Andrés Jiménez
Something has to come apart before something truer can show itself.
That's been the pattern of my life. There have been moments of crisis, of dissolution, of grief. And each time, on the other side of what came apart, something more of myself became visible — something that had been there all along, waiting for the shell to open.
THE PATH
It began with a personal crisis — vocational, existential, all of it at once. In that rupture, I found yoga and mindfulness, and through them, the door to an interior world I didn't know I had.
Paola García and Gustavo Ik of Kakaw Sana were the first to show me what cacao could be as an ally in the inner work. Their presence and their practice opened something in me — and they pointed me toward Keith Wilson, with whom I began working in 2017.
By then, I had already been facilitating meditation and yoga spaces since 2012. And since 2016, I had been holding spaces supported by cacao guided by Paola and Gustavo. Keith took that further. He showed me a depth of inner work I hadn't touched before. He was a genuine teacher, and what I learned in his presence still lives in this work.
What led me beyond that was grief. A silence. A crisis of faith — in the work, in spirituality itself. In that emptiness, I found myself lost. And from that lost place, two things arrived that changed everything.
The first was the lineage.
In a moment of real confusion, the Maya K'iché tradition found me. I was initiated as an Ajq'ij by Nan Faviana Cochoy Alva and Tat Pedro Yac Noj — nine months of tending sacred fires, of presenting myself to the hills, the rivers, the birds, the sun. That process gave me something I hadn't expected: not a credential, but a different understanding of what spirituality is. Of what a ceremony is.
Not every ritual is a ceremony. Ceremony, as a spiritual technology, requires initiation and form — a lineage that holds it, a responsibility that comes with it. I learned the humility of not claiming what doesn't belong to you. Of calling things by their real name. Of being exactly what you are, without posture.
That shift changed how I work with cacao. And it changed how I understand the questions of appropriation, colonialism, and respect that this field so often avoids.
The second was the trauma informed science.
Compassionate Inquiry with Gabor Maté. IFS with IFSCA. Collective trauma with Thomas Hübl. Polyvagal theory with Deb Dana. Grief work with David Kessler. Not as tools collected in a bag — as a coherent understanding of how a human system moves from fragmentation toward wholeness. For the first time, I had language for what I had been touching without being able to name.
GUATEMALA
For four years I lived and worked at Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, as General Manager of Keith's Cacao — responsible for sourcing, processing, and maintaining the quality and spiritual depth of the cacao we produced. I held weekly circles alongside that work, facilitated retreats, and worked one-on-one with an international community of facilitators, therapists, and seekers.
When my understanding of cacao and ceremony no longer aligned with the direction of that work, I left. That decision was its own kind of dissolution. And on the other side of it, something truer became possible.
The cacao I work with today comes from Colombia — from sources I know and relationships I tend. What I offer comes from thirteen years of working with this plant: from seed to ceremony, from soil to circle.
NOW
I live in a nature reserve in Pereira, Colombia, called Kaukitá — "The Place where Strength Grows" in the indigenous language of this land. I grow cacao, tend fire, and do this work.
Since 2012, alongside my wife Gisela Hincapié, I have co-led Vórtice Raíz — a project that has brought meditation, yoga, and emotional intelligence to more than 10,000 young people in Pereira, and trained over 1,000 teachers to carry these tools into their classrooms.
My academic background is in literature — Universidad de los Andes, and a master's from Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Literature and inner work were never separate for me — both were languages circling the same mystery. They still are.
I collect seeds wherever I go. There are always some in my bag. I read science fiction and fantasy — Tolkien, Le Guin, Asimov, Bradbury, Liu Cixin. I have three cats. I never wear matching socks.
CREDENTIALS
Initiated as Ajq'ij within the Maya K'iché lineage — Nan Faviana Cochoy Alva and Tat Pedro Yac Noj
Compassionate Inquiry — 330-hour professional program, Dr. Gabor Maté and Sat Dharam Kaur
IFS — Stepping Stones Foundational Course, IFSCA
Polyvagal Informed Practice — Foundations, Rhythms of Regulation, Deb Dana
Grief Educator Training — David Kessler
Collective Trauma — Thomas Hübl
Mindfulness — Plum Village tradition
13 years of facilitation in therapeutic and ceremonial contexts
4 years managing sourcing and production, ceremonial cacao, Lake Atitlán, Guatemala