From Head to Heart
This month is all about the flowing waters of emotions, Cancer season brings the abundance of summer but it can also be overwhelming and we might tend to hold everything inside, hidden behind a thick shell to not let others see our vulnerability or be washed away by uncomfortable feelings that don´t seem to fit the buzzing summer life outside.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
As you know Cacao can be a powerful support in opening our heart and therefore bringing up emotions. This sounds nice in theory but is not always easy to handle when you area faced with unwanted and uncomfortable feelings, especially when we are taking a sacred pause from a busy lifestyle. Not only can it be a challenge to even make time and space for yourself and your emotions, as the layers of distraction are peeled back in the stillness, like veils, layers of emotion that have been comfortably numbed are revealed, one by one.
This is where you get to practice your emotional intelligence:
Let the emotions flow and feel them as they pass through you. Don´t hold them back as you will only enhance what wishes to be acknowledged and eventually overrun you in some way or the other.
Don´t overindulge in them either, though. Especially in the holistic community we learned that emotions are healthy (which they are) but then tend to go to the other extreme of over analysing them and indulging in victim mentality to keep the tears, attention and validation flowing.
Accept and honour your emotions, allow yourself to feel them but also let them pass once they expressed themselves.
Phenylethylamine and anandamide, the heart-opening, feel-good chemicals for which Ceremonial Cacao is celebrated, help us through this process by holding us in high vibration and encouraging us to meet it all with love.
Cacao helps us to enter the doorway of our heart with more love and less fear.
Ritual
- Prepare yourself a cup of ceremonial Cacao (preparation video further below)
- While you prepare you might want to listen to the stunning song by Icelandic legend Björk which I linked below and set the Intention to connect within
- Ask Cacao to allow yourself to open up, allow vulnerability and intimacy with yourself while being in full trust of your capacity to hold yourself.
- When you are ready to drink and sit down in an undisturbed place, start my Heart Portal Meditation and toast to Cacao with me together after which I will guide you to open, release and fill up with what you need!
Give thanks to the overflowing love of life that can come out of unexpected directions and encourages you to widen your perspective, pause and look around you.
Meditation
Enter your Heart Portal
Cacao Sources
Cacao is native to South and Central America: After the Colonisation of the “New World” by the Spaniards Cacao became a trading gem and with the invention of chocolate was in high demands which led to slave labour and transfer of the plant to new locations such as India, Africa, etc. I have found Cacao from Guatemala to be the most beneficial for ceremonial purposes and feel the connection to the Spirit of Cacao stronger than with Cacao from non-native lands such as Dominican Republic, however there is a big Cacao community in Bali that swears by its Cacao (I myself find it deliciously fruity but very soft and almost too gentle in effect).
Cacao from Ecuador and Mexico in my experience is very stimulating and might be more suitable for Ecstatic Dances and physical offerings combined with Cacao. Cacao from Peru can be particularly sour (due to the different cacao species and processing methods, most likely). Cacao from Bali is very soft and subtle, yet can enchant with floral flavours.
CACAO BRANDS
I have tried (and continue to try) numerous different Cacaos from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Belize, Ecuador, Bali and Dominican Republic and several different sources from each of those countries. And I have yet to find a source that is as beneficial for inner work than Keith´s Cacao is. But of course there are other Cacao brands on the market that are worth mentioning and you can use and I encourage you to try out various origins in order to notice their different qualities and find the Cacao that resonates most with you and your work.
Make sure you are aware of the following: Are the distributors of the Cacao brand producing their own Cacao or sourcing it from a bigger distributor? Are they telling you about the origin, the country, the Cacao variety, the processing and the names of people involved in the harvest and production of Cacao?
Since the popularity of Cacao is rising and people see this as a possibility to make money, many are taking advantage of Cacao brands who offer White Labelling. This enables you to buy wholesale cacao without needing to leaving your home office, find your own small native Cacao forest, farmers and production team – it lets you buy Cacao from an already established distributor and put your own logo and label on it to then sell it to you community. That is not always wrong, as there are Cacao producers such as the Guatemalan women´s collective Ruk’u’ux U’lew who are very aligned with the sacred plant Cacao and honour it as such.
Unfortunately there are many big industrial plantations that are finding a new income stream by selling their side product of “pure cacao” while producing mainly for big chocolate brands or companies. Because business strategy advises us to have your own retail product in order make it in this world – no matter if you are a Cacao Facilitator, Coach, Yoga Teacher or Nutritionalist; you should have a book, your own brand of supplements, yoga mats, tarot cards or Cacao blocks – it waters down the origin of Cacao and brings a lot of lower quality variants into the scene. (Btw this is a big reason why I don´t have my own Cacao retail product, I don´t want to partake in this just to raise my reach and maximise my income stream).
BLOOM
When you use a minimally processed pure cacao (which I recommend especially for working with the Spirit of Cacao) you will soon notice funky patterns appearing in your cacao block. They can look like swirls, powdery lines or can even be fully crumbly parts.
Not to be confused with mould, these white grainy textures are tiny crystals of fat extruding from the surface – basically the separation of the cacao butter from the cacao solids: a naturally occurring process when you don´t repeatedly heat and temper the ground cacao beans. cacao beans) settles into a solid block.
When you encounter a particularly hard and shiny block of Cacao or small disks that melt in your mouth and make a smooth drink without much stirring you most likely have a source that has used more processing, repeated heating, tempering and industrial machines – which is not necessarily wrong yet will slightly alter the energetics and can even lead to less nutritious benefits and closer resemble conventional dark chocolate rather than ceremonial Cacao.
Keith´s Cacao is tested and has by far the lowest content of caffeine (1,09mg/g which is hardly anything compared to other brands who are almost as jittery as a cup of coffee) and the highest amount of theobromine (46,8mg/g) (more on these active ingredients in the upcoming membership months when we deepen the Science of Cacao) and therefore makes it my favourite ally to travel deep within. My nervous-system can regulate, my heart can open and my mind expands. It is the most soothing and profound ceremonial Cacao I have been able to try since 2017 and immediately feel the loving blessings from Keith and his sweetheart Barbara infuse my space when I receive a delivery.
You can use my discount code KAKAOZAUBER19DE21 on www.keithscacao.com with which you get a percentage off your first order and also support me continuously which I am really grateful for!