I used to smoke cigarettes: Dunhill International, the same ones John Lennon smoked (not that I knew that at the time). Smoked cigarettes for years. I gave up because pipe smoking is less expensive, packs more nicotine and to get the very best from pipe smoking you don’t inhale (much). Started smoking about 36-37 years ago. My only regret is that I didn’t start earlier.
Currently I smoke a pipe, use oral tobacco and nasal snuff – although not all at once. Tobacco is like my American Express card, I never leave home without it. To me it’s a sacrament. Life wouldn’t be worth living without it. I could survive without caffeine, but not without the goddess Nicotiana.
If you research tobacco consumption (at least in the western world) 1980 was the year more tobacco was sold and I can only assume used. Since then tobacco usage has declined year after year. During the same time period cancers, including lung cancers, have risen. Currently the group with the biggest increase in lung cancer is the same group with the biggest increase from a hundred years ago – women who don’t use and never have used tobacco.
Emphysema is a genetic condition. If you have the genes it’s best not to smoke, just like if diabetes runs in your family it’s best not to indulge in a lot of sugar. Lung cancer doesn’t concern me as, after stomach cancer, it’s the second fastest to cure by yourself in the comfort of your own home. I use a dangerous, ‘industrial strength bleach’, according to Wikipedia.
Crowley was a heroin addict and great Magician. Tobacco is one of very few drugs which works as a stimulant (in small doses) and a depressant (in larger doses). I love both aspects. I need time to think and a tobacco pipe is the thinking man’s tool. I say this because unfortunately very few women smoke pipes – although I knew one and once saw another.
If I’m doing negative Magick – like a curse – all I need do is stay away from tobacco for a few hours and I’m ready to kill. ‘You talking to me?’ The deep hatred and primordial anger just wells up so I can get to where I need to be fast. Afterwards I have a smoke and instantly I’m OK, but obviously weaker from the energy I’ve directed. I remember first using the technique in about the mid-1990s to give someone I knew cancer.
Magickally I can’t say it’s had a negative impact but I really wouldn’t know as I’m a user. I organically grow, slow cure, gently ferment and naturally flavour my own tobacco. It’s not as good as purchased tobacco but it honestly isn’t that bad. I’ve also received good reviews.
If you love nicotine but want to give up smoking, I’ve had some of my most righteous nicotine experiences using nasal snuff and with snuff a little goes a long way because the blood in your nose transports the absorbed nicotine straight to your brain. It’s blissful! And there’s so many flavours – from bubblegum to cheese and bacon.
I gave up meat eating for ethical (and to a lesser extent health) reasons so life is hard enough without having to give up nicotine. As a second-class human being I love hearing the news about fit and healthy sporting heroes dying earlier than my current age. I rejoice in their heart attacks and cancers while I peacefully take a pipe. Those people are the most able bodied corpses in the morgue. Might be all car exhaust they take in as I watch them running through the traffic at lunchtimes.
Al.