Cacao
Cacao is our favorite plant medicine! Most of our family would say, “You mean chocolate?” No, we mean cacao, a sacred fruit that grows on trees. Its scientific name is Theobroma cacao, which means “food of the gods.” Originating in the Americas, growing all the way from the Amazon to the south of Mexico, cacao thrives in diverse ecosystems with many different companion plants (including ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, bananas, and breadfruit). Cacao can play an important role in regenerating our planet at the level of environment, society, economy, culture, and community. Many indigenous cultures in the Americas used cacao for thousands of years as currency, food, drink, and many other sacred functions.
When we come together and share cacao, we open our hearts to the deeper potential of cultivating harmony within ourselves, with each other, and in the relationships we have with everything. Personally, we like to sip cacao for extra inspiration in art, writing, or singing in ceremonies.
The real cacao ceremony includes all aspects of the value chain—from growing and harvesting to processing. The celebration occurs when we consume the cacao, connect to its source, and get to know the hands that make our cacao dreams possible. The cacao ceremony begins with growing and caring for the trees until it is time to harvest the fruits.
How To Make Cacao
After breaking the cacao shell open, nibble off the sweet fruit that surrounds the seeds, imprinting your natural bacteria to start the fermentation process. Traditionally, the seeds are then wrapped in banana leaves to ferment for five days. Next, dry the cacao in the sun for three to five days, depending on the climate. Then lightly toast the beans over a fire, moving them slowly until the skins begin to crack. Remove the skins by hand and fan away the remaining shells and debris. Once the cacao beans are deshelled, they are traditionally hand-ground with stones. Then the pure cacao is poured into molds to set, or turned into chocolate with sugar or other ingredients.
Cacao is used as medicine in various spiritual and healing-oriented ceremonies. When we consume it with the intention of healing or opening the heart, cacao has tremendous potential for doing some profound work. From a scientific standpoint, cacao is a food that is naturally high in magnesium, “the relaxer mineral,” which softens tissues, relaxes muscles, and eases tension. When we ingest a medicinal dose of cacao (around forty grams), the magnesium goes to the heart first, physically helping to release tension and constriction. These physical effects can also have a softening, energetic effect on what is known in yogic philosophy as the “heart chakra.”
“Cacao is a medicine for everybody, as it has the capacity to balance every system in our bodies. It affects each one of us differently; it speeds or relaxes our metabolism, stabilizes fluctuating moods, enhances fertility, and so on. Drinking a large amount of cacao increases the heart and brain activity by 30–40 percent, and opens blockages of all sorts—physical and emotional.”
—Eva Dalak
Cacao Ceremony written by Ciara Lemony
(We recommend finding a block of raw cacao made from the highest-quality ingredients and hopefully traceable all the way back to the hands that cultivated it and the forests where it grew.)
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“If cacao feels at all interesting to you, it is quite likely that the spirit of this beautiful plant medicine is already speaking to you through the pages of this book.
Create a personal ceremony—just you and Cacao, to hear what she might have to say.
Start by pouring two cups of water into a pot. Turn on the stove and become aware of your breathing while the water begins to boil.
As the water boils, prepare yourself a space to chop your block of cacao. Using unroasted cacao is a special option for ceremony. It is minimally processed and contains so much of the plant’s true essence.
Before chopping, hold the block of cacao in your hands for a few moments. Bring it to your nose to slowly inhale the rich aroma. Then, finely chop about two tablespoons’ worth of cacao. When the water has reached a boil, keep the pot on the stove but turn off the heat.
Now allow any song that expresses gratitude to spill from your lips as you begin to add the chopped pieces of cacao to the hot pot of water. It can be any song of thanks, even one that you make up in the moment. Singing with a pure intention is what matters.
Once the cacao is fully mixed in with the water, pour yourself a cup and find a quiet place to sit alone, out in nature if possible.
The purpose of a cacao ceremony is essentially to connect with the “spirit” or “energy” of the cacao plant. There are infinite ways to do this. Sipping your cup very slowly, breathing deeply, and noticing how you feel as you drink is a good place to start.
You might like to make your space feel more ceremonial by lighting a candle, saying a prayer, or burning incense.
At some point in your ceremony, ask yourself what your intention is for creating this ceremony today. It may not be obvious.
Take a moment to think and feel . . .
Maybe your intention comes from pure curiosity. Perhaps you set an intention for healing, or to ask for guidance, to remember your true essence, to manifest something in your life, to feel deeper love, to be more spacious, to let go, to be joyful, to check in, to get closer to Nature, to make a nurturing space, to create magic, to commune with the Divine.
Connect with your own reasons for having a ceremony by closing your eyes and relaxing. Listen to your own inner guidance to know what you should do in your ceremony and what it should look like.
Maybe you’d like to experiment with journaling, dancing, singing, stretching, playing an instrument, brainstorming, talking yourself through an issue, observing Nature, sitting in silence, meditating, or creating art.
Open yourself to the spontaneous inspiration, heightened awareness, and expansive freedom that can arise when you create a sacred space of ceremony with cacao.
Allow yourself to enjoy in whichever way you like.
After about ninety minutes, close your ceremonial space. Extend gratitude once again to the cacao plant, to the earth for providing the plant, to the farmers who look after and harvest the fruits, to the many people who make ceremonial cacao available to the world, and to yourself for connecting to this plant medicine in a respectful way.
Even when your ceremony has finished, Cacao continues to speak to your energy and to your spirit. After this ceremony, a door between you and the plant world is opened and a relationship is formed.
As with all of our relationships, our relationship with Cacao thrives with nourishment, love, attention, and respect. If you want to strengthen your relationship with Cacao, listen to the subtle and unique ways that she shows up in your life, continue to drink ceremonially if you feel called (each time tastes and feels different), ask the plant your questions, be creative in how you use her gifts, and practice giving and receiving her medicine in a reciprocal way.
May you use cacao, the food of the Gods, the elixir of Love, as a mirror to remind you of all that you are.”