Cacao for Ceremony

The Context for Cacao

Indigenous cacao keepers believe that every plant, psychedelic or not, has a spirit. In the earlier days, humans lived in harmony with the natural world and saw plants as intelligent, alive beings and healers in their own right. On the simplest level, this is why we use supplements, herbs, superfoods and adaptogens – as a way to reconnect with this primal wisdom that’s becoming increasingly available!

Cacao has been used in specific ceremonies by indigenous peoples for centuries. Shamans and wisdom holders have used cacao for various ceremonies, ranging from (but not limited to) births, weddings, emotional healings, and even offered directly to the Gods for blessings. Depending on the ceremony, cacao can be used in combination with guided meditation, dance and sound. A ceremonial dose of cacao measures anywhere between 28-45 grams melted slowly in warm water and muddled with prayers, intentions, mantras, elixirs and a healthy dose of cayenne pepper to kick-start its absorption into the bloodstream.

Guidelines for Cacao Alchemy

Let's face it. We don't always have access to a medicine person or a community. If you are hosting a ceremony for yourself, here is an outline to get you started.

1. Open Sacred Space - Choose a space you feel safe in, where you will not be disturbed for at least one hour. If you would like a more inner focused experience, we recommend being indoors. If you would like a more outer focused experience, take a blanket, cacao, and sacred items to nature. Surround yourself with beauty (create an altar, flowers, candles, treasured belongings, religious imagery, happy photos from your life, etc.)

2. Prepare your Cacao - 30-50g depending on desired effect and experience with cacao, hot water, herbs, spices, plant milk. See our Recipes tab for suggestions!

3. Offer Thanks First - There is truly so much to be grateful for. You can thank Mother earth for her abundance, deities or religious figures, your heart for being your emotional guidance system, those that came before you and made it possible for you to enjoy the cacao, the spirit of the cacao plant for entering your body and providing healing. Recognize that you are not just an individual, your life is interconnected with everything around you.

4. Drink! SLOWLY! Feel the cacao, an intelligence created by the same intelligence that created you, becoming a part of your body.

5. Heal - Cacao takes about 30 minutes to reach peak effect. After drinking, depending on your intention for ceremony, you can 1) Just sit and experience the cacao interacting with your Being. This is allowing your imagination to show you what's going on under the hood, a Shamanic practice called "Journeying", known by Western Psychiatry as Jungian "Active Imagination", 2) Dance to your favorite music! 3) Follow a guided practice such as inner child meditation, movement, breathwork, etc.

6. Close the space - Conclude your cacao ceremony with another prayer of thanks to affirm the experience you just had. Thank yourself for taking the time to set this up for yourself. It is no small thing to give yourself the attention and intimacy we all deeply yearn for. 

7. Integrate - Write about what you experience! What did you feel? What did the cacao show/heal? How can you take this with you into the rest of your life?

Please, please, please... play! These are general guidelines. The most important thing to recognize is that YOU are what you've been looking for. You are the healer and the patient, the lover and the fighter, the individual human and the entire earth.

Trust your intuition!