Maya Cacao Workshop | Living with Cacao & the Maya Calendar
An afternoon to learn the language the days have always been speaking.
Teaching and ceremonial cacao circle — at Ray of Bliss, Long Island City.
With Andrea of Ray of Bliss & Hans Austin
Sunday, October 18, 2026 · 12:30 – 4:30 PM
No experience needed. Just a willingness to learn a new way of reading time.
Why a day like this
You’ve probably felt it — some days flow, and some days fight you, and you’ve never known why.
The Maya never treated time as empty or neutral or just something in the background. Every day carries its own energy, its own nawal, its own instructions for how to move through it. Once you can read that language, you stop guessing your way through your weeks and start working with them.
Why the Maya Calendar matters
The Maya believe there are 20 core aspects of the human experience, and the calendar is organized around this cycle — 20 days, each led by a different nawal. Each nawal gives you a focal point: a lens for reflecting on your own personality, understanding where you’re in balance, where you need strengthening, and how to recognize when you’ve drifted out of harmony with yourself.
How cacao meets the calendar
Cacao and the Cholq’ij have always moved together. In the Maya tradition, cacao is medicine, prayer, and messenger — an ally that calms the mind into the heart’s wisdom so the teachings of the day can actually land in the body, not just the mind.
When you pair cacao with a nawal’s energy, you get access to something rare: an honest, objective, non-judgmental view of yourself — which parts of your life are balanced, which need strengthening, and what action to take to bring things back into harmony. You’ll learn a simple practice for meditating with cacao and the nawal energy of the day, one you can return to with any nawal, on any day, for the rest of your life.
Who this is for
– You love cacao — you’ve been to cacao circles, you’ve heard about the nawales and now you want a deeper connection with both.
– Already practicing, wanting depth — you know your nawal or have dabbled in the Cholq’ij, and want to understand how to use it daily.
– A healer, teacher, or facilitator — looking for another lens for your own work with clients or students.
– Curious but new — you’ve heard “Mayan calendar” and pictured 2012 predictions, and you want the real, living tradition instead.
– At a threshold — starting a new chapter and wanting a framework for moving through it with intention.
How the workshop holds you
– Arrive & settle · from 3:30 PM — land, breathe, meet your circle
– Cacao Circle — an opening ceremonial cacao circle
– The teaching — how the Cholq’ij works: the 20 nawales, the cycles, how to read your own days including a guided practice for meditating with cacao and the day’s nawal
– Closing Reflections — a pause to reflect on what was learned and how to integrate.
The Cacao Circle Energy
🌱 Under the Energy of 9 Toj, we honor and strengthen intentions around:
For what is completing its cycle. As 9 marks the end of gestation, it also marks the threshold before emergence.
For the fire that purifies and remembers. Toj’s element is fire — the fire of discernment, the fire that burns away what is no longer true.
For what has been carried too long. Toj is the nawal of payment and sacred exchange — we bring to the fire and the cacao all that we’ve been holding, so it can find its completion.
(Full teaching on 9 Toj shared in ceremony.)
Your Guides
Hans Austin and Andrea Bertucci have studied together under Nana Marina Cruz, Maya Spiritual Guide, since 2023 — the year they began their shared journey into the Maya Calendar and cacao. They are part of the first group of students Nana Marina has taken to train and guide in the Maya Cosmovision, cacao as medicine and the Maya Calendar. Since then, they’ve traveled to Guatemala every year to continue learning directly from the living Maya traditions still practiced today, and have been initiated on the Camino del Fuego as guardians of Maya Cosmovision, cacao, and the sacred fire.
Along with these practices, Andrea brings over 1,000 certified training hours in traditional yoga and has taught worldwide since 2016. Hans is also a sound healer, weaving that practice into the ceremonial container they hold together.
They hold this space the way they were taught to hold it — with reverence for the lineage and warmth for whoever walks through the door.
What you’ll take home
– A working knowledge of the Cholq’ij, “Maya Lunar Calendar,” and how to read your own days
– A simple cacao-and-nawal meditation practice you can use for the rest of your life
– Your Maya Calendar Journal, to keep tracking the energies on your own
– Your Personal Maya Natal Astrology Chart, revealing the nawal you were born under
– A grounded, open heart from the cacao circle
A few things people wonder
– Never done this? — will I feel out of place? Not at all. Built for beginners, and deepens for anyone already familiar with the calendar and cacao.
– What Is cacao? Cacao is a gentle mind relaxer, closer to rich hot chocolate, think of it as 100% dark chocolate. (Pregnant, nursing, a heart condition, or on antidepressants? Let us know and we’ll prepare a lighter, cacao tea or cacao-free option.)
– Do I need to know my nawal already? No — you’ll receive your personal natal chart as part of the workshop.
– Can I come alone? Most people do.
What’s included
Cacao circle · Maya Calendar Journal · Personal Maya Natal Astrology Chart
When & where
Sunday, October 18, 2026 · 12:30 – 4:30 PM
Ray of Bliss, Long Island City, Queens
Conscious contribution — sliding scale
Sliding scale starting at $150, with a Conscious Contribution rate of $200.
Members: 33% off with your code. Package holders: 18% off with your code.
