Smoke
Tobacco is probably the most widely used magical, spiritual, or shamanic plant in the world. Certainly in the New World, it is used more frequently than any other in all sorts of situations—for offerings to plant spirits when harvesting a plant, for paying for some graveyard dirt, for smoking as an aid in spiritual work, and for many other purposes as well. Even so, I hesitated to include wild tobacco in this book because not many European-style witches use it. It was its popularity in Hoodoo, aspects of which are rapidly being incorporated into all sorts of other magical paths, that made me decide it was appropriate.
The tobacco I talk about in this chapter is not the same species that is commonly smoked in the West. That's Nicotiana tabacum, which I will refer to as commercial tobacco. Instead, I want to talk about Nicotiana rustica, a species once known as yellow henbane, even though it doesn't look anything like a henbane. This is also called wild tobacco, although it has been cultivated by humans for at least 2,000 years. I chose this tobacco species because it has a history for us in North America—wild tobacco, not commercial tobacco, is what Native Americans shared with the Europeans at Jamestown. But also because it has a history that relates to me personally, since I live in the former homeland of the Seneca tribe, a people who, along with many others, made (and still make) use of this herb for both medicinal and spiritual purposes.
Traditional, Wild, or Commercial? 
Native Americans often refer to N. rustica as “traditional tobacco,” “real tobacco,” or “old tobacco,” as opposed to N. tabacum, “commercial tobacco.” And in fact, N. rustica was cultivated, not picked from the wild, by Native peoples. The truly wild tobaccos in North America are N. attenuata and Nicotiana quadrivalvis, and only two subspecies of this plant are actually wild—Nicotiana wallacei and Nicotiana bigelovii. The other subspecies were all cultivated only.
Many witches consider tobacco to be a generally acceptable substitute for various baneful Saturnian herbs that are more difficult to obtain. And this makes sense if you think of Saturn as characterized by toxicity. Tobacco can indeed be quite toxic to many animals besides humans, and wild tobacco is especially toxic.
Warning: Nicotine can kill you—and I am not talking about lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. Do not ever drink a tea made of this plant or chew or eat the leaves, and always wear gloves when handling it. Some people are much more sensitive to nicotine than others, so don't use it as an insecticide, as some people do. Nicotine is a neurotoxin and is readily and quickly absorbed into human skin much more thoroughly on contact than when it is smoked. It is very easy to be poisoned by it. It kills fish and bees (and other animals), and it stinks.
But for me, tobacco is not Saturnian. In the scheme of planetary correspondences, it's usually associated with Mars. However, it lacks thorns and is not hot in its taste. I think a better connection for tobacco is with Fire, especially because this herb has so often been smoked. Moreover, it is often dried by means of fire, it sharpens concentration (fires up thinking), and North American tribes historically offered it to Fire.
Wild tobacco is much less conspicuous than commercial tobacco, which is a big plant that enjoys heat and sucks all the nutrients out of the soil it grows in. Instead, wild tobacco is a much scrappier plant that grows better in a temperate clime. It has more resistance to cold than commercial tobacco does and is the tobacco Native Americans were growing in Manhattan when the Europeans arrived. This makes it a much better candidate for a witch's garden along with other temperate-climate plants.
Wild tobacco was the tobacco of choice for many of the tribes of North America before the introduction of commercial tobacco. It spread along with corn and was brought from South America up to the northeast by 160 CE. The Northeast woodland tribes, in turn, spread it to the Southwest, which means that, ultimately, it was grown by a good portion of the population of North America. What's more, wild tobacco had crossed the Atlantic and was being grown in European gardens by the 1550s, identified as “yellow henbane” or “English tabacco.” So we know that European magic workers surely had an interest in it. Thus, wild tobacco has a history of magical practice far longer than any associated with commercial tobacco.
The Cherokee often used tobacco in rituals, although they also smoked it for pleasure. They only switched to commercial tobacco when they were forcibly relocated to a dry, hot area where commercial tobacco grew better than wild varieties. By that time, wild tobacco was already part of Cherokee charms used to ward off witchcraft. The Iroquois incorporated it into their ceremonies as well. The Hoodoo concept of putting tobacco into the ground as an offering in return for something taken—like a plant or graveyard dirt—derives from Native practices.
Various Native peoples considered wild tobacco to be a spirit, and it was strongly connected with Fire. It was often placed into a fire as an offering and was associated with thunderstorms. It was also used as a placating offering to evil spirits manifesting as snakes or sent by witches.
Henbane was often used in rain magic. In an interesting connection to that use, and in resonance with wild tobacco's old common name of yellow henbane, wild tobacco was smoked by Mesoamerican tribes known to others as “rain people.” These tribes visited shrines to rain on four different peaks, where they smoked cigars made of this herb. With the help of wild tobacco smoke, they went into trances, during which they spoke in thundering voices. The combination of this “voice thunder” and cigar smoke was thought to bring on thunderstorms.
There are many magical uses of wild tobacco, including as the traditional payment for something taken from the earth. But you can also express thanks for particularly important dreams by offering some wild tobacco to a fire. Offer it to the Earth before planting. Or use its smoke as an aid to divination.
Wild tobacco is different from many other herbs because specific methods have been developed for preparing it for use. We all know that tobacco is often ritually smoked. But this requires particular care in the case of wild tobacco. If you try to smoke wild tobacco on its own or before it is cured, or if you smoke leaves from a plant that has been deliberately stressed to increase nicotine content, you will get sick—and I mean really sick.
Even after curing, wild tobacco is typically incorporated in very small amounts compared to other ingredients in a smoking mixture. Sometimes the proportion of wild tobacco to other plant materials in ritual smoking mixtures is only 1:20; others use a proportion of 1:4. If the tobacco is cured, it can add a sweet richness to a blend. Today, most people who smoke wild tobacco combine it with commercial tobacco or with herbs that have no nicotine content—mullein or coltsfoot or even yauhtli (Tagetes lucida), which is said to have some hallucinogenic properties. There's some indication that wild tobacco contains beta-harmalines (like those in Syrian rue, Peganum harmala) that are especially concentrated in the smoke when the dried leaves are burned. These act together with nicotine in the plant to enhance memory and, according to some, to assist in communication between people, animals, and plants.
Wild tobacco contains more alkaloids than commercial tobacco, but it seems to me that the tribes of the Northeast woodlands, who smoked this herb mainly for spiritual purposes in pipes or cornhusk cigarettes, developed methods of growing it that reduced the nicotine levels greatly. This provided a smoking mixture that was not only less dangerous but also more pleasurable because it was not as harsh.
Wild tobacco can be dried like any other herb—in the sun, the shade, or over a fire. Native Americans certainly dried it using these straightforward methods. Today, a dehydrator works well for this, although, when you use a dehydrator the plant material remains green. And just to be on the safe side, don't use the dehydrator in your living space when doing this, because you don't want vaporized nicotine sprayed all over.
Green tobacco leaves have not been fermented and contain a ferocious amount of alkaloids. In fact, some folks don't harvest the leaves green, but wait until they begin to turn yellow. Various sources remark on how the tobacco that the Northeast woodland tribes used was in a green state and usually powdered. I believe they did not need to cure it, because they had taken care to grow it in a way that lowered its nicotine content greatly—by watering a good deal, by not fertilizing too much, and by not stressing the plants. If they used the flowers, they harvested them at the end of the season, when they reportedly have less nicotine. And they dried the plant material at a low temperature and used it with a mixture of a number of other plants, especially finely shredded barks.
You can reserve green wild tobacco leaves that have been dried for offerings, rather than using them for fumes, suffumigations, or smoking. Consider that the green dried leaves have a very high level of Elemental Fire to them.
To my mind, however, a more interesting choice for preparing wild tobacco leaves is to cure them. This entails fermenting the herb with moisture, rather than fermenting with liquid, as with wine. Curing is a means of modifying, not only the alkaloid content of an herb but also its scent and taste. Just like distillation's heat and steam, fermentation brings out certain chemicals in plant material, destroying some and creating others. Just think of the alcohol produced in liquid fermentation with yeast. The fermentation process changes the nature of plant material and affects how it interacts with us. To my mind, it is a way of asking for communication with the plant spirit on the material plane. Tobacco and black tea are the herbs most commonly fermented before use, but magic workers work with other fermented herbs, like patchouli and tonka beans.
Fermentation of tobacco lowers its alkaloid content and modifies its aromatics so that it is friendlier to the human palate and so that we can be affected by the alkaloids without them being as likely to injure us. Remember the importance of aromatics; scent is the closest to the spiritual of all the material “foods” our world provides.
There are numerous methods for curing tobacco, most of which involve the use of fire in some form, whether rays from the sun or actual smoke. I recommend curing wild tobacco using a method more aligned with magic—by using what alchemists call the Secret Fire: dew.
To use this method, harvest the whole plant a few weeks after the flowers are cut off. Hang the plants upside down outside during the night so they get wet from the morning dew. You will get the most dew where there are no overhanging trees. Allow the wild tobacco to dry in the air during the day, although not in the sun. You may have to move them morning and evening in order to catch the dew at night in the open and to dry them off in the shade during the day. Leave a bit of space between the plants so that the dew can reach them, but also so moisture won't cling to them and cause them to rot. The leaves should be able to breathe the dew in and out. You can string them through the stalks, knotting the string on each side of the stalk to keep space between the plants, then hang them in a row from this line.
Apply the Secret Fire repeatedly until the leaves are transformed, becoming brown and leathery and fragrant. The leaves should not be crispy; if they are, the smoke will be very harsh. You can try this same procedure with other herb leaves to change their alkaloid content or modify their taste or smell. Consider what the effects might be with other nightshades. I find it interesting that these Fiery plants can be transformed by water, not only while they grow but also after they are harvested. I think this demonstrates a fundamental quality of Fire: it hates Water, but loves it too.
Some tribes didn't use green leaf material, but didn't bother about curing much either. They just left the leaves on the stalks over the winter and picked them when they were dark brown, a kind of natural fermentation. To my mind, however, leaves cured in this way have a profile somewhat like Dead Bones (see chapter 6) and have possibilities for cursework. Yet tobacco was never traditionally used for cursing, only for blessing, protection, and divination. This makes it unique among the nightshades of the witch's garden, which I think says something about its fundamental nature.
Here is a recipe for a tobacco blend that can be smoked to shed Fire's light on dreams and aid communication between people, animals, and plants in dreams.
3 parts mullein, dried, finely chopped
6 parts mugwort, dried, finely chopped
1 part sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata) or deerstongue (Liatris odoratissima)
1 part traditional tobacco leaves, cured and shredded
Sufficient Witch's Vermouth (see chapter 10) or brandy (because of its Fire associations) to moisten the mixture
Rather than incorporating sweetgrass or deerstongue, which can be difficult to obtain, tincture a vanilla bean (or peru balsam or tonka beans) in brandy and use the tincture to moisten the herbs.
Warning: If you smoke this blend, do not inhale. Native people traditionally smoke wild tobacco by allowing the smoke into the mouth and then rolling it out again without inhaling it, as one would with a cigar. If you don't want to take the smoke into your mouth, you can use this as a fume or suffumigation and simply fan the smoke toward yourself. Keep the smoke away from animals.
Wild tobacco has small leaves, so once the leaves are dried, you may end up with only about an ounce of dried plant material. Keep this in mind when deciding how many seedlings to plant.
Wild tobacco is among those plants that need increased warmth and light to germinate. I consider this combination of light and warmth to be a representation of its affinity to Fire.
Sprinkle the tiny seeds on wet planting medium and press them in with your fingertips. They need indirect light, not direct sun. A window is fine, although I use a shop light—the kind of cheap four-foot fluorescent light that is typically hung over a workbench. There are a number of options for maintaining warmth—a waterproof heating pad set on low, a bona fide propagation mat, or even the top of a hot water heater or a refrigerator in a warm kitchen. Keep in mind these plants want to be warm, but not hot. They will germinate in ten to twenty days at 70–75°F (20–25°C).
Regular watering from above will dislodge the tiny seeds, so either mist the surface of the soil to water them (don't let them dry out) or use bottom watering. Pour warm or tepid water in a tray holding the peat pellets or cell packs or small pots and dump out whatever has not been absorbed after a half hour. Once the seeds germinate, stop the bottom warmth or the seedlings will be damaged and perhaps even die. Once they come up, keep the seedlings at 65°F (18°C).
After the danger of frost is over and the weather is warmer, transplant the seedlings outside when they get their first set of true leaves (the second set of leaves that you see). Gradually get them used to being outside so that they won't be set back by cold or damaged by the sun. See page 24 for how to harden off.
Wild tobacco can be grown in pots as long as they are large enough. Some people go as large as five gallons, but I think a three-gallon pot is big enough. Start with a smaller pot and “pot up” when the plant begins to outgrow its home—usually, when it becomes more than twice as big as the pot. You'll know that the plant is pinched for space if, when you water, the water runs right through. This is known as being “root bound,” so hurry up and repot if this happens.
Don't be afraid to pot up. Just put your hand over the top of the dirt, letting the stalk come up between your fingers—be sure to wear gloves. Turn the pot upside down and, if all the dirt doesn't come out right away, tap the edge of the pot rim on something until it is loosened. Then put the whole root ball in a new larger pot, being sure to keep the top of the soil level with what was the top of the soil in the old pot—in other words, don't cover up the “crown” of the plant (the place where the roots and the stems meet) with mud or dirt. Some people break up the dirt at the bottom of the root ball if the plant is root bound, but I don't usually do this. Either the plant is strong enough to grow into new soil, or it isn't.
For all that it may sound a little persnickety, wild tobacco is actually pretty easy to grow. It likes rich soil. But remember: the more nitrogen in the soil, the higher the alkaloid level will be in this plant. Since wild tobacco already has far more alkaloids than is beneficial for us, make sure that, if you add any fertilizer, it is low in nitrogen. Good choices are composted manure or soybean meal.
One way to ensure fertility if you are growing these plants in the ground is to plant them in patches where legumes—beans, peas, or clover—were grown the previous year. It's optimal to till the legumes under before they flower, but I often don't do that. I just till them in at the end of the season and let the winter break down the material. This seems to give a sufficient boost to keep a patch healthy. We witches growing herbs for use in magic are not in competition with other farms looking for a bulk harvest, so we can be a bit more relaxed about how much production we get from our gardens. Quality, not quantity.
You can determine the alkaloid level of the leaves you harvest by where they grow on the plant. Nicotine concentration is greater when this plant is grown in hot, dry climates, but alkaloids also increase the higher the leaves are on the plant, because the plant focuses on conserving the newest growth. Native American tribesmen decreased the alkaloid level by giving the plants lots of water. In fact, tobacco is among the few crops that North American tribes irrigated by hand.
No Women Allowed
I say “tribesmen” here, because it was usually men who grew this particular plant. In fact, some tribes thought that exposure to outsiders or women (!) would make tobacco plants wilt. Men often put fences around their little plots and even made temporary shelters next to them where they slept to guard the plants. However, in tribes where folks smoked for pleasure, women certainly smoked as well.
For watering, I use soaker hoses made from recycled tires, but there are plenty of other ways to get water to these plants. You can, for instance, cut the bottom off soda bottles or milk bottles and turn them upside down into holes in the ground next to the plants. Just fill them up periodically. Don't use cat litter jugs for this, however; there seems to be something in the plastic of those things that kills plants.
The more these plants are stressed, the higher the level of alkaloids they will create to deter animals—especially bugs—from preying on them. When it comes to the nightshades, a happy plant that does not perceive threats will be easier to work with; wild tobacco is a good illustration.
Wild tobacco plants don't get anywhere near the size of commercial tobacco plants. They usually grow only two feet (60 cm) tall and not that wide—which is why, in my opinion, a five-gallon bucket is just too big. Like tomato plants, wild tobacco produces “suckers” that are basically whole new plants starting in the crotch between the main stalk and a branch. You can pinch these off (wear gloves) to get bigger leaves. You can even let the suckers get a little growth and then pinch them off to make new plants, or you can leave them to get more flowers and more seeds. If you cut off the tops before the flowers open, typically the leaves will be larger (and the honeybees will not be harmed by foraging for nectar from these plants).14
Some people like to harvest tobacco flowers. In fact, some tribes smoked the flowers separately. It even seems to me that some varieties of wild tobacco were developed to produce a lot of flowers. Wild tobacco has a number of named varieties, which shows that this is not really a wild plant at all, but a highly cultivated, human-friendly plant. Some of these varieties produce lots and lots of flowers. These varieties generally have small leaves, which makes me think that flowers were always an important aspect of this herb. But I suspect that the use of the flowers may generally be held secret. I haven't found any good information about how to prepare the flowers for smoking, even though a lot of information has been collected over the centuries about how wild tobacco has been used ritually all over the world.
Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden
Buffalo Bird Woman described her father harvesting tobacco flowers and mixing them with other ingredients as the first smoke that he would share with close friends. This plant, however, was not Nicotiana rustica, but another tobacco, Nicotiana quadrarivalvis, which has white flowers. She actually helped him do this when he got older, so not all tribes, by any means, banned women from working with tobacco.
Wild tobacco does not reproduce through underground runners. For one thing, it's an annual. These plants were often grown in patches and not sown again, because if you leave flowers on the plants, they become seed pods that guarantee natural reseeding. The pods are round and turn brown when the seeds are ready. You have to be careful when harvesting the seeds, however, because the ripe pods crack open and spill them. I usually use scissors to cut the seedpod stem so that the pod falls into a little bowl.