Cacao comes from coco beans, and known to be more precious to the ancients than gold! It is usually hand-picked by tribal members, brought to their village, grounded into a powder and mixed with water to make a past. This is made into blocks and Sundried. What we in the western world get when we `buy Cacao’ is this pre-made small blocks (that look like large pieces of Chocholate)!
Tribes would heat up the Cacao in a Cauldron over a tribal fire at a sacred gathering, imbue it with energies, and then ritually drink it as plant-medicine. Cacao releases deep heart opening energies through your being to open your heart chakra and bring you into a state where you can commune with the Gods.
What does Cacao do?––
It is much much more gentle that taking any other such plant-medicine. Cacao is heated and drunk like hot-chocolate, and tastes somewhat bitter. It is prepared and heated in a sacred space, and after drinking it, people will do gentle energy work to further activate and tune into the Cacao-spirit and do meditative work for insights, images, emotions and visions. Those partaking it may feel a mild sense of elation and feeling of connectedness and well-being. In some cases, the heart opening medicine can bring up deeper feelings – to be aware of and resolving.
This is an amazing experience which we are sure you will love.
Where does Cacao come from?-–
The Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana are the top producers of cacao- 70% of the world’s cocoa beans come from these West African countries. However, countries such as Indonesia, Peru, Venezuela and many countries in Central America and the Carribean also grow the bean.
Safety questions—
Is Cacao a drug that can trip you out? NO!
Cacao is the raw form of Coco (plant) extracts – that we all consume in processed form as Chocolate! Unless you have an allergy to Chocolate, you should be okay to drink cacao. There are no issues like being sick or vomiting (that comes with other plant-medicine like Ayahuasca ). If in doubt, please check with your qualified medical person.
An example of how we use Cacao in our Ceremony
- Walk:
Once we have all met, we walk together into the woodland areas. This will be about 15-20 minutes, and serves to attuned to the woods and nature – as a grounding & centering process. It also gives participants a relaxed time to chat to one another. . - Ceremony.
We create sacred space with smudging, cast a magic circle, and call the elements – Air, Fire, Water & Earth- at Quarters. We will be raising energies within the circle through singing, chanting and some dancing. We then invoke the pure and sacred God and Goddess energies into the Cacao that is cooking in our Pan or cauldron over the fire. When the cacao is ready, it will be poured into smaller cups and each person will be invited to drink it and sit with the experience it creates. Some meditative work follows.
