Welcome back stoners, witches, and mystics and gather ye round the High Priestess for another installment of magick and marijuana! We are currently in Taurus season, the reign of the Venus-ruled sign that’s all about safety, security, and sensuality, which urges us to see our home, habits, and bodies as portals to pleasure. Although it can feel pretty backwards to take moments of indulgence during a worldwide pandemic, I would argue that it’s more important than ever to find ways in which we can experience beauty and luxury in our day-to-day life.
In my own life this has been an intention since the Full Moon in Libra that happened on April 7th. Like Taurus, Libra is ruled by Venus, planet and Goddess of the same name. Since Venus is associated with glamour, beauty, and pleasure, I made the conscious decision on this lunation to invite more beauty into my life for the sake of it. I realized I have to give myself permission to enjoy things if there’s no reason to be enjoying them; I felt like I wasn’t allowed to enjoy something if there was no reason behind it; this is a really deep and ingrained part of my psyche that’s been affected by capitalism!
To combat this, I’ve been wearing silky robes and vintage slips and sets around my house instead of my usual leggings and crop top. I’ve been indulging in daily baths, and slowly turning my room into a temple of love. And of course, our lovely ganja Goddess helps me really lean into this by reminding me how delicious it feels to be a human with a body. Whether I’m stretching, tying myself up in rope, watching Netflix or practicing sex magick, cannabis helps me sink into this state of embodied relaxation and grounding with so much ease! And THAT is why this column is all about working with cannabis for corporeal enjoyment, pleasure, and grounding in mind, body, and spirit.
During Taurus season, grounding is taken up a notch. Instead of simply feeling rooted during this time, we want to feel rooted in both ourselves and the splendor of our environment. We want to feel a sense of safety within our bodies but we also want to enjoy the exquisiteness that this fleshy form has to offer. And that’s what this column aims to help with! Read on for rituals you can work with alongside cannabis to help you connect with beauty and all parts of yourself this Taurus season and beyond.
Move and Nourish Your Body
Although pleasure and sensual experiences are often linked to sex, the truth is these are states of being available to us whenever we want. Feeling pleasure as a state of existence means that we move and nourish our body with intention while being present in the process. And while we can definitely access this state without cannabis, we can also use cannabis as a portal to inhabit this energy with more ease. Lately, I have been loving WYLD Pomegranate gummies, which have 10mg of THC and 10mg of CBD in each piece. After eating one of these bad boys I literally feel the worries and tension in my body dissolve. I feel myself melt even deeper into my body and the present moment, and when I pair this with movement like stretching and doing a bit of yoga, the effects are orgasmic.
If you’ve never done yoga stoned, or if you’ve never stretched after working with cannabis, whether straight CBD, THC or both, then I cannot recommend this enough, especially right now! We hold so much tension and anxiety in our hips, so I suggest starting with some stretches like pigeon pose and breathing through any discomfort (which is different from pain! Always remember to listen to your body) and doing this on each side for at least a minute. You can also watch yoga videos like this for tension relief and practice this whenever you want to feel more grounded and relaxed. The less we hold onto stress, the more room we have for pleasure, baby!
Another way to tap into a sense of safety and security within yourself, which is something earth sign Taurus wants so badly of us, is through indulging your senses with delicious meals. This doesn’t have to be fancy, but it can be if you want! Eating something tasty while stoned is something many of us enjoy, but we can lean into the ritual of cooking to make this an even more magical experience. Whether you’re making pasta or cinnamon buns or simply pouring yourself a glass of wine, add some intention to this. Stir clockwise, or deosil, as you hold an intention in your mind to invite more excitement, grounding, or enjoyment into your life. Work with kitchen magick by turning cooking into its own ritual; as you savor your food or drink, you may wish to focus on inviting more love into your life, or to simply reconnect with the earth beneath you and then feel this manifesting with each bite or sip. Lean into cannabis to help you make this sensory experience even more intense! There’s no rules in quarantine, and no such thing as a “guilty pleasure.” Give yourself permission to enjoy, and enjoy!!
Expand Your Mind with The Midnight Gospel
Sometimes we experience a high that inspires us to get shit done (respect to all my fellow functioning stoners) and sometimes we experience a high that has us melting into the couch, our bodies an effervescent pudding of consciousness that we no longer have control over. Sometimes, we’re lucky enough to have a mix of both. With Taurus season, the key is feeling GOOD and this can mean finding a balance between body (high) and mind (high).
If you’re already stoned to the bone and watching Netflix, why not embrace the season sensibility for visceral experiences by watching something that will inspire your heart and magick? May I suggest to you The Midnight Gospel? This show is perfect for those who want intense visuals and to expand their mind and reality…without leaving the couch. The Midnight Gospel follows a space caster (aka a space podcaster) who spends his days inside a universe simulator, exploring trippy realities while diving into themes of “life, death and everything between.”
This show is so striking visually, and there are even episodes with occultists like Damien Echols and Jason Louv, two big names in the world of magick! While Taurus may love being grounded in this reality, it’s a sign that can’t help pass up an opportunity to relax. And since quarantine means we can’t go out and experience the world, then we can stay home and do that with this tv show instead. So grab your cannabis, take a hit of your favorite strain, and prepare to enter the psychedelic world of The Midnight Gospel from the comfort of your own home!
Find Grounding Through Nature
As an earth sign, Taurus is already intimately linked to nature. Taurus is the hedonist, and this zodiacal season is a chance for us to connect with the pleasures of the natural world. The earth is the greatest healer we have, and when we’re feeling disconnected from ourselves and our body, we can turn to her to realign and find rooting. One of my all-time favorite things to do is to smoke a joint in nature, sunshine kissing my skin and wind caressing my cheek. While I’m not smoking right now, because my lungs were unhappy from too much smoking, I still love the indulgence that comes with an edible high and spending time outside.
If you are struggling with your mental health, try to get outside. Plant your feet firmly into the earth and breathe into this. Work with cannabis to personally connect to plant medicine and the energy of earth; smoke, vape, work with a tincture, embrace CBD or THC or a combination of both. Then try hugging a tree. Drink some delicious, cold water. Enjoy the flowers and birds and trees. Even if you can’t physically get somewhere outside, you can still visualize this in your third eye as you meditate and feel roots moving from the base of your spine, into the ground beneath you. These roots connect with the crystal core of the earth and they bring white, healing light up into your body until you’re engulfed and surrounded by this relaxing energy. Stay here as long as you need.
Finding ways to connect with the earth is imperative right now, and even taking care of a plant or buying some flowers can be the balancing energy you need in your life. Don’t be afraid to connect with the earth when you’re feeling out of whack or unbalanced, or embrace cannabis as a means of finding this equilibrium.
Connect to Spirit Through a Gratitude Practice
To really make sure you’re honoring mind, body and soul this Taurus season, I invite you to create a gratitude practice. This means taking time to intentionally be grateful for what you have. Although this can feel like a daunting task as the structures that have held our economy in place begin to dissolve, chances are if you’re reading this, you have something to be grateful for!
There are many ways to start this ritual, and of course I also invite you to commune with sacred plant medicine before you begin this process. So go ahead, take a hit, eat an edible, work with your favorite strain or variety of cannabis for heart opening expansion, and LOVE! As you’re ready, you can either create a list of what you’re grateful for in a notebook (extra points if it’s one you’ve dedicated to this task), or you can record your gratitude list in a voice note on your phone. You can even gaze at your non-dominant eye in the mirror (this is the receptive eye and much easier than looking at both of your eyes at once) and say what you’re thankful for out loud. Start small: maybe you’re thankful for your home, for having enough food, for waking up and being able to take a deep breath. Gratitude is its own form of magick, and it can help us gain new insight and perspective towards our life and all we’re blessed with. The longer we keep seeing our life from this perspective, the more we have to be grateful for.
When we’re in this vibration, we are in the vibration of the heart. This is Venus energy, which Taurus is all about. You can invite a friend or partner to do this practice with and you can even share your lists or recordings with one another. I suggest practicing gratitude every day, or as often as you can. Gratitude is the attitude, and sometimes we just need a little bit of cannabis to help us loosen up and embrace the new perspective we’re being offered with this lens.
No matter how you indulge this Taurus season, I hope it’s luxurious, delicious and just as stoned as you’d like it to be. And so it is!
