Cacao Ceremony & Ecstatic Dance – Ecstatic Life Festival North Goa India 2022

WHAT IS CACAO?

Cacao is a plant native to Central and South America that has been used historically by the Aztecs and Mayans for medicinal and ritualistic purposes. According to Mayan tradition, the term for cacao is literally translated as “heart blood” and the active bitter alkaloid in cacao is called ‘Theobroma’ meaning “food for the Gods”. The healing plant was believed to have been sent from the heavens as a gift to mankind.

Cacao was embraced by the South American Maya for thousands of years giving it a certain status of sacredness. The word cacao actually came from the Maya word Ka’kau, and the Maya word Chokola’j — which means to drink chocolate together, and the Maya did just that commonly enjoying cacao in communal ceremony both within the community and shared with the gods.

Cacao is derived from the cacao bean which is also used to make chocolate. The cacao plant in its untouched entirety is considered a medicinal plant and has reportedly been used for numerous spiritual, medicinal and ceremonial purposes throughout history. Cacao is the most pharmacologically complex food in nature. It is rich in antioxidants and contains over 300 nutrients including magnesium, large amounts of iron, omega-6, vitamin C, chromium, trace elements, sulphur, zinc & copper to name just a few.

Most cacao commonly and casually used today is processed and roasted in such a way that it loses most of its robust healing properties and nutrient value. Commercial processed chocolate developed during the last 200 years is made with roasted cocoa, sugar, milk, and other ingredients that eliminates these compounds from real cacao by 99% to 80%.

Raw cacao contains nearly four times the antioxidant content of regular processed dark chocolate, 20 times more than blueberries, and 119 times more than bananas.

Ceremonial grade cacao is respectfully cultivated and prepared in the traditional manner so as to retain the spirit of cacao as well as its remedying properties so that it can be used intentionally for ceremony.

 

WHAT HAPPENS IN A CACAO CEREMONY?

What you can experience during a cacao ceremony:

  • A heart opening journey of oneness, love and ecstasy
  • Healing therapy – releasing blockages, recognizing patterns of self, receiving

heart guidance

  • A deepened connection to your highest self, personal power and truth
  • A profound shamanic or spiritual journey
  • An easily entered meditative state – ability to silence the mind, connect to

intuitive wisdom and spirit within you

  • Attainment of a balance between masculine and feminine energies within the

body

  • Enhanced creativity and inspiration.
  • Deepen connection between you and your Higher Self & Spirit team
  • Open your energy body, explore embodied practice, ground and integrate

newfound understanding.

  • Experience heart centred embodied practice with a team of practitioners

offering a variety of approaches to mind, body, and spirit connection

  • Explore energetic sensitivity, cultivation, and mastery of your own energy
  • Explore the process of receiving spiritual insights for yourself and for the

Collective.