What Is a Cacao Ceremony?

The short answer

A cacao ceremony is a gathering in which people drink ceremonial-grade cacao together with intention, usually followed by meditation, sound, breathwork, movement or sharing. The cacao opens the body and the heart; the ceremony gives that opening somewhere to go.

Where it comes from

Cacao was sacred to the Maya and the Mexica long before it was chocolate. It was drunk in ritual, offered to the gods, used as currency. The modern cacao ceremony borrows the reverence and the drink, and places them inside a Western wellness circle. It is worth knowing that history, and worth sourcing cacao from people who treat the growers fairly.

What is actually in the cup

Ceremonial cacao is the whole bean, minimally processed, pressed into a paste. It keeps the fat, the minerals and the active compounds that industrial chocolate removes. Prepared with hot water, a pinch of chili or cinnamon, and sometimes a little honey, it is bitter, rich and warming. Theobromine gives a gentle lift without the edge of coffee. Many people feel it as warmth spreading through the chest within twenty minutes.

What happens in a ceremony

You arrive and sit in a circle. The facilitator speaks about the cacao and its origins, and invites an intention. The cup is served, often with a few words of gratitude. Then the ceremony opens into whatever the facilitator holds: guided meditation, sound bath, breathwork, ecstatic movement, journaling, or sharing in the circle. Ninety minutes to two hours. People leave warm, open and often surprised by what came up.

Cacao and the moon

Cacao ceremonies are very often held on the new or full moon, because the two practices share a shape: intention, opening, release. At Radiant Flo, Anya's lunar ceremonies in Carlsbad open with blue lotus rather than cacao, a flower with its own long ceremonial history and a softer, dreamier effect. The rest of the evening, sound, ritual and Kundalini Activation, is the part that cacao ceremonies and lunar ceremonies have in common. If you want a cacao ceremony for your own circle, it can be held as a private group ceremony.

How to choose one

Ask where the cacao comes from and how it is prepared. Ask what happens after the cup; a ceremony that is only the drink is a nice cup of cacao, not a ceremony. Ask how big the circle is. And notice how you are met when you ask: that is the best predictor of how you will be held in the room.