Many ancient American myths surround the origin of the cacao tree and how cacao or chocolate came into the world. Cacao comes from "cacahuatl" and can be translated as "cacao bean"; chocolate comes from "xocóatl" and means "bitter water". Both terms are Aztec and come from the Nahuatl language - a language that is still spoken by about 1.5 million people in Central America today.

A myth tells how Quetzalcoatl ("luminous tail-feathered serpent"), a deity of the Toltecs, Aztecs and Maya, lost his beloved princess in an enemy attack. She was killed because she did not want to betray to the enemy a treasure that Quetzalcoatl had entrusted to her. Her blood soaked and fertilized the land where she died. Quetzalcoatl gave birth there to the cacao tree, whose fruit was bitter like the suffering his wife had endured for love, strong like the virtue she had shown in adversity, and reddish like the blood she had shed.

A myth that already on the linguistic level impressively explains the originally bitter taste of chocolate, the blood-red color of the cacao fruit and the proximity of Theobrama cacao to the pre-Columbian gods. The myth also tells us about the boundless love - beyond death & represented in the cacao. ...

For thousands of years, the ancient cultures of South America have used cacao ceremonially to get closer to the gods, to gain physical and spiritual strength, to shed fears and find orientation in life. The spirit is freed by cacao, we open ourselves and let our inner voice speak through the cacao: A voice that guides you on your path and allows you to express yourself in purity & truth and be who you really are. Just as the myth of Quetzalcoatl and the birth of the cacao tree teaches us: from the bitterness of suffering comes the sweetness of life. In cacao you find hope; you experience gratitude for the beautiful things and events in life. A love for life and yourself; a love that (re)connects you with the universe, wholeness and oneness with all that was, is and will be. ...

Eva and Elias Interview

3rd of June 2022  |

The Long History Of Cacao Briefly Told

3rd of June 2022  | Hanna Krause