Many plant medicines from the Americas have reached invisible hands across the oceans into the hearts of many. Their unanimous message speaks of a return to balance, a return to harmony.
“Come home”, they whisper.
In ancient times, it was told that the spirit of cacao would return to the earth at a time when she was needed most. When the people had become disconnected – from their lands, their cultural and spiritual practises, and from each other. I believe we are currently traversing those times, and this peak of severity has people waking up in droves. Some spontaneously, as if waking from a daydream. “I was called”, say many who show up at the altars to be served.
To sit with the energy of cacao is to be cradled in the arms of a Grandmother, wise and patient. It is a surrendering into unconditional love and gentle counsel. She encourages open, authentic communication, inspired creativity and the gentle capacity to release the holding of energies and beliefs that have outlived their purpose. She speaks the language of the heart. Her chemical construct makes our human biome sing in response. Anandamide, lovingly named the bliss chemical from the Sanskrit word ‘ananda’. Phenylethylamine & serotonin, the anti-anxiety love and happiness chemicals. And an almost overwhelming abundance of micro and macro nutritional compounds, nootropics and neurotransmitters. A goddess of both scientific and spiritual prosperity whose ceremonies, circles and appearance in many modalities of healing, are on the rise.
For those with eyes that see, people are returning to the old ways of doing things. A remembering that has seeped up from the earth through our bones like mist through treetops at dawn, and both are fresh with an equal amount of promise.
People are walking in the footsteps of their ancestors and pulling practices that were almost lost back into common place. People sit in ceremonies, drumming, chanting, weaving, listening to the old stories, and singing tradition back to life. People are returning to plants as healers and wisdom keepers, to spirit, to a balanced connection between the energy of all things and the physical world we navigate.
And yet there is far more to the cacao ceremony, a huge part of it is the giving back. The appreciation, respect and reverence that is offered to both the gifts of the plant and her native cultures. The communities of her native lands who kept her practice and her secrets of preparation alive for millennia. A celebration of each of the elements of the earth, who nourished and nurtured her as she grew – who equally nourish and nurture each of us as we grow.
Cacao ceremony is an opportunity to sit with the energy of our Mother Earth and celebrate her, to hold her in our hearts. Offering the expansion and frequencies of our heart’s electromagnetic field to bring harmony and balance to her own – simultaneously fulfilling each 12 of the Universal Laws.
And this idea of reciprocity is deeply rooted in cacao practices. As you show up to sit with her, cacao shows up equally for you. As she honours you, how do you choose to honour her? This Queen is among Queens in the plant kingdom. A plant who benefits our mind-body-soul on so many levels. How can we begin to cultivate an exchange in the physical realm that this Mayan Goddess of agriculture and fertility would smile at?
One could simply venture outside into their garden. Rather than rinsing your cacao cup down the drain, consider gifting a multitude of nutrients to the soil. Find a tree who captivates your attention. An area of the garden you are drawn to. Then on sharing the rinsings of your cup, “I return to the earth, that which came from the earth, with great thanks.”
To bestow wishes to trees and patches of earth that they be blessed with vitality, strength and good health, is to create harmony and balance in the gifts you are given. As you receive from the plant world, so you give. It is an age-old practice, covering a multitude of native cultures.
In New Zealand, Maori give the first of the day’s catch back to the ocean, keeping only those that follow. After a Mexican sweat lodge known as Temazcal, when we each finally come to eat, our first mouthful of food is given to the fire in gratitude. These are small but powerful gestures that say ‘There is plenty here for me, but please, out of gratitude for all you do for me, for all the gifts you have brought me – you first’. These principles are easily integrated
into your daily practice if you pause to make room for them.
Hold your cup close to your heart and use the opportunity to speak with the spirit of Mama Cacao. Give thanks for all the nutrients and nourishment she brings. Give thanks for her comfort, her guidance, her wisdom, and her presence.
Offer thanks to the spirit of the land you live on, the land that feeds you, the trees whose shade you walk in, to the soothing rivers & beaches you swim in, and the clean water you drink. Acknowledge and give thanks to the native people of your lands and their spirits who walk the song lines, and your ancestors who walk beside you.
Offer your thanks to the sun, wind, earth and rain for nourishing and giving strength and vitality to the cacao trees as they grew. Thank you to the hands of the people who tended and harvested them, her native homeland and their lineages for sharing her medicine with you.
As you give thanks for each of these things, take time to see, feel and hear each, as you feel the warmth of the brew in your cup.
There is much more in there, you see, than chocolate and water.
Murphy Ryland
Murphy's journey with ceremonial plants began while working at an Ayahuasca Retreat in Mallorca, leading her away from Europe’s superyacht industry, to Bali where she was invited to help run and facilitate a women's empowerment and cacao retreat. Murphy currently lives in Far North Queensland on Djabugay Country; holding regular Sound Healing & Cacao Ceremonies.
