CACAO

MEDICINE OF THE HEART

‘The medicine will pour out of the jungle when the world is ready for it’s healing’

This is an old Mayan saying & we feel that time is now.
As the popularity of enjoying high grade & ethically sourced raw cacao as a medicine, grows & spreads around the world & through communities.

We feel blessed to have been able to share this plant medicine & spirit of mama cacao with 1000’s of people since spring 2019 ~ Through an array of workshops at festivals & gatherings around the UK, on retreats internationally & woven into private bespoke gatherings & ceremonies

A plant that throughout time, has been immersed in folklore, myth, ritual & reverence & used in traditions & cultures for millennia across central & south America

Known & seen to hold & invoke a soft feminine & motherly caring energy when ingested & worked with

Peoples experiences, visions, feelings & feedback always reaffirm to us the subtle, gentle & yet profound ways it can effect our body, heart, mind & spirit, awakening our spectrum of emotions to flow freely & with grace.

WHAT IS CACAO?

Cacao is chocolate in it's purest form & the source of all chocolate, but not chocolate as most of us know it.
It is in fact the seed of the fruit, but most commonly known as a cacao bean & comes from cacao pods, which hold a sweet, tangy, citrusy white fleshy / pulpy fruit. With the ‘beans’ taking up most the pod.
When raw or not overly processed, it is one of the most nutrient dense foods known to man ~ containing over 300 chemical compounds.
Containing a variety of antioxidancts, including favinoids, which have been linked to multiple health benefits including concentration.
Sharing high levels of many minerals including vitamin C, iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium & even high in protein. Hosting an array of mood enhancing chemicals that release & transmit serotonin & dopamine creating feelings of happiness. Cacao awakens our circulatory system, oxygenating our bloodstream & assists in releasing happy hormones.
A great food for supporting hormonal health, energy levels & through the many stages of our lives.

Cacao is becoming an ever more popular topic in modern research & in the health, beauty, spiritual & pharmaceutical worlds.
A chemically complex food with an interesting effect on the body & mind!
Chocolate as we often, & most people know it today though is processed & heated in ways that leave most of it’s nutritious, healthy & supportive qualities no longer present when consumed.

A BRIEF HISTORY

It has been used & cultivated since at least 2000 BC so for over 4000 years now! Originating in the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador & Venezuela.
It has played a significant part within Mesoamerican cultures, including the Olmec, Aztec, Inca & Mayans civilisations & empires ~ found in their creation mythologies & seen as a ‘gift from the gods’ used shamanically, ritualistically, in ceremony, in war, as a plant medicine & for nutrition & even as currency in the past. Cacao has always been associated with universal love & felt to be a sacred healer & teacher.
Seen to hold a motherly gentle & feminine spirit ~ & often referred to as Mama cacao.

CACAO’S STORY

The name for the cacao tree is Theobroma Cacao, literally meaning ‘Food of the gods’ ~ ‘Theo’ meaning ‘god’ & broma ~ food.

Cacao even has a goddess ~ Ix cacao (Pronounced Eesh ca cow) who was worshiped as a fertility goddess for bringing abundance to the land. This plant medicine used in many daily & rites of passage rituals in the mesoamerican ancient cultures. There are still many traditions in action using cacao across Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama & neighboring countries / areas.
It could even be said that cacao is having a come back, after it slowing being forgotten in a lot of these lands due to colonialism & a change in life’s tempo, but people are trying to connect to their lineage & honour & celebrate what has been forgotten (& in many cases ‘not allowed’) once again & cacao is being used as medicine more wide spread than ever now, with the interest in native knowledge & use of cacao growing globally.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NON & CEREMONIAL GRADE CACAO?

Ceremonial grade cacao is grown in nature that is allowed to remain wild, unlike most farmed foods.
It is usually the Criollo bean ~ A very precious & heriloom cacao variety that was at risk of extinction for many ‘s years. With a high flavour profile & lots of flavanols. Criollo is the native cacao of the Maya’s & Aztecs cultivated & makes up very little of the global cacao production ~ Less than 1% as it produces little yeild & hard to farm.
It is grown, tended, picked & processed to by local communities who get fair pay for their products, who preserve native strains of the whole bean & use minimal processing methods. Grown with no chemicals, thus being organic.
All made by hand & in a way that requires reverence, respect & knowledge of the spirit of plants & their home.
So much of the chocolate we find in the shops has been processed in a way that kills / harms all the nutritious qualities & medicine & mixed with processed ingredients. Most chocolate companies support child labour & modern slavery in terms of working conditions, hours & payment.
Few big chocolate brands are transparent with their cocoa sourcing & labour workers treatment!

WHAT DO WE USE? & DISCOUNT CODE

Chocolate is now grown all over the world, as is ‘ceremonial grade cacao’.
When we purchase cacao for our offerings & personal use, we always buy it from Mesoamerican land ~ It’s home & origin ~ South & Central America ~ From small scale farms that hold an ancestral lineage & reverence for this beautiful plant.

The concoction we share is always vegan & nut free & mixed with other herbs & spices.

We have tried & used many different cacao sources over the years & enjoyed the different flavour profiles & feelings each hold & invoke ~ There’s so many amazing flavours & brands out there now!

For most of our cacao offerings we use forever cacao
A small family ran business based in Wales, that works alongside small scale, indigenous farmers in Peru & began their cacao brand in 2011 ~ Long before cacao ceremonies began popping up all over the place!
FOREVER CACAO DISCOUNT CODE ~ LOVEALLWAYS
Or buy through our referral link for an even better discount ~ HERE

~ SOME HEALTH BENEFITS INCLUDE ~

Improves cognitive function
Cardivascular health
Hormone balancing
Increased energy
Mood uplifter
Immune support
Improved digestion
Anti inflamotary
Lowers ‘bad’ cholesterol, whilst increasing ‘good’ cholesterol
The list goes on, but these are the main things science is starting to back up

OUR STORY WITH CACAO

After many years of attending others cacao ceremonies, (probably starting around 2014) & enjoying how they were always so different, yet cacao’s medicine always felt so familiar & warming ~ We were feeling a deep connection with the journeys we were experiencing & the plants history & use in traditions & culture of the Meso Americas. Sofia had been feeling a deep call to learn more about the South America’s ancient traditions & lineages & voyage to Sandra’s home continent of South America for many years, but India’s offerings & gatherings kept calling her back stronger. Then in 2018 she found a course that felt like a big yes & she embarked on an immersion to deepen her connection & knowledge with cacao, spending 2 weeks on a Thai island exploring cacao, space holding & alchemy dance with Daisy Kay at the start of 2019. From the she flew to India to meet Sandra for a very special experience at the Kiva Kumbhmela, which brought everything she had learning about together in to real life ~ Joining wisdom keepers from across the world, gathering to celebrate the waters of the world. They were holding daily ceremonies & sweat lodges.
We have been sharing cacao ceremonies both together & separately since then.

Movement supports the cacao to flood our bloodstream & allows our energy & feelings to flow with freedom from within. Which is the reason we often pair it with movement & dance journeys. Ending with sound baths to connect us to the dream worlds within.

Love All Ways