Cacao.
A plant filled with love, a plant filled with joy, and a plant filled with great mystery.
A plant with power beyond what most people realize.
And because of its many qualities, it is a plant that the elders of the cacao traditions invite us to respect.
The respect and reverence we put into our practice and relationship with cacao will be directly proportionate to the healing and expansion that it can bring into our life.
If you have been drinking cacao as part of your daily practice, we invite you to check in and journal on the following questions:
- What is my current relationship with cacao?
- Am I aware of the process it takes to prepare it, its history, and where it comes from?
- What is it that draws me to cacao and cacao ritual?
And if you’re new, you can still ask yourself these questions! They can be guides towards building a bond with this medicine as a sentient being.
We love cacao so much, as all of us at Ora Cacao have had deeply transformative experiences with cacao. As we continue sharing cacao with the public, we want to honor the words of the elders that we keep returning to throughout this year.
To truly walk a path with a medicine such as cacao, we must move slowly. It is a responsibility to share such a medicine and is not something you can just drink once and be an expert in. In these times of the plant medicine renaissance, the elders implore us to practice respect and reverence. To be patient in our journeys. To slow down and to listen to the wisdom of the plant from a pure heart, free from the agendas of the ego.
So we invite you, as you continue or begin your journey with cacao, to explore moving slowly. Sipping your cacao in silence, and practicing listening to its spirit. Or simply having it on your altar and sitting in front of it each day as you listen in.
This article was inspired by the teachings of an elder based in Tulum, Makuna Mawe, in which she was interviewed and asked about the meaning of cacao ceremonies. If you’d like to watch it, you can head here.
