Cohiba Kishibu Kati (Tobacco Full Moon)

Cohiba Kishibu Kati (Tobacco  Full Moon) will be on November 15th.


Cohiba /Tobacco is a plant that grows natively in the Caribbean, North and South America. It is in the same family as the potato, pepper and the poisonous nightshade, a very deadly plant.

Traditionally, in tropical climates it has been considered that the ideal months to plant tobacco are November and December, since it results in better yield and quality and allows for rain fed cultivation, taking advantage of the rain during this season.


On this Full Moon as it is the season to Plant Cohiba, we honor the spirit of this plant.

Spiritual Significance

In the chronicles of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage –recorded mislabeled in history as the “discovery of America,” he refers that upon arriving in Cuba, his ship was welcomed by canoes steered by men and women who held small bunches of quasi-golden leaves that, given their shape, resembled “muskets lit up on one end” that natives pressed between their lips, delightfully inhaling the aromatic smoke off that exotic plant, totally unknown for the crew at that time.

Those peaceful and innocent people were offering COHIBA to the colonizers as a token of friendship. That used to be their most precious treasure, the underpinning of their lives and a way to communicate with the gods. The Tainos called TOBACCO a two-pronged hollow tubes carved in wood that, unlike the leaves rolled into the shape of a musket, they used to absorb the COHIBA through the nostrils.

That was powder tobacco, what people now call snuff. As Columbus and his men heard the words pronounced by the Tainos, they mixed up the word COHIBA with the instrument called TOBACCO.

Let’s turn time back now to the palenque (party or festival) where the sacred ceremony known as the Cohiba Ritual is about to begin. An areito or ritual chant is being sung as the music fills up the atmosphere. The Kasike (tribe chief) or Behike (medicine man) also acts as the supreme priest. He has inhaled the smoke of the COHIBA, sitting on the ceremonial dujo, a lovely seat that recreates the form of an antediluvian animal. With his head leaning on his chest and his hands on his knees, he remains silent, submerged in somekind of profound trance. When the Kasike or behike begins to speak, his voice sounds celestial and divine. Participants answer out loud to his words, each and every one of them telling what his or her problems are, concerned with the future of the tribe. They are also grateful that the gods –through the Kasike/behike and by means of the Cohiba Ritual- are listening to them and dishing out wise solutions.

excerpt from http://www.revistasexcelencias.com/en/excelencias-turisticas-cuba/t0bacco/reportaje/ritual-cohoba


Meditation

This Full Moon is about wisdom, communication, grounding, thanksgiving.

1. Create Sacred Space - Call on your ancestors, your guides, the ways your ancestors would have. Ask them to help focus your mind and heart to the task at hand, so you may be prepared to show yourself worthy for all that you seek, to attract the energy necessary to manifest your desire with the coming seasons.

2. With your eyes closed while standing or sitting on a chair, Take 7 deep inhales and exhales to clear your mind.

3.Bring attention to your breath, with each inhale receiving life giving oxygen from the plants and with each exhale giving them carbon dioxide. Visualise a beautiful flowering Yuri (cohiba) plant in your minds eye that is feeding you oxygen and you are feeding carbon dioxide under this moon's glow. 

4. As you see the Yuri (cohiba) flower before you, observe as the hummingbird draws the medicine from this plant, many native american cultures teach that the humming bird represents our ancestors and deep wisdom as it feeds from the sacred Yuri (Cohiba) plant. Like the hummingbird feeding on this sacred plant, with each inhale see as a ray of light ,deep wisdom entering your body, with each exhale release worries, fears and doubts to this sacred plant.

5.Continue to do this allowing any insights or guidance to come to you under this moon and this moment in silence. When complete give thanks for guidance and the energy given to you. 

Energy is present 2 days before and 2 days after the Full moon so you have time to practice