Cacao and Ecstatic Dance Merida, Mexico 27.4.25

 Last night I found myself at a Cacao ceremony and an ecstatic dance experience.....

I was a little unprepared and didn't completely understand what was going on.  My friend Claudia explained to me that the cacao ceremony was not just hot chocolate but a sacred ritual practiced for centuries, facilitating spiritual connection, healing, and self-discovery. The cacao is prepared in a ritualistic way with prayers and song. They believe the cacao is a natural medicine from the earth.

The ceremony is led by a knowledgeable guide and includes a ceremonial cacao elixir made from sustainably-sourced cacao beans.

During the service the leader filled a cup with the hot, unsweetened and aromatic cacao and passed it to her neighbour in the circle saying  "I give this with love, receive it with gratitude" and then each person passes it  to their neighbour saying the same until everyone has one. a musician then played instruments and sang beautifully while we sipped slowly and thoughtfully. Claudia said the Cacao usually just makes her laugh, i didn't really experience anything other than  a fit of giggles thinking 'if our children could see us now' as we danced around the pool!!!

After the ceremony the musician again played the flute and joined with 2 other musicians and we were invited to respond to the music however we felt our body's wanted to respond. The music started very slowly and i found myself doing stretches  as I would do for yoga - we had been sitting on the floor for an hour!

Gradually the music built in tempo and with the doors open to a courtyard, the 20 or so participants started to drift outside into a wonderful walled area with a pool in the middle and a beautiful old tress next to what looked like a ruined building, with a more modern building at the back.

The musicians were extremely talented and intuitive, they  were stationed in the ruined building and the woman playing the flute joined a wonderful precisionist and an amazing guitarists. For over an hour they build beautiful melodies by layering rhythms, guitar,  flute and singing using the same sort of kit Ed Sheeran uses to lay down tracks and build a song. The vocals seemed to be sounds and words without meaning 

As the tempo build I was having a great time, practicing my tango moves, salsa and general wonderful dancing, it was a bit unusual  that we didn't interact with other people during the dance. At one point I was shin deep in the pool having a dance - fabulous when it was still 28*  and Claudia and I and a friend Alexis had a sit down in the courtyard to watch the musicians and we even had a sing along ans the melodies were simple and repetitive. The evening came to an end  with a time of gratitude and the woman leading the evening had a dance and sing  around the pool while playing a borogh -like hand drum.

An interesting and enjoyable evening. 

I was invited to have some cactus or mushrooms by an attendee but politely declined.