Meet Cacao Shansho — Neuroscience, Ancestral Wisdom & Sacred Circle

Join Dr Corin Storkey of Seleno Health and somatic guide Sarah Menlove for a three-hour journey into ceremonial cacao — first through science and story, then through the body.

Cacao is more than chocolate. For thousands of years it has been a plant ally of the heart. This evening weaves Corin’s research and Andean teachings with Sarah’s guided practice, so you leave knowing why cacao works — and having felt it for yourself.

We will share Seleno Health’s new Cacao Shansho together in circle.

Part One — Science, story & preparation
with Dr Corin Storkey, Seleno Health

Corin will open the evening with the living story of cacao: biochemistry meeting ancestral knowledge.

You will explore:

• Cacao neuroscience — key molecules, how they act in the body, and why cacao so often leaves us warm, clear, open-hearted and quietly energised

• Three cacao pastes — the distinct profiles and properties of Seleno Health’s ceremonial pastes, and how to choose and use each one

• History and cosmovision — Montegrande, Chavín, the Chakana, and the three realms

• Cacao preparation — the four elements, the tools, and the meaning held in each step of making the drink

This is practical as well as deep: you will leave able to prepare cacao at home with more intention and understanding.

Part Two — Feel it for yourself
with Sarah Menlove

Cacao works differently for each of us. This is your chance to have an embodied, felt experience of the science you have just heard — through Cacao Shansho.

Sarah will guide a journey to connect with the spirit of cacao, and with yourself, opening the heart to the messages, visions and insights that want to come through.

You can expect:

• Opening and intentionally sharing cacao

• Gentle grounding breathwork, to support nervous system regulation and enter a meditative state

• Guided meditation, to open to intuitive guidance

• Closing and integration

The space is held so it can meet the moment. Come as you are. No prior experience with cacao, breathwork or meditation is needed.

Your guides

Dr Corin Storkey is co-founder of Seleno Health. A medicinal chemist with a PhD from the University of Melbourne and the Heart Research Institute, he leads New Zealand-based research that maps the biochemistry of Andean and Amazonian plant medicines — including ceremonial cacao — and weaves that science with indigenous knowledge held by the farming families Seleno Health works with in Peru.

Sarah Menlove is a somatic guide who creates sacred spaces where people can drop their masks and return home to their bodies. Her work focuses on connecting people to their most authentic, free selves, welcoming the full spectrum of the human experience and our divine nature.

Through education, nervous system awareness and somatic exploration, she invites curiosity about what is wanting to emerge from a place of deep listening.

Sarah has worked with cacao in her own life and held group journeys throughout Aotearoa and online for the last six years, holding space for hundreds of people. She does so with gratitude and respect for those who have gone before, for the lineage of cacao, and for the land it comes from.

When & where
6.00pm – 9.00pm
The Ocean Lounge
166 Palmerston Street, Riverton

Tickets
$35 early bird – $50 last minute

Please bring
A mug for cacao, a water bottle, a journal and pen if you like to write, and something warm and comfortable to sit or lie on (cushion or light blanket). Wear clothes you can breathe and rest in.

Spaces are limited. Register in advance so we can prepare cacao for the circle.