CACAO CEREMONY

Sounds for the Soul is pleased to announce we now are offering Cacao Ceremony with some of our sound healing events. 

WHAT IS CACAO AND WHAT ARE ITS BENEFITS?

Cacao is a superfood plant medicine.  It is the basic ingredient in chocolate.  But we tend to add sugar and additives etc. to chocolate which detracts from its purpose and lessens its health benefits.   When cacao is taken in ceremonial doses, for spiritual growth purposes, it is a very powerful, heart opening medicine that makes way for transformation.  It is about the universal unconditional love vibration, beginning with learning to love oneself.  Cacao helps you release negativity, unblock stuck energy, connect directly to heart energy, improve focus, enhance creativity and is a natural mood elevator. Cacao is not psychadelic, but it may lead to an enhanced experience of journeying during the sound meditation.  It has properties to help you get more in touch with feelings of bliss and well-being. It also has positive physical effects, such as relieving stress and anxiety, increasing blood flow, decreasing blood pressure, assisting in normalizing cholesterol levels, detoxifies the liver and kidney, and optimizes brain and heart functions.  The superfood nutrients in cacao are nurturing to the entire body.

The emotional affect can be quite profound.  You will expand your awareness and consciousness, and learn to love yourself more.  Your heart will be more open.   Sometimes, stored emotions in the heart chakra area may provoke tears as you release.  This can be a very beautiful experience.  And the tears will lead to a sense of deep gratitude.   My best words to describe it are “an absolutely divine experience.”

A main ingredient in cacao is theobromine, which means “food of the Gods.”  Cacao has also said to be the “food for the shift.”  We are in the midst of changing times and the rainforest sends the cacao to assist us at this time.

*If you are on an antidepressant that is an MAOI inhibitor, we recommend you do not ingest the cacao in the ceremonial dosage, but to only have a very small taste.  The combination of the cacao with the MAOI inhibitor can cause migraine headache.

WHAT IS CACAO CEREMONY?

Cacao has been used as a ceremonial and ritualistic medicine as long ago as 1900 BC by American ancestors and indigenous tribes, such as the Aztecs, Oltecs, Toltecs and Mayan people.  The indigenous tribes of Central and South America continue to use cacao.

A cacao ceremony allows you to connect more deeply with your inner self via your heart chakra.  It assists in any transformation you are working on.  You set your intention, and cacao aids in your insight and awareness in achieving your goal.

There is a Mayan legend that says when humans and nature are out of balance, that cacao will come from the rainforests to open hearts and return our world to a harmonious state. Our world NEEDS this return to harmony.  The ceremony facilitator guides participants to learn their ability to love unconditionally, learn about their deepest true self, assists in releasing what is no longer serving the individual, and helps them move toward true freedom via love and living their purpose.  You may experience deep insight during the ceremony.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT WHEN I ATTEND A CACAO CEREMONY?

Ceremonies differ depending on who is leading the ceremony.  The cacao shaman, Keith Wilson, of Keith’s Cacao, honors the cacao plant medicine spirit with meditation, inner reflection, and asking for our intentions to be heard.  We also will deeply connect with one another, trusting each other in this sacred space of cacao ceremony.  We will sit in sacred circle, the cacao will be ingested in either a paste form, a liquid drink, or a “bliss ball cookie” depending on the ceremony.   It is a safe, sacred space, especially when we come to understand we are serving as mirrors to one another.  We are all humans with similar hopes, dreams, fears and suffering.  As we share and go more deeply, we will then meditate with the sounds of the Sounds for the Soul instruments, crystal singing bowls, Tibetan singing bowls, alchemy bowls, gongs, Native American flutes, and percussion instruments.   The cacao will connect us with our hearts, and feelings of joy, bliss, even ecstatic states of transformation.   It also enhances the journeying effect of the sounds.   It deepens the meditative experience and allows you to experience the Oneness of All That Is.  It raises your vibration!!!  Following the sound portion of ceremony, we will reconnect in our sharing of the experience, and participants will have an opportunity to share their inspired creativity if they so choose.

We offer our cacao ceremonies in person (see the monthly events calendar for dates) and online on the 3rd Saturday of the month at noon central.  Private individual and group ceremonies are offered by scheduling with Deb and can be in person or online.

SOURCE OF CACAO USED IN OUR CEREMONIES

We work with pure ceremonial grade cacao sourced from Guatemala by the Cacao Shaman, Keith Wilson, of Keith’s Cacao.  He has worked with the

cacao for many, many years and is committed to bringing it to the world.  This cacao is the highest grade pure cacao, grown and harvested and prepared with love.

 

MY CALLING TO SHARE CACAO WITH YOU

I first heard about cacao ceremony from my friend Rebecca in 2016.  We were going to explore offering ceremony in conjunction with my sound healing events, when the universe called her on a journey.  I reached out to a few other people I thought might know someone, but nothing came of it.  Before I left in January of 2018 to visit Kauai, I again got the feeling I was being called to work with cacao.  On my first day on the island, I saw that Ananda Yogiji was on the island and offering cacao ceremony.  I reached out immediately and signed Justin and I up to attend.  I was so excited that this manifested there on Kauai.  But it is a magical island, and looking back, this doesn’t surprise me at all that this calling I felt, this intention I made to work with it, came to fruition right then and there.  So, 2 weeks later, we sat in ceremony with a dozen others, and experienced the heart opening magic of cacao.  We made beautiful connections with the people in this ceremony.  I am so grateful.  During that ceremony, I felt strong confirmation to continue to work with cacao.  I spent time with Ananda Yogiji and received his blessings to continue the work.  He is continued to mentor me via internet.  Since then, I entered the practitioner program at Keith’s Cacao.  I have also spent a great deal of time over the past years studying shamanism with various teachers.

I have been working with sound healing instruments for 25 years, sharing the sounds, helping people on their spiritual journeys, expanding understanding of oneself and assisting people to live their passion, share their gifts, and connect with self-love, gratitude and inner peace to transform their lives, which ultimately transforms our world.  I feel the cacao plant medicine is the perfect companion to the work I am already doing.  The more we are each able to connect with self-love, gratitude and inner peace, the better we are able transform our world through being more loving, more conscious, and becoming of service to all beings in our world.  “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”  (lyrics from my favorite jazz standard song, “Nature Boy”) Cacao can help us all learn this.

In March of 2020, I was asked to present at an international gathering of Keith’s Cacao Practitioners in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, at Keith’s Homecoming 2020.  It was a powerful time of learning directly from and sitting in energy upgrades and cacao ceremonies with Keith.  As the pandemic arrived with shut downs in March when I returned home, Keith offered the ceremonies he usually held on his porch online.  So I have been blessed to sit twice a week in global online ceremonies with him.

Keith’s Cacao offers wonderful trainings for the practitioners, so I am blessed to attend ongoing classes and practitioner training calls as well as sit with Keith in ceremony.

I have also offer the class “How to Cacao: Using Cacao for Health and Wellness.”  I offer this live in person once a year and have also offered this online and taken people more deeply into their personal relationship and journey with cacao.

Are you ready to explore your own journey from an enlightening new point of view?

Contact Deb Jennings at 515-371-0725 or at soundsforthesouldj@gmail.com for more information and to register for your cacao experience.

The information in this is from teachings from Ananda Yogiji, website and you tubes from Keith Wilson, the Cacao Shaman, Rebekashaman.com, and miscellaneous other youtubes.

In Gratitude,

Deb