I’ve been obsessed with cacao for many years, but recently my energy has shifted so profoundly that I needed to refine my taste in chocolate. As a self-anointed Cacao Priestess – a role I take lightly and humbly all at once – I can see now how this process of coming into my integrity with chocolate was needed before I began to hold Cacao Ceremonies.
As a kid, I grew up in Canada, United States and Australia. I loved American chocolate. It satisfied something so deep within me, and that feeling has never left me. Perhaps I craved it because it felt like self-love, or maybe I was born to be a chocolate lover, I’m guessing both.
I never was obsessed with chocolate until I couldn’t have it… until I was pregnant with my daughter in 2014 and my holistic health practitioner gently asked me to remove a few ingredients from my diet. I didn’t mind surrendering dairy, wheat, nightshades, eggs, seafood, nuts, and all the other foods that were triggering an unexpected reaction in my – and my baby’s – body. But cacao? That wasn’t easy.
In the middle of 2016 when I finished breastfeeding my daughter, the cravings came back stronger than ever. I was such a depleted mama, caring for a daughter with severe eczema and allergies, but I didn’t prioritise my healing as much as I did my daughter. Chocolate became a regular afternoon fixation. I would stop at the local shops and find something delicious to eat on the way to pick up my son from school with my babe in the back of the car.
Chocolate has a way of helping me to feel sweetly loved, gently nurtured, and mildly rebellious. It’s the perfect combination! Over the years I learned that when I chose cacao over cocoa and healthier ingredients over sugar, glucose, additives, numbers and preservatives, I didn’t get feel any uneasy headaches, belly pains, sleeplessness or mood swings.
Cacao slowly became a more conscious choice.
After I moved to Byron Bay in 2019 I discovered some of the most gloriously delicious and healthy chocolate, in bars, blocks and powder. I’m currently loving the organic blocks by Origin Chocolate Makers, the inimitable bars by Loco Love, and the Adaptogenic Hot Chocolate powder by Social Alchemy. Each sip and bite of these creations connects me deeper to love, the earth, my body, and the pure joy of being alive.
Ah yes… that’s what it’s always been with chocolate… a celebration of life!
In 2020 and 2021 I began sharing my homemade hot cacao drinks with friends and it instantly became like a ceremony. Early this year (2022) I created my first Cacao Ceremony at my retreat in Byron and the feedback was so wild – everyone loved the cacao recipe, the journey I took them on, and how they felt for the rest of the day – that I decided I must share this with women as often as I can. Due to the floods and other circumstances, I haven’t been able to until now. Finally, next week I’ll be hosting my first in-person ceremony and my first online ceremony. It’s a part of an immersion that will take us to the spring equinox.
You can read all about the series here… I’d love you to join us!
Lots of love from this wildly happy Cacao Priestess ❤️
