Sacred Cacao Circles

I am excited to begin offering face-to-face personal development work with ceremonial grade cacao.  My first public gathering will be in conjunction with a Red Tent Event at the end of August.  As a lead up to event, I want to share stories of my cacao journey with you.  

My first time to sit with cacao was during a time just before Creativity Tribe was fleshed out as a website, so I am starting us off with a look back to July 2012. Originally posted at Art of Collecting Yourself, my first blog.

Please look for a series of posts following this one that are designed to get us all in the mood for a bit of chocolate, spiritual loveliness.

Details for my first public ceremony and the Red Tent Event associated can be found in the EVENTS section in the menu above.

Sacred Cacao Highlights: First Time

July 23, 2012:  A Band of Gypsies

This weekend a load of traveling creatives crashed in various corners of my house: couch, floor, studio. (I want to give credit to my dear friend Irene Jaan for coining the phase Travel Creatives which so appropriately describes this Band of Gypsies I call my friends.)

Left side: Milena Worsham and Aaron El Leon
Running Buffalo Journeys
Right Side:  Irene Carranza Jaan
Travel Creatives 

We had all just come from a Sacred Cacoa Ceremony. Yep, I am letting my freak flag fly a bit here. Being a creative, you have to go where your creativity leads you, and lately mine has been expressing itself through my spiritual life.

We met in a little chapel I have passed by a thousand times but had never been in. The Chapel of Spiritual Light is on a triangular strip of land nestled between two busy streets , as if the city had grown up around it but it was courageously standing its ground. With a wooden frame reminiscent of old country churches, I found it quaint and unpretentious environment.

Take off your shoes and come on in….that was the way we were greeted, my sweetheart and I.  But we couldn’t get our shoes off quick enough. One after the next, we were taking in hugs and glowing smiles. One foot half way out of the first shoe, hug and smile. Hop on that foot to release the next shoe, hug and smile. Barefoot, hug and smile.

I walk through the door to the meeting area, a sanctuary with thick pile carpet that reached up to cradle each step. A circle of people, there, some long-time friends, some new and dear, others familiar faces, and even a few strangers…not strangers for long.

As we looked across the room at the symbol in a stained glass work, we recognized it as the symbol Eric and I had created for our wedding ceremony. For some, it is considered the Medicine Wheel or Odin’s Cross, for others, they might associate it with the astronomical symbol Earth. It had several layers of meaning for us. All more personal than religious. With three days left til we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary (which actually happens to be today….July 23, 2012), we felt it was an affirmation that we were in the right place.

Once we got settled in, I looked over and realized there was a huge stock pot filled with a warm chocolate drink. That’s when the smell hit me. Mmmmmm, yes, chocolate.

Keith, The Chocolate Shaman, invited us to get our cup and add as much or as little honey as we wanted. The chocolate looked like glistening fudge in the cup, thicker and much darker than the hot chocolate most of us are accustomed to drinking. The honey was beautiful. I had been off sweeteners other than whole fruit for a week which made the addition of honey to the super dark chocolate taste like a little bit of heaven.

Soon after that, The Chocolate Shaman shared the kind of strength and intensity this pure cacao harnessed.  The chocolate most of the world consumes (you know, the big names like Hersey’s, Cadbury and Lindt), according to the Chocolate Shaman, are missing 80-99% of the beneficial compounds that can be found in the older varieties of chocolate. Processing and hybridizing depletes the cacao of so much of its essential goodness.

Keith brings the chocolate from Guatemala where he has made his home for around 17 years. He has a special relationship with the cacao plant and has connected with some of the indigenous tribes in Guatemala who remember how to use the plant for medicine of the spirit.

We began drinking the mixture. I listened to my body for how much it wanted. It was delicious. Darker than any I had ever tasted. Sweet and bitter blended with a kind of warm, silkiness that feels like love. Okay, so perhaps that sounds like I am exaggerating or using poetic license, but the fact is the evening felt loving. Self-loving and other loving.

I can’t help but think that it might have something to do with the jolt of energy that your heart and mind get from both the intense chocolate and the meditation Keith shares. It’s a rush… subtle and substantial all in the same breath. As he talked, I could feel my heart beat increase. My body wanted to move. I began to rock back and forth slightly. The kind of rocking that comes from your chest when you hear a groovy beat. I wasn’t tripping. I wasn’t on some crazy drug induced high.  But my mind felt clear and I felt high on life.

Keith explained that the cacao will encourage spiritual growth. It invites you to look at where you might grow and then helps assists you as you choose to go there.  That might sound very far off or far out for some. It comes from the belief that certain things have a spirit to them. Plants, stones, animals, the Earth. I decide to play along. I decided to act as if….and see where that led.

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I chose to cultivate my curiosity, one of the freedoms I enjoy with being a Creative Spirit.

I am glad I did.

As for my Band of Gypsies {Keith, Brendan, Milena and Aaron} they are each on their own adventure now.  Some headed back to Guatemala, others spending time with family.  I am grateful to have their energy floating around the house. Feels good. Oh, and I nabbed a bit of that yummy chocolate waiting for the next ceremony….Creativity Tribe style.

For more information about ceremonial grade cacao and/or to order your own, visit Keith’s on-line home Chocolate Shaman and his FB page Cacao Tribe.