The Benefits of a Cacao Ceremony

Connecting to cacao through a mindful ceremony is a wonderful way to balance the heart chakra.

Besides providing our bodies with powerful health benefits, this experience can help you cultivate feelings of love and compassion toward yourself and others.

This is the Ayurvedic approach to having a cacao ceremony.

Plus, I’ll provide you with a heart-opening cacao recipe to intensify the benefits.

What is ceremonial cacao?

Ceremonial cacao is 100% pure cacao-bean paste — yeap, the only ingredient should be cacao beans.

Therefore, it contains a much higher quantity of beneficial, health restoring, and mood-elevating compounds than any other cacao product.

Needless to say, it’s not the organic cacao powder we use for hot chocolate.

This paste is minimally processed.

It’s done by fermenting the beans, slightly heating the highest quality ones on a hotplate, hand-peeling them, and then grinding them down on a heated mill.

The benefits of this form of cacao are outstanding.

First, it’s packed with Magnesium, Iron, Anandamine (the bliss molecule), Theobromine (improves mood and cognitive function), and Phenylethylamine (the love molecule).

Moreover, because pressing or pulverization does not occur, it retains a more significant number of antioxidants that normally disappear in the regular process. Antioxidants protect us from free radicals and help us avoid the harmful effects of stress, pollution, and chemicals.

In addition, this kind of cacao has no sugar added.

Which is a good thing, since sugar not only spikes our blood sugar levels, but it can also suppress the heart-warming and heart-opening effect we are looking forward to having by drinking the ceremonial cacao.

Finally, it should be organic.

The point of this ritual is to heal and connect with Mother Nature and our bodies and hearts. So, it’s key that the cacao you choose doesn’t have any pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetic modification.

Ayurveda approach

The benefits of a cacao ceremony are both spiritual and physical.

Although cacao is not a hallucinogenic, it can definitely feel like an “out of the body” experience.

According to Ayurveda, chocolate is sweet and bitter.

It has a heating Virya, which warms the heart, abdomen, and the reproductive organs, and a sweet Vipaka.

Cacao is an excellent food to elevate our mood and make us feel happy and content.

However, it can aggravate all doshas due to its over stimulant, acidic, and hyperactive nature.

Kapha is the least affected; nevertheless, this body type should have chocolate in minimal quantities.

Pitta and Vata can still participate in a cacao ceremony but, this is not a ritual to practice every day or even weekly. The amounts to be consumed should be small, too.

Here is more information about Chocolate and Ayurveda

The ceremony

The ceremony can be held for yourself or for more people.

It’s a fantastic way to open your heart chakra, specially if you are dealing with self-love, forgiveness, and compassion issues.

When the heart energetic wheel gets unbalanced, it’s common to feel fear, apathy, and disconnection. With a cacao rite, we can alleviate those negative feelings. This is just one of the benefits of a cacao ceremony.

If practiced mindfully, the ritual can balance our masculine and feminine energies. On one side, by promoting revitalization, renewal, and transformation. But also, by creating the space needed to feel calm, centered, peaceful, and loving.

In addition, the fourth chakra regulates our capacity to be creative and connect to others. Hence, cacao celebrations are an effective way to remove any blockage in these important areas and offer us inspiration and an endless flow of ideas.

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How to do a cacao ritual

• In your meditation room, light some candles and vanilla incense. Have handy rose quartz crystals.
• Clear the space with sage or Palo Santo.
• Now, prepare your chocolate (recipe below). Take your time, be deliberately slow in the process. Avoid looking at your phone or listening to overstimulating music.
• Once done, serve the cacao drink in your favorite cup. With love in your heart, bless it. Engage all of your senses.
• Go to your meditation space and offer a prayer or do a few minutes of breath work first.
• Set an intention and sip mindfully your warm cacao during the ceremony.
• Feel how your heart opens. Make sure your shoulders are back, and you are sitting up straight.
• Feel the rose quartz in your hand. The scent of the candles and incense. Be 100% present.
• Repeat heart chakra opening affirmations and bask in a soft, green light. Feel the healing, love, and gratitude that come with it.
• Finish your cacao mindfully, paying attention to the energetic shift that has occurred.
• Recite the mantra YAM to end the ritual.
• Journal how you feel.

You don’t always have to do all of these steps.

The ceremony could simply be preparing the cacao consciously and sipping it mindfully while feeling loving and grateful.

The recipe

The benefits of a cacao ceremony are numerous. What is the most important to you?