Sacred Cacao.
Heart activation. Ancestral connection. Grounding Medicine. Emotional release.
When the Cacao medicine is activated with love, intention, and respect, and held in a safe and clear container, the spiritual, emotional, and physical potential for healing is immense. In a medicine ceremony, Cacao may challenge you, but she will never give you anything beyond what you are ready to receive, and her medicine will always be centered in the heart.
–KATE COLIBRI
What is Cacao?
Cacao, Kakaw, or Cacahuatl, is a fruit believed to be native to prehispanic Mesoamerica. Cacao is not chocolate, but rather the pure and untampered with fruit with which chocolate is then made. The whole pod is edible, but the medicine we use comes from the beans. Nahuatl legend says that cacao was a gift from Quetzalcoatl, the great feathered serpent and benevolent god of the Middle World. The Mayans believe it was given to the people for its heart-opening powers, with which they built strong, long-lasting relationships and an open and connected community. The Mayans discovered that cacao could connect them to their hearts, to the heart of the earth, and to others, and valued it beyond gold, silver, or any other substance or currency.
Although its use was forbidden by the conquistadors, the Mayans were able to hide and preserve their ancestral healing practices, and are now sharing them with those dedicated and willing to learn. This is an incredible gift.
Ceremonial cacao comes from trees that were planted with the intention of growing fruit for ceremony and ritual. The beans are minimally processed by medicine men and medicine women in traditional methods without the use of any machinery, and they are imbued with love and prayers each step of the way. The medicine is prepared by hand-grinding the dried beans using a black obsidian metate and creating an elixir with other powerful herbs and spices. Preparing cacao in this way preserves all of its healing constituents, which are lost in further processing. Please note that “cacao ceremonies” as we currently know them are not traditional, as the original stewards did not share cacao in this way, but this term “ceremonial cacao” is being used now to distinguish between the cacao superfood powders and cacao made with prayers following ancestral practices.
Since being brought into Western awareness, Cacao as a spiritual medicine is being offered in different spaces, alongside other healing modalities. I encourage you to use your best judgment and check in with your heart to see if an offering feels in integrity with the lineage and original cacao stewards, or if it feels appropriative. As a cacao steward not of lineage, I am constantly checking in with myself in this regard and making adjustments.
Where did you learn to carry cacao medicine?
My journey with cacao began in Spain when I attended a ceremony held by indigenous medicine men and woman who brought it directly from Mexico, in the Nahuatl tradition, coming from the Aztec of Meshica (pre-hispanic Mexico). From the moment I committed to going to the ceremony, cacao began working with me and in me. The ceremony connected me to her spirit and cracked me wide open, showing me how my heart was aching for connection and how my essence longed to love my inner being, my surroundings, and life itself. Along with this purging of tears, I heard cacao tell me she wanted us to work together, she wanted me to learn to carry her medicine and share it with others.
I received formal training in traditional cacao preparation from a Meshica elder and medicine woman and was initiated as cacao medicine carrier and sahumadora (ancestral healing with fire and copal). My teacher passed on to me the structure of this cacao medicine ceremony, which has evolved greatly in my hands over the. years. My relationship with cacao continued to deepen as I studied in the Mayan Wisdom Academy where I learned from and shared ceremony with Maya Quiché Day Keepers and Ajq’ij from Guatemala. Currently, I am a student primarily of Cacao herself, and I continue to learn and humbly serve her medicine, with reverence for my teachers and their ancestors. I give thanks to all those who have passed down the wisdom of their lineage so that we may all return to the old ways of healing, and find our way back to ourselves.
How can I explore cacao with you?
I offer shamanic guidance and cacao connection in different containers. If you’d like to join in a cacao medicine ceremony, check the Bookings page and sign up for my newsletter to be informed of scheduled events. If you’d like to host a cacao medicine ceremony or include a ceremony in your event, festival or retreat, please reach out so we can begin dreaming and weaving together. If you are interested in sharing cacao with your partner to engage in intentional, conscious connection and heart-opening, I can create a container for you, activate the cacao for conflict-resolution and relationship deepening, and allow Spirit to guide our work together. Please note I am not a therapist, I simply open the container, activate the cacao medicine, and hold space for the medicine to do the work through you. If you are feeling stuck, lost, lonely or disconnected and want to open your heart to invite in growth, higher evolution and spiritual awakening, or simply want to connect more deeply with the spirit of cacao, please contact me and tell me your story. I am here to guide you in your exploration deep into your heart, and hold you as you open to the healing magic of cacao.
Is a cacao ceremony right for your Community?
Sharing cacao is a sacred, ancestral practice that can both support community building and allow for deep individual spiritual and emotional healing. It is a versatile medicine which, as long as it’s carried with love, experience, reverence, and integrity, can be integrated into many healing spaces.
We can join in ceremony with cacao to open the container and set intentions for a healing retreat or festival. We can join in circle to seal in healing and begin to integrate the experiences and growth at the end of a gathering or workshop. We can create a safe and intimate trauma-informed space which allows us to do deep emotional work together in a traditional Nahuatl fire and cacao medicine ceremony, or we can integrate movement or creative activities, and focus our intentions on connection and sacred play. The possibilities are limitless.
If you can see cacao being a supportive presence in your gathering, and if its medicine aligns with your vision, please reach out and we can explore possibilities and begin to co-create together.
How to prepare for a cacao medicine ceremony:
Please communicate ahead of time if you are pregnant or nursing—your ingestion of cacao should be limited to a small amount. People who suffer from heart conditions or are taking or have recently stopped taking certain antidepressants should not take ceremonial cacao.
Please wear comfortable clothes, light colors or white if possible. Bring a mug to drink out of, a white candle, preferably in a glass, flowers or a piece of fruit as an offering, a yoga mat or cushion to sit comfortably on the floor, water, and a journal if you like.You may also bring something small to place on the altar to charge. Before the ceremony, I invite you to connect to your intentions, what you’d like the medicine to help bring forth.
Your last meal should be light, leaving a minimum of three hours before the ceremony. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, processed food, animal products and sugar on the day of, and preferably the day before, the ceremony. Consider the area of life you'd like to experience more opening and connection.