How Cultures Approach Hemp & Natural Remedies: Ancient Wisdom in a Modern Bottle

In the misty Himalayan foothills, a woman crushes green leaves between stone and skin, preparing a poultice for aching joints. Thousands of miles away in the mountains of Morocco, a man sifts through fields of hemp under the calloused sun, his hands knowing the plant like an old friend. In both stories, the plant is the same — Cannabis sativa. But today, it’s called something new: CBD.

Before the tinctures and vape pens, before regulatory committees and trendy cafes, there was a relationship — between people and this plant — far older than the term “cannabinoid” itself.
Let’s go there.

India: Where Hemp Was a Sacred Offering
In ancient Vedic texts, bhang (a preparation of cannabis) is called one of the five sacred plants. Not recreational, not rebellious — sacred.

It was believed to bring mental clarity, longevity, and even divine insight. While modern CBD products claim to reduce anxiety or help with sleep, bhang was part of spiritual rituals — served during festivals like Holi, offered to Lord Shiva, and consumed not for escape, but alignment.

Interestingly, some researchers now hypothesize that CBD’s anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) effects may partially explain its ceremonial use. Reducing fear, calming the nervous system — CBD may have been an ancient aid to meditative states long before the word "bioavailability" ever entered the chat.

China: The Healer’s Tool
The earliest recorded use of cannabis as medicine appears in a Chinese pharmacopeia dated around 2700 BCE, attributed to the mythical Emperor Shen Nong — considered the father of Chinese herbal medicine.

Hemp seeds, leaves, and roots were used to treat ailments ranging from menstrual cramps to gout. While the psychoactive effects of THC were recognized, the plant was often used in low-THC, high-CBD forms — unknowingly favoring what modern wellness circles now promote.

Today’s Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners still integrate hemp into multi-herbal formulas, and researchers have begun mapping ancient herb pairings against modern pharmacological models — finding surprising synergy between CBD and adaptogenic plants like ginseng and licorice root.

Africa: Cannabis in Rhythm and Ritual
In the Bantu and Zulu traditions of Southern Africa, cannabis wasn’t just a plant — it was a participant in ceremonies, dream work, and communal storytelling. The plant was smoked or used in teas to commune with ancestors, invoking visions or calming the mind during trance dances.

Here, the line between physical and spiritual healing blurred.

Recent studies suggest that CBD might modulate REM sleep cycles and promote lucid dreaming — phenomena long described by traditional healers without access to EEG machines or peer-reviewed journals.

Middle East: A Legacy of Knowledge
The Persian polymath Avicenna — whose Canon of Medicine was a cornerstone of both Islamic and European medicine for centuries — wrote about cannabis as a treatment for epilepsy, inflammation, and pain.

He couldn’t have known about the endocannabinoid system, the internal network CBD interacts with, but he observed its effects on body and mood. In a sense, Avicenna was practicing an early form of empirical science — guided not by controlled trials but by centuries of trial and observation.

Modern researchers, now using double-blind studies, have confirmed many of the plant’s historic applications — especially in neurological conditions like epilepsy, where CBD (in the form of Epidiolex) is now FDA-approved.

The Science Catches Up — and Still Lags Behind
In the West, CBD only recently stepped out of cannabis’s shadow. It’s been labeled “non-psychoactive,” “wellness-friendly,” and “non-addictive.” Yet that language ignores its rich cultural legacy — a plant once used not just to fix what's broken, but to celebrate, to worship, to connect.

Yes, CBD binds to receptors. Yes, it affects serotonin. Yes, we can graph its mechanisms.

But in many cultures, healing was never just chemical. It was ceremonial, collective, personal.

Bridging Ancient Insight and Modern Intentions
What happens when we view CBD not as a product but as a practice? Not as a cure-all, but as a connection point — between past and present, body and spirit?
Here’s what we might relearn:

• Ritual matters. Whether you call it meditation or prayer, intentional use deepens impact.
• Less can be more. Ancient uses were often mild, slow, and blended — not maximized.
• It’s not just you. Healing was collective. Shared. Witnessed.

Final Thought
CBD isn’t a new discovery. It’s an ancient conversation — one we’re only just beginning to understand again, with new tools and old stories.

Maybe the question isn’t “What can CBD do for me?”

Maybe it’s: What are we ready to remember?