Is Coffee a Miracle?

Is the morning coffee ritual like a religion?

Ever since that 9th century goat herder (Kaldi) witnessed his goats dancing and prancing around after eating coffee cherries COFFEE was known to give people a gentle push, or buzz like no other plant, and without any harsh effects afterwards if used responsibly.

Now it would be way too simple to say that religious people drink coffee because it’s not alcohol. Because coffee was commodified, by all three Abrahamic religions, and they all had to contend with how this new coffee beverage fit into each faith’s ideal way of life. And Each religion had their opponents and proponents but they all eventually accepted the beverage because of it's powerful help it had upon the population, and it kept people working longer!

But way, way before any Religious group prayed to their created Gods there were the 'Oromo' people of Ethiopia. They practiced "Waaqeffanna", their indigenous religion that survived Christian and Islamic attempts at conversion. Waaqeffanna is a primarily Oral tradition, so it often gets excluded from historical records, but the religion probably predates all the Abrahamic religions, and it includes a story about coffee. In Oromo tradition, their creator god Waaqa approached a corpse of a man who had refused to do his will. Waaga shed tears over the man’s body, and where his tears hit the ground, the first coffee trees sprouted. Today, roasting and drinking coffee is still central to Oromo religious ceremonies.

.......... and all religions have their stories of how creation began.

Our earliest written history of someone consuming coffee as a beverage come from tales of Sufi mystics in 1414. Sufi Muslims are a sect of mystics focused on the purification of the inner self. After working their day jobs, Sufis would join together for evening prayers, and often enjoy coffee poured out of clay pot beforehand, to perk up their energy. Kind of like a Starbucks coffee shop today........

And although Pope Clement VIII tried to ban coffee outright, by denouncing it as “an invention of Satan" telling followers they risk falling into a trap set by Satan for their souls,...... most of the world ignored the Pope as a Coffee snob and embraced Coffee as a Miracle.

Just try and find a Catholic church today without a coffee pot in its kitchen.......

So the morning coffee may not be a religion, but was definitely advertised from religious dealings with its use, and that's how the world found out about this magic elixir they drink every morning without hesitation, like prayer!

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- Malcom Lacey