This is the “and spirituality” side of Cannabis and Spirituality. Despite much misuse and misunderstanding, cannabis, among its benefits, is in fact a spirit medicine, an entheogen, when it is treated with respect as the holy herb and used skillfully.

Cannabis has been addressed at each of the previous four Spirit Plant Medicine Conferences (SPMC) in Vancouver. Although there isn’t a specific presentation devoted to the herb this year, its presence surrounds the energy of the event and that’s the main reason for mentioning the conference on Cannabis and Spirituality.

Although not everyone involved with sacramental medicine work would agree, I believe that if the entheogens had a summit they would say that they’re all in this together and would welcome the ancient cannabis plant to their company.

The particular idea hinted at in the title of this post is that the human inhabitants of the beautiful and beleaguered blue planet are ripe for and urgently in need of an extensive consciousness transformation and that when used wisely, entheogenic, sacramental medicines can play a major role in the trajectory correction.

That is the mission driving the SPMC, to be held this year on Oct 24 and 25 at UBC. The energy of this mission has been building over the five years of the conference and this year promises to take the vision even further.

Several key themes have emerged as we followed our intuition in gathering a remarkable group of international and regional presenters to address various aspects of this vision.

One of those is the rise, or return, of the sacred feminine. This year feels like a ripe time for putting the pedal to the metal on that one—a core and essential component of the rebalancing work on the planet. Please take a look at the the Guides and Visionaries 2015 page on the conference website (https://spiritplantmedicine.com/guides-and-visionaries-2015/) for info on visionaries like Marguerite Rigoglioso, Annie Oak, and others.

Another major emergent theme this year is related to this sacred feminine meme. Presenters like Bruce Damer and Kilindi Iyi will be addressing the issue of what we’re becoming as a species. I’ve heard both these men speak and they’re both insightful and exciting. It’s a beautifully positive vision of where we can go as humanity wakes up from a long long period of spiritual disconnection from unconditional reality.

A third thrust this year is the use of entheogens in therapeutic work. This is a rapidly growing and very exciting field. Three of the presentations will address aspects of that work this year: the always brilliant and provocative Dr. Gabor Maté, Angela Prider and Gerald Thomas.

The bio’s and talk synopses for all of the presenters can be seen at the above mentioned “Guides and Visionaries 2015” page on the conference website.

Please come and learn, come and get inspired, come and connect with fellow travellers, and come and help strengthen the vision of the idea whose time has come.

Stephen Gray