Partaking of the Food of the Gods: Diving into Ceremonial Cacao

“We’re aware that medicine is something that heals us and brings us into harmony and for the indigenous communities medicine is anything that brings us into alignment – that connects Mind, Body, and Spirit. So when we talk about Cacao medicine its the understanding that cacao is guiding us to come back to our center”

— Florencia Fridman

Florencia will be teaching an 8 part series beginning March 22nd: Cacao, Dreams and Plant Allies: Building Relationship with the Spirit of Cacao. Participants will build and deepen their relationship with the sacred plant of cacao and dive deep into the experience of dreams.

In anticipation of her course, Florencia sat down in an interview with Ezza Valdez to discuss how she started her journey with Cacao.

LINK HERE for their full interview.

What is Ceremonial Cacao?

Ceremonial Cacao is the medicine of cacao. It is chocolate in its purest form. Many of us have tried chocolate and conventional chocolate is prevalent in all cultures. The connection to ceremonial cacao and chocolate is using the fruit at its 100 percent. It also takes into consideration how the fruit has been grown and understanding that the fruit carries a spirit so through the process of ceremony we come into relation with the spirit.

When we talk about ceremonial cacao it’s really having that relation to all of the environment around us.

How did you find your passion for the leading ceremony?

In my early 20s, I went to Guatemala for my first time where the tradition of cacao was very present. I had my first cacao ceremony with an indigenous elder and I really felt at home. As I always say, I was very far from home but for the first time, I felt back in my heart – that this was the way I wanted to connect with myself. I didn’t know what that would look like yet but I knew it was something I was very curious about and wanted to understand more.”

What can students expect from your 8-part series?

“I’m really excited for the series that we’re co-creating because I do a lot of work with cacao, ceremony, and ritual but I also have my other aspect of working with Dreams with my other mentor who is an elder and to be able to bridge these to go deeper into our own journey is such a gift. There’s so much that we receive through our dreams.

Since we often don’t remember our dreams it will take much longer to integrate those teachings. By working with the medicine of cacao to open our hearts and come back to our passion and creativity and the exploration of the self while also bringing awareness to our dreams – we can really… anchor that energy and find the medicine with all of this rapid movement and change – there’s a lot of possibilities for new beginnings and redirecting our ways of living to come back into community with our Sacred Mother.