About Cape Cacao
We guide spiritual seekers who have heard the whispers of their heart and calling from cacao spirit, to learn how to work with this plant medicine in a sacred, respectful and grounded way.
Through sharing the ancient wisdom of Cacao, teaching you how to hold a daily ritual and how to incorporate ceremony, we assist in reconnecting you to heart, community, environment and spirit.
It has been many years since we started offering Cacao experiences (initially in nature) involving ritual, ceremony and Cacao, with our humble roots originally being Cape Town, South Africa.
But our story is more than just the Cape, and is largely infused with the cultural-spiritual diversity which inspires our founder, Fran Siebrits (more about her story below) – she has travelled all over the globe, learning from different teachers across many traditions, and she weaves a tapestry of inter-connectedness in Cape Cacao.
Alongside paying homage to our African ancestry and the Mesoamerican origins and wisdom-keepers of Cacao, we have formed a deep spiritual connection with the land, people and culture of Bali, Indonesia.
Over time these relationships deepened, and we started bringing Ceremonial-grade Cacao from a cooperative of small-scale family farms in Bali to Africa.
We still support the same cooperative today, and take an annual pilgrimage to the Cacao farms in the Jembrana region of Western Bali to reconnect with the beautiful energy of the Cacao trees, the surrounding jungle, the culture, the farmers, and the community spirit.
Fran has since travelled to Guatemala on a spiritual pilgrimage. While there she was guided to connect with the Maya people who hold an ancient tradition, still living today, working with Cacao in a sacred way. This is deeply rooted in the Mayan Cosmo-vision, and she continues to learn these ancient traditions under the guidance of her spiritual elders in San Marcos la Laguna in Guatemala.
Her time there led to developing relationships with the Cacao-growing communities in the northern region of Lanquin. Since 2024, we also bring Ceremonial-grade Cacao from Guatemala to South Africa, directly sourcing from these Mayan communities who grow, harvest, ferment, dry, toast and press Cacao in their traditional ways.
Our passion is to educate and share this ancient wisdom of Cacao in a sacred way. Through our Cacao Trainings and mentorships, we educate others how to hold a daily ritual and how to incorporate ceremony, assisting in reconnecting us to our hearts, community, environment and spirit in a grounded sacred way.
While there are many ways to work with Cacao, we have been called to maintain the SACRED path, working in INTEGRITY, HARMONY, RESPECT, and RECIPROCITY with people, land and spirit…
How our offerings developed…
With the growing interest in Cacao, we started offering our signature online Cacao Training to assist individuals wanting to learn how to work with Cacao for themselves as well as those wanting to hold ceremonies or incorporate Cacao into other holistic modalities… in a way that is sacred, respectful, ethical, and grounded.
As our online family grew, our ceremonies started being offered virtually, and today we hold in-person and virtual ceremonies… in Cape Town and surrounds, on retreats and pilgrimages all over South Africa, Bali and Guatemala to serve our global Cacao Family.
Our Cape Cacao mama and founder, Fran, the heart of our offerings. She has personally travelled (and continues to do so annually) to the origins of the Cacao-growing communities we support and purchase our Ceremonial-grade Cacao from.
Through her work as a Cacao Alchemist, Wellness Expert, Holistic Personal Growth Mentor and Medicine Woman, she assists others in reconnecting to their hearts, to the heart of others, and to the heart of Mother Nature. She offers a wealth of knowledge for how we can use Cacao, ceremony and ritual to live in harmony with our true nature and the world around us (read more about her below).
It is with continued reverence and gratitude that we support this heart medicine connection, assisting the Spirit of Cacao to meet as many people as possible so that we may remember our place here on Earth.
We look forward to being of service to you, your heart and your community.
Meet our Founder
Born and raised in rural South Africa, with ancestry from all around the globe and an adventurous spirit, Fran Siebrits has been bridging cultures and environments her entire life.
Along with her deep connection to Nature, she is a Cacao Alchemist and Ceremonialist, Wellness Expert, Holistic Personal Growth Mentor and Medicine Woman. As the face of Cape Cacao, Fran works alongside Spirit of Cacao, bringing forth a wealth of knowledge for how we can use Cacao, ceremony and ritual to live in harmony with our true nature and the world around us.
Fran brings her life work into all our offerings, providing a unique opportunity to immerse in the fields of animism, shamanism, mysticism, herbalism, ritual, energy work and space holding for healing.
Her travels have taken her across the globe where she has trained in a variety of healing arts with different teachers from an array of traditions…
Fran has been initiated in Guatemala in the Mayan Cosmology, Ceremony & Cacao Facilitation by her teachers and indigenous K’iche’ Mayan spiritual elders, Tata Izaias Mendoza and Nana Isabel Parez, and continues to work with the sacred Chol Q’ij Calendar and Nahuale energies.
Other mentorships have been with the Mayan Wisdom Project, Animate Earth Collective, Sol Garzon (Ecuador Medicine Woman) deepening her relationship with ritual medicinal plants for cleansing “limpias“, and Pablo Castro Hernandez (Mexican Medicine Man and Archaeologist of Mayan Culture and Cacao) who’s mission is to “awaken the human spirit through ancestral wisdom and learning from the Mayan past to make our present flourish“.
She continues to explore and understand the historical ways of Cacao and ancient cultures who used this plant medicine.
In honouring the Spirit of Cacao with regular solo “dieta” retreats, Fran remains connected with the sacred wisdom of the heart which she shares alongside her other knowledge, and continues to expand her appreciation for these sacred ways of working with Cacao.
At Cape Cacao she is passionate about empowering wisdom seekers and keepers through ceremony and pilgrimage, our trainings, as well as 1:1 mentoring. She assists individuals in finding their inner teacher and healer through the use of ceremony, ritual, Cacao and shamanic tools.
Fran’s personality, space holding and facilitation style is down-to earth and practical, encouraging you to experience an embodied heart awakening journey to support you in trusting yourself, feeling more confident in your self-expression and able to speak your truth.
How it all began for Fran…
The Spirit of Cacao first whispered to Fran in 2009 when she met the Apus (spirit of the sacred mountains) while travelling in South America. It was only many years later that this whispering grew into a voice that lovingly called to her.
The more Fran started working with Cacao, inviting her in and really listening to her wisdom, the more her inner world changed from one of separation and lack to true connectedness and abundance.
Fran already had many spiritual practices, rituals and a strong connection with Nature, but as Mama Cacao made her way in, Fran’s work with Cacao started coming to the forefront of her spirituality.
Like with many others, Fran’s lessons with Mama Cacao were learnt in the cycles of hardship, suffering, heart-break, depression, loss and grief…
Over a relatively short amount of time, her life came crumbling down around her. The more she resisted, the stronger the forces of change were. Physical sickness, mental illness, energetic crisis… it all happened at once. Fran realised that everything she knew to be real was based on an illusion of safety, and as this realisation hit, her world began to fall apart.
And so she surrendered. Over a period of six Moon Cycles, Fran went into self-isolation in dieta with the Spirit of Cacao. And when she experienced what some traditions call “ego-death”, the most profound connection with Spirit was gifted to her. It was also during this time of dieta with Mama Cacao that Fran received the direct transmission from Spirit of Cacao for putting together what is now our signature Cacao Training offered through Cape Cacao.
Fran’s six months of dieta were like those of a caterpillar in a cocoon. She overcame chronic years of self-loathing, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and many destructive and self-punishing habits. Coming out of this cocoon of deep process work was like rebirthing. Fran now lives each day with an attitude of “radical self-love”, as she is often quoted.
Since then, Fran has been a conduit for the Spirit of the Heart, and has shared Cacao to hold space for anyone ready to start reconnecting to their own heart, to the hearts of others, and to the heart of Nature. The practice of living from the heart every day is the work of a Spiritual Warrior.
Fran is a living example of how this inner work and reconnection is made possible through the support of Cacao, through self-compassion, kindness, forgiveness and acceptance.
Along her journey she has been blessed with incredible teacher and mentors, from indigenous and modern cultures. She continues to be a student in this world. And she is also a teacher – passionate about empowering wisdom seekers and keepers through ceremonies, retreats, our courses, and 1:1 mentoring.
Fran is passionate about empowering wisdom seekers and keepers through ceremonies, retreats, our courses, and 1:1 mentoring.
Her personality, space-holding and facilitation style is down-to-earth and practical, encouraging others to experience an embodied heart awakening in support of self-trust, self-expression, and being able to speak one’s own truth.
Here at Cape Cacao, we are so grateful for her daily example of heart-leadership and the safe space she holds for our community to explore their inner-landscape, heal, expand and connect.
