I love (as in, eternal CAPS-lock LOVE) my morning cacao, avocado and banana smoothie. It’s a daily thing for me. Wholesome chocolate – why wouldn’t you? So of course a cacao ceremony is just my cup of, er, cacao.
I went along to a cacao ceremony in London with absolutely no idea what to expect… wondering if we’d be eating or drinking the cacao, wondering if it would be like some kind of hot chocolate tea party, wondering if I was going to get chocolate all over the kundalini whites I’d been teaching in that morning.
Cacao medicine
We were told that the chocolate plant as a very loving, feminine medicine. Cacao apparently works well with the other master plant healers, Ayahuasca and cannabis. So Cacao’s in impressive company, and I can’t help but feel a bit nervous that I’m about to imbibe something that counts Ayahuasca as a peer. But our guide assures us that Cacao is the gentle maiden of the plant medicine world. She takes a very loving, heart-centred and gentle approach to her healing methods. In fact, the most that may happen is that we’ll shed a few tears as Cacao gently removes blockages around the heart. Hurrah, I do love a good cry!
Each of the participants in the circle is handed a cup of cacao – which is basically thick hot chocolate made with 42g of ceremonial-grade cacao harvested in Peru, warm water and a few drops of rose oil. It’s bitter and slightly oily, but tastes better than I expect. I forgo the option to add cayenne for a kick, or honey for a sweet tooth. We drink in silence and then lie down in a circle, padded with blankets and pillows, for our journey.
A journey to meet Cacao
After smudging each of us with sage, our guide leads us into a deep chakra-opening connection with Mother Earth and the Celestial Body. She then talks us through a journey to meet Cacao. Her spirit comes to me as a deep sense of grounding trust that floods my cells. It’s very cosy, very comfortable. We are then left to commune with Cacao and listen to her messages, and all the while our guide is dropping reminders to release negativity through our feet as black sludge, and is shaking a rattle over us in turn. My message was a reminder of something that I know needs to be done, but have been avoiding doing for some time. It wasn’t comfortable to be reminded of it, but that delicious cosiness that flooded my being at the start of the journey supported me into a resignation to just get on with it.
Cacao buzz
The journey took about 30 minutes I think – I was pretty spaced out when we were summoned back to rejoin the circle. Afterwards, listening to everyone sharing, I just wanted to slink right back into cosy meditation, but I made myself tell my story and that helped bring me down to earth.
Once we’d closed the circle and said farewell, I went for a long walk with my friend, which also helped to ground me. I felt a tiny bit shaky, like I’d had too much caffeine, but when I got home (with no chocolate smears on the ky whites, might I add), I had no problem getting to sleep and woke up the next day feeling like pure sunshine.
Now, how to go about doing that thing that I’ve been avoiding. Aaargh! I think I’ll have my cacao-avocado-banana smoothie first…
Thank you, Cacao, that was a very cool trip. Sat nam.