Calamus vs. Cannabis

[Rev. John]

Calamus
Scientific Name: Acorus calamus
Country of Origin: Nepal
Distillation Method: Steam Distilled
Safety: F, H (Toxic, Carcinogenic) When used as a fragrance ingredient it should not exceed .01% of the total finished product.
Quality Control Tested: Yes
Free of Pesticide and Chemical Residue: Yes

One of the supposed ingredients in the holy anointing oil. It is also called "sweet flag" or "sweet cane". Used in cosmetics and perfumes as a fixative. Some also believe that Calamus could be what is now known as lemongrass or ginger grass.

Therapeutic Uses: None. Calamus oil should only be used as a perfume ingredient. Calamus oil is toxic. Ancient herbal remedies used only the dried root of the plant not the concentrated essential oil from the plant.

Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for approximately 4,000 years. Surviving texts from ancient India confirm that its psychoactive properties were recognized, and doctors used it for a variety of illnesses and ailments. These included a whole host of gastrointestinal disorders, insomnia, headaches and as a pain reliever, frequently used in childbirth. The ancient Egyptians even used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids.[10]
In the medieval Islamic world, Arabic physicians discovered the diuretic, antiemetic, antiepileptic, anti-inflammatory, pain killing and antipyretic properties of cannabis sativa, and used it extensively as medication from the 8th to 18th centuries.[11] An Irish doctor, William O'Shaughnessy, was held mainly responsible for showing his Western colleagues about the healing properties of marijuana. He was a herb professor at the Medical College of Calcutta, and in conducted a marijuana experiment in the 1830s. O'Shaughnessy created preparations and tested animal effects. He continued on to administer this marijuana to patients in order to help treat muscle spasms or pain.[12]
Cannabis as a medicine became common throughout much of the world by the 19th century. It was used as the primary pain reliever until the invention of aspirin.[9] Modern medical and scientific inquiry began with doctors like O'Shaughnessy and Moreau de Tours, who used it to treat melancholia and migraines, and as a sleeping aid, analgesic and anticonvulsant.

If you actually buy the Calamus translation for the Holy Oil, then you assume that God specified in Exodus 30:23 a drug commonly known as Ecstasy. Calamus contains an ingredient called asarone. This is a hallucinogen which is metabolized in the liver as trimethoxyamphetamine or ecstasy. The Middle Eastern version of this plant is far more toxic than its North American Cousin. This is deadly to flies and other insects. The Exodus 30:23 reference refers to sweet Calamus. If you look at this in the Strong’s concordance where they spell this as qaneh rather than kaneh, they pronounce this as Kaw-Naw, a reed, calamus, and cane are listed as possible translations. The term sweet used in Exodus 30:23 in Hebrew is Bosem. According to the Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary, Bosem is perfume; scent. The Concordance: the Hebrew is Bosem #1314, fragrance, by impl. spicery; also the balsam plant:----smell, spice, sweet (odour). In some Bibles sweet calamus is translated as aromatic or fragrant Cane. It is where the bosem is fused to the word kaneh or qaneh that the cannabis translation becomes apparent. So then to pronounce this we have kaw-naw-bosem, and is spelled in English qaneh-bosem or kaneh-bosem.

In 1936, Sara Benetowa, later Known as Sula Benet, an etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences, in Warsaw wrote a treatise, "Tracing One Word Through Different Languages." This was a study on the word Cannabis, based on a study of the oldest Hebrew texts. Although the word cannabis was thought to be of Scythian origin, Benet's research showed it had an earlier root in the Semitic Languages such as Hebrew. Benet demonstrated that the ancient Hebrew word for Cannabis is Kaneh -Bosem. She also did another study called Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp. There is a reprint of this in Cannabis and Culture ISBN:90-279-7669-4. On page 44, she states, "The sacred character of hemp in biblical times is evident from Exodus 30:23, where Moses was instructed by God to anoint the meeting tent and all of its furnishings with specially prepared oil, containing hemp." On page 41 Sula Benet writes, : In the course of time, the two words kaneh and bosem were fused into one , kanabos or kannabus know to us from the Mishna. According to the Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary, page 607 the Hebrew for hemp is kanabos.

Sara Benetowa discovered that the Kaneh-Bosm or Cannabis is mentioned 5 times in the Old Testament. The first occurrence appears in the Holy Anointing Oil as Calamus, (Exodus 30:23). Sara argued that the translation of Calamus was a mistranslation which occurred in the oldest Bible the “Septuagint” and the mistranslation was copied in later versions.

But what is the effect to the baptism?
You may argue that the Anointing with the cannabis based oil has no redeeming value. I would like to point out that all Orthodox Churches practice the Chrism anointing. What started me into The Fire Baptism and the Lost Sacraments is that not one Church uses the Holy Anointing Oil as described in Exodus 30:23 even with the Calamus translation.

Is it possible that were two different recipe's and for two entirely separate reasons? one for general purpose anointing oil or perfume (kaneh bosm recipe), and one for consecration and sanctification purposes (calamus recipe) ?

something else to consider

FACT: If a person creates an Anointing Oil or Temple Incense based solely on the words in the Holy Bible, the end result would NOT be the true, actual, genuine Pure and Holy Bible Anointing Oil or Holy Temple Incense.
WHY: One must remember that the High Priest, Pharisee's and Sadducee's had a religious mandate to protect the people. One of the ways they did this was to setup hidden walls and hedges to protect the people from their own ignorance of the LAW.
HOW: In the case of the Holy Anointing Oil and Holy Temple Incense, names of ingredients had code names, some ingredients were not listed at all, and the processes were all kept secret (and there was a further mistranslation later on as well).
EXPLAIN: The High Priest, Pharisee's and Sadducee's did this so if an unauthorized person made the Anointing Oil or Temple Incense they would not have really sinned, so they would not have to be put to death or punished greatly. That is because they DID NOT make the true, actual, and Genuine HOLY item. The secret hidden walls and hedges protected the person from himself and the LAW.

If you would like to make the HAO using the mistranslated recipe here's a link for a kit... let us know if the calamus makes you trip or ultimately gives you cancer... we wanna know. http://www.victorie-inc.us/holy_oil_kit.html