Preparation and Integration
Because this will be a powerful transformative container, we are including two online preparation ritual calls, and one integration call after the training. These calls will help you go deeper with the medicine and the cacao spirit, and support you to get the most out of your connection with Cacao.
For working as well as aspiring facilitators, the training will give you the tools, knowledge and understanding to hold surrendered rituals using Cacao as a deep teacher and guide. The training aspect of this initiation is designed to get you acquainted with facilitation as a process of creative love and surrender. You’ll also get to learn about the cultural and historical background of Cacao, so that you may feel supported in being a responsible Cacao guardian for yourself and others.
The Cacao Initiation is built up in a way that will fully allow you to connect to Cacao's energy, as well as gain all the information you need to host Cacao rituals with love and care for yourself and your participants.
All of this is held in an empowering framework created by Terra (aka Shadi Henau), Cacao ritualist, ISTA organizer and Mayan cosmology apprentice. They will be working with Simon Magnus who specializes in surrendered facilitation training and embodied intimacy work. Francesca Gentille will be our temple priestess, helping to hold an embodied shamanic container, and supporting the group in their transformational processes.
What to Expect
* Ritual Cacao drinking every day, involving hands-on preparation using special recipes. We will be drinking 4 different kinds of ceremonial grade Cacao brought directly from Guatemala by us.
* A 4-day shamanic container created to help you journey and connect deeply with Cacao as a plant teacher, designed from our experience of training over 100 Cacao practitioners in the past three years.
* Transmissions on creating ritual and space-holding for transformational processes.
* Deep dives into the use of improvisation and surrender when holding spaces.
* Live music, dance journeys and creative writing to support your process.
* Seminars on Mayan Cosmology, the socio-cultural context of Cacao, and Cacao's history.
* Tips & tricks about Cacao use and preparation.
* A wealth of insider information on how to envision, create and prepare your own Cacao events or ceremonies from start to finish.
* A supportive group environment of people experienced in the field of ritual, embodiment, sacred sexuality and body/earth-based practices.
* A deep invitation to embrace the joyful transformative journey Cacao can offer us, supported by experienced facilitators.
* Rituals to help you connect to your own sensitivity, sensuality, life force and ecstasy including space for intimacy and playful connection with others.
* Two online ritual preparation calls, and one support and integration call after the event, all included in the price.
Who Is This Training For
- For working as well as aspiring cacao practitioners to gain a powerful connection to their own inner strength and path at this time of potent change, and to up-level their capacity to sit with the powerful process that they themselves, their participants, and the world as a collective is experiencing.
- So Cacao practitioners can find a deep and nourishing connection with the medicine, and learn more about how to hold a ritual that truly honors the plant and spirit. For opening up pathways to the ancient knowledge of Guatemala (where I live) and the Mayan spiritual-energetic heritage of the Mayan people (which I study with a local elder).
- For the Earth to regain connection with us humans, and vice versa. For assisting you in regaining a deeper connection with the indigenous and untamed part of yourself, the one that is empowered in their sensitivity, graceful in their sovereignty and who carries the honor of being an Earth‘s citizen with dignity.
What People Are Saying
"Amazing, generous, full, high-quality content! Verbal, experiential, and formal delivery through the course manuals was all stellar!"
- Casey, California
"The facilitators were so open, honest, authentic, and so much fun. The training was a true gift; it was so much more than I expected!"
- Henriëtte, Holland
"For me it was really easy to feel safe and involved in this course, with the facilitators and with the content. I love witnessing you in the power of who you are. You have a very special and authentic way of hosting circles, and this inspires me. I'm very pleased to get to know you and the work you are providing to the world. Much gratitude."
- Petronella, Holland
"Personally it altered my conscious awareness, from always up in my head, to bringing the center of my awareness to my body, all the way down to my hips. It has provided me a path of service to the world, enabling people to experience their love for selves and others."
- Erik, California
"If you would like to meet the spirit of Cacao and hear the calling to work with her, Shadi is your teacher. After 3 times of working with them - 2 times online and once during a weeklong retreat in Holland - I have experienced that every time there are deeper layers in the wisdom they share.
- Monique, Holland
"The facilitators are very inspired speakers; you can feel that they share their own experiences with you!"
- Irene
A Note From Terra
It’s been such an honor to have witnessed the way people open up and connect over the past 7 years of hosting Cacao ceremonies. I’ve witnessed folks embrace such powerful connection with other humans, with nature, with spirit, and with source. The Cacao medicine is a great ally in creating connection of all sorts. During this training, we create a space for you to help you connect your directive (yang) and receptive (yin) sides, as well as your spiritual/Etheric to your material/Earth sides. From a place of balance and inner connection, we’ll also create practices and rituals where we can connect with other beings and celebrate the playful and inspired energy Cacao offers together.
Revolutionary amounts of ceremonial cacao have been consumed in recent years. Cacao ceremonies are widespread now, and so many people have been helped or transformed by this gentle and loving plant that also has a definite ‘punch’ to it. Cacao truly is becoming a revolutionary medicine for mind, body and spirit, which helps people to become more aligned and empowered if used respectfully and with intention. In order to assist aspiring or active Cacao facilitators to really get the best out of their practice with Cacao, we are hosting the 4-day transformational Cacao Initiation in 2023.
The Time is Now
- Do you connect with ceremonial Cacao and feel like you want to work with it in a responsible and creative way?
- Are you ready to create a potent and sentient connection with the power of your Heart?
- Do you feel ready to regain a deeper connection with the Earth, with ritual and with the body?
- Do you want to learn about guiding a ritual with respect for the Cacao medicine, and learn to hold space for your process and the process of others?
Register Now
7 Early Bird Investment of $1100
Regular Training Investment of $1300
(Tuition includes Room, Board, Taxes and Fees)
Place Your Deposit Now
You can reserve your spot immediately by placing a $500 deposit by hitting the PayPal button below.
7 Early Bird Investment of $1100
Regular Training Investment of $1300
(Tuition includes Room, Board, Taxes and Fees)
Meet Your Facilitators
Shadi Terra - Lead Facilitator
Shadi grew up in Belgium and has been living in Guatemala, in deep connection with the land, for about 8 years. They traveled nomadically all over Latin America for many years, soaking in deeply the land-based cultures of this planet while reclaiming their own body's wisdom and ways. Shadi spent quite some time in India during which they trained to be a Yoga teacher and Reiki master. They traveled to numerous sacred sites all over Europe and the Americas, in reverence of the ancient knowing they offer, and started hosting ceremonial travels for groups back in 2018.
Shadi identifies as gender fluid, pansexual and ecosexual, and feels most at home in nature. They love expressing themselves through devotional singing, dancing, in service at rituals, and while guiding groups with the ancestral Mayan Cacao medicine, in which they have been initiated by local elders.
Shadi has been studying Mayan cosmology with wisdom keeper Francisco Puac for about 5 years, and has sat in countless Mayan fire rituals at the ceremonial sites of Guatemala, nourishing a deep connection to the land and its wisdom. They have journeyed extensively in Cacao ritual with Cacao shaman Keith Wilson at Lake Atitlan since 2014, and continue to share the powerful Cacao medicine in their own unique way.
Shadi organizes and assists ISTA (International School of Temple Arts) trainings in Guatemala, Mexico and Belgium.
Simon Magnus - Co-Facilitator
Simon grew up in the UK and is currently living in Amsterdam. He runs intimacy and sexuality workshops and coaching that invites people to become more creative and playful in things that they would normally take for granted.
Simon works to bring his courage into his work and offers from a place of vulnerability which allows for creativity and surrender to flourish in his participants.
He has been running workshops for 20 years training people in improvisation and creative inspiration. His initial work was in interactive transformational theatre where he worked particularly with people living with mental health issues and children. He discovered that these two client groups particularly trained him to be spontaneous, unattached and joyful in his work (even when dealing with deep and life changing things).
Over the last 6 years he studied somatic trauma work and has opened his work up to intimacy and sexuality. This is his passion. Something that was once a private passion has become a service to people, particularly queer men. The bringing together of creative improvisation work alongside interpersonal healing work is a very natural fit.
He has been working creating surrendered facilitation spaces for many years and running trainings for other facilitators is a particular passion
Over the years he has been a theatre director of interactive, immersive and gaming experiences, written a graphic novel and facilitated (as well as trained facilitators of) many many workshops, events and retreats. At the heart of everything he’s created has been a commitment to creativity, flow and play.
For more information about Simon check out:
Francesca Gentille - Temple Priestess
Francesca Gentille is a Certified Clinical Sexolgist, Relationship Counselor, Radio Host, award winning author, and expert in the use of BDSM and Tantra as therapeutic modalities. Priestess Francesca has been leading group ritual in Temples of Love, Sacred Eros, Sensual Healing, Divine Connection, Ritual Theatre, Tantric Kink, the Sacred Primal, the Hidden Self, and Healing for over 30 years. Her 12 moon Certification is called The Tantric Shamanic Somatic Healer Training.
Francesca began Priestess training in 1985, the same year that she entered the Church of All Worlds community meeting Oberon and Morning Glory at the sacred land of Annwfn. In addition to being ordained through the Church of All Worlds, she is an ordained Isian Priestess, initiated daughter of Yemanja, initiated Mystoi of the Eleusinian Mysteries, 3rd Degree Priestess of Love & Eros, initiated Ishtarian Priestess, an initiated Priestess of Persephone, and certified in the One Spirit Cacao Lineage.
In San Francisco, she co-leads The Temple of Shadows; Sacred BDSM Temple. She is the founder of The Sacred Courtesan School of Mystery and Power. Contributing author to "Pop Goes the Witch", "The Marriage of Sex & Spirit" and "Creating Circles and Ceremonies", as well as quoted expert in "Rites of Pleasure."
For more on Francesca check out,