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Despacho- Q’ero ceremony for Pachamama

Happy Earth Day! I hope this letter finds you well, dear ones. One of you asked me what “Despacho” means not long ago when I offered a Rainbow Despacho for collective healing. Here are my thoughts gently touching on the mystery of this ancient, indigenous practice of kinship and reciprocity with our Cosmic Mother—Pachamama.

We may feel distant from the potent medicine of ancient times that revered Mother Earth as a sentient being with consciousness. There are, however, rituals and practices that can help us remember who we are in relationship to Earth and Cosmos. Even though we’ve been told and inadvertently absorbed the belief that we are part of an inanimate and mechanistic world that centers around human life, the magic of another narrative is reemerging. 

The flawed stories that disconnected us from ourselves and the world around us are dying. We are being called to release these static structures of patriarchal conditioning that inhibit our flow so we can integrate our purpose as part of an intricate web of interconnectedness. Now more than ever, we are invited to come into right relationship with all of life and in this way begin to awaken to a world that is alive with meaning and magic. It is a time to plant new seeds of remembrance and gratitude in our consciousness. 

DESPACHO

There is a ritual in the high Andes of Peru, a ritual where we come into right relationship with the cosmic forces that give us life. With a gesture of generosity that feeds the spirit world with offerings, 

we acknowledge that we must not only take but also give. 

This is how we bring our relationship with the cosmos into harmony and balance. The spirit wold feels our love as we deepen our connection to the unseen, to mystery, to the Great Sprit that animates all life.

AYNI

Indigenous traditions have a way of giving thanks fo Pachamama, our Cosmic Mother by offering a prayer bundle given with love. The prayer bundle ceremony I practice is a Despacho ritual from the Q’ero people of the high Andes of Peru, my ancestral land. In this ceremony, we gift offerings to the Cosmic Mother as a gesture of gratitude for all that we so graciously receive and take from Her.

The Despacho is a sacred offering to heal the split between the natural and the spiritual realms of existence opening up long forgotten and ancient lines of communication. This ceremony helps us reconnect to the natural and spiritual world reclaiming a lost language weaving these worlds together. This sacred ceremony is infused with the spirit of Ayni, the principle of reciprocity. Ayni is a Quechua word, it is the flow of energy between giving and receiving, acknowledged and celebrated through the beauty of the Despacho offering.

“We often forget that we are nature, nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection with nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.” Andy Goldsworthy

RAINBOW DESPACHO, APRIL 26

Dear ones, I will be performing a Despacho on the full moon of April 26,  calling in the energy of the Rainbow for individual and collective healing. You can send me a message with your name and intention if you wish to be part of this ceremony, energetically and I will give you some instructions. I dedicate this post to all that aches to be released and all that longs to be born in the space of our hearts, cradled by the love of Mother Earth. 

With Munay,

Marjory