In a ceremony we bow to our inner self. We honour the life that flows through us and to which directions it leads us. The benefits of a ceremony or using cacao as a plant medicine often create the urge to share. The blissful feeling, deeper connection to ourselves, aligned with our heart, intentions and vision to manifest our dreams, unravelling triggers, emotions and patterns.
These are some tips and ideas to fuel your own ritual & ceremony, for yourself or to share with dear ones.
Create your ceremonial space
Take time to create your ceremonial space. Make it cozy to feel comfortable, safe and inspired. Bringing nice and personal items are a good idea. To nourish all the senses you can bring sage, incense, oils, etc. As well as music that you vibe with.
Choosing your dose
For a ceremony it's important to use good quality cacao, to know where it comes from, that it's grown in a healthy and fair way. There is no one-size-fits-all dosage because we all have different bodies and sensitivities. In general we advice 35-45gr of ceremonial cacao paste. You can find more about it on our ceremony page. It also depends if your using other plant medicine in your ceremony, like sacred mushrooms or rape.
Which practices do you want to follow
There are many ways to hold a ceremony: meditation, singing, dancing, drawing, making music, breathwork, etc. The most important is that you choose practices that you enjoy and bring you to a deeper level. You can also prepare a few options to choose from in your own flow. It is always a good idea to have pencils and paper ready either to write or for drawing.
It starts with your intention
Setting an intention gives more depth to everything. Taking a moment for yourself to set your intention, feeling into why you are doing this, are there personal barriers or patterns you want shed light on, what do you want to align with, etc. It's helpful to write this down, illustrate it or share with others. Giving your intention the right attention makes it all more worthwhile down the road.
Keep an open mind
An intention is easily confused with expectations and desire. And it's helpful to feel into which expectations you have and why. You might know the saying "expectations are thief of joy" and you might know why this is true. Things never go the way you expect them to. Letting go of your expectations, understanding the underlying source where they come from, and keeping an open mind makes you more free, curious and happy.
Listen to within
The most surprising insights come when we're not steering thoughts with our mind, but when we listen to the silence within from where all kinds of things emerge. Insights, creativity, underlying motivation, love. If you're used to meditate it helps for letting thoughts go and not let the mind take hold of everything. Try to listen to what cacao has to show you. The better we learn to listen the more we can learn from this teacher plant.
Photo by Danique Van Kesteren made for Happinez. In the photo you can see some of our personal items and white sage that we like to bring to our ceremonies.