Hemp
One of the oldest cultivated plants on Earth. One of the most useful. For a long time, one of the most suppressed. And one of the most needed right now.
What is hemp?
Hemp is Cannabis sativa, the same species as marijuana, bred and grown for fibre, food and materials rather than for a high. It contains very little THC and will not get you stoned. It will change your idea of what a plant can do.
People have grown hemp for around 10,000 years. It was one of the first farmed crops, used for rope, cloth, paper, food and medicine. The word canvas comes from the Latin for cannabis.
Then in the 20th century it was banned. That is changing.
Why hemp matters for the planet
Carbon capture
Hemp grows fast and turns carbon dioxide into biomass quickly. Estimates for industrial hemp run to more than 20 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year.
Soil regeneration
Hemp can draw toxins and heavy metals out of soil. Its deep roots hold soil together and improve its structure. Farmers call it a mop crop.
Water efficiency
Hemp needs roughly half the water of cotton and grows in a wide range of climates, often without irrigation.
Hemp as a material
Hemp fibre is one of the strongest natural fibres there is. For thousands of years it made the rope and canvas that rigged ships, the cloth people wore and the paper that carried ideas.
Today hemp goes into hempcrete, a building material that stores carbon, into hemp plastic, packaging and new textiles. The Diamonds suit of the playing cards is all about this.
Every choice of material is a choice about the world you want to live in.
A short history of hemp
8000 BCE
Hemp is grown in China and Central Asia for food and fibre.
2700 BCE
Chinese texts record hemp's medicinal uses.
100 BCE
The first hemp paper is made in China.
1533
King Henry VIII fines farmers who don't grow hemp.
1937
After lobbying from synthetic fibre, paper and petrochemical interests, the US Marihuana Tax Act effectively ends hemp farming in America. Most of the world follows.
2017
Australia legalises hemp foods, a change Paul Benhaim worked on directly.
2018
The US Farm Bill legalises industrial hemp. Hemp is coming back.
Why we made cards from it
Playing cards are one of the most shared objects in human culture. They cross languages, ages and centuries.
We wanted something that carried hemp's story into people's hands. A conversation starter, a gift worth giving and a deck worth keeping.
One deck A$20. Two decks A$35.
Why we made an oracle from it
People have treated cannabis as a sacred plant for thousands of years. It shows up in the Vedas, in Taoist medicine, in the temple gardens of ancient Persia. Long before anyone weighed its fibre, they paid attention to what it did to the mind and the spirit.
Spend enough seasons with hemp and it starts to teach. A seed the size of a peppercorn becomes a plant taller than you in a hundred days. It feeds the soil it grows in. It gives food, cloth, shelter and medicine, and asks for very little back. It knows when to grow and when to let go.
The Sacred Seed Oracle takes those lessons and turns them into questions. Seed asks what you are willing to plant and wait for. Roots asks what holds you. Letting Go asks what finished its season long ago. None of it is fortune telling. It is a way of listening to a plant that has been with us since the beginning.
