Ancient Gestures of Love: A ritual of delight, gifting, and care

What are the oldest ways we show care for one another? 

A ritual of delight, gifting, and care

Across cultures and centuries, love has been expressed through simple sensory gestures. Sweetness offered by hand. Fragrant oils smoothed into skin. Silk draped across the shoulders. The blessing of another through touch. To feed, to anoint, to adorn are enduring languages of devotion and love.

Cacao holds a place in celebration and ceremony. Shared as a gift. Prepared with care. Savored slowly to awaken the senses and warm the heart. A taste offered becomes a gesture of regard.

Neeshi’s edible cacao spread carries this spirit forward as a modern expression of ancient pleasure. Sweetness given intentionally. Sweetness received with presence.

Silk has long been used to mark moments of honoring and intimacy. Mulberry silks for adorning the body. Silks layered into a sanctuary to soften the space and invite ease. The feel of silk against skin heightens awareness and signals that this moment is set apart and lovingly prepared.

Anointing is a companion practice. Oil warmed between the palms and applied with attention has long been used to welcome and tend the body. The body recognizes caring touch and attentive hands.

From these forms, you can create a simple partner ritual of giving and receiving.

A Partner Ritual of Giving & Receiving

Sweetness, breath, silk, and attentive touch

Prepare your space with intention. Candlelight, low music, and soft mulberry silks beneath and around you. Create comfort and beauty in the place where you will sit together.

Before you guide your beloved, take a quiet moment to arrive in yourself. Feel your breath. Soften your body. Let your presence become warm and steady.

Invite your beloved to sit comfortably on the silks with feet on the ground or legs crossed. You may gently drape a silk wrap around their shoulders as a gesture of adorning and welcome. Ask them to close their eyes.

Guide a few slow breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Allow each exhale to lengthen and settle the body.

Let them know this is a moment for receiving.

Open the Neeshi cacao spread and, on their next inhale, hold it beneath their nose. Let the aroma arrive gently. Ask softly, May I feed you? Pause and receive their answer.

Offer one spoonful slowly. Invite them to let it melt on the tongue. Encourage awareness of flavor, breath, and sensation. They can notice where the body loosens or opens to sweetness and care.

As they savor, warm anointing oil between your palms and place your hands lightly at the scalp and neck. Begin with still contact, then move into slow attentive strokes. Let your hands listen and tend.

Give your attention fully. Let sweetness, silk, and touch carry your care.

Later, you may change places and receive in the same way, adorned, nourished, and tended with devotion.