Connecting, Cleansing and Healing with the Nature Spirits: A Cacao and Gong Ceremony

Cacao & Sound Healing
Written By Triston Wallace

There are moments in ceremony when you realise your body isn't just yours. It belongs to the elements -- to the water beneath the soil, the fire of the midday sun, the wind that carries seeds between continents, the dark earth underfoot. I have been working with this knowing for over 27 years, apprenticing with indigenous shamans from the Andes to the Amazon, and still -- every time we do this practice together -- I feel the profound rightness of reconnecting ourselves to what we are actually made of.

This ceremony is a full elemental cleanse: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether, drawn through each chakra in turn, circulated through the whole body, and released -- carrying with them all the hucha (heavy, stuck energy) that no longer serves us. We work with Mama Cacao, that extraordinary Mayan plant spirit medicine, and with the living sound of the gongs to shake up every cell and realign our energy into flow. You can come to this practice at any time of year, in any season. The elements are always available to you.

This particular journey draws on a technique I was gifted by the Kiro shamans high in the Peruvian Andes. It works with the chakra system in a way that differs slightly from the Ayurvedic map you may know -- here, the root chakra connects to Water, the sacral to Earth, the solar plexus and heart together to Fire (the Sun), the throat to Air and the Moon, and the crown and third eye to the cosmic net of light. The result is a full-body rainbow, a mixing bowl of elemental energies -- healing, cleansing, and ultimately returning everything back to its source.

Working with Mama Cacao: What This Plant Spirit Does for You

I discovered ceremonial cacao almost by accident -- I arrived at what I thought was a retreat, and on the final morning, they gave us cacao at breakfast. As a herbalist with nearly 30 years of practice, I was astonished that I had never encountered this medicine before. The Mayans teach that cacao is a medicine for the whole Earth, a plant that helps us remember we are one. They share it freely and joyfully, and I have been honoured to pass those teachings on.

Ceremonial cacao -- grown with intention and care, not commercially processed -- works on multiple levels. Physically, it increases circulation to the brain, supporting the awakening of the third eye and improving communication between the brain's hemispheres. It opens and expands the heart chakra both energetically and physiologically, flooding the system with oxytocin (the love hormone), serotonin and dopamine. It is also a powerful detoxifier and cleanser: it supports the stomach, nourishes the blood, and is particularly supportive for the menstrual cycle.

If you are on medication that affects serotonin or other neurotransmitters, I recommend a lower dose -- perhaps half a cup -- so that the cacao works in harmony with your medicines rather than against them. Otherwise, it is simply chocolate: warm, nourishing and safe. Drink it with gratitude and intention, and it will meet you where you are.

What Is Hucha, and Why Do We Cleanse It?

Hucha is a Quechua word for heavy or dense energy -- the kind that accumulates when life gets stuck. In the Andean shamanic worldview, there is only one energy; it becomes unhealthy when it stops flowing. Emotional pain, old fears, unprocessed grief, physical tension, the residue of difficult relationships -- all of this can lodge in the layers of our energy field and eventually in the body itself. We have plenty of language for this in the West: heartbroken, stabbed in the back, a weight on my shoulders.

Shamanic cleansing practice releases hucha by drawing in high-vibration energies -- the elements, the light of the cosmos, the love of Mama Cacao -- to shake up stuck patterns and carry them out through the body's portals: the hands, the feet, the chakras. Mother Earth receives what we release and transforms it, just as she turns fallen leaves into rich compost, or carbon deposits into diamonds.

This is why shamans cleanse constantly -- before and after ceremony, before and after healing others, every single day. This is a preventative practice as much as a healing one. When we are in flow, we have vitality. When energy stagnates, dis-ease follows -- emotional, spiritual, physical. The practice I share in this ceremony can be done in a shortened form daily, or in this expanded, hour-long ceremonial version whenever you need a deep cleanse.

The Elemental Journey: Drawing the Five Elements Through Your Chakras

This Peruvian technique asks you to become a living mixing bowl -- drawing each element into its corresponding chakra, letting it flood your body, shake up whatever needs releasing, then drain away through all the portals simultaneously, carrying hucha with it. The elements are then gifted to one another: the Earth is offered to the Water; the Sun receives the energy of the Moon; the cosmos is shared with the soil. Everything in circulation, everything interconnected.

We begin at the Crown, drawing in a cascade of white light to prepare the body. Then, starting at the Root chakra, we send a tail of energy down into the earth, searching for an underground water source -- a river, an ocean, an aquifer. We draw that water up, letting it flood every cell and dislodge old hucha, then release it back. From the sacral chakra, we connect to the fertile body of the Earth. From the solar plexus and heart together, we reach toward the Sun, drawing in fire and warmth. From the throat, we connect with Grandmother Moon and the winds. Finally, through the third eye and crown, we drink in the net of cosmic light.

By the time all five elements are running simultaneously -- cycling, blending, draining and renewing -- the body is a rainbow. You may notice particular areas that welcome each element most keenly, or places where the energy works most powerfully. Trust whatever you notice. The gongs support the whole process by shaking up energy at a cellular level, helping even the most stubborn hucha to release.

Calling In and Closing Sacred Space: The Mayan Way

Because we are working with Mama Cacao -- a Mayan plant medicine -- we call in sacred space in the Mayan tradition, beginning in the East. Each direction carries its own elemental teaching and its own spirit guide: the East holds Fire, the dawn, and the spirits of Condor and Eagle, who carry our prayers to the heavens. The South is Water, warmth, the passion of becoming, and the wisdom of Snake -- who shows us how to shed old skins to grow. The West is Earth, the dusk, the going within, and Jaguar -- who teaches us how to face the shadow with bravery. The North is Air, the bright moon, clarity of mind, and Hummingbird -- who shows us how to trust the journey home.

We then honour Mother Earth beneath us, Father Sky above, the Cosmic Relations -- Grandmother Moon, Grandfather Sun, the Star Nations -- and finally Great Spirit, the creation energy that flows through all things. The ceremony can be opened and closed in any season, at any time of day. I always offer the cacao to each direction before drinking it myself -- it feels right to share the medicine with our witnesses before we receive it.

Closing is just as important as opening. We thank and release each direction in turn, draw back our energetic filaments from each element and chakra, and seal ourselves in a protective bubble -- a sparkling rainbow of all the elements, reflecting what we have become. This is not a passive closing; it is an act of integration. We own what we create at that fine, energetic level.

How the Gongs Support Your Healing

The gongs in this ceremony are doing far more than creating atmosphere. Sound at these frequencies penetrates every atom of the body -- shaking, loosening and realigning at a cellular level. I like to think of it this way: we are all crystals, but very complex ones. The gong's vibration can help us move from being a solid block of ice -- dense, rigid, lacking pattern -- to a snowflake: each molecule in its perfect, beautiful place. The gong works alongside the cacao and the elemental practice, amplifying the release of hucha and helping the body's energy return to coherence.

During the journey, you don't need to concentrate hard or track everything. The intention is set, the elements are moving, and the gongs are supporting the process. You simply receive and release, receive and release. You may drift into a deeply relaxed, altered state -- that is exactly where the healing happens. Trust the process.

How to Prepare for This Ceremony

  • Prepare your ceremonial cacao in advance -- you can find my free recipe in the Ceremonial Cacao Recipe Book (link below)

  • If you are on SSRIs or other serotonin-affecting medications, use approximately half a standard ceremonial dose.

  • Find a comfortable space where you can sit or lie undisturbed for approximately one hou.r

  • Dim the lights or use a sleep mask to close off the outside world and deepen your inner journey. ey

  • Have a journal nearby to record experiences, visions, or sensations after the ceremony.ony

  • You can pause the video at any point if you need extra time to prepare your cacao or settle into your space

  • This ceremony can be done without cacao -- simply set your intention to connect with the elements and proceed.

  • After the journey, allow time for gentle self-care: rest, warmth, nourishing food, and plenty of water

Continue Your Journey with Shamanic Practice

If this ceremony has opened something in you and you'd like to explore further, I'd love to support you. Here are some ways we can continue together:

Further Reading

Triston Wallace
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Connecting with our Ether Element: A Cacao & Gong Journey