Smoking as Prayer: How to Become One with the Spirit through Ritual

Ask anyone. Smoking is Osama bin Laden, the Ponytail Killer, and Nickleback, coming for the souls of our children with a straight razor laced with fentanyl and some 1980s Satanic Panic.

What we mean to say is it’s weird how smoking has become so taboo lately.

It’s like the soul of Nancy Reagan god-blessed America’s new anti-smoking campaign and everyone’s cool with it.

And that’s a little messed up because traditionally indigenous cultures, all over the world, view smoking as a way to pray.

We’re not talking the Marlboro Man kind of smoking, the commercialized $10 a pack Willy Wonka tickets to death.

We mean the type of smoking that’s more like an offering, a way to visualize prayer. Because in its essence, down in the core of its soul, smoking is an embodiment of the Great Spirit.

Here is our ode to smoking as a form of prayer, a way to connect our spirit to the soul of the sky and commune with the Great Creator. Let’s celebrate smoking herbs as a spiritual connection, a transport to prayer, an opening of our chakras through fire, herbs, and breath – a transcendence of the everyday through ceremony, ritual, and a dash of enlightenment.

Smoking: A Gifted Connection to the Great Spirits

In Woodland Indian rituals and ceremonies, tobacco serves as the sacred link between humans and the spiritual realm, uniting all forms of communication with the Divine.

The Manidog Spirits were said to be extremely fond of tobacco. But the only way they could get it was through people, either from smoking a pipe or making offerings of dried tobacco.

People were holding. So if the Spirits wanted to smoke, they needed to get their buzz through us, in a sense.

As the Milwaukee Public Museum explains: 

“According to tradition, the Indians received tobacco as a gift from Wenebojo who had taken it from a mountain giant and then given the seed to his brothers.

“In almost all facets of their lives, Native people of the Great Lakes had reason to solicit the spirits for acts of kindness or to give thanks for past favors. Dry tobacco was placed at the base of a tree or shrub from which medicine was gathered, and a pinch was thrown in the water before each day of wild rice gathering to assure calm weather and a bountiful harvest. Before setting out in a canoe, a safe return was assured by offering tobacco on the water. On journeys or hunts, Indian men paused for a smoke and left a pinch of tobacco as an offering when they encountered certain features of the landscape, including waterfalls, misshapen trees, oddly shaped rocks, and lakes or islands said to harbor spirits. When storms approached, families protected themselves by placing a small amount of tobacco on a nearby rock or stump. Tobacco was placed at graves as an offering to the departed spirit. Requests to elders to relate oral traditions or other special knowledge were accompanied with a gift of tobacco.”

Kinnickinnick: an Herbal Mixture for Your Smoking Pleasure

Now traditionally, when we talk about tobacco, we don’t mean cigarettes.

We mean tobacco mixed with other herbs.

As Native American herbalist Tis Mal Crow once said to our founder, Bear, as he was rolling up some American Spirit: “Funny you call that tobacco.”

“What do you mean?” Bear asked.

“Well, when I was growing up, all the different Shamans had their own blend of ‘tobacco,’ and it was really all these different herbs,” Crow said.

That lightbulb moment led Bear to experiment with mixing in a variety of herbs with his smoke, eventually leading to the launch of Bear Blend.

Known as Kinnickinnick, an Ojibwe word that literally means “what is mixed,” the smoking substance was a mixture of plant materials that Indian people mixed with tobacco for smoking. Ingredients varied regionally. In the Woodlands, blends often featured the inner bark of willow or dogwood trees, or sumac leaves, with tobacco making up only about a third of the final mixture.

The tradition of Kinnickinnick inspired our own blend, Kin Nik Nik, as well as the essence of Bear Blend itself.

Actual tobacco will kill you. Smoking an herbal mixture is a nice alternative to connect with the spirits and transcend into the sky.

Smoking as Prayer: Giving Thanks for What You’re Grateful

At its core, smoking is an act of offering — a way to give thanks and connect with the sacred. It transforms prayer into something visible, a wisp of intention rising with the smoke. When smoking is partaken through ritual, the Spirit is not just invoked but embodied, carried within each breath and exhalation.

The herbs are a combination of the all-mighty sun, the life-giving waters, and the wisdom of our elders.

The act of smoking or burning ritualistic incense brings together all of these elements

Smoke with intention. Think about what you’re grateful for, your desires, prayers – the essence of what you want. Let those thoughts become one with the herbs, the gift of our creator and the physical embodiment of the Earth.

Breathe the prayer into your lungs. As you smoke, let the smoke carry your prayer to the heavens, becoming one with the Sky and the Power of the Creator. Let your thoughts embody the essence of becoming.

Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. Life is for the living. It’s a ride, a ramble, a barefoot journey into mystery and a troubadour’s rambling bullshit. And we won’t truly know the answer until we’re called back to the sky. No matter your take, we all know whose name we’ll be yelling when we’re clutching our chest. Stick to what you know, which is nothing you know, nothing for sure. God bless Agnostic wonderment.