Almighty Universal power. (Millard Faristaddi) The Herb, when smoked in a gathering, s...
