Sacred Plants in Scripture

“Every herb bearing seed”

The church’s sacrament teaching begins with creation. Genesis 1:29 (KJV) reads: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”³

“We believe in the use of sacred holy herbs and substances by sacrament (modeled after the eucharist removed from modern day christianity)…”

On the Official Lawful Notice the church adds: “If it fractals it is our sacramental or medicinal substance, given to us, by almighty God; made by him, to be used with judgement, not to excess and neither by extortion, commerce or usury.”¹

Manna in the wilderness

The church grounds its priesthood charge in a saying it attributes to God’s instruction to Aaron of the House of Levi:

“Gather the manna... distribute it to each man and woman and child according to their need.”

In Exodus 16, manna is the bread from heaven given to Israel in the wilderness; each household gathered according to need, and an omer was laid up before the LORD.⁴ The church’s language places that gathering inside its own sacramental ministry. For related ancient sacred drinks and plants, see Ancient sacraments.

Holy anointing oil and kaneh bosm

Exodus 30 gives Moses a recipe for a holy anointing oil of myrrh, cinnamon, “sweet calamus” (Hebrew kaneh bosm in some readings), cassia and olive oil, to be used only for consecration.⁵

Contested Some ethnobotanists and Bible translators have argued that kaneh bosm names a cannabis plant rather than calamus. Most standard English Bibles still render it as calamus or sweet cane. The church’s cannabis scripture study and Terpene Lounge ministry sit inside that conversation; the evidence and the debate are on Cannabis and anointing oil.

Doctrine and Covenants 59

The church also observes Latter Day Saint scripture. It cites Doctrine and Covenants section 59 on the gifts of the earth:

“18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.”

The church reads those verses as supporting the sacred use of what God made, alongside the constitutional freedom of religion it finds in section 98.²⁶

“Hidden in plain sight” — The Psychedelic Gospels

“The Church of the Only Begotten Son recognizes Dr. Jerry B. Brown's book: The Psychedelic Gospel, as scripture and historic evidence of scripture which reveals the historic truths regarding ethnobotanical plants and their ceremonial and sacred use throughout the scriptures that had been hidden in plain sight for more than 500 years in the art that adorned and decorated the interiors of some of the first church buildings ever built.”

Contested Brown and Brown’s 2016 book documents medieval Christian art they read as sacred mushrooms.⁷ Many art historians disagree. The church accepts the book as scripture; mainstream historians generally do not. See Psychedelic Christianity.

Cana and the Eucharist

The Gospel of John records that Jesus turned water into wine at Cana.⁹ The church recognizes as scripture a manuscript by Jack Herrera that explains that miracle by the addition of psychedelic mushroom powder to the water, so that the congregation might experience “the divine conversation facilitated when one prayerfully ingests the sacred sacrament God has created for this express purpose.”²

Church teaching That is the church’s own reading, not a mainstream interpretation of John. For the church, sacrament and Eucharist meet in that “divine conversation.” Read more on Psychedelic Christianity and return to the plant pages from Sacraments or the entheogenic church overview.