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Guatemala: Cacao Ceremony

9:22 pm

Tonight we had our cacao/new moon ceremony and I left early. Ive been really tired lately and so I took my chance to leave when I could to come write and sleep early.

It started out with a ton of us sitting around a fire. Id say close to 30 or more. The people leading the cacao ceremony prepared our cacao and then sent around mugs which we sweetened with honey. They were wearing these tall pointy brimmed hats, not like a witches hat like suuuuuper pointed. Apparently it takes a lot to make cacao.

We started out with the new moon ceremony where we chanted songs and banged on drums. The woman who led this had a beautiful voice and so I didn't do much chant/singing but listened to her. Im also not much of a chanter... We then invited the four directions (NSEW) to join us by shaking our gourds in each direction after their invite. As we were doing this, I noticed that the stars were so bright and beautiful in the sky.

At this point our fire started to die and I wanted so hard to help it out but another woman came up to try and fix it. After smothering it with wood, I suggested giving it air so it can, yaknow, breathe. Then it sprung back to life and created some good heat for us!

I tried the cacao which was extremely bitter and apparently very caffeinated. I only had a sip so I could go to sleep!

Then we started passing around this feather in which we were supposed to tell what we are grateful for in the new moon and what we look forward to in the next cycle. Many people were getting really deep into this and it was taking awhile. I kept it short and sweet so it wouldn't take forever: "I met some awesome friends, met some awesome people in an awesome place." Some people giggled, which I was going for. I can't be super deep all the time especially in situations like that.

At this point I had decided to skip out but was looking for an opportune time. So while one person is giving their speech, a scorpion starts walking into our fire circle! Everyone gets up to let this thing do what it wants and I consider this the perfect time to head out.

My walk back to the cabin was lovely. It was dark and the stars were so sparkly! I couldn't wait to get in bed and have some alone time. Its a rarity here!
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