For thousands of years smoking has been present in the cultures of almost all civilizations throughout the world. From its use in religious ceremonies, to a simple recreational activity, smoking has played a vital role in man’s life. For ancient man, smoke must have been a fascinating phenomenon, it rose up out of fire, and seemed to transfigure the burning fuel to a ghostly fog, which then dissipated into the night sky. This transfiguration of organic substances like wood, plants, etc was sure to have an impact on ancient man. The workings of the fire were mysterious, and the appearance of smoke was sure to have lent it an otherworldly spiritual quality, it is no wonder that man began to inhale the smoke produced from burning various plants, this practice eventually developing into smoking as it is known today.
Taken from the viewpoint of an aesthete, smoking is one of the most appealing and fascinating activities to contemplate and observe. From the contrast between the brown tobacco and bright orange flame, to the ethereal flitter of smoke that rises from the end of a cigarette, its visual appeal cannot be ignored. In addition, there are many small nuances that lend to its unique aesthetic character. The various styles of holding the cigarette, were once thought to give hints as to the personality of the smoker, similar to the way in which handwriting is said to signify personality traits. The different styles of holding a cigarette serve as a kind of physiognomy of a smoker. The way a person holds a cigarette can in some cases be a window to the soul. Besides this, there are the various smoke tricks, such as french inhales or blowing o’s, which adds to the visual impact of smoking, and form part of its enduring appeal.
The metaphysics of smoking.
Firstly, one considers the tobacco, organic substance, moist, an aromatic scent, it is, to the observer, most certainly alive. It is not too far removed from the leaves that it originally was, it could be imagined that the tobacco as just another stage of the leafs natural life cycle, undergoing an autumnal transformation to assumed the form of the tobacco seen before us.
The rolling paper while natural in substance, has clearly been given its form by the hand of man . This form giving associated with its creation, is also evident in its function, its role is to impart shape, form, and structure to the wild organic tobacco, rendering it useful and practical for human use. Its creation and purpose reflect one another perfectly. Man giving form to nature, both in its creation and action.
The cigarette as it is taken now, tobacco and rolling paper, does not have the metaphysical significance associated with it. It remains a mere aggregate of mutually indifferent substances, we can still differentiate the tobacco from the paper, they are two distinct parts. As of now, the cigarette is without soul, and in a sense lifeless.
The lighting of the cigarette represents its true birth, and in a Pentecostal moment, the spirit of tobacco becomes present in the cigarette. The lighting has the nature of an invocation, the tobacco scented candle is lit, as if to invite a spirit to possess the cigarette..
Once the cigarette is lit, it has assumed a new dynamic nature. It has become more than tobacco and paper, it is now alive, it has assumed organic life. The Tobacco Spirit sustaining itself through the life force of the tobacco.With this coming into life, it also begins moving towards death, being dependent on the finite existence of the tobacco. Everything which arises, must also pass away.
Almost immediately after it assumes this new life, the cigarette begins producing smoke. This smoke is produced due to the transubstantiation of matter into spirit, and is the ghost of the soul which has taken possession of the cigarette. This apparition is however primarily physical in nature, and as such is subject to passing away, and if the cigarette is left as it is, without a smoker, the apparition will fade from view with its effects remaining of a visual nature.
Next we turn to the role of the smoker in this process. Seeing the transubstantiation is complete, and witnessing the appearance of the Tobacco Spirit, he inhales the substance, and in this moment invites the spirit to possess part of his soul. This is not a one sided sacrifice however, the Tobacco Spirit, upon entering into the hosts being, imbues him with some of the life force that was sustaining its ephemeral form. The smoker feels a dizzying rush, as the life force of the tobacco itself now surges through his being, in a chthonic inversion of what was experienced by the apostles upon the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
This inhalation however contains more than the pure life force of tobacco. The Spirit is just as much a product of fire as it is of earth, and this fiery nature carries with it an incendiary payload.
The nature of fire as it pertains to smoking is both to give life and take it away. As soon as the cigarette is lit it begins to burn. This dual nature is reflected by the inhaled smoke. Along with the previously mentioned rush, the smoker also feels the burn of the fire as the smoke descends into his lungs, along with this there is a polluted, blackening sensation. The experience has the nature of La Petite Mort.
The spiritual qualities of smoking are further reinforced by the initiatory process of learning to smoke. Learning how to inhale, how to hold the cigarette to avoid yellowing of the fingers, and learning how to roll a cigarette, this process serves as degrees of initiation, often administered by an older, wiser friend. Once you have the technique perfected, you are now a member of the order of smokers, privy to secret knowledge and methods unknown to the innocent profane non smoking public.
Possession
The process described above is referring to the act of smoking taken as a singular, individual occurrence. The recurring performance of this ritual, which becomes an addiction, has a different more insidious nature to the singular instance of smoking.
With each cigarette the smoker inhales more and more of the Tobacco Spirit, giving it a fixed abode in the seat of his soul. The soul of an addicted man is one part Tobacco Spirit one part human spirit, and thus, his being has assumed much more of the nature of the foreign entity.
With this, a splitting of control has now taken place, the Tobacco Spirit has an almost overpowering grip on the mans function. Its nature, like man’s nature, is one of Dukkha, desire suffering and incompleteness. It requires more and more of the smoke which brought it into being, and requires constant fuel to maintain its fire. As it has now joined and combined with man’s own nature, its pain is now felt by him, and he feels the overwhelming will of the spirit command him to acquire it new life force. This state of Dukkha does not carry with it as much of the exhilaration as the first innocent puffs provided by the first cigarettes. One is no longer taking on an alien “other” with each inhalation, it is simply taking on more of its own nature, the smoke has now acquired a similar status as oxygen for the addicted smoker, it is now a mundane necessity instead of the exotic luxury it was initially. The rush that originally accompanied smoking is now gone, this initial acceleration of mortality now replaced with the monotonous momentum that addiction creates. This normalising, numbing quality of addiction can be further illustrated by many seasoned smokers, almost totally possessed, claiming they no longer smoke for the rush, but for “the burn”. Just as many common platitudes contain profound wisdom, this expression contains beautiful poetry and insight. It is no longer life they draw in from the smoke, but decay and fuel for the fire raging inside of them which keeps the Tobacco Spirit alive and quells his wrath. Smoking is a sacrificial act at this stage, a sustained blood letting of one’s own life force, to appease the “other” soul within.
The Filter
One aspect of cigarettes overlooked in this process is the filter. The presence of a filter in cigarettes is a dilution and betrayal of their true nature, as depicted above. It is a superfluous addition to the cigarette, designed to give the illusion of safety. It’s rise in use coincided with the rapid industrialisation and modernisation of the 20th century, and changed the character of smoking forever. It is, in a sense, emblematic of the loss of innocence experienced by smokers as the true health effects of their activity became known. The individual discovered the true insidious nature of cigarettes upon realising his addiction, and from this point on smoking could never be the same for him. It acquired a new gravity and seriousness, it changed from a want to a need, and thus lost its magical allure which it once possessed.
This individual discovery was made universal through the scientific examination of the effects of cigarettes, and now the loss of innocence and magic experienced by the addicted smoker, was experienced by society as a whole, and marked a turning point in the history of smoking.
As always, humanity desperately tried to hang on to its innocence, and sought to overcome the truth any way it could, just as a losing party in an argument resorts to sophistry, man turned to the filter in an attempt to maintain the illusion.
As with all compromise, the filter led to a dilution of the true original archetypal character of smoking, and the cigarette lost some of its authenticity and mystical appeal. It was a transformation to a more industrial, man made item, losing some of its connection to the earth. The Tobacco Spirit now had to travel through an additional medium to reach its host, another barrier placed between man and the chthonic world of earthly spirituality.
The adoption of the filter was in this sense an expression of the Zeitgeist, an action characteristic of the “pragmatism” and “scientific approach” that were held as the highest virtues during this time. Having “harm reduction’ as a goal is the perfect illustration of this epicurean, measured, and controlled epoch which led to the creation and adoption of the filter to cigarettes. In a more Dionysian culture, perhaps the filter would have been laughed at as a foolish attempt to overcome death, spoiling the enjoyment of life in the process. But this was not such a time, and the filter soon rose to almost universal acceptance.
Electronic Cigarettes/Vapes
One development of the last decade that cannot be ignored is the rise of electronic cigarettes or vapes. This represents a huge shift in the paradigm of smoking, and a further development in the dialectical process which led to the adoption of the filter. Upon the discovery that the filter was almost totally ineffective at removing the cancer causing chemicals from cigarettes, the industry was once again in crisis. Modern sensibilities could not deal with the true nature of cigarettes, their Dionysian character is in a sense too extreme for modern sensibilities. What resulted from this crisis was the development of the electronic cigarette, which claims to offer all the pleasure of smoking, with much less of the pain, a negation of the loss of innocence resulting from increased knowledge.
The electronic cigarette is almost antithetical to its traditional counterpart. It presents an entirely synthetic artificial process with no visible connection to nature, which was an integral part of smoking in its primordial form. The vape is an entirely man made item, it is a robotic carbon copy of a real cigarette. The embers present at the end of a cigarette, which gives it a warm, candle like glow, are replaced with industrial LED lights, completely artificial, and devoid of all warmth, light without heat. The devices themselves are further manifestations of iits manmade, artificial robotic nature, they are made out of metal and plastic, two substances not found anywhere in nature, their being impossible without mans labour and direct manipulation of substance. The ritualistic lighting of the cigarette is replaced with a mechanical click of a button, devoid of all direct involvement, man merely sets the machine in motion. The burning of tobacco is replaced with the heating of a liquid, smoke replaced with vapour, the wild, natural flame replaced with a synthetic chemical heat. The device in itself has no colour, this too is artificial, painted on, rather than rising out of any intrinsic qualities. Contrast this to the earthy browns, soft whites, and fiery reds present in the cigarette, and the antithesis becomes clearly evident.
The delivery of the vapour into the lungs is void of the smoky, dusty character of traditional cigarettes, and in its place is an aqueous cloud like gas, phlegmatic in nature. The earthy Tobacco Spirit is replaced by a cold, synthetic phantom that emerges from the electronic process at work inside of the machine. This phantom is a manifestation of the industrial, virtual, digitised spirit of the modern age. The Tobacco Spirit was as old as the earth itself, this however is merely a Zeitgeist, a spectre which has emerged from the modern world, without history, its ghostly fog arises out of nothing, there is no fire at the root of its smoke.
The vape sees a removal of almost all of the factors which were seen as needless additions to the perceived prime directive of nicotine delivery, and replaces them with mechanical, automated, electronic, and highly efficient functionality designed to execute the prime directive as rapidly and as efficiently as possible, simplifying the equation if you will.
Smoking however is not an equation, it is a qualitative process, and vaping misses out on perhaps some of the central points of tobacco smoking, the connection to the Spirit of Tobacco, and to the earth, was replaced with a connection to a virtual, cold, robotic soul with negative spiritual and cultural value. In addition to this loss of soul, there is also a loss of character. The nuances of how one holds a cigarette are completely lost in the transition to vaping. You hold a cigarette with your fingers, you hold a vape with your hand. The contrast of natural grace versus industrial crudeness becomes evident here. The smoke tricks associated with vaping become a grotesque caricature of their original classic form. What once was a delicate wisp of smoke so light it could lift up a balloon, now becomes a circus like fog of vapour that would look more at home coming out of a chimney than coming out of a mouth. It is purely artificial, over exaggerated, and excessive, attempting to make up for a loss of quality with an increase in quantity. The aesthetic appeal of these tricks are reduced to a poor caricature of what once was.
The rise of vaping, and decline of traditional cigarettes is perhaps symbolic of the increasing disconnect between modern man and tradition, and the replacement of the earth soul with the synthetic zeitgeist which has transformed the culture and appearance of the world in the past decades.
Smoking in Film
As it has been shown, the significance of cigarettes lies in the act of smoking itself. It is a dialectical movement, the truth of which can only be apprehended in motion. Due to this dialectical nature, film is the only medium where smoking can realise authentic aesthetic expression. Images can only really offer a depiction of smoking, and as depictions in this case are static expressions of an idea, they fail to truly convey the essence and truth of smoking, which lies in its dialectical movement. While pictures of people smoking can be aesthetically pleasing in their own right, they will always pale in comparison to the active, moving portrayal achieved in film. To see smoking tastefully depicted in film puts the viewer in touch with the archetypal essence of smoking. There is a moment, when your consciousness is entirely consumed with the visual portrayal of smoking, and you get a supersensible impression of the true essence of the action.This is perhaps even a more authentic sensation than is offered by the act of smoking itself. The main purpose of art is to depict an Idea, and facilitate a state of awe in the viewer, and in this sense, smoking best achieves artistic realisation through the medium of film.
This is not to say that static art cannot present an interesting view of smoking. While they cannot capture its true essence, they can reveal something about the appeal of smoking. The iconic advertising and branding created by cigarette companies is perhaps not so much a result of their marketing genius, but a reflection of the aesthetic beauty and seductiveness of the subject matter. Smoking does not need to be romanticised, it is already a romantic thing in itself, so a faithful portrayal of its appearance is all that’s needed for effective advertising.
Conclusion
In the current age, where science and pragmatism have largely replaced religion and mysticism, the occult qualities of smoking are more obscured now than ever before. The carefree innocence that characterised the golden years of tobacco are gone, and in their place is a grave seriousness and sometimes shameful atmosphere that surrounds smoking. However the Tobacco Spirit still lives, and lies dormant at all times waiting for his next victim to summon his presence with the spark of a lighter. This sleeping soul still remains in cigarettes, and as long as it does, there will always be some seductive mystique attached to the ever changing ritual of smoking.
