Rhythms & Visions Full Moon Cacao Ceremony

Full Moon Cacao Ceremony ~ Rhythms and Visions

All ages and life stages welcome (under 16s must be accompanied by a responsible adult)

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Tribal Moon Name: Full Pink Moon

This full Moon heralded the appearance of the moss pink, or wild ground phlox - one of the first spring flowers. It is also known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and the Fish Moon - Farmer's Almanac

Astrology: Full Moon in Scorpio

We gather together in the moon lodge for a cacao ceremony in honour and celebration of this full moon in scorpio. This watery sign is full of intensity; ruler of extremes, of power and control and of psychic and mystical phenomenon, including reincarnation. Scorpio is said to be the shamana of the zodiac illuminating our deepest shadows and our highest truth for the purpose of processing, healing and transformation. The perfect night to come together for a sacred cacao ritual.

The Ceremony: Rhythms and Visions

We will gather in circle for a ceremonial receiving of cacao followed by drumming, the singing of icaros (song to the cacao plant), guided meditation, stillness and movements to soften and release tension. Our ceremony will be spacious and open allowing plenty of time for the plant to work its magic and for your experience to be personal and intuitive. We will close with deep rest and tap into our innate visioning capacity as women with a Vision Quest Yoga Nidra.

(this ceremony will still be a worthwhile experience without ingesting cacao)

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Rhythms

There is something incredibly powerful about women gathering together in sacred space. Here we can show up exactly as we are and feel nurtured, supported and understood. In a world of predictability and restraint we are reminded of our innate cyclical and feeling natures and are invited to explore a life lived at an intuitive pace.

In the sanctuary of the moon lodge away from the distractions and demands of the day to day we reconnect to the rhythmic pulse of our inner metronome, reaffirming our connection with the inner and outer rhythms that guide and inform our very being.

Visions

The moon lodge was traditionally a place of retreat where women would go to surrender to menstruation in the support of sisterhood. It is here that the women would receive visions and messages for the community. Retreating and surrendering to the dreaminess of our bleed gave way to our innate ability to vision quest.

Dreaming and times of dreaminess are healing; dreams provide access to our unconscious and help us find clarity, answers, signs and signals that we might not hear or see in our every day consciousness. Neglecting this time of dreaminess is detrimental to our health. The symptoms of dream deprivation and rest deprivation at menstruation are almost identical. We need to dream and we need to rest and when we’re bleeding we need to dream and rest even more than usual. Around this time our REM dreaming increases and if ignored can show up as premenstrual tension in the daytime.

Cacao

As part of our full moon women’s circle we are going to be using cacao to facilitate a deeper dive. Theobroma Cacao, Cacao’s full name, is derived from the Greek for the ‘food of the gods’ and was originally used by the Mayans and Aztecs in ceremony and ritual. Cacao is a gentle yet powerful plant medicine with vasodilatory properties, which can manifest in feelings of softening and heart opening, revealing a deeper and more authentic connection to ourselves, others and nature.

Cacao contains the highest concentration of antioxidants and magnesium of any food in the world, rich in chromium, theobromine, manganese, zinc, copper, iron, vitamin C, omega-6 fatty acids, tryptophan, serotonin, and more.

Cacao is a highly effective natural energy enhancer and aphrodisiac.

Cacao contains PEA, a chemical that we produce in our bodies when we fall in love. PEAs also play a role in increasing focus and alertness. Anandamide is an endorphin that the human body naturally produces after exercise. Anandamide is known as the bliss chemical as it is released while we are feeling joy. It has only been found in one plant - cacao.

(information from Cacao Mama)

Contraindications

• Antidepressants that use MAO inhibitors

• Serious heart conditions (increases heart rate and is a vasodilator)

• Pregnant/breastfeeding/low body weight (lower dose/1oz)

• Can be a laxative

• Stimulant (can keep you up at night)

Giving back:

These gatherings help to raise funds for our chosen charity: TreeSisters.

Planting trees and supporting the women planting them across the globe.

www.treesisters.org

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LOGISTICS

Booking:

Register online and pay via BACS or Paypal. To pay via BACS select manual payment, note down bank details and transfer. The bank details will also be emailed to you.

Exchange: £25 (includes ceremonial grade cacao)

Please ask for concessions/child prices

Schedule:

17:30-18:00 - Arrivals

18:00-21:00 - Cacao ceremony

21:00-21:30 - Winding down and sharing of offerings

(if you can't make it from work for 17:30 arrivals, 18:00 will be totally ok!)

What to bring:

• Mug for cacao

• Journal and pen (or pen and paper)

• Cushion/bolster/blankets

• Bottle of water

• A nourishing and healthy food offering or a delight for the senses to share with the group if you're staying on afterwards

*veggie/vegan food, flowers, incense, poems, song, crystals, candles, something you’ve made, anything at all!

Detailed joining instructions will be sent out closer to the date to all those booked on.

To read what women have said about this work: https://www.moonforestflow.com/testimonials

To read more about Moon Forest Flow's offerings: https://www.moonforestflow.com/about

Please do get in contact if you have any questions at all or to be added to the mailing list for future gatherings and retreats.

Carly xx

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MORE INFORMATION

Full Moon Circles:

There is something incredibly powerful about women gathering under the moon in their softness, vulnerability and power. To have a space in this world of restraint to show emotion, to speak our truth and our doubts and be held in the full support of our sisters however we show up is completely invaluable and calls us home to ourselves.

Lunar Women’s Circles (Moon Lodges) are an ancient tradition stemming from a time when we shared so much more of life with each other than we do today. We would forage, cook and rear our children together and we made time to celebrate what it meant to be a woman by honouring rites of passage, childbirth, fertility, menopause and the cycles of natures, especially those of the moon.

Women intuitively know how to heal and nourish each other making this time spent together essential for our wellbeing, allowing for rest, recalibration, reconnection and rewilding.

Dress:

You are welcome to wear clothes that make you feel comfortable, beautiful, sensual, wild, tribal, relaxed, sleepy whatever you feel is right for you. Pyjamas, simple comfortable clothing, jungle jane attire or evening dress are all totally welcome and invited.

If you want to get creative, decorative, elaborate you are very welcome but the most important thing is that you are comfortable and feel good.

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Inclusivity policy:

Moon circles are family friendly and open to women of all ages and circumstances.

In times passed we would have shared so much more of life with each other than we do now and this would have included the raising of children. Our children would have been welcomed into the lodge and raised communally, garnering the invaluable knowledge and wisdom of the ebb and flow of all things. This inclusive and open environment is crucially important to the rewilding of life and as such these moon lodge gatherings are open to women of all ages and circumstances.

Whether bleeding or not, with or without a womb, pregnant, with small ones in tow, breastfeeding, peri-menopausal, menopausal or in the wisdom years. We all have our own unique wisdom to bring and stories to tell. This passing down of wisdom through the generations is an ancient practice without which we suffer. The reinstatement of the moon lodge provides a valuable space of healing, learning, nurturing, retreat and replenishment, a space that is more crucially essential to our wellbeing than ever before.

Children are welcome to play, read, draw, colour in or participate in the circle as you feel right. I just ask that you are happy to be fully responsible for them and keep them safe. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.

Moon circles are women only.

Many, many women have suffered abuse in some way whether mental, physical or sexual and for these women it is crucially important to have a safe space to explore regaining trust in their bodies, minds, emotions and others. It is for this reason that these gatherings are women only but this does not mean that we are man haters or anything of the kind! We are just coming together in the safety and security of our sisterhood to relearn how to trust and love so that we might better trust and love in our intimate relationships, families and friendships.

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Cyclical Work Without a Cycle

Some of our work refers to the monthly menstrual cycle but this does not exclude women without a monthly bleed, we are all cyclical beings with or without a visible inner rhythm.

Working without a monthly bleed:

This circle is open to all women whether bleeding or not. If you are not currently working with a monthly bleed then your connection to the moon grows ever stronger as you look to the skies to guide you.

The wisdom years:

If peri-menopausal, menopausal or in the wisdom years then you may have a life of cyclical wisdom to share with us and we welcome your wild wisdom. You also become an expert of the inner autumn, often one of the most challenging seasons for many women and so your wisdom on this is also hugely welcomed. This work can also help to retrospectively shed light on a life of cycles.

Working with an irregular cycle:

If your cycle is irregular, know that often there is a larger cycle within that. Charting can help. This can make it tricky to know which season you are currently in but usually there is an inner knowing. If there isn't then you can look to the moon to guide you and take your cyclical cues from her.

Hormonal contraception:

There are lots of incredibly valid reasons for needing/wanting hormonal contraception so please know that this should never exclude you from participating in menstruality work. All women are welcome in these circles. Hormonal contraception does however interrupt the natural cycles and can cut you off from the depth of emotion that arises through a monthly bleed, which can make it difficult to differentiate between inner seasons but just as the women not currently working with a bleed, your connection to the moon grows stronger as you look to the skies to guide you. You may also still feel the faint and distant call of your cycle.