Chocolate Hotei Buddha
Chocolate figures of Hindu and Buddhist gods cozy up at the Chocolate Deities website, forging a sweetshop interfaith unity.
Chocolate’s Powers
Jeanne Fleming heard a voice say, “Don’t worry, the gods will take care of you … the chocolate gods.” She had been worrying about her seven year old son, Jordy, and the cost of treating his rare cancer while standing at a hotel room window in Trinidad during his “Make a Wish Trip.” That Caribbean vision launched her chocolate deity business which indeed paid all the hospital bills and, fortunately, Jordy recovered.
Since then Fleming intends her Belgian fair-trade chocolate gods for healing and stories, not competition with other companies or for financial gain. As the website reads, “chocolate has powers to transport and inspire beyond other mere consumables.” Fleming only hopes to spread joy, to bring people together, to be of service, and to deepen healing. Chocolate is a side dish to her event planning for New York City Village Halloween Parade other festivals.
Faiths Together
Fleming’s life reflects her varied and inclusive spirituality. She calls herself a ritualist who grew up Catholic, married a Jewish man in a Hindu ceremony in India in 1989, knows native American traditions, and has worked with every religious group. The website pictures forty deities and icons–categorized as Muses, Mortals, Immortals and Symbols– along with their stories. A handwritten greeting or prayer plus the respective legend, accompanies the hand painted deity when shipped. Customers have included Buddhist monks, physicians and department stores. A bank chain in South America distributed two pound chocolate Mayan Calendar Wheels at branch openings. These deities are “offerings, prayers and wishes; food stuffs; love objects; altarpieces, spiritual chocolates, kitchen art of the highest order and yummy chocolate gifts.”
When I asked about her favorite, Fleming hesitated and then settled on the nursing mother, Willendorf, the first chocolate god she fashioned in 2003. While Fleming produces a Virgin Mary and has no principled objection to fashioning a chocolate Jesus, she doesn’t because they are readily available elsewhere. Since the Muslim religion prohibits human images, she refrains from images of the prophet Muhammed though she would consider crafting symbolic Muslim chocolate, maybe an inscription of a joyful Muslim idea.
Fleming offers her deities to be eaten, or displayed as kitchen art, or melted down to transform the shape while retaining the spirit. She realized that “chocolate is intensely divine and that making chocolate is a form of prayer and eating chocolate is an offering to the body and the spirit.”
Need chocolate for divine intervention? Thanks to Fleming’s interfaith chocolate, we can bring commonality within diversity to our palates.
Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz speaks about chocolate and Jews around the world. Her book, “On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao,” was published in 2013 by Jewish Lights and is in its third printing. The book is used in adult study, classroom settings, book clubs and chocolate tastings. She is Co-Curator for the Temple Emanu-El Bernard Museum exhibit of “Jews on the Chocolate Trail” to be mounted in the fall of 2017.