March is abundant with opportunities for cacao ritual! There is much moving in the collective including celebrating the coming of spring, International Women’s Day, astrological events, and more. Below is a list of these key dates along with recommended cacao pairings and practices.
Continue reading to learn more!
✨ March Ritual Report ✨
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March 1st | Venus Retrograde
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March 4th | Mardi Gras
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March 8th | International Women’s Day
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March 13th | Full Moon & Lunar Eclipse in Virgo
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March 14th | Holi + Mercury Retrograde
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March 17th | St. Patrick’s Day
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March 20th | Spring Equinox & Sun Enters Aries
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March 21st | International Day of Forests
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March 27th | New Moon & Solar Eclipse in Aries
March 1st | Venus Retrograde
Venus begins her 40 day retrograde through the zodiac signs on this date, beginning with Aries. Venus rules our relationships, values, finances, and sense of beauty. These areas of our life may feel activated, triggered, or unsettled during this time. Cacao can support you through the discomfort so you can use this time to review and reassess the way forward.
Recommended Cacao: Tantric Rose Blossom is the Venusian cacao, par excellence! Enjoy the rose and damiana enhanced cacao to drop deeper into these Venusian frequencies as you feel your way forward.
March 4th | Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is a festival of abundance, excess, pleasure, and plenty that precedes the Christian time of fasting for Lent. This is a great time to connect with what gives you pleasure, such as cacao! It’s also a common practice during this time to consume fatty foods, and cacao is loaded with healthy fats!
Recommended Cacao: Oaxacan Spice is a great pairing for this day of festivities, with the warming spices of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cayenne get your circulation pulsing and activate your celebration.
March 8th | International Women's Day
This global holiday honors the role and achievements of women across the world and is an opportunity to advocate for gender equality. Gloria Steinem said it wisely, “The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."
Dive Deeper: Learn more & give back at the website for International Women’s Day.
Recommended Cacao: Uplifting Uganda is grown by over 50% female farmers, so when you order this cacao, you are supporting the livelihoods of women across the globe.
March 13th | Full Moon & Lunar Eclipse in Virgo
While the Moon is in Virgo and the Sun is in Pisces, we are exploring the polarity axis of these two archetypes. Virgo concerned with the practical, day to day, and orientation to being of service. Pisces is more interested in transcendence, a direct access to spirit that is illusive to definitions. They both value their connection with spirit and during this time, we are encouraged to find the balance in how we merge our sense of spirituality with our daily lives. Because the eclipse partially dims the illumination of the moon, what is coming forward to illumination may feel bubbling beneath the surface before full clarity arises in the coming days.
Dive Deeper: Prepare yourself a cup of cacao and enjoy a ritual to honor your personal connection to spirit.
Recommended Cacao: Mystical Mushroom offers the grounding that Virgo craves while also serving the sense of expansion and connection of Pisces.
March 14th | Holi + Mercury Retrograde
Holi is a Hindu Festival of colors, love, and spring. It also celebrates the eternal and divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna, which can be seen as faces of the divine feminine and divine masculine which reside within us all in a spectrum.
Mercury Retrograde also begins on this date. Mercury rules communication, thought, and timing. This retrograde also coincides with the Venus retrograde. It’s a great time to review and reassess, as well as to practice patience, mindfulness, and thoughtful consideration especially in realms of contracts, travel, communications, and technology which can experience disruptions during this time.
Dive Deeper: Prepare yourself a cup of cacao and paint a colorful picture to honor the return of spring. To dive deeper to the retrograde energy, add words or symbols that represent the clarity or insight you are cultivating during this time.
March 17th | St. Patrick’s Day
Lore says that St. Patrick eradicated all the ‘snakes’ from Ireland around this time. We recognize this as a metaphor for the eradication of the Druids (snakes) from Ireland during the rise of Christianity. We can use this time to reflect on the collective pain and ignorance of eradicating any peoples and the privilege and responsibility we have to amplify the voices of ancient wisdoms, such as our relationship with the plant spirit of cacao.
Recommended Cacao: Connect with the ancestral wisdom and carriers of cacao with Oaxacan Spice, the cacao creation inspired by the teachings Ora Founder Jonas received from Zapotec elder, Maria.
March 20th | Spring Equinox/Ostara & Sun Enters Aries
In the Northern Hemisphere, this day heralds the return of spring as the Sun crosses the equator. Ostara is the pagan holiday that celebrates this transition and the balance of light and dark. This time is also a ‘new year’ in western astrology, with the Sun entering Aries which is the first sign of the 12 sign zodiacal journey. The energy of this time is marked by increased vitality, physicality, and passion.
Dive Deeper: Prepare yourself a cup of cacao and go for a nature walk, appreciating all the signs of stirring new life budding forth.
Recommended Cacao: Align with the energies of spring with the rejuvenating blend of Vibrant Vitality.
March 21st | International Day of Forests
This global day calls us to honor the gifts received and advocate for the preservation of the world’s precious forests, the lungs of our planet. We turn our minds to the rainforests that birthed the cacao tree and how the regenerative agroforestry practices of Ora Cacao supports the preservation and biodiversity of this rich landscape of the earth.
Dive Deeper: Give back by donating to Amazon Watch or Amazon Frontlines, organizations committed to preserving the rainforests and empowering the indigenous stewards. Read “We Will Be Jaguars” by indigenous activist Nemonte Nenquimo of the Waorani tribe of the Amazon rainforest and co-founder of Amazon Frontlines.
March 27th | New Moon & Solar Eclipse in Aries
We have the new moon in Aries with a partial solar eclipse. This is the final eclipse of the series of eclipses within the Aries-Libra axis that we’ve traversed since 2023. The energy of new beginnings especially in the Aries realms of courage, assertiveness, authenticity, and independence are highlighted. Expect to work with these energies over the next 6 months as the eclipse echoes occur as we reach culmination with the full moon in Aries later this year.
Recommended Cacao: Thriving Tanzania is a beautiful amplifier of the Aries energy of focus and assertiveness. Alternately, connect with the bold and brave Aries energy by trying a new cacao that you haven’t had before!
Spring tidings!
