Meet California’s ‘weed nuns’ who are on a mission to heal the world with cannabis

THE Sisters of the Valley, a group of self-proclaimed “weed nuns,” trust the power of cannabis to heal the world.

The non-religious sect, made up of a sisterhood of radical feminists, was founded in 2015 by Sister Kate, 62, a self-proclaimed “anarchist activist nun” in Merced County, Northern California.

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Sister Kate, left, 62, started the sect in California in the winter of 2015

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The women grow their own marijuana plants and harvest them to turn into medicinal productsCredit: Reuters

The women grow and harvest their own cannabis plants to make holistic medical products such as cannabidiol (CBD) ointments, tinctures, balms and soaps, which they sell online.

They use a strain of marijuana that eliminates the psychoactive compound of THC, but still contains CBD, which is touted to treat everything from epilepsy to cancer to addiction.

Sister Kate, real name Christine Meeusen, started the business with just 12 plants but has since grown the organization into an international company that had profits of more than $ 1.1 million prior to the pandemic.

“RELIGIONS SELL WORDS”

Despite the group’s nickname, Sister Kate told The Sun that the Sisters of the Valley are in no way affiliated with the Catholic Church.

“We do things that are spiritual, but none of us are affiliated with any particular religion,” she explained. “Religions sell words, but we want to do a lot more.”

Sister Kate added that the Sisters of the Valley are committed to reviving spiritual practices that “place Mother Earth at the center of everything”.

“So we created something that is not religious, but spiritual – and it has a very eco-feminist character.”

According to Sister Kate, the group mimics a number of elements consistent with the traditional nun lifestyle.

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Sisters of the Valley are not a religious groupCredit: Reuters

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They hope to have similar sororities in every city and province around the world over the next 25 yearsCredit: Sisters of the Valley

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Even if they are not Catholics, all future sisters must take a vow of service to joinCredit: Sisters of the Valley

For example, most of the sisters live together. They also take six vows of service, Sister Kate explained that they are different from the traditional nuns’ vows of poverty.

“We take six vows, all of which are pretty simple and spell out the acronym SOLACE,” she said.

“The first is service, the second is obedience, and the third is a simple life.

“The fourth stands for activism, the fifth for chastity and the sixth for ecology.

“A vow is a necessary thing in order to receive an obligation from [prospective sisters] before we allow them to get dressed and socialize, “Sister Kate continued.

All of the ordained sisters in the group wear traditional nuns’ costumes when they work on the Sisters of the Valley farm.

Sister Kate began wearing a habit for the first time in 2011 protests in which she was heavily involved, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“IF PIZZA IS A VEGETABLE, I AM A NUN”

The decision to put on the religious robe came amid a series of news reports that Congress allegedly decided to classify pizza as a vegetable.

“My nephew said to me one night, ‘If pizza is a vegetable, you are a nun.’

“I thought that was awesome. I already had a nun outfit, so I put it on and went to protest with it. The movement later called me ‘Sister Occupy’.”

In addition to vows of service, the sisterhood is also committed to respecting nature and the lunar cycles.

All Sisters of the Valley medicines are made according to the cycles of the moon, a nod to Native American traditions.

A new batch of ointment or tincture is started on the new moon and completed two weeks later on the full moon.

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Sister Kate was an active member of the Occupy Wall Street movement between 2011 and 2014Credit: Reuters

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They use a strain of marijuana that eliminates the psychoactive compound of THC but still contains CBDCredit: Reuters

Every full moon the sisters also have a feast, a fire and a ceremony.

“We know that if you remove the hocus-pocus of contemporary religion when you take it away, the next best elegant dance is to fit your life into the cycles of nature,” Sister Kate told The Sun.

“So the lunar cycles are a constant reminder of where we are on planet earth and how we care about them.

“Part of our belief system is that we are always aware of three groups of people, those who were before us, those who marched with us now. And the generations to come.

“That and organizing your life by quarter moon and full moon and new moon is one way of keeping the earth at the center of all of your activities.”

‘I WAS PLANTLESS’

Sister Kate modeled the sorority on the Beguines, a group of selfless lay people who cared for the sick and poor in the Middle Ages and focused on creating jobs for women, she said.

While many Beguines have been “burned at the stake”, Sister Kate and her other sisters want to “heal the world and change the laws that fall victim to the marginalized.”

Sister Kate’s “spiritual awakening” began in 2005 when she separated from her 13-year-old husband after discovering that he had allegedly stolen vast sums of money from her.

At the time, the mother of three was living in Europe and working as a marketing consultant for some of the largest banks and companies in the world. She was the breadwinner and her husband the housewife.

Sister Kate referred to this period as her “past normal life” and said she saved more than a million dollars through counseling but later discovered that her husband “stole everything and made me penniless.”

“I had three children to look after and it was a bumpy, bumpy road. It was also an realization that we didn’t have a safety net, so it inspired me to make my own.”

In Amsterdam, Sister Kate, who once voted for Ronald Reagan, became a staunch liberal.

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Sister Kate modeled the sorority on the Beguines, a group of selfless lay people who cared for the sick and poor in the Middle AgesCredit: Reuters

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Sister Kate says she and her other sisters are trying to “heal the world and change the laws that fall victim to the marginalized” Photo credit: Reuters

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The sparkling wine sells products enriched with CBD such as oils, soaps, and balmsCredit: Sisters of the Valley

She said it was the Netherlands’ universal social health policy that really sparked her political upheaval.

“[In Amsterdam] I saw functional socialism next to functional capitalism, ”she said [medical] Bill that my children had to see a doctor cost less than 10 percent deductible in America.

“It was crazy and I was out of the system so I didn’t see any of it [free] Services.

“That was the beginning for me,” she said. “I realized that we were being ripped off like that. We are so ripped off that we should never throw the tea overboard or we would now have universal health care.”

A few years later, in 2008, she moved into Merced with her brother and two children.

The following year, she started a medical cannabis delivery company for the terminally ill and disabled, where she experienced firsthand the healing powers of the drug.

However, in 2011 her alter ego was born to sister Kate shortly after she fell out with her brother and became homeless again.

She and her daughter surfed the sofa with fellow Occupy members for about four months before stumbling across a $ 1,000-a-month property in Merced.

SISTERS OF THE VALLEY

While it took her several years to get back on her feet, she officially founded Sisters of the Valley on January 1, 2015.

Her first sister, Darcy, joined the sect nine months later, and several others joined in the months that followed.

Sister Kate said she has personally ordained more than 20 Sisters of the Valley since then, and more will be added in the coming months.

There are currently three other sisters living with her on her farm, with another move in October.

In addition to California, there are now sororities in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Great Britain, and New Zealand.

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Sister Kate’s alter ego was born in Fall 2011Credit: Reuters

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Before the pandemic broke out, the sorority made more than $ 1 million in salesCredit: Reuters

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All sisters are paid hourlyCredit: Sisters of the Valley

Sister Kate says she wants a sorority in every city and province around the world for the next 25 years.

“We believe that the most painless way to fix the world is for women to own everything,” said Sister Kate. “So we are on a mission to ensure that women are empowered.

“We have nothing against men,” she added. “We actually have some Brothers of the Valley and they love it when women make decisions.”

Business had been getting stronger by the time the pandemic broke out last year.

In its first year of operation, Sisters of the Valley earned just $ 75,000. The following year, it rose to more than $ 750,000.

In 2018 and 2019, the yields then exceeded the $ 1 million mark.

“ANOTHER CAPITALIST”

“In 2020 we made about 700,000 sales. But 2021 looks worse economically than last year,” said Sister Kate. “We hope to expand our international reach to weather the storm a little.”

All the nurses are paid hourly, says Kate. Despite her leftist views, she says she is “still a capitalist” and the sisterhood has “a time clock”.

In her free time, Sister Kate says, her sect spends her time just like anyone else: surfing the Internet, watching Netflix, reading and sitting around talking.

When asked if the Sisterhood likes to get high themselves, Sister Kate replied, “We’re all very happy with the way our lives are and how we got together, so we don’t do it very often.

“Smoking is something we all did a lot more when we were stressed or attacked or whatever. Getting high is a way to escape, so we don’t need it that much anymore.

“We tend to make our own CBD tea or just smoke CBD instead. However, sometimes we put a small amount of THC in a joint that we make to stimulate ourselves a little. “

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One of the group’s CBD-infused soap bars can be seen aboveCredit: Reuters

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Sister Kate wants to expand the international reach of her operationCredit: Reuters

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The sorority occasionally grows up on its ownCredit: Reuters