Becoming the Bridge
Hybrid Cacao Stewardship Training
A multi-cultural & integrative stewardship training for practitioners & clinicians in service to their community to deepen with cacao's ancestral wisdom & bridge it into the modern world
August 8th - October 3rd, 2024
Become a bridge between the ancestral and the modern as a steward of cacao
Has cacao impacted your life and you want to share it in a reciprocal, inclusive, integral way with your community?
Are you edging into a new level of leadership and desire support from elders & teachers from varying cultures to help build a stronger foundation with cacao?
Do you desire to support your clients and community by incorporating the healing power of cacao to your offerings and want to make sure you do so with a depth and breadth of wisdom?
Do you desire to create a deeper relationship with cacao so that you can share & demonstrate its many emotional, health, physical and spiritual benefits?
Do you care deeply about dismantling oppression and colonization, and desire loving, empowering conversations around this topic as we collectively liberate ourselves from the shadows of late stage capitalistic, New Age spirituality?
Then we invite you to our 4th round of Becoming the Bridge Cacao Stewardship Training.
“When mankind gets out of harmony with the natural world, cacao comes from the rainforest to open people’s hearts and re-establish the balance”
— INDIGENOUS PROVERB
Why we created this training
Cacao is a plant medicine that is a major ally for humanity in this moment of time.
Because of cacao’s gentle, but powerful way of working with the spirit, emotions, the body, and the mind, it’s a gentle teacher & lifelong companion.
Not only is cacao a heart opening plant, but it is also a master plant that you can diet in the Amazon, as well as an Entheogen, meaning it connects to you to the divine within.
We find cacao to be a “bridge” plant that helps people to remember and re-member what is natural, subtle, ancestral, heart based, gentle, eternal in a world where we’re pushed constantly to move at an unnatural pace, in a productivity-based, late stage capitalistic culture void of spirit and subtlety.
In addition to being a plant of remembrance, cacao has natural anti-depressant qualities and has been researched in easing anxiety. Plus, it contains hundreds compounds and minerals that are important to our bodies, yet missing in our modern diets. It’s truly an ally for modern day humanity.
This program is a platform to support you walking with cacao as a form of “ancestral activism”, inviting your community back into communion with our original connection with the Earth, each other, and all that is natural.
And we hope to support you to do that in the ways that are unique to you and your community. We are calling in bridges like you, who feel inspired to work with cacao within your community.
So why must one do a training to steward cacao?
The most important aspect of your stewardship with any medicine will be your relationship with it…
And, we must remember that when carrying any plant medicine, there is great responsibility. Because it is a plant medicine, there is levels of awareness and care necessary to create safe, inclusive, non-oppressive containers.
It takes a lifetime of learning, and isn’t something that should be rushed into. Offering cacao in your community is a role you sink into slowly, steadily, and organically over time and with lots of support.
Our hope is that the pillars of our training give you the tools you need to hold a space of healing for your community in a responsible, respectful reciprocal, compassionate, informed way.
With a wide array of facilitators from different cultures, we aim to offer a deep container that is rich, nourishing, and inspiring for you to step into the world in a new way and offer this important service to humanity.
Course Content
This course has been very carefully curated over years of working with different elders, facilitators and students to create the most in-depth exploration of what it means to be a steward of cacao.
For each of the nine weeks of the training, we explore a trinity to really help integrate the teachings into your life, so each week’s topic will be explored through.
Because of this trinity, this training is pretty intensive, as in it will require around 5-6 hours of your time each week.
Please take some time to explore the trinity and the topics we are exploring below.
WISDOM
A deep dive into the wisdom, history, knowledge, stories behind the topic. This is a pre-recorded class specifically made for this training, meant to be ingested on your time, in your own pace.
HEALING
A prompt will be given to you from the wisdom class that will invite you to bring the teachings into your life through a ritual, research, homework, contemplation. The fruits of this healing prompt will be brought and shared in our live ritual each week.
RITUAL
This weekly live class will incorporate elements of healing and wisdom of each weekly topic as we enter into cacao ceremony together.
Part 1: Cosmological Exploration
Our way into the practice of cacao stewardship is through the lens of its cosmological roots, deep into the heart of Maya wisdom. We start this part of the training with an understanding of cacao within the Mayan Fire Ceremony, its origin stories, and an invitation to understand your own archetypal energy within the Mayan Cosmovision.
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Week 1: Opening Sacred Space
with Krystal Penrose & Walter Quicain
Live Call Date: Thursday August 8th @ 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: What it means to be a Cacao Steward
HEALING: Opening prayers & opening sacred space prompt
RITUAL: Opening Fire Ceremony w/ Krystal & Walter
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Week 2: Orienting to the Mayan Cosmovision
with Krystal Penrose & Walter Quicain
Live Call Date: Thursday, August 15th @ 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: An introduction to the Mayan Cosmovision w/ Walter
HEALING: Orienting to your Mayan Nahual
RITUAL: Making altars for the archetypal energy of your Nahual
Part 2: Cacao Immersion
The most important step to serving any medicine is exploring the depths of it yourself. This month is dedicated to building the multidimensional bond and commitment you are making to cacao by taking this journey, letting her become a spiritual ally and guide on your path of cacao stewardship.
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Week 3: Cacao Immersion Opening
with Krystal Penrose
Live Call: Thursday August 22nd at 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Cacao’s cosmology with Ana Maria & Cacao Immersion Preparation Materials
HEALING: Daily journaling prompts in immersion
RITUAL: Cacao Immersion: Preparation Call & Opening Ceremony
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Week 4: Cacao Immersion Ceremonies
with Krystal Penrose
Live Call: Thusday, August 29th at 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Cacao Immersion Content Days 2-9
HEALING: Daily journaling prompts in immersion
RITUAL: Cacao Immersion: Ancestral Healing Ceremony & Closing Ceremony
Part 3: The Way of the Bridge
The journey to becoming a bridge invites us to anchor in the pillars of our own ancestry, the ancestry of the cultures we are borrowing from, and the modern world. This part’s focus is exploring ways to hold, with respect and integrity, this bridge to create a model for sharing cacao in an integral way.
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Week 5: Remembering Our Ancestral Seeds Through Herbs & Alchemy
with Sol Asteria & Krystal Penrose
Live Call: Thursday, September 5th at 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Cacao Elixir Alchemy with Sol Asteria
HEALING: Connecting to the herbs of your ancestors
RITUAL: Ancestral Herbal Alchemy Ceremony
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Week 6: Weaving Stories of Cacao's Healing Powers
with Krystal Penrose
Date: Thursday, September 12th at 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: The History & Science of Cacao as a Medicine w/ Krystal
HEALING: Cultivating your own story of cacao
RITUAL: Sharing the Stories of Cacao Group Ritual
Part 4: Cultivating Your Stewardship
In this space, we focus on cultivating ceremonial containers that are rooted in reciprocity and communal liberation. With compassion, we explore the potential blindspots of cacao stewardship, visiting and dismantling, with gentleness and compassion, some of the programming of colonization in our beings, and coming out stronger in our capacity to hold others than ever before.
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Week 7: Inner Ethics & De-Colonization
with Charlotte James and Tony “Butterfly” Pham
Live Call Date: Thursday, September 19th @ 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Decolonizing your Cacao Practice
HEALING: Create your own Code of Inner Ethics
RITUAL: Shadow Work Ritual
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Week 8: Foundations of Ceremony
with Krystal Penrose
Live Call: Thursday, Septembea 26th t 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Pillars of Inclusive, Reciprocal, Integral Ceremony Spaces w/ Krystal
HEALING: Conduct a 1-on-1 Healing Cacao Ceremony with Your Peer
RITUAL: Sowing the Seeds of Collective Healing Closing Ceremony
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Week 9: Integration
with Krystal Penrose
Live Call: Thursday, October 3rd at 5:30pm EST
WISDOM: Tobacco’s Role With Cacao w/ Ramiro
HEALING: Offer a cacao ceremony to your community and bring your experience & insights to the call
RITUAL: Integration Call
Part 4: Pilgrimage
After 2 months of diving into our relationship with cacao and our service as a bridge, it’s time to put our devotion into practice. For those of us who are called, we will make a pilgrimage to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala to sit with the elders we have cultivated relationships with to empower you to step deeper into the right relationship with your power, your connection to cacao, and the wisdom it carries.
For those who are interested in the Hybrid training, learn more about our pilgrimage below:
Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage
October 26th - November 2nd, 2024
Join us on an initiation with cacao, the way of the Bridge, and the re-membrance of our ancestral heart.
It’s highly recommended that all of our students of Becoming the Bridge join our Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage to truly receive the transmissions of the lands of the ancestors who have carried this medicine for millenia.
We have found that taking the time to embody these teachings in-person, and doing some deeper transpersonal work takes your personal relationship with cacao and your work to the next level of integrity.
Past Btb graduates who have attended our Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage have truly integrated cacao into their lives and have gone on to create a solid path with cacao in and for their communities, whether it’s the corporate world, the tourism industry, or local communities.
Those who attend both the Pilgrimage and the Training will receive a discount for joining both, to make it easier for you financially to attend both during these times
If you feel the call to join us for the Pilgrimage, please choose the “Hybrid” option for the training.
Please note that for the Hybrid option there are 3 different pricing levels. Please visit the Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage page to choose the level you wish.
Snapshots from our last Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage
What’s included in the training
1 Pre-Recorded Preparation Video to orient you into the container and make clear your commitments during the training
10 weekly live virtual cacao rituals with Krystal and guest facilitators (recordings made available each week)
10 weekly pre-recorded "wisdom” classes packed with knowledge, wisdom, stories to watch on your own time each week
10 weekly healing prompts to take the wisdom you learned and apply it into your life (these are a required and very important aspect of the training)
10-Day Cacao Medicine Immersion that is compromised of 8+ pre-recorded videos and 3 live cacao ceremonies (required for all students to attend the entirety of this immersion)
1 Group Integration Call to anchor in our cacao community and support your path forward as a steward of cacao
Telegram community as an element of support and clear communication for the training
Applied practice & feedback opportunities. During the training you’ll be asked to conduct a 1-on-1 healing cacao ritual with someone in the cohort and receive feedback, as well as a group ceremony for your community
Printable handouts on cacao dosing, harm reduction notes, prayers, songs and more
All four of our 111g ceremonial cacao blends ($65 value) to ingest during our ceremonies & rituals
An invitation to join our Practicioner Program where you receive a 33% lifetime discount (only available to Btb graduates)
Unlimited opportunities to attend all classes of our future cohorts of Becoming the Bridge for free
Potential to co-create offerings with us online and in-person as co-hosts and Cacao Guardians
BONUS: Recordings of several additional classes that we won’t cover in this round, but were incredibly helpful for past graduates
(HYBRID OPTION ONLY) 9-day Rainbow Bridge Pilgrimage to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala to study with our Mayan elders
A preview of our classes with Mayan Cacao Elder Ana Maria
Important Training Schedule Notes
The training will begin on Thursday, August 8th and go until Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
*Important Training Schedule Notes*
Each week there will be a trinity happening around every topic we approach: a pre-recorded “wisdom” class, a live ritual, and a self-paced healing prompt. Each of these aspects of the week are very important, and should be given proper time and space
Each week’s time commitment will be around 4-6 hours. This training is meant to be an intensive, allowing you to dive deep into the realms of cacao. By signing up for this training, you are making the commitment to carve out that time.
We are set to begin our live calls at 12:30am Hawaii/5:30pm Eastern time (check your time zone here), however if enough students cannot make this time, we can adjust the time to meet the needs of the group.
Each live call will last around 2 hours (with the exception of our Preparation & Integration Calls which will be 1.5 hours)
Every live call is recorded, and recordings are stored on our training portal, available to watch for a lifetime.
The structure of each live call will be a ceremonial & ritualistic setting, with a group checkin and time for questions in the beginning and end
Each week you’ll be asked to submit your integration work from the week before via Teachable, our course platform. This will be a requirement for you to get a certificate of completion for the class
Each week there will also be a pre-recorded “Wisdom” class released for you to complete your own time. This is where the core of the information of the training comes from, and it is absolutely imperative you take the time to watch these classes in order to receive the depth of this training.
In order to receive your certificate of completion, you will be expected to attend 8 out of 10 live calls and share your healing prompts each week with us. You will not receive your certificate if you miss class more than 3 times or do not submit your healing prompt. You can make these calls up by attending them in the next cohort.
You will be expected to attend the calls with your video on, present for the important dialogues we dive into in these calls. The dialogue is truly the magic of this training, where we engage in important conversations needed for the collective with love and compassion and openness.
Pricing
Read the next section below to find out about payment options and scholarships
Virtual 3 month Training Only
For those of you who wish to do the virtual training only, this is a great first step to diving into community around cacao stewardship, which is the key pillar of being a medicine carrier of any kind. This pricing is for the 2 month training online only.
Earlybird pricing: $1,100
Regular pricing: $1,250
***Earlybird pricing ends June 15th***
*Deposit of $200 is due upon signup*
NOTE: If you have already attended our Pilgrimage, you will receive 10% off the cost of the virtual training.
Read below for payment plans, scholarships and trade options available.
Hybrid: Training + Pilgrimage
If you are ready to go heart first onto the Rainbow Bridge of cacao stewardship, join us for the 2 month online training AND on our bi-annual pilgrimage to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala happening in October 2024 and January 2025.
Earlybird pricing: $3,250
Regular pricing: $3,450
***Earlybird pricing ends June 15th***
*Deposit of $400 is due upon signup*
NOTE: pricing listed above is the MINIMUM pricing available. There are 3 LEVELS of pricing for the pilgrimage, depending on your room choice and financial abilities. Read the Pilgrimage website page to learn more about them.
Payment options & policies
Pay in full
For those who wish to pay in full, you will be sent an invoice for the entire balance of the training (minus your deposit) which will be due by March 1st
There is a deposit due to sign-up.
Earlybird pricing ends: May 31st
Regular pricing begins: June 1st
Available payment methods: Square
Monthly payments
For those who need a more flexible payment option, you will be sent monthly invoices via Square, due by the 1st of each month. There is a deposit due to sign-up.
All payments for the virtual training must be completed by September 1st.
All payments for the pilgrimage must be completed 60 days before departure.
Earlybird pricing ends: May 31st
Regular pricing begins: June 1st
Available payment methods: Square
Payment policy & Booking Agreement
To respect the integrity of the container of what has taken years for us to cultivate and continue to hold, we have established a very strict payment policy. We ask that you take a moment to look over the payment policy to make sure you’re able to consent to the agreements established by attending this training. Mahalo for your consideration.
Reserve your spot
This training WILL sell out so be sure to reserve your spot early!
Secure your spot by making a $200 deposit (included in the cost) by clicking below!
BIPOC & Single Mother Scholarship Opportunities
There are scholarships available for BIPOC folx and single mothers facing financial difficulty by application.
We offer 3 scholarships of 33% off for the Virtual Only Option
We offer 2 scholarships of 20% off for the Hybrid: Pilgrimage + Virtual Option
In order to receive this scholarship, you will be expected to actively participate in 80% of the live calls. If you are not present and actively utilizing this training, we will ask you to pay for the full price of the training. This scholarship is meant to assist and support folks who are truly dedicated to this work.
If you are interested in receiving this scholarship, please indicate so in your application.
At this time, this scholarship is ONLY for BIPOC folks & single mothers, as part of our efforts of reparations and to create inclusivity within the medicine space.
Work-trade opportunities
If you are a photographer, content creator, videographer, artist or writer, reach out to us for potential work-trade opportunities to cover up to 40% of the virtual training cost.
There is 1 work-trade opportunity available for this training. Reach out to us at kokolekacollective@gmail.com with a link to your resume, portfolio or work to apply.
Meet our Facilitators
Meet our facilitation team with a multitude of experience across many cultures and lineages
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Founder of Becoming the Bridge
Krystal Penrose is the Co-Founder of Kokoleka Collective where she is an educator and facilitator for the re-emergence and re-membering of the ancestral and matriarchal, Earth and heart based ways of living and serving. She is dedicated to protecting and upholding the ancestral wisdom of cacao and other medicines and pilgrimages regularly to Central & South America to continue building bridges between this wisdom and the modern world.
In addition, she has an Entheogenic Therapy Practice, Earth & Spirit Medicine, where she weaves Transpersonal Psychology, Plant & Mycelial Wisdom, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Trauma Recovery work as well as Preparation & Integration into her 1-on-1, group, ceremony and retreat containers.
She was born in Detroit and is currently based on Kaua'i, Hawaii, but has been traveling extensively internationally for the last 13 years.
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Sol is a Women’s Empowerment Guide, offering ritual and ceremony to help women in their journey of re-birth. She is also the Co-Founder of her cacao company called Aloha Amor. Sol and her husband, Kevin, also hold the very well known pillar of the Big Island community, a weekly cacao ceremony on Sunday mornings, for nearly 3 years now.
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Walter Quicain is Mayan Spiritual Guide, Daykeeper, Ceremonial Cacao Training Facilitator, Mayan Cosmovision, psychologist, and Integral Pedagogue born and raised on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
He offers cacao ceremonies, cacao & Mayan cultural education all over the world and at his home in San Marcos.
…plus another guest facilitator TBA more than other facilitators who’s previously recorded classes you’ll have access to once you sign up for the training including…
Charlotte James of Psychedelic Liberation Training, Ana Maria & Sebastian, Mayan Shamans and Co-Founders of Licor Marron, Ramiro Gaston Peralta.
Can’t attend this time but want to be added to our waiting list for next time?
Sign up for our waiting list for Cohort #5 (beginning February 2024) and be the first to get invited!
Testimonials
Hear from past Btb Graduates on their experience with this immersive training.
“The training was amazing. Wow! I felt so much power just through a screen. I’m amazed by the power of cacao and human connection. Love the authenticity and the dieta really changed my life and brought me more understanding to who I am. The information was taught really well and really stuck! Which is so important. Krystal is very relatable on many levels and easy to listen to. I walked away with confidence and learning more than I knew possible about connecting with myself.”
— Kyshandra
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This training was life-changing for me. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to Kokoleka for creating this opportunity to deepen my relationship with cacao and to learn about its ancestral wisdom. Kristal and Carlos are excellent guides that hold this medicine with incredible respect, devotion, and integrity.
Every class was a deep dive into understanding aspects of cacao— from connecting to the medicine though dieta, to learning about its cosmology, to exploring and growing around how to carry it in the modern world with awareness and reciprocity— I am still in awe of all of the expansion (and expression) that this course brought forth in my practice. I am so grateful and highly recommend Becoming the Bridge anyone who is searching for a way to connect more deeply with cacao!
— Kacie K.
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“From this training, I received a deep understanding of how to best honor and carry on the tradition of cacao. Hearing from the different ceremonialists was so helpful to showing me that the best ceremony I can offer is my own.”
— Anna
Who this training is for
Coaches, therapists, retreat leaders, yoga teachers, meditation facilitators, cafe & restaurant owners, plant medicine practitioners & therapists, ceremonialists, sound healers, entrepreneurs or anyone who holds healing spaces in community and want to take their offerings to the next level with cacao
Those who have completed our Becoming the Bridge Training have…
Hosted retreats with cacao ceremonies & offerings
Held cacao ceremonies, song circles, sound healing, yoga, breathwork & other workshops in their community
Created ceremonial cacao drinks & menus at their cafe’s & restaurants to introduce their community to this medicine
Offered women’s menstrual cycle tracking offerings with cacao
Joined our team of Medicine Carriers as an affiliate or practitioner
Offered cacao ceremonies to corporate employees as a mental health support
Made and sold superfood chocolates with our cacao
Became a vital part of our team as an employee
The possibilities of working with cacao are endless and unique to your own path.
FAQs
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The training will begin on Thursday, August 8th and go until Thursday, October 3rd, 2024. We are set to begin classes at 11:30am Hawaii/5:30p Eastern time, however if enough students cannot make this time, we can adjust the time to meet the needs of the group.
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The hybrid option for our training is our recommended way to do the training. It includes a 9 day pilgrimage to Lake Atitlan, Guatemala in late November, after the virtual part of the training is completed.
We find that folks who do the Pilgrimage really integrate the training and the teachings of cacao into their lives and offerings much more ease and confidence.
To learn more about the pilgrimage, click here.
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This training is meant for anyone who is already in service to their community, and wants to add cacao to their offerings. Whether you’re a therapist, coach, sound healer, accupuncturist, retreat center owner… everyone is welcome :)
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Yes! We have monthly payment plans that offers flexibility for those who can’t pay all at once. Youu can indicate if you’d like to do the payment plan in the application.
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We highly recommend you do not take this training at this time if you can’t make it live, as the container is ceremonial and sacred in nature, and your presence is needed in it!
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Yes! We offer 33% scholarship for BIPOC folkx and single mothers. If you’d like to be considered for the scholarship, please indicate so in your application. At this time, the scholarship is ONLY for BIPOC folks and single mothers facing financial difficulties.
Reserve your spot
ONLY 20 SPOTS ARE OPEN FOR THIS TRAINING
(AND IT WILL SELL OUT)