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A cup of Legacy Cacao.Trevor Triano\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\nWhen you walk into the Bucky Dome at Aspen Meadows Resort, what\u2019s waiting is much more than a cup of hot chocolate.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a plant medicine that was offered to warriors before battle and women after birth, a superfood that\u2019s been crafted into an alchemic blend by residents of the Amazon and offered to Aspen locals and visitors in a heart-opening ceremony intended for both internal guidance and community building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a heart-opening medicine that is the vibration of love,\u201d said Nicole Lindstrom \u2014 founder of GLDMND, yoga and meditation teacher and retreat facilitator who offers cacao ceremonies throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. \u201cI always talk about how us drinking this is an invitation for us to find our own relationship to nature \u2026 We can get so disconnected from our own inherent relations to the nature world. This is just a gateway reminder, a reverence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindstrom, who\u2019s originally from Evergreen, moved from Colorado to New York to work for Wanderlust Festival, where she co-authored the book \u201cWanderlust: A Modern Yogi\u2019s Guide to Becoming Your Best Self\u201d and produced a lecture series that brought her to Snowmass. After meeting local Gina Murdock, founder of Lead with Love (previously Aspen Yoga Society) and a columnist for The Aspen Times, Lindstrom was encouraged to move out here \u2014 she quit her job and two weeks later came to Aspen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are surrounded and held by nature, and it\u2019s already such an easy access point to talk about how nature has intrinsic wisdom or intelligence,\u201d she said of the area.<\/p>\n
After helping Murdock with Lead with Love, Lindstrom started GLDMND in 2021. After spending time hosting events globally, she decided to focus on the Roaring Fork Valley, turning to a connection she\u2019d made in 2019 while hosting a conference at the Aspen Institute with the founders of Legacy Cacao.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the first time I\u2019d ever heard about a cacao ceremony,\u201d she said. \u201cI could not have imagined at that time that it would have had as huge of an impact that it had on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2019, Lindstrom used cacao personally to guide her inward when she was going through a hard time or coming up against challenges, which ultimately inspired her to begin integrating it into her offerings as a meditation and yoga instructor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a really powerful catalyst for sitting with yourself and opening your heart, listening to heart wisdom,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to bring that into what I was already doing as a motive for fostering heart center connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cup of Legacy Cacao.Trevor Triano\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
Now, with the blessing of the founders from Legacy Cacao, she hosts three to four ceremonies a month, from Aspen Meadows Resort and the MOLLIE Aspen down to True Nature in Carbondale. She told The Aspen Times that it\u2019s all about choosing to drink cacao consciously as a way to unlock the intelligence of the plant medicine and bring it out into the world to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe create a relationship, or communion, with the intellect of cacao,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter people go through the experience, their hearts are wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who attend her ceremonies \u2014 which include both returning participants and new faces \u2014 can expect to be part of something inspired by Indigenous practice and grounded in the Western experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a white person serving a very traditional plant medicine, it\u2019s an honor, it\u2019s a privilege, it\u2019s a way for us as Westerners to find our own connection with nature, to honor the stewards who provide this and be inspired to also be a steward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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Ceremony inside a dome.Trevor Triano\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
Lindstrom begins each ceremony with a meditation, bringing up the inner callings or yearnings that many neglect on a day-to-day basis. She ties her ceremonies to the moon cycles \u2014 the most recent ceremony occurred after a full moon in Capricorn, during a waning moon in Pisces.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuided by ceremonial cacao and the timeless rhythm of the moon, we gather to cultivate the conditions where clarity, creativity, wisdom, and insight can naturally emerge,\u201d her website states. \u201cEach ceremony is inspired by the current lunar phase and zodiac sign, using their archetypal themes as a framework for self-inquiry. Through breathwork, movement, meditation, sound, journaling, and ceremonial cacao, we create space to quiet the noise and reconnect to the gold within.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sound healing integration.Trevor Triano\/Courtesy photo<\/p>\n
Because the moon, and every individual, constantly changes, the website emphasizes that \u201cno two ceremonies are ever the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Participants are given the opportunity to set their own intentions for the ceremony and are encouraged to allow the heart wisdom to act as a guide for finding one\u2019s own answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we have the intention really clear, we prepare ourselves for drinking the cacao \u2014 our bodies are a channel for a higher intelligence to come through,\u201d Lindstrom said. \u201cWhen you sit to drink cacao, you\u2019re awake, you\u2019re open, you\u2019re in a state to receive this medicine and guidance and to hold this higher vibration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Participants are able to take 10 minutes to drink the cacao in a place of choice outside, returning to the dome and to the group to integrate through sound healing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor every single person, it\u2019s really really different,\u201d she said of the experience. \u201cBut there\u2019s a really beautiful thing that happens in those ceremonies where people understand the other people in the room had a similar feel. There\u2019s a likeminded quality among different people. Together, they create this connection that\u2019s really intimate, and it\u2019s people that wouldn\u2019t have become friends in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindstrom noted this is a particularly powerful way to bridge the gap between visitors and locals, allowing them to connect in a shared and meaningful experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a sweet way to connect visitors and locals with each other because of its intimate and genuine nature,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n