MOE Wow! Will ya look at that!

ERON They don’t call him king of the growers for nothin.

MARY Only with love can such beautiful flowers grow.

BEARY (Accepts the feathered pipe in one hand and a calabash of peyote-mushroom tea in the other. Taking a long sacramental hit from the pipe and a big swig of tea…) This is my body, man, this is my blood. In the beginning God created a garden and it was good, and into the garden he planted many wonderful things and they were good. And of those wonderful things the ganja plant was given a special place for it was a diviner of sacred truths, food for the mind, food for the heart, food for the soul. And to some of his children he gave the task of planting and tending this heavenly manna for it is the sacrament we celebrate that deepest part of ourselves with, the place where truth and love reside. Thank you Great Spirit for all your blessings, for a successful harvest, for this noble occupation you have given me, a chance to serve a suffering humanity with this bread of life. (He takes another hit from the pipe and swig from the calabash and passes them to the next person.)

BIG MAMA (The Madam Blavatsky actress after taking a puff and a swig.) From darkness lead me to light, from death lead me to immortality, from illusion lead me to truth. Wow! I give thanks for a good year. We got through again, the CAMP gorillas didn’t get us. They gave us a scare but didn’t get us. Thank you Green Goddess for your loving protection. New clothes for the kids, a new roof for the cabin, a little supplement to the welfare and maybe next year I can get off. I give praise, I give thanks to our Divine and Holy Mother. (She takes another puff and another swig and passes them to the next person.)

JESS (The Jesus actor) Those who walk on the path of pride and self righteousness crushing the tender and weak under their heavy boots, let them rejoice now for the day is theirs. But I am thankful that my place has been with the lowly, the vulnerable, the street people, the homeless, the untouchables of our land, for every cry of theirs has been gathered into God’s great silence to be accounted for tomorrow when all debts will be paid and when all pain melts into harmony, peace on love. (He takes a drink and puff and passes them on.)

BUD (The Buddha actor, plays the harmonium and sings with deep reverence when his turn comes.) You gotta get high with the angels, high, high, cuz the sky is burning, the world is burning and only high, getting high with the angels is gonna save ya, you gotta get high highhhhhhh, before you die, die, you gotta get highhhhhhhhh.

STEVO (The Shiva actor, accepts the pipe and calabash, partakes of them, and says…) As we all know this green goddess, this marijuana plant, has a super abundant consciousness and spirit that contains the wisdom of the ages. Coming together in a circle like this is a potent force in protecting ourselves against those negative energies that would like to destroy us. When we partake of the spirit of the sacrament we enjoy right relations with ourselves and Mother Earth, a state of attunement that allows us to vibrate on a higher level. Because this flower of God is thought of as a dangerous drug by our rulers, because it is illegal, it is kept at a lower vibrational level which prevents those higher aspects of ritual use to be explored. By removing the herb’s illegal status it will raise the vibrations of intentions for all those involved in its use. We have a right to smoke our pipe of peace, to come together or to sit alone, and this they can never take from us no matter how hard they try. But it will change, brothers and sisters, it will change, the old ways are crumbling and being faithful to a single set of beliefs to the end of one’s life is no more considered a superior sign of morality or mature reason. We must have our faith in the spirit of the Goddess to spread her wonder and delight to all the peoples of the world and at this time of thanks we send our greetings to all the brethren who sit tonight in circles like this and we say to them, Bom Shiva, good brothers and sisters, may you keep up the good fight. (He takes another hit and swig and passes them on.)

CHIEF ROADMAN ACTOR (Holding pipe and calabash) You must speak to the medicine with your heart and the medicine will see the purity of your thought and allow you to see things that are invisible to others but that the Great Spirit has given you to pursue. When my ancestors took the medicine they would say to the medicine, this person is going to drink you, eat you, smoke you, please show him what he wants to know, show him a good life, give him strength and wisdom so he may walk the true path. (He holds the pipe and calabash for a few moments before taking a drink and a puff, then passes them on.)

RASTAMAN ACTOR Weed of wisdom, weed of wonder, weed of truth, weed of light, weed of softness, weed of cheer. When we smoke the herb in a gathering it symbolizes an act of unification, an act of "inity" among the brethren gathered together in the sight of the Most I Jah and it binds the participants together within the fullness and power of the Godhead. When we smoke together, brothers and sisters, we are creating a flow of vibrations, of mutual iditations, amongst those participating in this most sacramental act and through it is revealed the divine and living presence of us all, The One True Church of the Most I Jah.

MOE (The actor playing Moses) Dearly beloved brethren, we are gathered here tonight to give thanks, once again, to the Big Dog in the sky who guides us blind mortals through this maze of life. In Germany they used to behead coffee dealers, now they want to behead us for our blessed sacrament. Some people would say this is another Inquisition. Think about it. All the drug czars, all the DEA chiefs, why do we never ask what a man’s religion is before we put him in a power position? That is an important question yet we bounce around it. That tells us how a man thinks and how he is apt to feel about an issue and how he will stand, ultimately, on all positions of importance. In the East, when you meet someone, they will ask what your religion is. Here in the West we ask, "What do you do." Different values. In the one we want to know what’s in the head and pocket, in the other what is in the heart. Mind versus heart. Mentation versus intuition, two steps in a long evolutionary process that always are at odds with one another, the mind and passion of the pack and the heart and soul of the individual. In a free society the individual and not the State decides whether to practice a religion, what foods to eat, what substances to ingest, so let us not stand as naughty children before the State hanging our heads but rather the State stands before us as corruptors of God’s laws and man’s natural human rights to practice his religion as he sees fit. That we prefer the mystical uplift of marijuana to the slobbering alcoholism of our political leaders should be seen as a boon, as a step forward, but we are incarcerated, killed and tortured as other heathen infidels have been throughout history in anger, in self-righteous indignation, for envy and pleasure, for not converting to the party line, the State gospel and not using the State sanctioned poisons they peddle for power and profit.

So we must be ready, brethren. Expect nothing but be ready for anything. Those religious politicians of the middle ages banished the Jews so they wouldn’t infect the Christian believers with doubt. Then along came a totalitarian politician a little later who actually attempted to exterminate them all with his band of psychotics and sadists. We must keep awake, brethren. The rhetoric is the same, they call us diseased, vermin, genetically inferior, that we need to be cured and shown the one true path. It is an ominous indication of what could be, let us pray for these poor souls, let us send wave upon wave of compassion to them, for truly they know not what they do, but let us be very careful. Disease is a modern guise for sin. Sin gets you thrown into the fire, into the boiling oil, into the molten lead that feeds the machinery of the State. For now we must practice our religion at night, under cover of darkness and high in the mountains. One day, under an enlightened ruler, the persecution will stop. Let us pray for that day. Until then…. (He takes a long pull on the pipe and a long draught from the calabash) Bom Shiva!

MARY (The Mama Coca actress, as she plucks the tamboura.)

SOCK (The Socrates actor, after imbibing the sacraments.) Good brothers and good sisters, peace be upon you. As another season closes it is important to remember that though we have a new ruler on the throne that looks a bit different on the outside than the old one, they both carry the same book and rule by the same gospel. Look at us here hiding in the woods in order to worship, to have our prayer circle, our medicine wheel, hiding like criminals as his centurians roam the skies looking for us. As was expressed by the founders of the Constitution, religion is too personal, too sacred, too holy to permit it’s unhallowed perversion by a civil magistrate. Yet here we are running from helicopters as the early Christians ran from the Romans and their lions. Whenever government has allied itself with one particular form of religion the end result is hatred, disrespect and contempt by those who hold different beliefs and people lose their respect for any religion that relies upon government support to spread it’s faith. We don’t hate yet, but certainly there is little respect.

We are all concerned with ultimate questions whether we believe in a Supreme Being, Nirvana, the Tao, Shiva, Krsna, The Garden of Allah or don’t believe in anything at all. Our native American brothers have their sacrament, the Hindus theirs, the Christians theirs, the Fiji Islanders theirs. And we have ours. The State has an interest in preventing certain behavior but it must not attempt to alter one’s beliefs concerning metaphysical issues, ultimate concerns or self concept. The essence of the First Amendment is to keep the State out of your head, to insure that Big Brother does not intrude into the citizen’s mind. Our constitutional heritage rebels at the idea of the government controlling our minds and any attempt to exercise domination over our mental process, direct or oblique, violates those freedoms guaranteed by the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment. By denying us our sacrament they are denying us the free use of our minds and hearts, denying us our very life. So let us continue the fight, brothers and sisters, let us keep up the good faith, let us spread the good news and let us show our children the true path so they may learn from all the great books of the world but be bound by none of them. Let us give praise to the gods as we go forth this next season and let us wish our new emperor well as he starts his season. And hopefully, one day, we can all put down our weapons and smoke and worship in peace. (He takes another puff and swig.) May peace be upon us all.