How Ritual Cacao started
On the 20th December 2012 in Palenque, Mexico, I drank Ayahuasca outside Peru for the first time since my fourteen year apprenticeship in the Peruvian Amazon with my Shamanic teachers. The Ayahuasca told me that I was to bring Cacao back to the West to use it in Sacred Ceremony, just as I had been doing with the Ayahuasca.
I gave away all my belongings, packed my rucksack with 21 pounds of Guatamalan Cacao, and headed back to London. There was no one leading cacao ceremonies in London, so I had to dive into the deep end, and began offering traditional cacao ceremonies, based on the principles and experiences I had learned during my Ayahuasca apprenticeship.
I am proud to have inspired the important Cacao movement that is now sweeping across the UK. Many practitioners are using it as an addition to what they offer, such as sound healing, movement, dance, yoga. It is a versatile plant medicine that brings a depth of healing to any modality.
However, I work with it in it's traditional form and take people on a Shamanic journey to meet the Cacao Spirit, so they can find their own inner answers, clarity and guidance.
I have seen many transformations and I'm always so amazed at the healing power of Cacao. Each ceremony is completely different and I love the varied experiences. It's an honour to help people find ways to manage their stress and anxiety, and help them find peace and harmony.
As more people become aware and open to exploring new ways of feeling better, I see Plant Medicine ceremonies and the use of Shamanic processes growing and becoming more mainstream and accepted, as an important healing modality.
Cacao Origins & History
Cacao has always been considered a very important and powerful food, medicine, and even currency, for thousands of years. From the Mesoamerican and South American cultures, such as the Mayans and Aztecs, to the Spanish conquistadors that discovered Cacao, it was both revered and honoured.
Chocolate is a divine, celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine."
Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedán, Spanish army surgeon,1796
Cacao is a powerful plant medicine that has been used ceremonially for thousands of years across Central and South America.
It's active ingredient; Theobromine, is translated as 'Food of the Gods', and the people of ancient Meso-America attributed a sacred status to Cacao, and would drink it ceremonially to commune with their gods.
The Maya believed that the ka'kau' was discovered by the gods in a mountain, according to Mayan Mythology Hunahpú gave Cacao to the Maya after humans were created from maize by the divine grandmother goddess Ixmucané. The word Cacao originated from the Maya word Ka'kau', as well as the Maya words chokola'j " to drink chocolate together.
