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Cacao ceremony | Ceremonial cacao | Inner work | Keith's original writings | Keith's wisdom
This blog post is an excerpt from the original writings of Keith Wilson, the Chocolate Shaman, which were first published in 2012. For more recent info on all things Ceremonial Cacao, visit our main blog For the Love of Cacao.
Cacao is a heart-centered cooperative partnership facilitator, assisting in conscious connecting wherever your intent or inner need goes. If you find yourself with a repetitive thought or image about yourself or another, take it inside, receiving it as yours. Then follow whatever your Higher Self is gently getting your attention about. As one does with dream images, assume it is about you even if it is presented (so you can receive it) as about someone or something else.
I want to share a story from an early ceremony. A fellow complained that he had a storyline stuck in his head, and if he could just get rid of it, he could get with what we were doing. I suggested his Higher Self was trying to get his attention about something. So what's the story, I asked? “I'm riding my bicycle along one of the canals in Amsterdam, going into a cafe, and smoking a big spliff.” So what's the feeling? “I'm totally free.” In the moment… in the flow… in the magic. We went inside and soon found that he had been free ‘hooked’ to smoking. He wasn't smoking then, so he couldn't be free. After unhooking at this subconscious level, he sat there, grinning, free. I told him not to re-hook it to Cacao.
Another time, another fellow said he was feeling restriction in his throat and breathing, and then he bolted out of the circle. I asked him to wait, and he said he was receiving communication from within. "What communication?" About (breathing) restriction of life force and (throat chakra) expression into the world. "But I feel much better now." Of course... you ran from your inner teacher, and it is not going to chase you. "But intuitively, I was guided to leave." Consider you may have the voice of fear, an inner liar, assumed to be your inner guidance. "But I need to leave." OK... and he did.
‘Dark shadow’ density –fear, pain-body, blocks, issues, conditioning, belief systems, resistance, emotional toxicity– that needs to be released, will be brought to your attention. Whatever message you need will come, just like life! About 30 minutes after drinking in a ceremony, I consistently observe some people in the group go into a yoga-type stretch to get their inner teacher to shut up and quit bothering them with its metaphorical message about the location of blockage or a deposit of density. We are all trained to do this!
Your even scarier ‘light shadow’ magnificence, where you are ready to open/connect/expand, will also be more accessible if that is what’s up. Many in my ceremonies sit in the proverbial pillar-of-light and blissfully broadcast that higher-dimensional frequency, making my job easier – that’s holding space! This place of downloading higher-dimensional energies and filling up until you are overflowing is my standard group cooperative energy, where we all assist each other in raising the resonance for whatever purpose each is here for. For more on this, see the section on the Glow Meditation. Engage.
Some do it gradually; some press a rocket engage button:
"WOW. Everything has changed. And I do not know who or where I am supposed to be these days, but it oddly feels in alignment.... does that make sense?
It feels as if 6 years of processing have occurred since last seeing you in July! I think I am still a sane human being (haha), yet feel as though I have been “unplugged” from the program and learning to live in an entirely different way. Some days I feel powerful, and others quite boggled, but I still have my love goggles on!
My life got flipped upside down and is just balancing back out. Everything and anything not serving my highest good anymore came up and out... with a fury!"
What you come in this life to work on, you choose parents and childhood circumstances to lock it in, and play it out with parents. Then, selecting certain arenas, with friends, lovers, business partners, teachers, and with prosperity issues in health, wealth, creative expression… to gain experience. If you begin working with ascended masters or guides, you will play it out with them. Because these are the basic issues you have with Source, with God/Goddess – your God Drama, Deity Drama, Separation Drama. After sufficient processing at the parent/inner-child and relationship etc. levels, this core drama with Source surfaces and can be owned as the game one is committed to playing; a game Source unconditionally allows until one is done with it. And then the love that was always available is yours, and in the other arenas, too.
I could do a whole website just with this biggie. In the 20 years I have worked with this, I have observed that when the Deity Drama surfaces as a direct issue with God/Goddess (and not in one of the many arenas) and then is dropped, major life changes happen!
“If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.” Lao Tzu
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” Carl Jung
Some advanced systems of healing work by suspending disease conditions long enough for healthier patterns to be adopted by the whole system. So here we are, saying that change is temporary, and permanent healing doesn't happen unless an inner and personal change in beliefs or attitudes occurs. Regardless of anything the 'healer' does or doesn't do.
For example, Cacao often suspends repression in a selected area (whatever is at the head of the queue from a Higher Self perspective) and allows what one needs to work with to bubble up to the conscious surface in the form of repetitive thoughts, images, feelings, emotions, or through assistance from the body-consciousness as physical symptoms. It can be metaphorically subtle, or it can be flood-of-tears popped cork.
In using Cacao, you work with the density that She –with cooperation from Higher Self– helps bring to your attention. Feeling it, or with awareness of its location in your body, you can get close to it, move to or into it… and let the knowing unfold. Feel it to the bottom! As much as possible, hold non-attached surrender and pass on the judgment and fixing. Feel it to the bottom, as you can. Then bring in the light. Give the density to whatever portion of your higher reality or the guides you are working with… and it will transmute. That transmuted energy and the higher energy you intentionally allow to flow into the newly opened space heals you. Do both… transmute the old and call in the replacement. These things are in layers like an onion... when you do a layer, you are done... the next layer will be up in its own time.
“That last several waves of da stuff... each one way bigger than the previous... and with maybe 1 day in between... yikes!”
Sometimes it’s like that, especially at the end of playing out a particular pattern when that pattern can get powerfully insistent that you jump in for one more time.
“You will be guided from within, at levels beyond your conscious awareness to navigate the depths of some of the experiential rites of passage. The keywords here are trust and surrender.” Oneness by Rasha
Afterwards, remember to drink water! In release work, it is a standard concept that the physical analogies to the energies you move enter the bloodstream. If you drink, you pee… they are gone. Water is also a metaphor for flowing emotion and can foster your continuing work in the energies for the next several days after ceremonial use. Many have density up the next day and have an opportunity to follow it if they do not reject it as something negative, ignore or repress it as we are all trained to do.
This sacred plant assists in accessing physical, mental, emotional, psychic, or spiritual arenas… as you require. Set your intent, perhaps as an issue you choose to work with, and Cacao will facilitate connection with wherever you source your guidance, internal and external… however you experience it… whatever window you feel comfortable opening. The magic and a deeper focus flow; wherever you connect, the real issue is… will you let it in? Or out, if that’s what's happening.
Chocolate brings you to the door but doesn’t push you through it. If you really want to stay safe in your rational mind, nothing but a good buzz will happen. For many, this fosters a significantly different trust and use relationship than with psychedelics. The type of intimacy facilitated by such trust may be an asset in working through issues where fear is involved. After all, the literal translation of 'xocoatl' –the conquistador-era indigenous Aztec word for drinkable chocolate (pronounced 'shoco-latle')– was ‘heart blood’ (or so I've read). And isn’t the fluid that flows through the heart, love? …"The food of the Gods." This is the meaning of ‘Theobroma,’ the scientific genus name for Cacao, given by Linnaeus, the originator of scientific nomenclature himself. What would a god’s food be besides love?
What would love do… help with your fear? Find out. Find some fear or other density… inside. Cacao, Higher Self, and your body consciousness will show you where it is. Possibly dense, dark, agitated, constricted, contracted, tight, or just painful enough to notice. Sit down with it and get to know it. Listen to what it has to say to you; this is not the time to tell it where to go or to fix it - enough of fighting against it or judging it. Feel it… feel the fear. Begin learning to trust this process. We are all taught by the consensus reality to shove it back down. Then open to receive, bring in your light, or feel it as love. Open your crown and bring it right down into your heart center. Put your arm around your fear. Let the light flow; it knows what to do.
You don’t have to work with fear or pull it to bits with rational mind understanding… just let it go. You may have to work with the part of self (like an inner child) that is holding on to the fear, however. Eventually, many can feel fear on the ‘cellular’ level. I call it ‘squeamy’: squirm + scream. Feels like individual cells wanting to run right out of the body; often the legs. Some have experienced this in life; here, it’s done consciously in meditation.
Several emotional processing techniques promise you freedom from your emotional density without having to feel it. A workable introduction for those in terror of feeling what is indeed within them. “If you can’t feel it, you can’t heal it.” The higher dimensional energies are not going to transmute density that you are too afraid to get close to; that would be a violation of your right to hide and would only create more fear. Most people would rather die than look at it (no, fear of death is not the biggie; most would rather die from their disease than look at the issues behind it). In my work, sometimes, assisted by chocolate, many are a step beyond looking – feeling it... and then transmuting it…
We are all skilled density movers by creatively and symbolically objectifying ‘external’ reality as a 'mirror' and then experiencing it through trauma, drama, pain, struggle, suffering, and stories. You can go within and feel it in meditation, or you can manifest and feel it in the feedback called reality. Your choice. We say that in Guatemala, I have a school for changing from the 'hard bus' to the 'easy bus.'
In these times, this process is accelerating - as many understand. Imagine a blissful grin spread over your face while a wave of old often-played-out density is deeply felt with full loving non-attachment, then released/transmuted with higher-dimensional assistance; first at energetic and emotional levels and eventually at core/spirit. Oh my… the gifts that are within that! With every layer, there is more light, love, joy, power, presence... so much so that eventually, one welcomes the next wave of painful density as a gift! You can look forward to that!
Spiritual Cacao would help you experience this choice to partner with your own higher and denser energies and the accelerated liberation this makes possible. Cacao is in no way necessary for this process but is an option to facilitate experience in what we already understand within… with open-hearted centering. When you laugh and cry at the same time, you are very close… sample your mastery.
This holy bean, given in half the amount (say 20g), will add another level of ease and depth in group facilitation in whatever sort of circle you are working with. This kind of Cacao is just beginning to become known as a major tool.
Intentional Cacao use is a relationship, a partnership - you are dancing with a being whose physical expression is Cacao. And as with intimate or business partnerships, your issues, your emotional and energetic density, will come up… manifesting physically or emotionally. Yes, many play out their stuff with Cacao, like any other parent-partner-lover-teacher. With Cacao, density comes up relatively gently, and in a way, you can work with it or choose not to. A natural tendency for many is to assume that the clearing process, if negative, is about the Cacao. Many in relationships think it’s about the other person as well - you may know this as blame and judgment.
Some into avoiding or repressing emotions are not going to be happy with regular Cacao use, especially if they have completed much of their physical level purification and are otherwise ready to deepen detox in emotional arenas. If you view cleaning up your emotional and vibrational toxicity as imperative in these times, you will find Cacao to be an asset. Here’s to an open heart!
The theobromine in Cacao is diuretic, and headache is a typical physiological signal for dehydration.
Cacao may work with you through the emotional body, and water is often needed to “keep things flowing,” as a literal metaphor, and more. Headache can be the re-hydrate indicator here as well. I notice that with those who drink sufficient liquid in the hours after a ceremony, the energies are better able to continue working with them for the next several days.
Cacao is a partnership facilitator. One of the things that it helps you communicate with is your caring subconscious mind. As Carl Jung pointed out, the language of the subconscious is symbols, images, and metaphors. (Because you probably won't allow yourself to hear it directly, as native-language voices in your head.) In this culture, a head-heart/left-right brain disconnect is the norm. Here a headache is the perfect metaphor: the rational head hurts because it is attempting to meet your expectation that it understand and solve reality. For which it is not the appropriate tool. Even with heart and higher input, the head is not the tool for things like directing one’s journey. Tho, it may be the tool for getting the appropriate ticket once a destination is known...
I often see headaches with Cacao… who else tells this truth in such a direct way without a big trip. Who else will stand up in your reality and lay what you need to receive on the line, straight? In your face… from behind it… Ouch. Many headaches lessen or stop following heart opening or head-heart/left-right brain integration work. I rarely see the headaches with those allowing the emotional release or higher-dimensional downloads. Headaches were much more common years ago... folks are much more allowing of their magic now.
More stimulation than you want is an overdose. Above that, nausea begins. A bit more Cacao, and you will throw up and feel better. More Cacao, and you will vomit and not feel better. Even more, and you will vomit repeatedly and not feel better. Cacao is bitter… enough of any bitter will produce nausea, and with more, become emetic, making you throw up. At around 3.5+ oz (100+ gm), the average person will be miserably awake and throwing up repeatedly for hours, perhaps much of the night. (I've had the occasional person in my ceremonies who doesn't listen to me because they know that in the drug world, if a little bit’s good, a whole lot’s better. I have learned to strictly monitor cacao availability with certain groups.) At 2 oz (57 gm) about 5% will get nauseous enough to want to throw up.
Consider also that lower-dose nausea may be a metaphor for something one wants to throw out or something coming in. “I can't stomach/ digest that,” for whatever life issue Cacao is assisting in the surfacing. The level of nausea drops as one releases or processes the relevant issue. Those who have been resisting such messages for some time may get a rather forceful heads-up, especially if they are headed toward manifesting something far less desirable. “If you listen to the whispers, you don’t have to hear the shouts.” Lazaris
Nausea or headache early in ceremony is a metaphor. Overdose nausea begins many hours later. Be aware that some people who are internally clean from a raw low-calorie diet may be more sensitive to bitters and need to consume less Cacao, until they know their place. See 'Toxic Cacao' blog post.
I've known the rare person in a ceremony to leave early, throw up, return open and without judgment, deal with their issue, have some more Cacao, and continue ceremony in a powerful way. It is rare, but it can happen, that Cacao in normal dosage will work along the lines of some plant psychedelics, where physically purging parallels purging on other levels. This is quite unusual, but it can be lengthy and uncomfortable, however effective. I see it every few years.
Your chocolate shaman says… Injoy!
