Subjective Configurations in Cacao Ceremonies: A Theoretical Analysis from a Latin American Cultural–Historical Psychology Perspective

Abstract

This article explores the heuristic potential of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity and its use in theorizing neo-shamanic rituals, focusing on the case of the cacao ceremony. In the context of the growing popularity of contemporary spiritual practices, it examines how these rituals may contribute to the well-being of participants, serving as spaces for subjective reconfiguration. Through a theoretical-interpretive analysis and a critical review of the existing literature, the concepts of subjective configuration and subjective sense are explored as analytical tools. It is argued that (1) cacao functions as a symbolic mediator that facilitates the production of new subjective senses; (2) ritual practices allow for both the emergence and the dynamic stabilization of subjective configurations; (3) shamans act as mediators of subjectivation through discursive, material, and emotional practices; and (4) these processes are not mechanically determined by the social context but rather emerge as singular productions, which are historically situated and liable to indetermination. Finally, the article reflects on the ambivalence of this ritual, which is capable of fostering subjective transformations as well as reproducing neoliberal logics.

1. Introduction

The cacao ceremony is a practice which has a sacred origin, and involves the creation of a temporary communal space for the ceremonial consumption of a beverage prepared from cacao beans, which are mixed with spices, herbs, or other ingredients (León 2016). These ceremonies, inspired by Indigenous religiosity, are led by specialists generally referred to as shamans, who incorporate elements such as meditation, the setting of intentions, connection with the community, and music (Heinonen 2023).

In this article, neo-shamanism is used in the sense proposed by Wallis (2003), who defines it as a set of contemporary spiritual practices that selectively re-interpret and re-construct diverse Indigenous and shamanic traditions within late-modern, globalized contexts. Rather than simple continuities, these practices constitute an innovative synthesis, borrowing ritual, therapeutic, and symbolic elements from multiple sources, and generating hybrid forms that respond to contemporary demands for spirituality, healing, and ecological awareness (Wallis 2003).

Within this framework, the term ritual is understood, following (Turner 1969), as a culturally codified sequence of symbolic actions through which social meanings are produced, negotiated, and transformed. Rituals function as dynamic processes that not only reproduce cultural order but also generate spaces of liminality where identities, relations, and collective experiences are reconfigured in specific social settings, including the neo-shamanic contexts in which cacao ceremonies are enacted.

The term ceremony refers to a socially and culturally codified practice that structures a sequence of symbolic-material actions within a delimited time and space (Bell 1992). While closely related analytically to ritual—as theorized by Bell (1992) in terms of embodied, strategic action and ritualization—we adopt ceremony here because it is the term predominantly used by practitioners, as well as in the literature surrounding cacao practices.

While the notion of “neo-shamanism” may appear abstract at a theoretical level, it can be empirically visualized in diverse ceremonial contexts. For instance, practices such as ayahuasca rituals in the Amazon basin (Labate and Jungaberle 2011), San Pedro ceremonies in the Andes (Sharon 2004), or cacao rituals in Mesoamerican-inspired settings (Burby 2021) exemplify how neo-shamanism materializes through concrete ritual forms, symbolic interactions, and healing practices. Although these examples highlight the broader spectrum of neo-shamanic practices, the present study specifically focuses on cacao ceremonies.

While our study is theoretical and does not rely on empirical indicators, it is important to acknowledge that research has been undertaken which has examined the occurrence of the effects typically associated with neo-shamanic practices. On the nomothetic side, quantitative studies have documented improvements in mood, affect regulation, and well-being following participation in rituals such as ayahuasca ceremonies (Palhano-Fontes et al. 2019; Uthaug et al. 2018), and similar effects have been linked to cacao’s psychoactive components (Scholey et al. 2010). From an idiographic perspective, ethnographic analyses of ayahuasca, San Pedro, and cacao ceremonies (Labate and Cavnar 2014; Scuro 2018b; Burby 2021) highlight the transformative meanings participants attribute to these experiences, often framed in terms of connection with nature, healing, and belonging.

Neo-shamanic ceremonies centered around cacao, combine practices associated with ancestral rituals with more contemporary practices and demands (von Stuckrad 2002), such as the pursuit of spirituality, well-being, and a connection with nature (Burby 2021).

Neo-shamanic cacao ceremonies are facilitated by a broad spectrum of practitioners—from full-time ceremonial leaders identifying as shamans or facilitators, some trained within Indigenous traditions and others emerging from eclectic spiritual networks, to hybrid facilitators such as yoga instructors, therapists, and wellness coaches who incorporate cacao into therapeutic repertoires (Burby 2021). Burby (2021), drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Eugene, Oregon (USA), and online ceremonies hosted by major providers such as Keith’s Cacao, Ora Cacao, and Embue Cacao, indicates the emergence of dozens of active facilitators in urban centers, along with ceremony sizes ranging from intimate gatherings of approximately six participants to larger groups exceeding twenty. Burby’s study, based on 118 participant surveys and field observations, underscores the recognition of cacao as a “sacrament” and plant medicine—regarded as a heart-opening and grounding tool in these embodied spiritual practices (Burby 2021). Recent scholarship further highlights this therapeutic framing, describing ceremonial cacao as a catalyst for self-discovery and a means of exploring one’s inner landscape (Williams 2024). These ceremonies have emerged as spaces of alternative healing in a world marked by social isolation, the search for meaning, and an on-going ecological crisis (Burby 2021; von Stuckrad 2022).

In line with this resurgence, academic interest in neo-shamanism has grown, exploring the capacity of such practices to integrate religious, economic, political, cultural, and therapeutic elements within a modern, globalized, and urban setting (Wallis 2003). Much of this research has emerged from disciplines such as anthropology and sociology, leaving a significant analytical gap in terms of any analysis from a psychological perspective. Studies from the discipline of psychology have examined ceremonial cacao as a symbolic mediator of emotional openness, community connection, and embodied spirituality (Burby 2021; Williams 2024). Neuropsychological benefits have also been documented following the consumption of flavanols, such as improvements in mood and attention (Field et al. 2011; Scholey et al. 2010). However, these phenomena have rarely been addressed within a critical theoretical framework that reflects the power relations and social structures shaping subjectivities. This lack of a critical perspective in the psychological study of neo-shamanism has limited the understanding of how neo-shamanic ceremonies are embedded in and respond to current socio-political and economic dynamics, as well as their role in transforming, or reproducing, prevailing discourses on spirituality and health.

Beyond emotional healing and spiritual reconnection, neo-shamanic practices such as the cacao ceremony frequently involve a search for existential meaning and personal destiny, where participants seek to reinterpret their life trajectories and reconnect with a deeper sense of purpose (Hanegraaff 1996; Fotiou 2016; Burby 2021). This existential dimension is often articulated through ritual narratives and symbolic acts of re-birth, transformation, and self-discovery (Rodrigo 2021; Scuro 2015). Furthermore, many facilitators explicitly evoke communion with ancestors or the spiritual world of the dead, inviting participants to honor lineage, receive ancestral messages, or engage in guided visualizations that traverse symbolic representations of death and rebirth (Harner 1990; Krippner and Sulla 2000). These experiences are not merely metaphorical; within the neo-shamanic worldview, they form part of a cosmological system that integrates the sacred, the ancestral, and the collective, challenging dominant Western ontologies that separate the living from the dead, and the psychological from the spiritual (Apud 2014; Yessekeyeva and Brugger 2021).

From the perspective of historical–cultural psychology, subjectivity is understood as a dynamic system of subjective senses and configurations, which emerge through the inseparable articulation of symbolic and emotional processes, particularly in the relationship between the individual and the social, while always situated in specific historical and cultural contexts (González-Rey 2017; González-Rey and Martínez 2016). This framework is explicitly non-psychologistic: it does not reduce subjectivity to psychic traits, individual indicators, or measurable variables. Within this framework, subjectivity is constituted by components such as subjective senses, the unique, affectively charged meanings that mediate a person’s relation to their context, and subjective configurations—the relatively stable organizations of such senses through which individuals signify their experiences and position themselves socially. This approach moves beyond perspectives that reduce such practices to substance use or isolated neuropsychological effects (Carod-Artal 2013; Labate and Cavnar 2014), emphasizing instead the role of rituals as mediators in the production of new subjective senses related to well-being and health, embedded in socio-cultural and political-economic processes—that is, in their historicity. While anthropological studies emphasize hybridity, symbolism, and healing in cacao ceremonies (Burby 2021; León 2016), these insights remain largely descriptive. González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity allows us to re-interpret these same findings as instances of the production of subjective senses, in which emotional-symbolic mediations (e.g., cacao, music, narrative) generate new subjective configurations. Thus, the literature provides empirical observations, while the theoretical framework re-signifies them as processes of subjectivation.

This article forms part of the first author’s doctoral dissertation project, developed within the Doctoral Program in Psychology at Universidad de Tarapacá and funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID). Within this framework, the study adopts González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity as its main conceptual lens. This choice responds to a theoretical gap: while neo-shamanic practices—such as cacao ceremonies—have often been studied in anthropology, sociology, or biomedical psychology, these approaches tend to emphasize cultural description, phenomenology, or neurochemical mechanisms, without sufficiently addressing how rituals produce new meanings, emotions, and forms of agency within historically situated subjectivities. From González-Rey’s cultural–historical perspective, subjectivity is conceived as a historically situated and dynamic system of subjective senses and configurations, continuously shaped through the articulation of symbolic, emotional, and social processes. Our contribution focuses on exploring the heuristic potential of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity in order to interpret neo-shamanic practices, specifically through a theoretical analysis of the cacao ceremony. The aim of this article is to foster a dialog between the theoretical body of cultural–historical psychology and a situated ritual practice that has been re-signified within urban and globalized contexts.

Rather than using González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity to confirm pre-established positions, this article employs it heuristically, which it does in order to explore how this framework can help us read the emergence of subjective senses and configurations in cacao ceremonies, including their ambivalent potentials. Building on this aim, the article is guided by the following research question: How can González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity contribute to an understanding of neo-shamanic practices such as the cacao ceremony? This inquiry proceeds from the assumption that the understanding of neo-shamanic rituals will be enhanced by incorporating a theoretical perspective capable of conceiving subjectivity as historically situated, thereby overcoming the individualistic and neurochemical readings that dominate hegemonic psychology.

2. The Cacao Ceremony in Neo-Shamanism: Theoretical Perspectives on Traditions and Contemporary Practices

Neo-shamanism has been studied by anthropology and sociology as a contemporary phenomenon that reinterprets traditional shamanic practices within urban and globalized contexts (Beyer 2009; Wallis 2003). These studies highlight that neo-shamanic rituals are not simply reproductions of ancestral practices, but rather reinterpretations of Indigenous religious beliefs adapted to the spiritual and therapeutic needs of modern societies. Within this framework, the cacao ceremony stands out as a significant example of cultural re-signification, integrating traditional Mesoamerican symbols with contemporary discourses on wellness and healing.

From the perspective of symbolic anthropology, neo-shamanism is understood as a dynamic system of symbols and meanings, in which practices such as the cacao ceremony are reconfigured to express new forms of spirituality and belonging (Jaramillo Rojo 2024). These rituals are interpreted as spaces of cultural re-signification, where participants reinterpret and articulate spiritual meanings according to their own experiences and contexts (Eliade 2004; Harner 1990).

From the perspective of the sociology of religion, for its part, neo-shamanism is analyzed as a response to the disenchantment of modernity and the search for spiritual authenticity in a secularized world (Fedele and Knibbe 2020; Heelas and Woodhead 2005).

Finally, and in terms of the phenomenology of religion (Eliade 1959; van Gennep 1960), neo-shamanism is understood as a liminal experience that enables participants to undergo states of identity transition and profound transformation. Cacao ceremonies, in this sense, are conceived as practices that facilitate altered states of consciousness and transcendental connections, fostering experiences of emotional healing and spiritual reconnection (Krippner and Sulla 2000; Winkelman 2010). These rituals function not only as a means of personal introspection, but also as platforms for establishing collective bonds and to experience a renewed sense of belonging.

From a historical perspective, cacao rituals have served cultural, spiritual, medicinal, and economic purposes (Grivetti and Shapiro 2009). While traditionally associated with Mesoamerican cultures, recent archeological research has revealed evidence of cacao use and cultivation in the southern continent prior to the colonization of Latin America. Studies by Zarrillo et al. (2018) traced the origins of cacao to Ecuador, while research by Lanaud et al. (2024) found cacao DNA in pre-Columbian Ecuadorian ceramics, suggesting that its domestication and ritual use occurred in that region over five thousand years ago. In the Mesoamerican context, according to Burby (2021), the Izapan peoples were the first to cultivate cacao in the Soconusco region of southeastern Mexico during the Late Preclassic period (400 BCE–200 CE). Cacao held not only economic value but also profound ritual significance. It was considered a sacred food associated with fertility, life, and a connection to the natural and spiritual worlds.

The cultural transmission between the Izapan and the Maya was a complex process that involved not only the exchange of agricultural knowledge, but also the appropriation and reinterpretation of symbols and beliefs. Archeological evidence, such as stone stelae and monoliths, attests to the transmission of the term “kakaw” and its associated cosmology. These vestiges suggest that cacao was not merely a material good for trade, but also a key element in the cosmovision and religious rituals of Mesoamerican cultures (Burby 2021).

The Izapan influence on Mayan culture is recorded in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the K’iche’ Maya people, where cacao is associated with creation and rebirth, symbolizing life and death in the underworld. The text recounts myths in which the gods used cacao in sacred ceremonies, reinforcing its spiritual value and its function as a medium for communication with the Divine World (Burby 2021).

Cacao was also used in initiation rites, sacrifices, and ceremonies dedicated to agricultural deities, highlighting its fundamental role in the social and religious structure of the Maya. In practice, cacao was considered a gift from the gods by the Maya, and was used in ceremonies to honor deities such as Ek Chuah, the god of cacao (Enseleit and Ferrari 2024). The Aztecs, in turn, associated it with the deity Quetzalcoatl and used it in sacrificial rituals along with other celebrations (Grivetti and Shapiro 2009). The Popol Vuh contains multiple references to cacao, including the story of Ixquic (the moon goddess) and her invocation of the goddess Cacao Woman, as well as references to cacao as a sacred food that contributed to the creation of humanity (Greenhill and Dreiss 2022). Cacao also appears in post-classic Maya and Aztec codices, such as the Fejérváry-Mayer Codex, where it represents, among others, the Tree of the South and the Underworld (Burby 2021).

With the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, cacao was soon after introduced to Europe, where it was transformed into a sweetened culinary beverage (Presilla 2009), initially losing its cultural and spiritual significance. However, in Indigenous communities across Mesoamerica and South America, cacao ceremonies maintained their importance in spiritual and cultural life (Kufer et al. 2006).

In more recent decades, there has been a renewed interest in neo-shamanic spiritual practices in the West (Rodrigo 2021), leading to greater exposure and adaptation of traditional ceremonies such as those involving cacao. This process of global diffusion has had a dual effect: it has enabled some communities to reconnect cacao with its original cultural and spiritual roots, while also making its significance more accessible to a wider audience interested in the search for well-being, personal growth, and spiritual connection (Rodrigo 2021; Yamoah et al. 2021).

González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity offers a solid conceptual framework for theorizing neo-shamanic cacao ceremonies as places where situated subjective configurations emerge. This perspective conceives of subjectivity not as an internal structure or individual essence, but as a dynamic system of subjective senses, articulated through inter-subjective experience, discourse, and emotionality (González-Rey 2005, 2011b). From this perspective, the subject does not pre-exist the ritual but is constituted as an unstable emergence of subjective senses shaped within specific historical and relational contexts (González-Rey 2015a). In this sense, neo-shamanic rituals can be understood as spaces in which processes of subjectivation are mobilized, and which reorder narratives, affects, and positions, thus enabling the re-signification of feelings of anguish in therapeutic, spiritual, and communal terms. These processes express the ethical-transformative potential of subjectivity, understood as an open field for the production of meaning beyond fixed social or individual determinations (González-Rey 2011b). Importantly, such processes are shaped by broader symbolic and historical dimensions that circulate within the ritual space. In the context of neo-shamanic cacao ceremonies, Indigenous cosmologies and the symbolic agency attributed to medicinal plants converge to provide additional layers of meaning, which participants then integrate into their subjective configurations (Burby 2021; Heinonen 2023).

2.1. Subjectivity as a Dynamic Configuration: Theoretical Foundations from González-Rey

The following theoretical foundations do not present empirical evidence on the actual effects of cacao ceremonies. The possible positive consequences are considered probable but remain hypothetical; these theoretical foundations are theoretical interpretations framed within González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, rather than verified or universally replicable outcomes.

González-Rey (2011b, 2015b) argues that subjective processes must be understood as historically situated productions. This implies that practices such as present-day neo-shamanism cannot be analyzed independently from the historical, social, cultural, economic, and political conditions in which they are configured, including the effects of globalization. The appropriation and re-signification of Indigenous elements within Western urban contexts give rise to new dynamics of power and consumption, in which notions of authenticity and tradition are discursively interrelated (Souza 2013). In the case of the cacao ceremony, this translates into the production of discourses on health and spirituality that—while invoking ancestry—are also embedded in present-day neoliberal logics of markets and wellness (Rodríguez 2020).

González-Rey’s (2011a, 2011b) theory of subjectivity establishes a theoretical domain that aims to overcome the limitations of mainstream psychology. While the latter has tended to focus on isolated individual psychological processes, such as cognitive functions or specific behaviors, González-Rey proposes understanding subjectivity as a complex and dynamic system that emerges from the dialogical interaction between the individual and the social (González-Rey 2005).

This approach is particularly effective for the study of cacao ceremonies, as it enables an understanding of how these practices operate simultaneously on multiple levels: individual, social, cultural, political-economic, and historical. González-Rey’s concept of subjectivity is a complex and multifaceted construct that integrates individual and social dimensions, emphasizing the interaction between socio-personal experiences and broader economic, political, and cultural contexts.

González-Rey maintains that subjectivity is shaped through a dialectical relationship between the self and the social world, in which economic, political, and historical tensions and contradictions play a crucial role in its development (González-Rey 2019). This aligns with the notion that personal and social identities are not fixed, but are constantly exchanged and redefined through material experiences (Fleer et al. 2020; Goulart et al. 2021; Martínez et al. 2019; Rossato and Ramos 2020).

To deepen the theoretical analysis of subjectivity, González-Rey introduces the concept of subjective senses, which refers to the social organization (cultural, emotional, political, economic, and historical) of subjective processes (González-Rey 2011a). These senses represent the ways in which individuals experience, interpret, and assign meaning to their experiences, reflecting both personal feelings and social influences. This duality highlights the importance of context in shaping subjective experiences, suggesting that understanding an individual’s subjectivity requires an appreciation of their social, cultural, and politico-economic surroundings (González-Rey 2012).

Subjective configurations play a critical role in how a community1 interprets and responds to its surroundings. They organize individual subjective senses and collectively mediate the construction of shared meanings, shaping practices, discourses, and relational forms within the group (González-Rey 2008). While subjective configurations are individual productions, their emergence occurs within significant contexts of social interaction, where they can be shared and become established as collective frameworks of meaning (González-Rey 2008). Through these configurations, the community establishes frameworks that provide coherence, enable responses to challenges, and transform their surroundings in accordance with their historical significance (González-Rey 2002).

Subjective senses operate as the basic organizing level of lived experience, emerging from the interplay between social processes and individual narratives. They are emotionally charged meanings that shape how a person interprets what they live, think, and feel in specific contexts, and they also guide an individual’s actions. For instance, two people may participate in the same cacao ceremony, but while one experiences it as a profound spiritual transformation, the other may perceive it mainly as an esthetic or therapeutic occurrence. This divergence does not stem from the external ritual itself, but from the historically constituted subjective senses each participant brings to it. Over time, such senses intertwine and stabilize into subjective configurations, that is to say, more complex organizations of meaning that integrate multiple senses around themes such as health, spirituality, or identity. These configurations manifest in practices, discourses, and institutions, providing coherence and continuity to the individual and collective experience. In this perspective, subjective senses can be viewed as the matrices of significance, while subjective configurations function as the systems that organize, reproduce, or transform them within broader social and historical contexts. This perspective challenges traditional views in psychology that often separate emotional and rational processes, instead advocating for a holistic understanding of how emotions shape and participate in subjective processes within social contexts (González-Rey 2011c; González-Rey and Martínez 2016). Consequently, the work of González-Rey encourages a critical examination of how social structures and social discourses influence individual subjectivity. By recognizing the socio-political dimensions of subjectivity, professionals can better address issues of inequality and marginalization, ultimately promoting a multi-determined approach (González-Rey 2008; Patiño-Torres and Goulart 2020; Rossato and Ramos 2020). This recognition allows for the understanding that subjective experiences cannot be reduced to the individual level alone, but rather emerge from an interweaving of social, cultural, and political dimensions that shape their conditions of possibility (González-Rey 2008).

Subjective senses constitute the fundamental units of subjectivity in González-Rey’s (2019) theory. They are essential because they represent the way in which socially constructed and emotionally experienced meanings are articulated within the subject’s concrete experience, providing coherence to the multiple dimensions of their subjective life (González-Rey 2011a). These meanings take shape within the framework of social, cultural, political, and historical practices, and they express a complex multi-determination of genetic, social, cultural, historical, and political-economic factors (Deusdará and González-Rey 2012). In the context of cacao ceremonies, these meanings can manifest in personal experiences of health and illness, family and community narratives, and cultural practices of caring for the body and mind, as well as in the influence of public health discourses.

The relationship between material social processes (economic, political, historical, and cultural) and subjectivity is fundamental in González-Rey’s (2005) theory. Traditions, rituals, and practices are produced within subjectivity insofar as it constitutes a system that generates meaning, one in which practices are re-signified and appropriated in singular ways from the subject’s subjective positions (González-Rey 2010). In the case of neo-shamanism, by incorporating emotional, symbolic, ritual, and historical elements, these practices become deeply interwoven with participants’ subjectivity, given that subjectivity is not merely a reflection of the social but an active space of symbolic production in which practices acquire meaning from historically constructed subjective positions (González-Rey 2005).

Neo-shamanism, in reintegrating the sacred into modern life, plays a significant role in subjective configuration. This it does by influencing how individuals understand their place in the world, form relationships with others, connect with their surroundings, and interpret experiences of health and illness (Apud 2014; Scuro 2015, 2018a). It is significant because it contests a subjective space within modernity, offering alternative means through which subjects may re-signify their existence beyond the predominant rationalist and materialist structures. These practices enable subjects to construct meanings that challenge dominant narratives about health and spirituality, thus enabling subjective interpretive frameworks (González-Rey 2013b; Scuro 2015). In this sense, neo-shamanism has also been analyzed as a phenomenon of religious re-signification within the context of contemporary processes of cultural globalization (Yessekeyeva and Brugger 2021).

Neo-shamanic ceremonies, as symbolically and emotionally charged practices, can shape the production of subjective senses by providing ritual and affective frameworks, which can then be used by individuals to re-signify experiences related to well-being, identity, or the sacred (González-Rey 2013b; Scuro 2015). Through rituals, material practices, and healing experiences, neo-shamanism offers new subjective configurations that challenge hegemonic meanings of well-being, spirituality, and identity. In this sense, it not only provides tools for the construction of meaning, but also functions as a space of resistance (Scuro 2015, 2018a), where ancestral knowledge is revalorized and forms of relating to nature and community are promoted, being forms that contrast with the individualistic and fragmented logics of late modernity.

2.2. An Interpretation of the Cacao Ceremony as a Space of Cultural and Subjective Re-Signification

The theoretical analysis that follows should be understood as a theoretical interpretation, rather than proven effects.

González-Rey’s framework also allows us to understand how cacao ceremonies may contribute to participants’ health beyond purely physical or individual psychological outcomes. According to this scholar, the ceremony functions as a space for subjective reconfiguration in which new subjective senses around health and well-being are produced, shared subjective configurations that give meaning to the experience are constructed, and cultural, historical, political-economic, and spiritual elements are integrated into the material experience of health. Within this space, participants re-signify their relationship with the body, the community, and their surroundings (Chango et al. 2025). Consequently, subjectively mediated spaces such as these ceremonies can operate as scenarios for subjective reconfiguration, which they do by enabling new forms of interpreting experience (González-Rey 2010). This section explores how emotions, material practices, and stabilization dynamics intertwine in the cacao ceremony as a complex subjective space.

Among the different elements that structure this process, the emotional dimension stands out for its articulating role in the subjective configuration. As González-Rey (2011a) notes, subjectivity cannot be reduced to merely rational aspects, rather it entails an essentially emotional component. During the cacao ceremony, participants experience intense emotional states that may range from feelings of calm and introspection to euphoria and a sense of connection with the community. These emotions are not isolated experiences, given that they are mediated by the ceremony and by interactions with other participants (Chango et al. 2025).

Likewise, these processes do not emerge in a vacuum, but are articulated through material ritual practices whose symbolic and affective value amplifies the reconfiguration of subjective senses. Material practices can be understood as actions that are symbolically and emotionally charged, involving the body, space, and ritual objects, which mediate the participant’s emotional and cognitive experience (González-Rey 2013b). This “charge” is what enables such actions to mediate processes of subjective reconfiguration in ritual contexts. This perspective has been reinforced by recent studies on material rituality that emphasize the mediating role of sacred objects in religious settings (Nugteren 2019).

As an extension of these material practices, and following the consumption of cacao, it is common for some participants to engage in conversations about healing, well-being, and connection with the sacred, thereby constructing collective frameworks of shared interpretation (Chango et al. 2025; Jaramillo Rojo 2024). Subjectivity is thus configured through a dialogical process in which meanings interweave with collective discourses, historical traditions, and material practices (González-Rey 2013b). This occurs through subjective configurations that integrate affects, personal narratives, and mediations, enabling these practices to occupy a meaningful place in the experience of each participant (González-Rey 2010).

Among the elements mediating this subjective configuration, cacao occupies a central place as a subjective reorganizer, one that is symbolic, cultural, historical, political, and economic, and which facilitates the emergence of subjective senses and the transformation of participants’ subjective configurations. From González-Rey’s (2002) perspective, culturally significant objects can operate as symbolic mediators that restructure subjectivity. In this sense, cacao does not act solely through its physiological effects (Burby 2021), but as a cultural device that catalyzes subjective senses by articulating the ancestral with contemporary frameworks of health and spirituality. This raises the question: how can cacao, as a mediator, be understood as more than a substance, becoming instead an organizer of subjective reconfiguration? From the standpoint of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, this process is complex, since cultural objects and practices become integrated into subjectivity through processes of signification. This construction of shared signifiers also reveals the power dynamics and subjective configurations that emerge within these rituals.

From the perspective of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, the subjective effects attributed to cacao ceremonies can be interpreted not as automatic or universally replicable, but as contingent upon a set of interrelated conditions that may modulate their effectiveness. Firstly, the physical and symbolic environment can be understood as playing a fundamental role: spatial arrangements such as the circle, the central altar, and controlled lighting or soundscapes may be seen as creating a sensory grammar that supports collective affectivity and symbolic anchoring (Burby 2021). Secondly, the preparation and disposition of participants appear relevant, since practices such as fasting, intention-setting, or prior abstention from stimulants are often theorized as ways to enhance openness to emotional and symbolic stimuli (Burby 2021; Heinonen 2023). Thirdly, the role of the facilitator or shaman may be interpreted as central—and not necessarily as an authority figure, but rather as a mediator of meaning (González-Rey 2015a), capable of weaving narratives, guiding emotional processes, and legitimizing subjective experiences within the ritual (Burby 2021). Fourthly, the preparation of the cacao beverage itself—including its ritualization, purity, and perceived ancestral origin—can be conceived as influencing the degree of symbolic identification and emotional resonance it elicits (Chango et al. 2025). Conversely, from this theoretical lens, when such enabling conditions are absent or weakened—for example, in commodified or decontextualized settings lacking emotional attunement or symbolic grounding—the ritual might be less likely to catalyze subjective transformation, or could instead be interpreted as reinforcing neoliberal individualism and spiritual bypassing. Thus, the effectiveness of the cacao ceremony as a potential space for subjective reconfiguration is not inherent, but rather contingent upon its material, affective, and relational conditions of production, always understood here as theoretical reflections rather than empirical findings.

While recognizing González-Rey’s significant contribution, a critical reading of his proposals reveals that these ceremonies do not necessarily lead to subjective reorganization. They can also function as spaces of ideological reproduction and maintenance of the status quo, particularly when the discourses and practices that shape them reinforce individualizing frameworks that psychologize the experience (Fernández Olguín 2018) or reproduce the appropriation of ancestral knowledge within the logic of the capitalist market (Enelvolcan 2019). Thus, theorizing these spaces requires considering both their transformative potential and critically examining their possible role in reaffirming existing power structures and hierarchies. Beyond the ideological ambivalence of the ceremony, a key aspect for understanding its effects lies in how certain subjective senses become stabilized. The stabilization of subjective senses is a crucial moment in the process of subjective configuration, as it implies that certain meanings and emotions—emerging in the experience—cease to be transitory and become consolidated as relatively stable reference points in the individual’s subjective organization. As discussed earlier in this paper, González-Rey (2011a, 2015a, 2011c) describes subjective senses as processes in constant production that, nevertheless, can reach varying degrees of stability when they encounter social, emotional, and symbolic conditions that favor their reiteration and appropriation. In the context of the cacao ceremony, this stabilization may occur when participants internalize interpretations regarding the body, healing, or spirituality that, when repeated and collectively legitimized, acquire the status of inter-subjective truth. This process is not merely cognitive but deeply affective and relational: meaning becomes stabilized not only due to its logical coherence but because of its emotional force, its capacity to articulate with the subject’s prior configurations, and its connection with collective, social, symbolic, political, economic, and historical conditions that legitimize and consolidate it (González-Rey 2011b, 2011a).

The stabilization process involves a dialectical articulation between individual experiences and the social mediations that sustain them. As González-Rey (2011c), points out, a subjective sense tends to stabilize when it coherently aligns with previous subjective configurations, achieving an integration that reduces internal tensions and contradictions. In the cacao ceremony, this may occur, for example, when a person with a history of anguish finds in the ceremony a space for release (Chango et al. 2025), a position that not only reorganizes their sense of anguish but also connects it to a culturally validated and emotionally charged practice. In such cases, the new sense does not completely replace the previous ones, rather it rearticulates them, allowing for a subjective reorganization that gives rise to an experience distinct from those before. Thus, stabilization is not a closure but a new stage in the process of subjective configuration, one that remains open to future transformations (González-Rey 2015a).

However, this stabilization does not occur automatically or uniformly, rather it requires favorable contextual conditions, including shared discursive frameworks, practices, and meaningful inter-subjective attachments. As González-Rey (2013a), argues, subjective senses emerge in concrete scenarios of social interaction, where material practices, narratives, and emotions interweave, generating configurations with lasting potential. In the case of the cacao ceremony, the repetition of certain practices (such as singing, meditating, or sharing visions), along with the group’s recognition and validation of particular experiences, helps ensure that the subjective senses produced during the ritual do not fade once it ends but instead become subjectively incorporated by the participant. This continuity makes it possible for what was experienced in the ritual to be reactivated in other spheres of everyday life, functioning as a resource when facing future situations and reorganizing past experiences (González-Rey 2011a, 2019).

To sum up, González-Rey’s theory makes it possible to interpret how the cacao ceremony operates as a symbolically and emotionally charged space in which (1) subjective senses linked to health, well-being, and spirituality emerge, and are configured in close relation to historical, social, political and economic contexts. Far from conceiving these senses as isolated expressions of the inner self, this approach emphasizes their dialogical, affective, and situated character, allowing us to understand how such ceremonies not only reorganize experiences, they also produce collective subjective configurations, and that these rearticulate discourses related to the body, healing, and the community. Furthermore, in these types of rituals, some of these subjective senses not only emerge but also (2) become stabilized: that is to say, they acquire a degree of relative permanence within the participant’s subjective organization when they encounter symbolic, emotional, and social conditions that allow for their stabilization (González-Rey 2011a, 2015a). This stabilization can be observed, for example, when interpretations of health or spirituality internalized during the ceremony are reiterated, become emotionally meaningful, and are collectively shared, thereby consolidating themselves as subjective truths that guide future experiences. Thus, the ritual functions not only as a catalyst for subjective reorganizations but also as a setting for symbolic, affective, and inter-subjective stabilization, through which individuals integrate what they have experienced into broader frameworks of personal and collective senses (González-Rey 2013a, 2019).

2.3. Reviewing Therapeutic Dimensions Based on the Theory of Subjectivity

This article is a theoretical study and does not involve direct empirical research with Indigenous communities. It therefore does not claim to measure therapeutic effectiveness or document specific ritual outcomes; any references to therapeutic or transformative effects are conceptual interpretations grounded in González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, not empirically verified findings.

Therapeutic effectiveness cannot be defined solely as the capacity of an intervention to generate measurable improvements in emotional well-being (American Psychological Association 2013), rather, and from the perspective of the theory of subjectivity, it must be understood as part of a corporal, discursive, and relational process that involves the social space of subjectivation, affectivity, agency, and temporality, while taking into account its insertion in socially situated practices, that is, in conditions pertinent to a specific social, historical, and cultural context. In this framework, the guiding question becomes: How is therapeutic effectiveness to be understood from González-Rey’s perspective

As Wampold (2015) argues, the effectiveness of psychotherapy largely depends on common factors—such as the therapeutic alliance, expectations, and the connection between therapist and patient—rather than on specific techniques. This reinforces the idea that therapeutic effects emerge within contexts of interaction and the construction of meaning, rather than from isolated technical interventions.

González-Rey (2002) proposes a notion of subjectivity that is not reduced to what is internal or individual, but rather understood as a production that occurs in dialog and social relationships. Within this framework, the therapeutic dimension becomes active when the subject is able to reconfigure meanings, open up new fields of signification, and re-signify their anguish through subjective configurations constructed in an interaction with culturally situated contexts.

These dynamics have often been described in previous research through psychological and neurobiological mechanisms, which are assumed to explain the effects of rituals. Studies in anthropology and psychology have emphasized the role of altered states of consciousness (ASC), facilitated by rhythmic music, meditative breathing, and the ingestion of cacao as a sacred substance (Krippner and Sulla 2000; Winkelman 2010). Within these perspective, such states are linked to shifts in attention, heightened introspection, and altered time perception, and they are complemented by accounts of group cohesion and affective synchrony that highlight emotional resonance and belonging (Krippner and Sulla 2000; Winkelman 2010). Likewise, biochemical explanations have pointed to cacao’s flavanols, theobromine, and tryptophan, which may modulate mood, neurovascular coupling, and serotonin synthesis (Møll 2021; Scholey et al. 2010; Martín et al. 2020).

However, from the standpoint of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, these approaches remain limited. This is because they reduce complex processes of subjectivation to psychological or biochemical mechanisms. González-Rey does not conceptualize subjectivity as the outcome of causal mechanisms, but as a dynamic configuration of subjective senses historically and socially situated. In this framework, elements such as music, cacao ingestion, or group rituals are not “mechanisms” that directly produce effects, but cultural and symbolic mediations through which new subjective senses can emerge. Thus, while the literature identifies mechanisms such as ASC, our theoretical approach interprets these experiences instead as processes of symbolic and affective re-signification, which contribute to the production of subjectivity.

Since subjectivity is not restricted to the linguistic or cognitive domain, it is essential to consider how corporal practices also mediate the production of meaning. Thus, according to González-Rey, in psychotherapeutic contexts, corporal practices such as musical performance, dance, breathing exercises, and guided meditation not only induce specific emotional states but also function as articulators, through which participants question and redefine their subjective senses in relation to existing socio-cultural and political structures. These corporal practices enable individuals to explore, transform, or reinforce structures imposed by hegemonic contexts, re-signifying or reaffirming their personal and collective experiences. In this process, affectivity is not a mere individual response to stimuli; rather it emerges as a production of dynamic subjective configurations, co-constructed through interactions with others and with the ritual setting.

These corporal practices, however, do not occur in a cultural vacuum. In fact, they are deeply shaped by broader social dynamics. From a cultural–historical perspective, it is crucial to emphasize that the cacao ceremony is neither an isolated nor an atemporal phenomenon; rather, it is embedded within a context of late capitalism that influences its configuration and evolution. The present-day appropriation of cacao in urban and globalized settings responds to a series of tensions between the ancestral and the modern. These tensions not only shape how the ceremony is practiced and perceived, but also influence the subjective configuration of its participants, generating new forms of signification around spirituality.

Returning to the critique of biomedical reductionism, but moving toward a process-focused perspective, González-Rey’s (2011a, 2019) theory of subjectivity, maintains that health cannot be understood solely in traditional biomedical or psychological terms. Rather, it is a dynamic process of producing subjective senses that, in certain contexts, become articulated into relatively stable subjective configurations. From this perspective, the therapeutic effectiveness of neo-shamanic rituals, including the cacao ceremony, would not reside only in their neuro-physiological effects, but in their capacity to generate subjective configurations that, in turn, produce new subjective senses.

In the context of the cacao ceremony, and following González-Rey, this dynamic process, as described in the previous paragraph, is articulated through the interaction among several shared elements: ritual symbols, healing narratives, and corporal experiences. The ingestion of cacao within a ritualized structure not only induces physiological changes but, from González-Rey theoretical perspective, also functions as an articulator capable of restructuring the subjective configurations of the participants. González-Rey and Mitjans (2021) emphasize that subjectivity is expressed in subjective senses that emerge through language, corporality, and emotional experience, which suggests that the therapeutic effectiveness of these rituals depends to a large extent on their capacity to confer new meanings on (feelings of) anguish within an emotionally charged context. Thus, from this paradigm, the effectiveness of a therapeutic ritual lies in its ability to offer a space of social transformation in which subjects can reconfigure their anguish, producing meanings around emotional experience or conflict; within this approach, emotions are no longer understood as isolated biological processes, but as material expressions in interaction with the context that frames them. In line with this perspective, research on ritual and health has shown that such spaces not only provide immediate emotional relief, for they can also generate sustainable transformations (Apud 2013; Burby 2021; Labate et al. 2017).

Reinterpreted from González-Rey’s perspective, transformation would occur at the level of subjective senses, and consist in the stabilization of subjective senses that dynamically articulate with historical, social, cultural, economic and political processes. This dynamic articulation means that subjective senses do not harden into rigid forms or disconnect from a continually changing social context; rather, they remain open to reinterpretation and creative adaptation in response to new demands, tensions, and possibilities in the immediate surroundings. Subjective senses are considered articulated when they enable the subject to actively integrate contextual tensions into their subjective dynamics, thus allowing for the emergence of new forms of meaning and action. This articulation, while it may involve the re-signification of the sense of anguish, does not necessarily entail its disappearance; instead, anguish may be re-signified in ways that support the continuity of the subjective process rather than its paralysis or pathologization (González-Rey 2005).

Within this framework, therapeutic effectiveness would be analyzed based on four fundamental processes that are articulated in terms of subjective reorganization: (1) affectivity, (2) the social space of subjectivation, (3) agency, and (4) temporality. These processes are not isolated dimensions but are intricately and dynamically intertwined, thus shaping the different ways in which subjectivity can be produced, transformed, and stabilized throughout the therapeutic experience. Each one of these aspects will be explored in depth in the following sections.

From González-Rey’s perspective, affectivity plays a significant role in the configuration and stabilization of the subjectivity characteristic of therapeutic processes. For González-Rey (2011a) affectivity is defined as a form of the production of meaning within subjectivity, which organizes the subject’s symbolic-affective ambit and mediates their relations with themselves and the world. From this perspective, effective therapeutic change implies that the new subjective senses are not only produced but are symbolically and emotionally invested in and sustained through lived experience.

Therapeutic effectiveness requires a social space of subjectivation, understood as a context that fosters the emergence, exploration, and validation of meanings. Subjectivity is not produced privately or in isolation. Rather, it can be generated within inter-subjective settings where the subject is heard, legitimized, and recognized.

For González-Rey, the inter-subjective setting is a socially configured group space, one in which individual subjectivity is produced and transformed. It is a social field of significations in which subjects, through dialog, symbolic interaction, and the production of shared meanings, construct their own ways of being and existing. As González-Rey (2015a), proposes, these concrete social spaces function as settings for the production and stabilization of subjective senses. The therapeutic device, in this sense, operates as a space for symbolic co-construction, where previous configurations are reactivated and others are enabled. Through this conception, González-Rey moves beyond traditional notions that reduce this interaction to a dyadic exchange between two individuals.

Another crucial aspect is the subject’s agency, understood as the historically and socially mediated capacity to produce meaning in contexts of adversity and domination. This is not an internal or individual property; rather it is a process of subjective construction configured in the tension between objective conditions and singular symbolic productions. This capacity, constructed through relationships with others and through language, enables the subject to rewrite their history from a position that is less passive or victimized. González-Rey (2008), asserts that subjectivity is not a sum of determinations but an open system, one that allows the subject to produce forms of meaning even under conditions of adversity. Thus, therapeutic effectiveness would be defined as the empowerment of processes of subjective production that go beyond narratives of victimization, turning suffering into a platform for creation and resistance in response to social logics of exclusion.

Finally, this subjective transformation cannot be understood without considering temporality. As such, it cannot be conceived as a fixed permanent or predetermined inscription in the unconscious or the body. From González-Rey’s (2010) perspective, personal history is a dynamic production that organizes meanings regarding experience within the framework of social and historical relations. In this process, the illusion of biographical continuity—that is, the construction of a coherent life narrative in the face of the real discontinuity of existence—constitutes a subjective product. Therapeutic effectiveness, in this sense, would not consist in uncovering a hidden past or faithfully reconstructing an objective history, but rather in accompanying the production of new configurations of meaning, which enable the subject to rearticulate their past, re-signify it in the present, and project possibilities toward the future in terms of their own life trajectory.

To sum up, therapeutic effectiveness in ritual contexts such as the cacao ceremony is sustained by an interwoven set of specific subjective processes. These can be organized around four key dimensions: affectivity; the social space of subjectivation; agency; and temporality. Through their interaction, these dimensions make it possible to understand how subjectivity is transformed and stabilized through situated, relational, and emotionally significant experiences.

3. Discussion

Cacao ceremonies as spaces of subjective reconfiguration represent a complex phenomenon that requires critical analysis. By using González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity, it is possible to explore and interpret neo-shamanic rituals as settings in which subjective senses are configured through material practices. The material practices present in neo-shamanic rituals, including the ingestion of cacao, corporal disposition, the use of ritual objects, the spatial organization of the altar, etc., represent conditions of possibility for the emergence of subjective senses. For these are not merely physical actions, but also materialities charged with meaning that mediate processes of subjectivation; which is to say, the material and the symbolic are interwoven in complex subjective configurations. This perspective may allow us to understand how rituals like the cacao ceremony mediate processes for the production of subjectivity and meanings of health, while using frameworks that represent an alternative to biomedicine.

Analyzed using González-Rey’s (2019) theory of subjectivity, cacao ceremonies appear as dynamic spaces for the production and stabilization of subjective configurations, deeply entwined with material and historical conditions, and power relations.

From the theoretical proposal presented in this study, cacao functions not just as a ritual object but also as a material that facilitates the emergence and transformation of subjective senses in emotionally charged contexts. As González-Rey (2004) notes psychological practices cannot be separated from the social and economic structures that sustain them. In this sense, the resurgence of cacao ceremonies must be analyzed in relation to the socioeconomic transformations of neoliberalism and the commodification of spiritual practices.

From González-Rey’s (2011a, 2019) theoretical perspective, it is important to distinguish two key moments in the process of subjective transformation that can occur in ritual contexts such as cacao ceremonies: the production and stabilization of subjective senses. The production of subjective senses refers to the emergence of interpretations, emotions, and narratives that the subject constructs within the framework of subjective configurations that express their experience in concrete situations, as well as in dialog with the historical and cultural conditions that permeate them. These meanings are not the result of automatic or universal mechanisms but of historically situated acts of agency, through which the subject may generate alternative understandings of their sense of anguish, identity, or life project.

However and as González-Rey (2010), also warns, the mere production of meanings does not guarantee a sustainable subjective transformation. So that these new meanings translate into lasting changes in the subject’s life, they must become dynamically stabilized within their subjective configuration. Stabilization does not imply fixation or rigidity, but rather the active and flexible articulation of the senses produced, allowing the subject to integrate tensions and to project possibilities for action in their context.

This theoretical approach may allow us to understand that the therapeutic effectiveness of ceremonies does not lie exclusively in their immediate physiological or emotional effects, but in their capacity to foster processes of subjective reorganization, articulating symbolic, affective, and social elements that re-signify experiences of anguish (González-Rey 2010, 2019).

For González-Rey (2019), subjectivity is an emergent field configured through a dialectic discussion between the social, historical, affective, cultural, and political-economic, without separating the material from the subjective. From this perspective, cacao ceremonies can be understood as spaces of subjective production in which participants construct shared meanings regarding health, well-being, and spirituality. These constructions do not unfold in a vacuum, rather they are embedded in concrete historical conditions and power relationships that mediate the emergence of subjective configurations (González-Rey 2011a, 2015a, 2019).

Shamans, or facilitators, for their part, can be understood as vectors or mediating agents of subjectivation, insofar as they play a central role in the production of meanings, along with the modulation of all that is experienced within the ritual space. Their mediation is expressed through practices such as mythic narration, the orchestration of ritual elements, and the prescribing of meanings around cacao as a sacred plant (Burby 2021). However, this function is neither univocal nor exclusively transformative: while it may facilitate processes of subjective reorganization, it can also serve to reproduce pre-existing subjective senses. Within González-Rey’s (2019) theory of subjectivity, this tension is understood as intrinsic to a conception of subjectivity not as an individual essence but as a dynamic, relational, historically situated configuration.

Similarly, and on the basis of this theory, cacao is understood as an articulator that materializes another tension: it integrates ancestral traditions while simultaneously being re-signified within cultural and economic globalization. González-Rey’s approach, however, is not entirely clear about what this globalization process consists of, or how it affects the potential of therapeutic rituals to produce and stabilize subjective configurations.

The political dimension of these practices becomes evident on several levels. First, González-Rey has shown that subjectivity is not a passive reflection of social structures but an active production and generator of meaning, which implies the subject’s capacity to position themselves critically in relation to dominant discourses (González-Rey 2011a, 2019). Second, by conceiving subjectivity as configurational and situated, it is emphasized that every subjective process involves a singular form of appropriation of the social, creating a space for symbolic disputes and re-significations that challenge the hegemonic order. Third, the theory recognizes that subjective senses do not emerge in a vacuum but within specific historical contexts, which gives cultural practices, such as rituals, a political character in terms of representing spaces of resistance, the reinvention of identity, and the production of alternatives to the prevailing common sense.

The production of subjective senses in these contexts is mediated by historical, economic, and cultural factors that must be taken into account in any analysis of their therapeutic effectiveness. As González-Rey (2019), argues, health cannot be reduced to an individual state but must be understood as a social process that involves the capacity to generate new subjective configurations in response to the conditions of life.

In the Latin American context, these considerations are particularly relevant. The region has historically been a space of encounters and conflicts between different systems of knowledge and healing practices. For this reason, González-Rey (2004) warns that it is crucial to maintain a critical perspective that examines how these practices may either reproduce or challenge colonialist power structures.

González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity allows us to analyze how cacao ceremonies contribute to the construction of subjectivities that, in certain contexts, may generate alternative meanings with respect to social fragmentation and anguish. However, these spaces are not free from ambivalence, as they could function as scenarios of ideological reproduction or even as sources of new forms of anguish, depending on the subjective configurations that are articulated within them.

This analysis suggests that cacao ceremonies can provide valuable spaces for subjective reconfiguration and social transformation. Nevertheless, their transformative potential will largely depend on how the previously described dialectical tensions are resolved.

Unlike conventional therapeutic interventions, which are typically organized into linear sessions, cacao ceremonies operate within a non-linear temporality. In this respect, González-Rey invites us to consider that subjectivity is not organized according to linear chronologies or causal structures, but through configurations in which the times lived through, be they past, present or future, are materially rearticulated within the subject’s experiences (González-Rey 2011a, 2015a) This conception helps us to understand how rituals create conditions for the emergence of subjective senses that do not follow a progressive form of logic; rather they are woven into frames associated with affective memories, expectations, and personal and collective narratives, within a non-linear subjective temporality. Nevertheless, this transformative potential should not be regarded as automatically guaranteed, given that modern capitalism readily commodifies these alternative temporal forms, incorporating them as products within global markets (Comaroff and Comaroff 2000; Han 2014). Consequently, these practices can be co-opted and re-signified without necessarily subverting the dominant logics.

These alternative ways of inhabiting time unfold within a social context where spiritual practices are not exempt from hegemonic economic dynamics, especially under global neoliberalism. González-Rey’s Theory of Subjectivity (Fleer et al. 2020) argues that the subjective configurations that emerge in these spaces are inevitably marked by the contradictions of the economic system in which they operate.

Finally, the findings of this theoretical reading show that cacao ceremonies operate as scenarios of subjective configuration in which participants articulate new subjective senses of health and well-being. This process, in line with González-Rey (2019), involves a movement of openness toward subjective agency, enabling participants to generate these senses in a constant dialog with the historical, social, political, and economic tensions of their context.

4. Methodology

This article forms part of the lead author’s doctoral dissertation project, developed within the Doctoral Program in Psychology at Universidad de Tarapacá and funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID). The project was reviewed and approved by the Comité de Ética Científico (Scientific Ethics Committee) of the aforementioned university. As a theoretical article based on a literature review, it does not involve direct work with human participants and is therefore exempt from procedures related to human subject research and it is not situated within an Indigenous community.

It is important to recognize the contributions of decolonial perspectives, which have critically examined research practices in Indigenous and Indigenous-inspired contexts (Smith 1999; Wilson 2008; Duran 2019). These works emphasize culturally grounded ethics, trauma-informed approaches, and the decolonization of methodologies. However, such critiques exceed the specific scope of this article, which is focused on theorizing cacao ceremonies through the theoretical framework of González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity.

The aforementioned literature review was conducted between December 2024 and June 2025, covering publications from 1960 to 2025, including both foundational works on neo-shamanism and the most recent developments in the field. Sources were identified through searches in Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, and doctoral theses, using keywords such as neoshamanism, Latin America, ritual, therapeutic effectiveness, cacao ceremony, anthropology, psychology, and cultural history. The inclusion criteria were: (a) peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, or doctoral theses; (b) explicit discussions of neo-shamanism in Latin America; and (c) theoretical or empirical studies that can be articulated with González-Rey’s Theory of Subjectivity. Exclusion criteria applied to sources lacking sufficient methodological detail for critical evaluation.

To process and organize the corpus, a Python-based script was implemented using Python version 3.13. Titles and abstracts were retrieved, duplicates were removed, and the dataset was filtered with theoretically relevant keywords derived from González-Rey’s framework (subjectivity, subjective sense, subjective configuration, agency, social subjectivity, emotional-symbolic mediation), together with ritual-specific terms (cacao, ceremony, ritual). This procedure allowed the sources to be clustered into six thematic groups: Historical Origins, Ritual Practices, Therapeutic Health, Intercultural Discussions, Biomedical Effects, and Socioeconomics. The classified corpus was subsequently administered in Zotero, an open-source reference management software designed for organizing, citing, and annotating academic literature. Within this platform, references were arranged into thematic collections and annotated records were created to support later coding and analysis.

The same process was replicated for the construction of the theoretical framework, in this case prioritizing keywords such as subjectivity, subjective configuration, subjective sense, agency, and affectivity. Topic grouping in Python yielded clusters that reflected the conceptual anchors of the study, including cultural–historical psychology, therapeutic processes and ritual mediation. The literature review was structured as a qualitative, constructive, and iterative process consistent with González-Rey’s epistemology (González-Rey and Martínez 2016; González-Rey 2017). Rather than quantifying sources, the goal was to construct relevant subjective senses linked to the research problem, prioritizing their potential for theoretical articulation.

The process concluded upon reaching theoretical saturation, defined as the point at which no new conceptual contributions emerged in relation to the research question (Flick 2018). The resulting organized corpus guided the subsequent qualitative analysis, targeted reading, and iterative interpretive work, ultimately providing the basis for a multidimensional understanding of cacao ceremonies within neo-shamanic practices.

It is necessary to acknowledge that the theoretical exercise developed in this article is, by definition, an interpretative approach with its own limitations. All theory is constructed on a plane of abstraction: it rises above concrete details in order to illuminate the general dimensions of a phenomenon, and that is precisely its value, without getting lost in the particular. However, a purely theoretical analysis may overshadow the diversity and complexity of specific practices. For this reason, this exercise acquires full meaning insofar as it is articulated with the ethnographic material to be carried out within the framework of the doctoral study, which will allow for problematizing the analytical categories and contrasting them with lived experience.

Following Grant and Booth’s (2009) typology, this article is framed as a critical review, since it aims not only to summarize but to generate conceptual innovations by theorizing cacao ceremonies through González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity. We have adopted said theory of subjectivity because it offers analytical tools—subjective senses and subjective configurations—that allow us to interpret cacao ceremonies beyond their descriptive, anthropological, or neurochemical accounts. In line with Grant and Booth’s (2009) understanding of a critical review, the selection of authors was guided by two main characteristics: (1) their conceptual, understood as the extent to which their work engages with subjective senses, affective-symbolic mediations, social and cultural processes, and the historical constitution of subjectivity in the context of cacao ceremonies, and; (2) their theoretical contributions, defined as the provision of definitions, frameworks, or analyses of neo-shamanism, ritual, or therapeutic practices. This purposive orientation ensured that the review prioritized sources capable of advancing the conceptual synthesis, rather than aiming for exhaustiveness.

The article is organized as follows: firstly, it presents a review of the historical and cultural context of cacao ceremonies, highlighting their relevance within neo-shamanism. Secondly, it develops González-Rey’s theoretical framework of subjectivity as a tool for theorizing these practices. Finally, it analyzes how this theory of subjectivity offers new frameworks for understanding neo-shamanic rituals as spaces for subjective reconfiguration. This approach allows for a deeper, more complex, and multidimensional analysis of cacao ceremonies.

5. Conclusions

This study must be understood as a theoretical reflection rather than as an empirical demonstration of the effects of cacao ceremonies. The positive consequences discussed here are considered probable and hypothetical, grounded in González-Rey’s theory of subjectivity. They should not be read as verified outcomes, but as conceptual tools to interpret how neo-shamanic rituals may operate within subjective, cultural, and historical frameworks. It is important to recognize that neo-shamanic rituals, including cacao ceremonies, may carry risks and adverse effects—particularly in commercialized or decontextualized settings—such as psychological distress, cultural appropriation, or the reinforcement of neoliberal wellness discourses (Smith 1999; Duran 2019). This necessitates critically balancing any discussion of their therapeutic potential with an awareness of these limitations. The purpose of this theoretical study was to explore the heuristic potential of González-Rey’s (2019, 2011c) theory of subjectivity for theorizing neo-shamanic rituals, focusing specifically on the case of the cacao ceremony. From the perspective of the theory of subjectivity, these ceremonies are understood to operate as spaces of reorganization in which individual experiences are re-signified within collective social, cultural, economic, political, and historical frameworks, including those of a religious nature.

The main aspects that can be affirmed from the standpoint of this theory are as follows: (1) cacao acts as an articulator mediating the production of new subjective senses; (2) ritual practices facilitate both the emergence and the dynamic stabilization of subjective configurations; (3) shamans, as mediators of subjectivation, modulate senses and experiences through material and discursive practices, the organization of the ritual, and the symbolic charge of cacao, either facilitating or reproducing subjective configurations depending on the context (González-Rey 2019); and (4) these processes develop as singular productions in constant dialog with the social, cultural, economic, political, and historical conditions that permeate them, without being mechanically determined by them. This allows subjectivity to be understood as a field of possibilities rather than as a mere reflection of structural forces (González-Rey 2015a, 2011c). Thus, the concept of subjective configuration, understood as a dynamic, situated process, emerges as a key concept for theorizing subjectivity in contemporary ritual contexts.

González-Rey’s (2011c) theory of subjectivity also made it possible to problematize the political implications of these practices. While this author provides tools for theorizing the subjective production within rituals, he also argues that subjectivity is constituted through configurational processes that are traversed by historical, social, cultural, and political-economic conditions. This allows us to understand that such practices are not exempt from tensions with hegemonic discourses or from processes of symbolic appropriation. This focus thus reinforces the need to approach subjectivity not in isolation, but as a historically situated field of production in constant dialog with relationships of power.

This analysis also invites critical reflection on the role of alternative spiritual practices in the context of present-day Latin America. As we have noted, sacred cacao ceremonies can be interpreted as ambivalent spaces: simultaneously forms of subjective reorganization and mechanisms for reproducing hegemonies according to the logics of the capitalist market.

Furthermore, the findings of this study raise significant epistemological challenges for cultural–historical psychology, which they do by addressing the production of subjectivity within neo-shamanic ritual contexts. These phenomena require going beyond traditional clinical and methodological models that tend to fragment experience into universal categories or isolated variables. In their place, a processual, situated, and multi-determined understanding of the subjective processes involved in these practices is proposed, recognizing their historical, political–economic, and cultural insertion (González-Rey 2011b). This specific perspective opens new possibilities for building critical methodologies that acknowledge the articulation between discursive, material, and affective practices—as they manifest in the cacao ceremony—refining the approach to these processes of subjective reorganization within this type of ritual.

González-Rey’s configurational approach facilitates the analysis of how subjective senses are produced and stabilized in ritual spaces, integrating the material, the cultural, the affective, the political–economic, and the historical. Furthermore, its emphasis on agency and on the nonlinearity of subjective processes is key for addressing experiences such as neo-shamanic ceremonies, which challenge conventional psychological categories.

However, this theory also presents certain limitations. For example, its conceptual development pays little direct attention to the dynamics of globalization, commodification, and cultural appropriation that traverse contemporary practices. In this regard, it is pertinent to consider contributions from various strands of critical psychology, such as those developed by Ian Parker, Pavón-Cuéllar, Erica Burman, Michelle Fine, and other related authors, which have emphasized the need to problematize the dynamics of globalization, commodification, and cultural appropriation that shape the production of senses. From these critical perspectives, it becomes possible to broaden the view of contemporary rituals, not only recognizing their transformative potential, but also critically interrogating their conditions of possibility, the assumptions that sustain them, and the ways they may be co-opted by hegemonic logics.

Finally, this investigation contributes to the field of cultural–historical psychology, which it does by offering a critical approach to processes of subjectivation in ritual contexts. By theorizing the sacred cacao ceremony as a space traversed by historical, economic, political, and affective tensions, this study highlights its ambivalent potential: as a tool of subjective re-signification, and, at the same time, as a possible vehicle for the reproduction of hegemonic structures. Recognizing this ambivalence helps avoid idealizations and situates these practices within the complex fabric of contemporary disagreements over meaning, health, and subjective agency.