Perhaps MORE than you ever wanted to know about the history and lore of this plant medicine so crucial in the human experience. Cacao and chocolate since ancient times have created a connection between the natural and supernatural, between the human and the divine. It is called theobroma, “Food of the Gods”, and it is said to come from the rain forest when it is needed to restore harmony. The pre-Columbian cacao trade brought the rise of a wealthy class of seagoing merchants, with a trade calculated in cacao beans. At various times it has been forbidden to children, to women, to commoners, and yet this divine medicine may unify diverse people to bring a global spiritual awakening.

Cacao Timeline (excerpt from book)

• Current genetic research
  dates the use of cacao to over 2000 BC.

OLMEC

• The cultivation and
  use of cacao and chocolate, believed to have begun by the Olmec
  peoples of Mexico, dates back to approximately 1500 BC.

MAYA

• There is detailed
  evidence of Mayan use of cacao and chocolate dating as far back as 600 BC.
• The Maya believed that
  kakaw (cacao) was discovered by the gods in a mountain
  that also contained other foods and medicines to be used by them. The
  story is similar to Hanuman’s retrieval from Mount Dunagiri of foods, medicines – and the mountain itself!
  – in the Hindu epic, Ramayana.
• According to Maya
  mythology, Kukulcan, the Plumed or Horned Serpent, gave
  cacao to the Maya after humans were created from maize by the divine
  grandmother goddess Xmucane.

·       The
Maya civilization covered portions of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.

• The Maya celebrated
  an annual festival in April to honor their cacao god, Ek Chuah,
  an event that included animal sacrifices (a dog with cacao-like coloring
  and markings), offerings of cacao, feathers and incense, and an exchange
  of gifts.
• Many of their
  creation myths in the Popol Vuh refer to cacao.
• The Maya considered
  cacao to be a gift from the Gods and it was also the food of the Gods.
• There are carvings
  and paintings on ceramics that depict the sacred connections to the Gods.
• One of the hero
  twins from the Popol Vuh is hunting near a cacao tree, and there is a rare
  image of the Cacao God on a drinking vessel.
• On many drinking and
  burial vessels are scenes and depicting the use of cacao and chocolate. Many
  of the burial vessels contained chocolate residues.
• Strong associations
  between chocolate and human blood were common among the Mayan and Aztecs.
• Chocolate was
  considered the blood of the Earth and there was a sacred association with
  Human blood. Humans and the Earth were thereby related in a sacred manner.
• During “baptism”,
  ground cacao beans mixed with pure rainwater from the hollows of trees and
  ground dried flowers were used to anoint the foreheads, faces, hands and
  toes of boys and girls.
• Ek Chuah became the god of merchants. Travel was
  dangerous and the merchants went armed. At night, they burned copal
  incense as an offering to Ek
  Chuah in hopes of
  securing his protection. Since Mesoamerica had no pack animals, everything
  had to be carried on the merchant’s back, or that of his servants or
  slaves. Weight and bulk were important factors and therefore traveling
  merchants favored low-weight, high-value goods. Cacao beans fit the bill,
  and even came to be used as currency.
• Chocolate was used
  in betrothal and marriage ceremonies, particularly among the nobles and
  wealthy Mayans.
• Among the
  contemporary Lacandon Maya in eastern Chiapas, Mexico, a sacred chocolate
  drink is made and added to corn gruel or a ritual honey mead. This mixture
  is then placed in special clay effigy ‘gods pots’ on an altar in a special
  worship house.

·       Cacao
can only grow in southern parts of the tropics, meaning in the Maya-controlled
lands. The demand for cacao enabled an extensive Mayan marine and riverine trading
system, extending deeply into North America and the Orinoco-Amazon basins.

– Brian Wilkes