Cacao Herbal Simples Medicine Journey
This sacred journey with cacao of course started like so many of us being exposed to nestle products and quick instant hot chocolate. Very disturbing and toxic mirroring the many Congolese who lost limbs while forced to work on Cacao plantations in the Congo by the Germans. However, when I was in my early twenties spirit guided me to consume ethically and I started eating Sacred Cacao Nibs a really clean, pure, and ethical source of raw cacao I purchased at the health food store, and it helped get me through work at the animal hospital. I was at odds with some of the vet techs though highly favored by the TCM vet doctor and the vet doctor from India. It helped me center into my heart despite being majorly distraught and often smoking american spirits on my breaks. The Cacao worked and I replaced the tobacco products with the raw chocolate. Fast forward to a month spent in Jamaica where the cacao grew abundantly on our hosts land. We ate the raw Cacao fruit ripe off the tree as if it were just a blackberry we'd otherwise collect here in the north western part of Turtle island. It was the time that several academy folk members spent in Belize where I truly opened up to Cacao from a decolonial and Indigenous lens. I had, at that point, sat in numerous cacao ceremonies and utilized the raw cacao for making body butters, chocolates, and even hair masks. In Belize this medicine was debunked as being a shamanic ceremonial beverage, and in reality it was presented to the 6 of us as a staple food source that was drank most evenings as a dessert or as a feel good tea. "The real Gold" our Mayan hosts stated. My jaw dropped, I expected the Mayan women who prepared the beverage in their thatched hut kitchen with their hearth cob oven to tell us about all the ceremonial ways in which Cacao was called upon. Instead they mentioned that while there are times the Cacao is served during traditional ritualistic and religious gatherings, it is more so consumed regularly sometimes daily simply as a tasty treat.
My 7 days with Cacao, Theobroma cacao a member of the Sterculiaecae family has been and is currently divine, I sip as I type. Finding myself going over the 7 days without remorse and with immense ease. This medicine is really a food and it feels like it. It's the 11th day of the moon so we are currently fasting as I type as well, eating only fruit, nuts, water, and cacao tea (because it's a fruit). I feel good and had two complete bowel movements despite having very little to eat the past two days. I am currently walking myself through our 21 herbal simples in alignment with the February 2025 cohort and have a total of 6 weeks left and as mentioned, with cacao in my cup I am in no rush though I know I will finish this assignment in perfect timing aligned with this cohort as your favorite accountability buddy tehehe.
Additionally I feel stimulated but only gently, I don't get the same jitters as with Coffee which for a Gemini Moon and Aquarius Rising , Coffee is like doing a hard drug (which I've never done but can only imagine) ... it's far too stimulating and leaves me feeling out of body, over worked, and far too excited ... think air particles bouncing off the walls, that's how I feel with Coffee. Although on occasion I'll join my Persian husband for a coffee high. With Cacao I do feel enlivened, though I still feel anchored although very present and I can still sleep well. With the Cacao decoction the home smells delicious, the aromas or terpenes and essential oils present in this fruit are sensual and appetizing.
I simply feel good with this medicinal food! During my last menses which started on the full moon lasted only 4 days with ease as I sipped Cacao the entire time which is rich in magnesium, an essential mineral known to ease PMS and menstrual cramps.
Cacao is nutritive and chalk full of vitamins, minerals, and phytoconstituents that enhance the mood and it's easily felt. It feels moistening, supportive, sweet (without added sweeteners), very relaxing, sensual, and of course heart opening. As a cardio tonic this medicine seems to be helping with immense grief as well.
The Cacao I sip is from the 50 pounds I order from Auntie Juanita, the Ke'che Mayan farmer we met in Belize in 2021. The quality is tremendous and has deep meaning.