Giving Thanks: The Despacho Ceremony
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the ground we walk on, the food we eat are all gifts to us from Mother Earth. How often do we take time to acknowledge these gifts?
For the Q’ero people of the Andes mountains in Peru, giving gratitude to Mother Earth, or Pachamama as she is known there, is ingrained in their daily life through ritual. The concept of ayni, the idea of sacred reciprocity, guides them - one doesn’t receive without also giving.
In the Western world, we understand the concept of an ecosystem from a scientific basis, where for example, soil microbes break down organic matter and release nutrients that allow plants to grow. But we rarely extend this understanding to ourselves as humans- we, too, are living beings receiving from our environment and influencing it.
An ayni despacho is an offering made to Mother Earth thanking her for the gifts we receive from her with the intent of bringing us into sacred reciprocity with her. The despacho is prepared using flowers, nuts, seeds, fruits, sacred plants, and other gifts from our harvests. Participants blow their gratitude and prayers into the offerings and place them carefully in the despacho, creating a beautiful visual prayer similar to a mandala. Once the despacho is complete, it is wrapped up in a paper wrapping and given to Mother Earth by burning it in a fire, burying it in the earth, or releasing it to a stream or lake.
The despacho is created in the physical realm, but its magic occurs on the energetic level. The spirits of Pachamama are invited to feast on the offerings, tasting the fruits of our harvest and as they do, the prayers and intentions contained in the offering are transformed on the energetic level.
