Worship and Customs

Worship

  There is no specific religious building in Rastafari that is set aside for worship. Usually meet weekly. The meetings are referred to as Reasoning sessions. They provide a time for chants and prayers, and for communal issues to be discussed. Ganja may be smoked to produce heightened spiritual states. The music used at these meetings is known as Nyahbinghi, and so when meetings are mostly musical they are often referred to as Nyahbingi meetings. Meetings may also include large feasts.

Ganja

  
Ganja is regarded as a herb of religious significance. It is used in Rastafari reasoning sessions, which are communal meetings involving meditation. Ganja is used to heighten feelings of community. Ganja is the key of the fire for the return of the original conscience of each other, with Yah and the Universe. Is the vehicle for the conscience, introducing other levels of reality, developing the sense of unity with all life. Ganja is usually described as the Herb of Wisdom or the Holy Herb. The latter name is used because the use of Ganja is sacred, following biblical texts justifying its use:

Psalm (Tehillim) 104:14

¹⁴ He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

Dreadlocks

The wearing of hair in dreadlocks by Rastas is spiritual; this is justified in the Bible:

Leviticus (Vayikra) 21:5

⁵ They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

Numbers (Bamidbar) 6:5

⁵ All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto Yah, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

Food Laws

  This Laws may change between the Mansions (or Orders) of Ras Tafari.

• Eat strictly I'tal which means natural and clean
• Don't eat meat, scavengers or shellfish
• Eat copious amounts of vegetables, as they are of the earth, and therefore good
• Food is prepared without salt, and coconut oil is the most likely form of oil to be utilised
• Don't drink alcohol
• Drink anything herbal, grown from natural roots
• Consume plentiful amounts of fruit and fruit juice

Proverbs (Mishle) 15:17

¹⁷ Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

Yah Is My Health

  We don't allows the use of any unnatural medicine. Only Yah can heal the sick, and no other being have this capacity.