A reflection on the healing powers of cannabis with Gemma Ra’Star
GEMMA RA’STAR, founder of Wumaniti Earth Native Sanctuary, believes cannabis has not only healing properties but spiritual ones too.
“We help people with this medicine,” Ra’Star said.
Members of Wumaniti are able to cross state lines with cannabis through religious exemption. She’s helped people from ages 30 to 100 (she confided that they have a client that is 100 years old). The organization has been acknowledged in several past Taos News articles for her education and therapeutic efforts in the greater Taos community. Ceremonies, retreats, meditation, prayer — even equine therapy — are all components utilized at Wumaniti. At the organization, cannabis is treated as a sacrament. Through proper dosing and strains, cannabis
has helped its members through a host of illnesses and ailments, according to Ra’Star.
They’ve had their headquarters on 203 Ledoux Street for almost 10 years. Inside, organic and locally grown cannabis is ground up by mortar and pestle. Her 200-and-counting edible recipes are made vegan, without refined sugars or gluten, and have won awards and accolades from MTV and High Times. She said she’s famous for her Buddha Bars, or hemp energy bars with a handful of ingredients. All products in the store are carefully sourced. Ra’Star can point to any product in the store and detail its origins and its medicinal uses. “Our cacao is all shaman blessed — it’s Brazilian and Peruvian cacao, and it’s grown in situations that are spiritual, versus commercial, which is very important,” Ra’Star said.
When asked what her thoughts
were on the recent recreational sales in New Mexico, she said she was ultimately glad people now had freedom and less stress around their medicine. On the flip side, she doesn’t want to see cannabis abused with alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs. She also said its legalization is a long time coming for “people that have been thrown in jail” and whose lives have been upended because of the criminality surrounding cannabis.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I’ve been creating freedom for cannabis. I’ve been an activist, as well as I found a way of creating an out-of-state sanctioned program through religious freedom and spirituality to utilize this plant that’s been utilized for thousands of years,” Ra’Star said.
Her partner and Wumaniti cofounder, Elliot LeftHand, is also happy about recreational use of cannabis.
“We don’t have to hide anymore. We’re coming out of the woodworks,” LeftHand said.
Her own journey with cannabis started when she was in Maryland around the age of 11, oftentimes having to smoke it in a bathroom at a friend’s house. A self-described hurt punk rock kid, Ra’Star said, at that time, smoking weed helped them stay away from alcohol, pills and tobacco — where many her age would experiment with. Later, she would be involved in street gangs from Maryland down to New Orleans and eventually the West Coast.
When she was 17, she was sent to the notorious behavior modification facility known as Tranquility Bay in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. The facility would later be publicized for allegations of child abuse. At the facility, Ra’Star was “stone-cold sober;” she couldn’t write, “couldn’t look at anybody,” or have access to a telephone, computer or TV.
“I had to raise my hand for toilet paper,” Ra’Star said.
Ra’Star was at the facility for five months where she said she underwent severe trauma and abuse. One day, in a room all by herself as she was closing her eyes to a huge spirit, Atlantean beings visited her room. “They took my spirit out to the ocean. And I went in the ocean — spiritually. Again, I’m stone-cold sober and I’m having this out-of-body experience after going through extreme trauma. I’m having this beautiful out-of-body experience where they take me down to Atlantis,” Ra’Star said.
Ra’Star couldn’t “even begin to describe” what was some cross between a Mayan or Greek temple. She takes a deep breath while recollecting the event. She said a big spirit told her that her name is Gemma Ra’Star and it means “freedom to the cannabis tree” or create freedom within the cannabis trade.
After the life-changing experience, Ra’Star started riding freight trains. Eventually, through a friend, she ended up in Taos on a quarter acre of land. She learned to chop wood, haul water as well as harvest rainwater. One day,
means “freedom to the cannabis tree” or create freedom within the cannabis trade.
After the life-changing experience, Ra’Star started riding freight trains. Eventually, through a friend, she ended up in Taos on a quarter acre of land. She learned to chop wood, haul water as well as harvest rainwater. One day, a visitor gave her a bag full of cannabis trim and, from there, she started growing.
“From there, I just started listening to my ancestors and dialing into the grids of the mountains and I started making medicine. I started walking around Taos as the ganja goddess… selling my treats,” Ra’Star said.
Since 2014, Wumaniti has been a federally recognized spiritual organization, which is able to provide cannabis to its members.
“I know that we have a higher force around us, protecting us like these Atlantean beings are protecting us, to do this work, to help integrate cannabis into humanity and doing it in a spiri
tual way. By educating people, like how to microdose with it and how to find themselves and how to find peace and self-healing,” Ra’Star said.