What Is A Cacao Ceremony?
by MADELINE FERGUSON
You may have heard of a Cacao Ceremony paired with ecstatic dance, meditation or even psychedelic experiences, but what exactly is it? And can it stand alone? Let’s discuss.
This series of articles from The Utah Bee focuses on introducing you to ways to enter the psychedelic headspace without using substances like LSD, MDMA and psilocybin. These substances all have their place, but we offer information on other tools to get there.
A cacao ceremony usually involves a community of folks who get together, sit in a circle and partake in a beverage made of ceremonial grade cacao. What follows partaking in the beverage varies. Sometimes it’s meditation, talking with the people in your group, yoga, dancing or listening to music.
A cacao ceremony is sometimes paired with group psychedelic experiences, but for this article, we will focus on the cacao ceremony itself.
The use of cacao in spiritual settings dates back to the Aztec people. Most ceremonial grade cacao you will find comes from South America.
What Is Ceremonial Grade Cacao?
It is pure, organic whole-bean, heirloom criollo nativo cacao (cacao chuncho) from Peru. It is the whole bean ground, nothing added, nothing taken away. It becomes a paste which is then mixed with water to become a creamy, chocolatey drink. Don’t expect your typical hot chocolate type drink, pure cacao is fairly bitter.
For consumption in a ceremony, the drink is blessed and passed around for everyone to sip.
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Cacao is nowhere near as strong as psilocybin or cannabis. There is no real “high” feeling associated with ingesting cacao, though it can relax you and give you euphoric feelings. Most people report feeling the euphoria more so when they are in a group rather than sipping cacao alone.
The community aspect is an important part of the ceremony and healing that can take place.
What Happens During A Cacao Ceremony?
Typically there is a guide who will encourage participants to set an intention for the experience. Are you looking for more joy? Healing? Contentment? Those and plenty of other intentions can carry you through a ceremony to your desired outcome.
The experience can be described as spiritual or meditative with a strong community aspect.
No two ceremonies will be the same. Some involve dance, yoga, singing bowls, music or inner processing. It’s important to do your research depending on what type of ceremony you are interested in trying.
Many yoga studios, ecstatic dance events and wellness retreats offer variations on the cacao ceremony. Simply google search cacao ceremonies in your area OR you could do your research, order your own cacao and host your own.
In all of my research, the most important tip everyone gave for attending your first cacao ceremony is to go with an open mind in order to get the most out of your experience.
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