Soul-Led Rituals: How I Create Morning Rituals (Part 1)
My favorite Ceremonial Cacao in my homemade Cacao mug in Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts. © Maggie Battista 2023
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“Hello, sweet souls, how are you? Hi, hello, how are you? How are things? How is your day?
I am in a different location today. I want to speak about rituals, morning rituals, but really, any time of day rituals, and I wanted to do that in a different location, in the place where I do some of my rituals on a daily basis.
I have a mug of tea over here, it's cooling, and what I'm trying to do is follow the call, and when the soul, that calm all knowing wisdom and language that surfaces from within, when we get quiet, when my Soul's voice surfaces, it guides me, and it tells me what to come on here and speak about.
So today, I heard the call to speak about morning rituals. Now let's talk generally about morning rituals, and then we can get really specific about what I do, because I did get an ask from someone about my morning rituals.
So generally, I want to speak a little bit about the elements of rituals, because I call myself, besides being a storyteller and a soul teacher, I am a ritualist. I am a Cacao ritualist. So I work with Ceremonial Cacao to help me and others heal and transform and step into their higher self or their Soul's voice.
And also, I'm a ritualist in life. Literally, I ritualize everything. I ritualize beginnings and endings. I ritualize doing the laundry or setting up an altar. So I have brought in a lot of intention to some of these actions, and I wanted to speak a little bit about rituals in general.
For me, any practice done with devotion and intention is a ritual. Devotion to self is also devotion to all. And I consider a ritual to be a little bit like a mini celebration, even if you're getting quiet, even if you're being still and going within, even if you're feeling emotion during the ritual, it's a moment to honor and celebrate you in whatever way feels most aligning.
Some people categorize rituals as self care, and perhaps they are, but I see rituals—and the bringing together of many rituals throughout a day—as what we're here for, as the honoring of self, the devotion to self, the celebration of self, because when we honor and devote ourselves to ourselves, we can then be of service to others.
Some people believe that you must first be of service, and then find your way back to you. And that's a beautiful path. It is one path. For me, I tried that over many decades, and it never really got me closer to me. It took me further away from me, and so now I focus on honoring and devoting myself to me; taking care of me; ritualizing my life; choosing, holding and soothing myself so that my sweet Soul, my Soul's voice can rise to the surface and can guide my life and guide my becoming.
And it's within that cycle of ritual that we notice our growth. We notice our emergence. We notice what's happening within, right? And so when we do that, we become, we evolve. We become the next best version of ourselves, the more we devote and honor ourselves to our own care. And I use rituals for that, for everything.
Rituals are where we notice—in the tiny moments, in the quiet moments, in the silent moments with a cup of tea, with a cup of Cacao. So in a broad sense, that's how I feel about ritual.
Rituals allow us to go within and follow the cycles of the soul. Notice the cycles of the soul. What does the soul wish for it today? What does the soul wish for the next day?
It also allows us to follow the seasons of this earth, right? And the soul is deeply connected to the planet, the heart of the planet, and the heavenly bodies and nature. The soul is connected to all that is, to divinity in itself and nature, the stars, the sun, the moon, the Earth, the oceans, all of that is divinity, too. So ritual allows us to follow not just the cycles of the soul, but also the seasons of the earth and the seasons of your environment and the seasons of your body, right? Because your body is different in all environments, in all weathers and all climates, through emotional climate.
And when I think about rituals empirically, you know, I think there's ways that I used to do them and that I do them today, and they're very different. Rituals have a feminine flow and a masculine flow, the classic feminine flow and the classic masculine flow. This is not gendered. This is about energy, right?
And when I first started ritualizing, I believed I had to do the ritual at the same time every single day. I had to get up and be at the gym at 7am and I had to do the same thing on all the machines—the same warm up and cool down, right? Or I had to meditate twice a day for 20 minutes, first when I woke up in the morning, and then in the afternoon, around two or three in the afternoon. And I did it every day. And then those 20 minutes had to become 25 minutes, and then 30 minutes, and then 35 minutes, and then I was meditating for two hours a day, and there's nothing wrong with that, but being strict and firm and vigilant about a ritual honors a masculine flow, and that's cool, by all means. We embody all of it.
But now I move with ritual through a feminine flow. And every day is a little bit different. Every day I honor what the soul wants, what I hear from within, what the ancestors tell me, what they offer me, right? What my emotional body tells me—the somatics—right? And every day is a little bit different.
I'd say the only thing for me that is the same is my mornings are sacred, and during the early morning hours, I have some rituals I may or may not follow, but I create space for me to follow those rituals in the morning. No question, right? I may do some of them again throughout the day. I even may miss a day, but I often take my morning and devote it to self, devote it to soul, and I want to talk a little bit about what my morning rituals look like right now.
But before I do, I just want to make sure I don't forget—I'm hearing to say to you, whether you flow from day to day and the rituals are different from day to day, or whether you have a very firm schedule, I need to do this at this time and this at this time, all of it is fine. There is nothing wrong with it. One path is not better than the other. It may be better for you, and that is your choice and your decision, and you get to follow that way, right? That's cool. It's all good. Only you know what suits your soul, only you know what honors your soul.
But there was a lot of beautiful permissions offered to me, to my body, to my Soul, to my mind, when I decided to flow with my rituals, rather than sort of check them off a list. Gosh, I embodied list checking for so many decades. I followed a schedule for so many decades. I thought I had to do the same thing every day, and my body intuitively told me stop. It's not necessary.
Now, I want to talk to you about my morning rituals, but it's really challenging when I'm looking out the window right now and like the sun is shining through these oaks onto the building next door. And I wish to create a ritual right now and just sort of stare at that, witness that, be with that right, and maybe say a few words to express gratitude for this moment where I get to see that light on that building, right? It'll never be like that again.
But whenever I see light move in that way, I always take a moment and pause and honor it, because light is divinity. Shadow is divinity, too. All of it is. Your Soul will know what rituals this body, your mind, your heart requires. It's all good.
I'm going to speak to you a little bit about my morning rituals, and just describe a little bit about what I do in the morning. I'm not actually going to take you through, let's say, Cacao ritual. I'd love to do that at some point. If that's interesting to you, leave a message down below. Leave a comment. I have thought about offering a live Ceremonial Cacao ritual here, but in the morning I do a few things, but first I'm gonna take a sip of tea.
Oh yeah, okay, so my morning rituals feel very like simple to me. I wake up first thing, and I try really, really hard not to look at my phone. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's in those few moments when you wake up that you may still remember your dreams. And I do a lot of work in my dreams. I do a lot of sort of introspection and a lot of communication with my ancestors, the ancestors. In my dreams, I receive a lot of concepts and visions. Sometimes they are for ideas for work, sometimes they are prophetic for the future. And so the first thing I try to do is keep my eyes closed and remember whatever I was dreaming about. Sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't, but that is part of my morning ritual.
And then I'll get up and I'll do the things one will do when they get up. I'll go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, wash my face. I love to wash my face first thing in the morning and put on lots of thick oils and lotions. I actually use a balm right now on my skin in Texas, because it's very dry here. And then once I do that often, before I do that, I'll get a tea kettle with water boiling.
And after I'm through getting myself organized, putting in my contact lenses, I will go over and make myself a cup of Ceremonial Cacao. And I do this, I would say six out of seven days a week, I will go over to the machine and make my Cacao, and maybe I'll take you through making Cacao at some point, but I will make my Cacao and I will bring it back over to this bed. This is not my actual, real permanent bed. I'm in a casita right now that I'm renting for a couple more weeks. So I'll put it to the side, and I will then go over and light a candle and light some incense.
I try not to put the lights on. I try to work with the light that is around me. I try to work with the sun rising. I'm usually up before the sun, but I try to work with natural light in the morning, and I'll light a candle, and I'll light some incense. And incense is typically my offering to the ancestors to be in communication with me, to continue whatever we did in the dream space, right?
And then I will get back in bed. I think folks call that, there's words for that, but I get back in bed with my Cacao and I will make an invocation. I will whisper an invocation aloud so that all can hear. And when I say all, I mean all collaborating energies around me, not just my own sweet Soul, but the ancestors that are with me, the guides that are with me, the angels that are with me, the birds outside the window, and certainly Cacao, because Cacao has a spirit. It is animated. And so I speak to Cacao.
So I will offer an invocation or a welcome to all the energies, invite them to be with me. This is part of my ritual, and I will, after doing that, after showing gratitude, after honoring, showing reverence, I will sip my Cacao. Now I do this, typically in collaboration with the energies of the Mayan Sacred Calendar. Because I study Mayan cosmology and the Mayan Sacred Calendar. You can do it with whatever makes sense to you, right? With whatever feels good to you.
And I will sip my Cacao. And I will typically do that in silence or with music. Once in a while, I'll grab my phone, right? I'm human, but I will try to do that in silence and just sip it. And then I will get comfortable in my bed again, and I will sometimes do a Soul Voice Practice. And that's where I talk to my Soul. That's where I—the I that is Maggie—speaks with the soul, with the voice of the soul, which is all that is. That's where the earthly and the heavenly are able to collaborate.
And in my workshops, I take people through Soul Voice Practices so they can learn how to do it, because this earth is wild and we have a lot of stuff to process. We are emotional beings. We are here to feel the full spectrum of emotions, and sometimes we need to process that. And I try to process all that with my Soul, right? And I ask my Soul questions, and my Soul responds, the loving voice buried deep within actually rises to the surface in response when you allow it to, if you desire.
I typically have a conversation with my Soul after Cacao because Cacao rushes oxygen to the heart. It fosters a feeling of love and compassion in the body, and it urges my Soul to speak, to hold space for whatever I'm feeling, whatever I'm learning from my own becoming, right?
And then after that, sometimes I will move through—once I've sort of processed with my soul—I'll move through meditation or visualization around something that I am imagining or “manifesting” or wishing to bring to life in some way, wishing to birth. And I will go through a visualization around that, and I will imagine it, and then I will get in the feeling of it, and just be in the feeling of it.
And yeah, and I think that's my morning. In short, I mean, that's what I do before I actually get on with the day. That's what I do before I get up and do yoga. I do yoga most days. That's what I do before I get up and go to the gym. That's what I do before I do my laundry or take a shower and get dressed, all the things, right?
I try to have this ritual, this morning time that may last anywhere from five minutes to an hour or two, where I get to be with me. And if you never done it, I encourage you to give it a try. And if you want to know more about Cacao, you can find out more at maggiebattista.com or leave a comment down below, and I will respond.
So that's my morning ritual, and that's how I sort of think about rituals in general. And I welcome any questions, and I leave all this on the altar between us. I'm just grateful that you're here, and I'm wishing you, like, so much love and so much peace and all the magic that that brings with it, as you move through your day today. ”
Today is 10 I’x in the Mayan Sacred Calendar. I’x is the nawal or energy of Mother Earth. The sacred number 10 represents community, collaboration, and even the collective. Together, they offer a powerful day during which to gather your support to honor the heart of the Earth and tend to her as a living organism. It is a day to make offerings in sacred places, like a natural altar, a river, or a great big forest. I’x reminds us that our life force energy—that is represented by the current trecena of Kan—is powered by the life force of the planet. She keeps us alive and thriving. As such, it’s time to honor her in community.
