{ part 3.} Let me speak to the importance of making offering to the land, the plant people, the tree people, the rock people, the animals, the water, the fire, the air, the ancestors, our helpers in the un seen. A return to wild means understanding our relationship to nature in a language not of our own, it is one of heart, the space between, it is one of deep quite reference, it is one of totality and honour. We must participate with the lands dance, we cannot take without offering back, and we must not take more then what is offered, we must listen for the nuances of when to keep things to ourselves & when it’s okay to share. One of my biggest learnings in my Shamanic path so far is working within your bio region, the use of medicines from the land you live, and with this understanding I’m beginning to question my reasons for working with ixcacao in ceremony & spirt. When I lived in Hawaii I did weave some of her indigenous magic into my personal medicine so in a way maybe I feel a little worthy to share her wisdoms as I have in service over the last 3 years. Ixcacao has had a huge impact on my life, I haven’t until now shared a lot of this part of my earth wisdom story (for many reasons, as a lot is private & sensitive story medicine) Being only given the go-ahead recently to now share but some; Ixcacao isn’t just she, she is also he. Sacred Cacao medicina in every way holds both masculine & feminine, and therefore weaves this understanding in us, with the rising popularity I must set a few things straight and share her song in the hope that this plant spirit will be respected in the light but also the shadow that xocolatl holds. Ixcacao isn’t just what we have fabricated through a quasi-spiritual western incarnation and the popularity of social media, ixcacao’s shadow side isn’t that known or understood because of the separation, the plant song being translated through the human mind rather then the plant heart. It saddens me, and has led me to shift the way I serve this plant spirit as I see the misappropriation, misuse and egoic need to pull her spirit back into that of serving the us in a superficial popular impermanence, I see this stemming from a lack of understanding, not from a desire to harm, and so I speak on behalf of the plant to bring awareness not to offend.
xocolatl, ixcacao’s ancient ancestral lineage is threaded through the feminine energy of fertility, bounty, harvest and the gift of nourishing & feeding the all regardless of their status, but the story doesn’t end there, the masculine experience of this plant spirit is one of persecution, abduction, suppression and human sacrifice, the diva had to experience the masculine story to hold the space for the entirety of the medicines narrative, it is one of the oldest recorded sacred plants and deserves equal respect. Xocolatl, ixcacao asks to be seen in their totality both is light & shadow We must experience the story of harvest & growth but also that of sacrifice & our own suppression historically, ancestrally, personally & globally as ixcacao is one of our plant allies that holds the frequency of Mother Earth so well it becomes a vehicle for our blueprint to heal in such a way it’s almost as if xocolatl, ixcacao somehow had a say in our human creation story But her song tells us that we must initiate, and that takes time, there is always a physical expression and what lies in the unseen, the non ordinary reality and from a nature spirituality or animist viewpoint we believe every single manifestation on this earth holds spirit and therefore must be held in reverence. This medicina is about the collective healing not just the individual. And so the diva speaks, In both forms; If this understanding hasn’t yet landed for you, then this isn’t yet your time, check if it’s ego, personal desire & possibly even consciously or unconsciously because of its popularity that drives the desire to partake in this earth medicina xocolatl, ixcacao song shows us it’s not something to become an addict too; as that’s bound him(her) to our human ancestral story in such a way we are not able to hold her(him) in absolute unconditional totality as an expression of the great mother; For our healing as well as the healing of trauma from the land we must inherently know & intergrate all. - Artwork by BK the artist