Moroccan Mahjoun

When I first listened to White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane, I had probably rightly believed that Grace Slick was referring to Alice In Wonderland with the lyric “Go ask Alice, I think she’ll knooowww!”. But in hindsight, she may also be referring to Alice B. Toklas and her Alice B. Toklas Cookbook which was published in 1954 and contained a recipe for “hashish fudge”. The notion also formed a part of legendary artist Bryon Gysin’s method in metaphysique and creativity, who lived in Morocco where mahjoun is quite the treat.

A friend enticed me into the taste sensation of mahjoun with recounts of the Le Club des Hachichins (“Club of the Hashish-Eaters”), which was frequented by Pierrie Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, Eugène Delacroix and Alexandre Dumas in the mid-19th century. The French  psychiatrist Jacques-Joseph Moreau was also a member, who was the first person in modern history to publish a work on the effects of cannabis in relation to the human nervous system. Guatier wrote of Moreau handing him a “morsel of paste of greenish jam about as large as a thumb from a crystal vase”, as he cautions that “this will be deducted from your share in Paradise”.

Dr Jacques-Joseph Moreau

Moreau wrote of the psychosomatic effects of the substance in ameliorating mental illness; myself I found it beneficial in dealing with a difficult gastroenterological condition which also turned out to have a psychosomatic origin. This is how mahjoun came to be of great interest to me.

There are two recipes I would like to share.

The following can be found on Chowhound and provides a sweet paste than works extremely well when spread on walnut crackers:

Ingredients

  • 1/4 ounce marijuana tops (negotiable)
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground anise
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Process

  1. Remove stems and seeds from marijuana tops, then dry and crumble the leaves. In a dry skillet, toast the leaves over very low heat until the aromas are released.
  2. Mix the leaves with raisins, walnuts, nutmeg, anise, ginger, honey, and water, adding more water if the mixture is too dry and crumbly.
  3. Simmer together until the mixture is soft and thick. Mash by hand or transfer to a food processor and blend, using several short pulses.
  4. Stir in butter, spoon into a jar, and refrigerate for storage. Spread on crackers or plain cookies, or use as a filling for stuffed cookies.

The other can be found on Munchies, which has extensive marijuana recipes given the recent legalisations and decriminalisations across North America.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1-3 grams hash (Potency: 1 gram for 20-milligram strength balls, 2 grams for 40-milligram strength balls, 3 grams for 60-milligram strength balls, based on an average of 50-percent THC per gram of hash.)
  • 3 oz. cashews (raw or lightly toasted, salted or unsalted)
  • 3 oz. pistachios, shelled (raw or lightly toasted, salted or unsalted)
  • 4 oz. almonds (raw or lightly toasted, salted or unsalted)
  • 3 oz. Black Mission figs
  • 4 oz. Medjool dates
  • 1/2 cup raw honey
  • 2 oz. rose water
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt

for the spice mixture (use 1 oz. per batch):

  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1 teaspoon powdered cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper, finely ground
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers (optional)

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Place butter and powdered hash in a shallow Pyrex dish and heat on center rack for approximately 30 minutes to fully activate THC.
  2. While hash is heating, in a food processor, addthe nuts and gently grind into small pieces. Reserve 1⁄4 cup for coating jam balls and set aside.
  3. Using kitchen shears or a paring knife, remove any stems from figs. Check dates carefully, removing any pits or hulls. Finely dice and set aside.
  4. Measure honey, rose water, and spices. Combine spices and set aside.
  5. Remove butter and hash mixture from oven and place in a medium saucepan on the stove over low heat. Add flour and whisk to blend well. Continue cooking on a low simmer until foaming (4 to 5 minutes), stirring constantly just until roux is lightly browned, being cautious not to burn butter. Remove from heat and add salt. Stir to blend. Set aside.
  6. In a large bowl, combine nuts and dried fruit, roux, honey, rose water, and 1 oz. of spice mixture. With clean hands, knead ingredients until well-incorporated, smooth, and thick, with a slight sheen. If necessary, refrigerate for 25 or 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step.
  7. Using a small ice cream scoop or measuring spoon, spoon approximately 2 tablespoons of the mixture at a time and gently roll into balls. Coat/roll balls in reserved finely ground nuts.

The second recipe, I often use dukkah mix for the coating which you can buy separately in an abundance of flavours.

My own creations coated with honey-roasted dukkah mix

The morning after I’d made my first ever batch, I told myself that it would be fine to have a teaspoon or two of the first recipe on some walnut crackers. After that I watched the last of season 3 of House of Cards, it was pretty clear that it was taking good effect. Reminding myself that I had a gym session with my personal trainer, I got changed and walked into town. And along the way I made sure I got a strong cup of coffee…..

Casting a labyrinth

An out of the box ceremony, right in the dirt and leaves

Trying to come up with a seriously good piece of symbolic ceremony can be a hard task these days, when your auspicious date is just around the corner. Some of us might want to hurl some blame at chaos magick for making it so fashionable to construct your own 21st century rite, which can lead to all sorts of intensive design-thinking and crafting appropriate sensory triggers. The planning can wind up greater than the actual event and some wiser folks are truly well-wise in sticking with the time-honoured traditions and the artistry that goes with them. Unfortunately I’m not a traditional type and coupling that with every attempt to be innovative with little time to do so, I find myself in the awkward position of reaching an equinox or a solstice with not much heed for the celestial patterns of the great hour, the appropriate egregores and/or materials of note. Suddenly one winds up with quickfire traditions of their own to compensate, conscripted piecemeal and repeated like a favourite TV season.

My go-to in marking out these special times or in a simple case of boosting life along (I’ll get to this later) is to working with something the late Vincent Bridges presented in his discourse The Unified Field of Gnosis. The transcript of this which is available online covers the pattern of the 9-point labyrinth and it’s wiring into a whole seemingly disparate templates of meaning, so I won’t try and restate it in my own ways as it’s rather worth reading. But with a whole glossy world of occult and new age practices built around flimsy correlations of anything to everything, Bridge’s particular research work here is surprising in doing exactly that and presenting a perfectly reasonable pattern to work with in terms of traversing a microcosm of self through macrocosms of life and reality.

Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral

Labyrinth walking has a long history and has been often used to help build connections with the soul or with god. The Cretans based a labyrinth around the seven sacred planets of that time as well as other correspondences of seven, as well as the parable of Theseus going to the centre of the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur, leading him to take his father’s throne albeit tragically. Cathedrals would also have labyrinths for the devout to perform an inner pilgrimage, if the journey to Jerusalem was not possible for them. Sometimes you will even see these in the grounds of churches today. Here, this version of the labyrinth deals with ancient geometries as well as deftly weaving in Leary’s 8-circuit model which is a favourite of ours.

The whole pattern is easy enough to cast in terms of material, with there being just a need for marking out the nine points with rocks and drawing the pattern in the dirt. The spot I typically use is a power sport charged by people before my subsequent use of the location with drawing in the dirt through the leaves & pine needles with my shoe, the points secured by pine cones. The only other things, which I insist on always, is a brass incense burner which is doing exactly that and a good soundtrack from decent portable speakers. I typically rely on simple banishing measures which is a glowing white-gold light clearing meditation in “the crown” often augmented by qigong training I’ve had, these being at the beginning and end of the actual walking of the labyrinth itself. The walking itself is a simple procedure, unless you haven’t marked your lines properly by being slack. Attention is required for the moment and that goes as much as for getting ready as it does for the doing, every time a dollar I say. The reaching of the centre is typically met by raising your palms upward and focussing on something worth manifesting; if you’ve gone for something self-serving then you’ve missed a few points and will miss some of the full benefit. There’s even a WikiHow that covers the basic premise.
lab12

It’s very important to have a proper heartfelt licence to depart ready to declare after the final “banishing” portion of the rite. All sorts of things can be attracted to ceremonies like these. One night time ceremony we had our only significant torch blow its bulb as soon as we finished after a possibly lazy rendition of a licence to depart, leaving two of us relying on the LED lights on a city council-supplied “rape whistle” to get down the worn dirt track of large forested hill. I now really think the city council should provide synapse-suppressing anti-rapist strobe lights instead. So I stick with this and if you do too, take note of the birdsong (if there are birds) of when you’ve done this.

The labyrinth I created for the autumnal equinox
The labyrinth I created for the autumnal equinox
The entrance of the labyrinth for participants
The entrance of the labyrinth for participants

The effects of this I can only put to words as a sense of “harmonisation” in the days following such a rite, with degrees of effortlessness and fluidity in one’s day-to-day life. This is distinct from outright synchronicity when performing actual, intensive ceremonial symbolic rites which may or may not involve a labyrinth walking as this can be combined for further effect in whatever you’re doing. But all I can say is give it a go and see what you make of it.