Ancient eating eyeballs ritual7/2/2023 ![]() ![]() "The more you breathe, the more clear the mind and the body become." Then, I laid down and began the breathing circuit, my teeth and gums already buzzing from the cacao I'd just consumed.Ībout 10 minutes in, my hands and forearms started tingling, and about halfway through the ceremony, I began to feel a highly uncomfortable, swirling, pins-and-needles feeling around my solar plexus. "With the breath, we move all of the energy and bring it to the surface," Bojórquez said. She chose a simple, circular breathing pattern for us, inhaling into our bellies and then into our chests, and exhaling out of our mouths in an exaggerated sigh. We then drank our (extremely bitter) cacao while Bojórquez explained the breathwork portion of the ceremony. Mine was simple: To clear any energetic blocks keeping me from feeling fully open and able to connect with others, romantically or otherwise. Next, Bojórquez asked us to bring the cacao cup to our hearts and set an intention for the ceremony. "What thoughts do you have? What energy comes or goes?" My thoughts were tied up in all of the work I hadn't finished that day, but as I focused on the cacao, I began to relax-its rich, hot-cocoa smell transporting me to a vignette of a winter day spent wrapped in blankets, and lounging in front of a Hallmark movie. "Simply allow the spirit of the cacao, the energy of the cacao, to be here," she said. If meditation, journaling, and long talks with smart friends couldn't turn my attitude around, I reasoned that maybe a thousands-of-years-old Central American rite that Olmec, Aztec, and Mayan elites leaned on to connect with the gods and promote good health could do the trick.Īfter pouring us each a small cup of cacao, Bojórquez instructed us to close our eyes and hold it in front of our bellies. None of my go-to self-improvement tools have helped me shake the jadedness clouding my usually optimistic spirit, and my emotional walls have started impacting every area of my life. Yet, in the past 24 months, I've experienced nothing but disappointment in the romantic department. I had just passed the two-year anniversary of a breakup from a serious relationship, having left the situation feeling confident I would meet someone better suited for me. On a mystical level, raw cacao is said to open the heart (and not just because it's a main ingredient in chocolate), and my heart was definitely in need of some healing. And when I got the opportunity to experience the practice for myself at The Cape, A Thompson Hotel in Los Cabos, Mexico, that works with local facilitators to offer cacao ceremonies for guests, it felt positively fated. ![]() I first learned about the ancient tradition of the cacao ceremony-wherein you drink hot, ceremonial-grade cacao in a ritual setting-from new friends I met at a yoga retreat. ![]()
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