Thursday April 21, 2022
– Disseminating Moon Phase – share, demonstrate, teach, learn, feed back, distribution
– Moon in CAPRICORN –
– Black Moon Opposes the Moon: 4/20 – 4/22
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – April 20th – 22nd – Potty Train, Wean, Mow to Slow Growth, Prune Trees, Castrate Farm Animals
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – April 20th – 21st – Favorable days for planting beets, carrots, turnips, radishes, onions, and other root crops.
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): Chinnamasta – Goddess Who Expands the Mind
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Ian Achonesis– God of the East, God of Wisdom
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in ARIES “a flock of wild geese ” (& coal mine )
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: –“ a flock of wild geese ”
SUN – 02 TAURUS: an electrical storm
EARTH – 02 SCORPIO: a broken bottle and spilled perfume
Culture Wars – The 420 Holiday
Were you paying attention yesterday to the 420 Holiday? Holiday? Never heard of it or are you saying pass the mac and cheese and get on with it?
I think that 420 is one of the most fascinating phenomena in this unholy cultural crusade we all have in life here in the 21st century. I will get into that. But it may take me a few minutes. Bare with me.
In The Know
For those of you not in the know, 420 is a code word for “time to go smoke pot.” The internet will offer you a bunch of entertaining stories about its origin. The most likely is from a group of stoners in the 70’s up in the San Francisco North Bay area who used it as a code as time to go get high. So its been around for a while.
Anyone who wants to relate other stories you might know, feel free to share in the comments.
But the bigger point about it is Cultural. Andrew Breitbart made a very astute observation many years ago. and that was that politics is downstream from culture. It has been called the Breitbart Doctrine after him.
But what it means is that what happens in the political world often comes as a result of things that happen years before in the cultural world. Which is why it is so important for us to Pay Attention to what is going on in the media and entertainment industries.
What they in the media are saying either 1) Is mimicking what people are saying and thinking at that time, OR 2) What some entity WANTS society to be saying or thinking in the future.
And the is the battlefield where the Culture War is taking place. The People who control What is Being Said in the media today ultimately help determine what and the way we see things in the future.
So again we ask: WHO is controlling the Narrative? And WHAT are they trying to accomplish?
But that is a rabbit hole we will not be going down today. We will leave it for a future discussion.
Back to The Kettle – or Was That The Pot?
The History of Marijuana in this last century is dystopian to say the least.
Marijuana is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.
This law was created in 1970, but was an extension of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. But how the laws came into existence had little to do with safety or medical usages. Back in the 30’s and 70’s the medical usages for weed were not understood. And the legal status made it so that for 70 or so years, it’s benefits were federally blocked from the mainstream.
It Was All About The Mexicans
At least that is how they sold it. Cannabis was openly used in a whole slew of medications out there. The Rockefellers didn’t like it much, as they could not patent it, control it and make money from the pharmaceutical uses of it.
And then there was also Hemp – which was incredibly useful and frighteningly cheaper than other alternative technologies made with petroleum.
But how would they get the public to go against it? It was medically helpful and made products cheaper.
They blamed it on the Immigrant Mexican’s who had been coming across the border in droves since the late 1800’s. And bringing with them folk remedies like Cannabis, which also relaxing when smoked.
The Feds took noted from the Book written in San Francisco a few years earlier when Opium was coming over with the Chinese immigrants Outlaw it and blame it on the Chinese.
The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 banned Cannabis and all Hemp products in the United States. And it was sold with anti Mexican propaganda (even going so far as to using the Spanish Sounding word “Marijuana” over cannabis to sell it further). Once it was in place, the public perceptions created by the campaign stayed in place. It was replaced by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and remains the Law of the Federal Government through today.
Potheads Through the Decade
Consider how general perceptions of people who used marijuana have been over the past 75 odd years:
Beatnicks and Bikers of the 1950’s
Hippies and Rock Musicians of the 1960’s
Cheech and Chong in the 1970’s
Drug Smugglers a la Miami Vice in the 1980’s
But also in the 80’s the medical industry (at least those in the profession seeking help for those in some of the worst pain – Cancer patients) began noticing the benefits of allowing them to smoke. It reduced pain and brought back their appetite. They could bear the hell of Chemo.
Unfortunately due to its Legal status, testing was not allowed. Thus it was a fringe science and those needing the relief usually found a Dealer rather than a pharmacist. And smoking it could get them arrested.
30 years later we have come a long way. 37 States have made medical Marijuana Legal, 18 states have made recreational use legal and 17 others have decriminalized it. But still it is Federally illegal.
With all the legalization, it is still slow to be accepted out in the open. It gets in the way of the whole “healthy thing with cigarette smoking. That is such a stigma. How can they accept pot smoking?
Since it was legal in California, you could see it on the internet. Joe Rogan routinely smokes it on his podcast. And shares it with his guests. There is a famous podcast where Joe and Elon Musk toke it up.
But carry it across the wrong state line and there could be trouble. I have a child using medical CBD to control seizures. Give it to him in the wrong state with a cantankerous cop and I could possibly have my child taken from me by children’s services. No joke. It has happened.
Funny Thing About Culture
It has gotten so that the question of legalization of pot is no longer a Left-Right / Republican/Democrat issue. It’s a personal freedom issue. And after that a regulation issue. Where you see the fights in the state legislatures is in how they are going to regulate it and tax it and control it. Like how will they test someone who appears intoxicated while driving? Who is allowed to grow it? How much can they grow? How do you determine strength and potency?
So what changed? How did we go from shame and 3-strikes rules to embracing pot?
I remember in 1985, Carl Sagan wrote a book called Contact. It was in the Fiction section rather than Non Fiction/Hard Science. And it was a little harsh in his story telling and the the sexually charged scenes were really uncomfortable.
The story imagined a near future where contact is made from off the planet. A message is sent that introduces these aliens who offer is technology. They teach the Earth how to build a ship to make direct contact with other worlds. I bring it up as there was a small vignette scene where the characters are walking on the streets of Paris (I think) and notice a newsstand were people are lined up to buy Cannabis cigarettes. In 1985 this was unheard of. And the movie version in 1997 skipped it completely. My point was that as a futurist, Carl Sagan could see a day where this was possible. It was shown as a normal thing. 37 years later, and it is becoming a normal thing here.
Culture upstream of politics. Not quite the same future realized in Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (made 5 years prior to the book Contact), but the future closer to what we see today in some ways.