Opening the Heart with a Cacao Ceremony

Coming together in community to share gratitude with Cacao

Last week I hosted my first Cacao ceremony alongside my partner Lara. While we have shared Cacao between the two of us many times, this was the first time we brought together a circle of seven other people.

A few people were sitting with Cacao for the first time so it was important to create an open and safe space for them to voice their questions and concerns. As everyone in the ceremony was either a teacher involved in the ongoing teacher training or a teacher in training, it was very uplifting to create a communal healing space two weeks into the three week long training.

Maha Shanti School of Yoga's teacher trainings are intensive. In the last week, each teacher in the training shares their first class in a safe space to other teachers and teachers in training. In the West, the dominant culture teaches us to think we have failed when we do not pass something. In the yoga teacher training, rather than tapping into the fear of failing, we encourage students to step into their power. Shifting towards the feeling of gratitude helps.

Cacao is a vasodilator which means it expands the space inside of our blood vessels. This makes Cacao a perfect pairing with the ceremonial focus on gratitude, as our hearts and the rest of our cardiovascular system are more open when we sit with Cacao.

In the morning after our daily 30 minute meditation session at the yoga school, Lara and I welcomed everyone. We thanked them for joining us for the ceremony. We explained the structure of the ceremony. First, we would share some context about what Cacao is. Then, we would talk about the focus on gratitude for the ceremony. For the final part, we would do a brief writing exercise. Lara started us off with a background about the ceremonial use of Cacao. 

She said, "Cacao has been used for thousands of years in Central and South America by both the Mayans and the Aztecs. Archeological evidence of Cacao dates back to 3900 years ago in Central America and 5300 years ago in the Amazon." 

After she finished, I shared "Our intention for this ceremony is to focus on gratitude. The more gratitude we can introduce into our daily life, the happier we become."

I thanked Cacao for teaching us, for bringing us together for this ceremony, and for helping us to open up our hearts. Lara passed out pen and paper to everyone, and she began to pour the hot brew from the thermoses we brought.

She said, "When you have your mug, hold it between your eyebrows or to the heart, whatever feels right. When you hold it, pour as much love and positivity into the Cacao as you can. Then pass the mug. Only after everyone has their mug, we will take our first drink together as a community."

"You can smell the Cacao. Feel into it." Lara continued.

As we were sitting in a circle, Lara began to pass each full mug clockwise until everyone had one.

The Cacao had a rich chocolatey smell. It was a pleasure to hold the mug to the nose and take a deep breath. 

When everyone had their mug, Lara instructed, "Feel into your gratitude and write down three things you are grateful for. Whatever comes up."

With pen in hand, we all wrote down three things we were grateful for.

When everyone looked ready I said, "Thank you all for being here today. For being vulnerable. For being open to this experience. Thank you Cacao. Without her, we would not be sharing this space. Thanks to the water, land, and hands that allowed this Cacao to grow and come to us."

I shared how in Ecuador at the Gaia Sagrada plant medicine retreat I learned a saying. Aho, meaning 'yes I agree,' Metakease, 'we all are family.' 

I expressed my gratitude we could all be together, healing together and opening our hearts to remember the truth we are all family. Yaron, a dear friend, had gifted the Cacao to Lara. I gave thanks for his gift. Without it, we would have nothing to share. Then together as a community, we drank our first sip of Cacao.

With everyone's hearts more open, Lara said to us, "Turn to a person beside you and share something you wrote, or talk about gratitude in general."

In an effort to create the safest space possible, Lara and I wanted people to have the option to talk about the feeling of gratitude. This gave people who may have been nervous about sharing openly another path.

Groups formed up and quiet conversations began. Five minutes later, one of the teachers in training suggested we could share gratitude as a full circle. The little groups became one larger circle and each person began to share stories, what they were grateful for, and about the yoga teacher training. The moment was pure beauty. Healing words of power straight from the heart.

As one of the teachers in training had tarot cards, she pulled a card for the group. The card spoke to it being time to let go and use the sword of discernment to cut away attachments in our lives no longer serving us. This was a beautiful contribution to the intimacy of the ceremony.

To close the ceremony, we would do three OMs as we usually do to end a class with a slight modification. I instructed everyone in the circle to hold hands.

To begin, everyone was instructed to, "Imagine, as you inhale, receiving love through your hands, and as you exhale, give love through your hands. Exhale completely. Inhale."

As a group, we filled the room with the vibration of "OM. OM. OM."

With palms together, hands at heart center, and bowing to the center of the circle, to close the ceremony I said, "Namaste." This Sanskrit word means - the divine within me bows to the same divine within you - and is how we greet each other in the yoga school.

Despite the novice status of Lara and me as facilitators of a Cacao ceremony, the depth of gratitude from the attendees was profound. 

"We did not know it but this was exactly what we all needed." One attendee said.

Where in your life are you holding back from taking action because you are 'inexperienced' or 'not an expert'? What emotions rise when you think about why you are not taking action?

Acknowledge those thoughts and feelings. Then let them go.

Step into your power and take action. No one else can share what you have.