Sacredness in Chocolate

I just found a story about a chocolate company worker who found a “2-inch tall column of chocolate drippings” resembling a prayer card she carries of the Virgin Mary:

Sweet Mary, mother of God?
CNN.com, August 18, 2006

The stack of hardened confection has a wide base and tapers gently toward a rounded top, giving the appearance of a female figure with her head tilted slightly to the right. The dark brown melting chocolate hardened into subtle layers that resemble the folds of a gown and a flowing veil.

A tiny white circle, about the size of a pencil eraser, sits in the upper center of the creation, just above a slight ridge that runs across it. Jacinto says the white speck is the head of the Baby Jesus as he is held in Mary’s folded arms.

For Jacinto, the discovery came just in time. The single mother said she has struggled with personal problems for months and says she was about to lose her faith.

Stories of people who perceive sacredness in ordinary things are fascinating to read. Often, non-believers will rush to debunk such claims. I say, whatever it takes to affirm your faith, fine. If a kitchen worker sees ‘a sign’ in an unusually shaped lump of chocolate, and that object brings new meaning to her life, then the object has served its purpose.

Human beings respond most effectively to things we can see, hear, or touch, things which provide a focus for meditation, prayers and intentions, such as statues of saints, or prayer beads. This helps explain why animism is a universal phenomenon crossing cultural and religious boundaries.

Animism
by Alan G. Hefner and Virgilio Guimaraes

The term animism is derived from the Latin word anima meaning breath or soul. The belief of animism is probably one of man’s oldest beliefs, with its origin most likely dating to the Paleolithic age. From its earliest beginnings it was a belief that a soul or spirit existed in every object, even if it was inanimate. In a future state this soul or spirit would exist as part of an immaterial soul. The spirit, therefore, was thought to be universal.

There has been sharp divisions of thought as to the original concept of animism held by primitive peoples. An British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in his “Primitive Culture” (1871) defined animism “as a general belief in spiritual beings and considered it ‘a minimum definition of religion.’” He stated all religions from the simplest to the most complexed shared some sort of animistic belief.

FYI: According to the article, the chocolate icon now rests in a glass case in the back of the shop. Interested parties may visit the shop and request a viewing.