The Cacao Journals: Wo-Manifestation

Unlocking your intuition means that you can stop chasing your desires and allow them to freely flow to you. – The Alchemy of Miracles

Last December, I was sitting in meditation and suddenly a “voice” dropped into my awareness out of nowhere that said, “You need to go to the Modern Elder Academy.” I paused and wondered why this message was coming to me now. I first had heard about MEA when an acquaintance mentioned it in the spring after she had attended their beta program. At the time, she said, “Nicole, you would absolutely love it there and you could offer cacao ceremony.” I was intrigued, looked up MEA and the founder, Chip Conley, and was impressed; and then pretty much forgot about it until my meditation many months later.

Surprised by the message, I checked in that I actually wanted to go, and then said, “Okay, Spirit, I would love to go, and I need your help financially. If you want me to go, then help make it happen.” I’m not even sure if I said “Please.” I gave it over to spirit and released any expectation. Two days later, I received an email from a women’s co-working space where I’m a member saying that they had been approached by MEA, which wanted to offer a full scholarship to one of its members. A written application and 5-minute video on why I wanted to attend had to be submitted by the NEXT day! I jumped on it. Long story short, I was accepted and was invited to share cacao ceremony (without me even asking). I was overjoyed and so grateful, especially to spirit for her guidance and assistance.

I told this story to a friend, an intuitive and clairvoyant, and she said, “That’s how manifestation is showing up now. It’s more feminine, a more receptive way of manifesting.” This way of manifesting requires opening to intuitive guidance, acknowledging the message that comes into our awareness, asking for help, releasing any expectation of how it might show up and acting when something does. It feels softer and more guided than conscious, intentional manifestation.

When I shared this miracle of manifestation at one of my cacao medicine journeys, one of the conscious men, who had bravely joined a room full of soul sisters, coined it, “wo-manifestation.” Everyone laughed and loved it (and him). Manifestation has gone all feminine on us….

Since then, my wo-manifestation powers seem heightened. In my most recent experience, again in meditation, I felt guided and found myself saying, “I’d really like to work for that company in some capacity.” Two days later, their business manager contacted me and asked me to join their team on a part-time contract basis, which was in perfect alignment.

When we open to the “suggestions” of our intuition and higher guidance, we become co-creators of our lives and come into alignment with our highest self. We always have the option to say “No, thank you” if the suggestion is too far beyond where we are or what we want to bring into our lives. Or we can say, “Yes, I trust that this is meant to come through me.” It doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges along the way to test our commitment and faith.

Eventually, the more we come into full alignment with our higher self, manifestation begins to takes on a whole other evolutionary design, but that’s for another post…. In the meantime, what wants to come through you into the world?

Copyright ©2019 Soulscape Coaching LLC.

The Cacao Journals: Seeking the Wave of Solitude

Without great solitude, no serious work is possible. – Pablo Picasso

Solitude not people. More words than work. Create and express. Share knowledge. Plant seeds. Cultivate consciousness. Trust and believe. My new mantra (see my previous blog post for the story behind this).

So, you’re probably wondering, how’s that going, Nicole? Well, it’s been challenging and enlightening at the same time. Right after sharing my post, several friends reached out and said, “I’d love to get together with you and talk about your post.” Hmm, what exactly did they not understand about solitude? And the funny thing is I actually met with them (so what did I not understand)?! My first lesson was to set boundaries, which open up the time and space to be in solitude. I’m with Picasso on this one.

As you can sense, I’m slowly easing into this solitude thing. Slipping it into moments between events already booked (I’m a big believer in holding commitments), being judicious about new events and asking myself, “Can I do less and yet express more of my experience and lessons?” More words than work. The answer is a definite “yes.” Allowing myself the time to drop into a more contemplative and exploratory space is key for clarity and insight to come.

The kind of writing and creative pursuits I engage in now matter. My blog posts actually help me get clear and share lessons at the same time. I also put together a proposal as a visiting practitioner for retreat centers, a flyer for my soul sister day retreats and some event postings. I found myself asking, “Do those count as words not work?” My inner wisdom said “Nice try, Nicole, that’s actually work. The ego is so very clever, isn’t it, which brings up the power of awareness and catching the ego in its little tricks.

Last summer and fall I spent a lot of time writing a proposal and sample chapters of a book that I submitted to a publisher in December. Apparently, it needed some work (I did not know that spiritual words were jargon), so I’m finding my way back to it slowly, circling it like a cat does before making its bed. It holds so much of my knowledge about the sharing of cacao medicine; it’s also the curriculum for a workshop. Ways to share my knowledge more creatively that I need to revisit.

It’s time to finish making your bed, Nicole. Is it weird that I’m writing about myself in the third person? It’s as if someone else is giving me advice at the moment. I like it! An inner coach. And, then my inner critic comes along with a little snipe and says, “writing does not pay the bills” (see Trust and Believe).

Just make the bed and then plant the seeds. I realized that to plant new seeds, I needed to seed and cultivate my own consciousness first. I’m revisiting a meditation form I began last spring and rereading some books on consciousness that are now making so much more sense to me. I’m feeling a sense of personal momentum and growth, which is wonderful after many months of focusing on the spiritual growth of others.

The sun finally made an appearance here in California yesterday, so I went to the beach and walked, meditated, read and had deep insights about what I was reading. After I got home, I followed some guided meditations (in between cat naps). A day of solitude in nature was profound. A drum journey I took today showed me my jaguar lounging on a tree branch as she shared, “It’s not time to hunt right now,” which prompted me to write this post. I just can’t get away from the message no matter where I go!

Trust and believe–the last part of the shaman’s message–is the ultimate message. If we live in a quantum world where anything is possible, then I want to get on that quantum wave co-creating an flowing with the universe where and how to surf in solitude. Warm water, easy surf break, sunny skies, and a white sandy beach in Baja Sur (my MEA compadres will totally understand). Flow and possibility.

As I explored this territory of solitude, several questions came to me that you may want to play with:

What becomes possible for you in solitude? What do you need to do and how do you need to be, so you can allow yourself time and space ? How can you drop in more deeply by cultivating awareness and consciousness for insight, clarity and creativity? What wave are you wanting to create, catch and ride?


Copyright ©2019 Soulscape Coaching LLC.



The Cacao Journals: Meditation while lying down…?

Each journey is considered sacred…. [T]he ancestors and helping allies reveal to us what is needed for our current healing and guidance. – Angeles Arrien

I love meditating while sitting up and lying down. Yes, you read that correctly, lying down. My lying down meditative practice began when I started working with cacao in personal ceremony.

My teacher provided us with a beautiful, guided meditation where we lay on the floor to relax our bodies for the journey with cacao; and then sacred music accompanied us on the rest of our journey, which almost always meant more lying down (or we could dance or sit or write or draw, whatever we felt most called to do).

I lay on the ground a lot, opening, allowing and receiving messages, guidance and healing as that was what I most needed. It became a healing, meditative practice for me.

This posture of “lying meditation” is actually an ancient shamanic practice according to Dr. Angeles Arrien, an anthropologist who studied ancient shamanic cultures and shared her learnings in the book, The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary.

“The lying posture is the most healing posture that the body can assume. The body equates this posture with rest and the nourishment that comes from receiving and giving love. It is the posture of surrender and openness. The lying posture assumed in the journey is way of placing the body…in order to open to guidance and to receive healing.” – Angeles Arrien

This was certainly my experience with cacao journeys, and it became even more evident as I began my work with drum journeys. Drum journeys are another shamanic form of lying meditation, one that allows for direct connection with spirit guides to receive healing and guidance. In this form, you can ask a direct question of your helping spirits and receive an answer while listening and journeying to shamanic drumming. My journeys with the drum for myself and on behalf of others tapped us into a wisdom beyond our minds.

We usually think of meditation as a practice of witnessing the mind and accessing a deeper state of awareness; as a sitting posture with specific positions for spine, hands, legs, chin and gaze; and as a practice that connects us to our breath. There is a meditation form called Yoga Nidra, where the savasana (corpse) pose is held while being led through a guided meditation. All forms are calming and clarifying.

Lying meditation with cacao or the drum embodies those same qualities, but what’s received is qualitatively different based on my experience with both forms. In order to explain it beyond my own experience, I Googled it, of course.

Scientific studies have been conducted to understand the difference between “regular” meditation and shamanic journeying. Here’s what those studies found, according to Sara Violante, a Shamanic Practitioner, Journey Meditation Instructor, & Reiki Master: “During ‘regular’ meditation the brain slips into a Delta state, but during Shamanic Journey meditation, the brain slips into Theta state.”

It’s the drumming at a certain rhythm or the ceremonial cacao that allows us to access this Theta state. Sara shares on her blog post: “Theta brainwave state is known to foster creativity. It is that space between being awake and being asleep…the state where there are no barriers between the spirit world and our brains. Entering into a theta state the mind is open, aware but at rest; there are no pesky barriers of consciousness throwing up “rational” road blocks for what presents itself….[W]e connect to spirit in this state and then the mind interprets this connection and translates it via imagery formed through the imagination – we receive imagery.” Thank you, Sara, for explaining it so well.

Both sitting and lying meditation are each beneficial and complementary. I practice both (not at the same time, of course) depending on what I need in that moment. While I have received clear messages while sitting in contemplative meditation, when I’m looking for a boost in imaginal creativity, deep inner healing where what’s being healed is beyond my awareness or direct messages from spirit, I lie down :).

Copyright ©2018 Soulscape Coaching LLC