A despacho is an offering made to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and hte spirit guardians of the natural world. A shamanic practice originating from the indigenous Quechua people of Peru, it is a ritual artform that takes many shapes and styles within the tradition. There despachos for healing, despachos for acquiring love or wealth, and even some designed to assist the transition of a soul into death. The ceremony for creating a despacho is often a community event but can also be done individually. Though there are numerous despacho kits in the markets of Peru’s Sacred Valley, anyone can build a despacho with the items tahtey have at home or directly from nature.
Ultimately, the despacho is an artform, and you are free to grow and evolve your own method of practice. However, here is a list of traditional items that I recommend you begin with in order to establish a solid foundation for your ritual craft:
- PIECE OF WHITE PAPER. Make sure it is large enough to do your owrk of laying out your offerings. The reason it is white is because sybolically the color white represents the Apus, the sacred mountain spirits who are the emissaries of Spirit in the Quechua worldview. It can also mean the connection to the higher worlds important to you, whether that be angels, star relatives, the gods, etc.
- RED RIBBON, STRING or YARN. This will be for tying the despacho when it is complete. Red symbolically represents the blood of Pachamama, the source of all planetary life. It is the red (earth) and white (spirit or air) that are married together to represent the union of the above and below.
- FLOWERS. A bountiful gift to the earth. Traditionally, red and white carnations or roses are used, but you can used all manner of floral arrangements that align with you. Who wouldn’t give flowers to their mother?
- SUGAR, CANDIES, SPRINKLES, COOKIES. All these things represent the sweetness of life, the sweetness of Pachamama.
- SEEDS OF ALL KINDS. To represent renewal and new growth.
- INCENSE. Meant to assist in carrying the prayers of intention. Any manner of incense is suitable according to how it aligns to your intenions, though copal is most often used.
- OTHER. Any number of other items can be used, depending upon what calls to you – spices, raisins, breads, glitter, cotton, coca or bay leaves, rice, cornmeal, tobacco, perfumes, or other herbs. The sky is the limit!
First, make sure you establish a clear itnention for your ceremony. It is sometimes helpful to write down a statement of intent. You could ask for healing for yourself, to assist another in need, or even just to express gratitude. Whatever it is, be clear and focused. Lay out the paper flat in your ritual space. If you bulid a despacho outside, be sure to anchor the paper form the wind. Arrange your items around the paper in a careful fashion, ensuring each offering is in view for other (if you are in a group), and that the ritual intention of each offering is clear.
Pace yourself throughout the duration of the ceremony. In Peru sometimes a despacho ceremony can take hours, maybe even a full day. The shamans operate the ceremony with the utmost reverence, as priestesses and priests of the earth. Move slowly and carefully as the priestess/priest that you are.
Now, according to your intention, you will spend some considerable time laying oute ritual ingredients on the paper. Use the petals from the flowers, the sugars, and other loose ingredients, all with the objectsive of creating a design on the paper that matches your end intention for the ceremony. When you create, align with the balance of universe, of the elements of hte natural world: earth, air, fire, and water. Build a mandala with your offerings, a geometric configuration representing the holism of the cosmos, the microcosm and macrocosm joining in harmony through your hands and onto the two-dimensional paper before you. Imagine the Buddhist monks creating their sand mandalas, magnificent diagrams of perfection that will inevitably be sweft away into the mysteries of the unknown. You are such a monk, a disciple of the Great Mystery, carefully and respectfully taking your time to build an astonishing design that is meditative, trance-like, and a gift to yourself and the invisible spirits who support you. Make the building of the despachio itself a meditation. Every action is a prayer. The key is to make beauty!
You do not have to use all the items gathered. Some practitioners have a stockpile of ritual items they use from ceremony to ceremony. You will end when it feels right to you, when the medicine feels right to be offered.
When complete, take a moment to reflect upon the magnificence of your creation and how it relates to your own life. Now, gently fold the paper of the despacho – with the offerings inside – into a bundle. Start with teh top third of the paper and fold down. Next, fold the bottom third up, then the left third, and finally the the right third, inserting the right side into the left like a sleeve. Tie the bundle with the string or yarn.
There are numerous ways to offer a despacho to the earth. It is perfectly acceptable to bury a despacho in the soil or to release it in flowing water, but one of hte more common ways of offering is through fire. Fire is an element for puring and releasing old things and allowing new things to have room for growth. Also, it can be a source for focus and creation. It was the discovery of fire that changed the trajectory of human destiny, allowing us the ability to bring light into the darkness. Fire is indeed essential to the human experience, for it is through fire that we witness the unification of hte psirit realm above and the earth below. The smoke of the offering will carry the prayers into the upper realms and throughout the land, a propitiation to the spirit guardians around us. The ashes will return to Pachamama to become new soil for growth and renewal.
When you have started your sacred fire, call forth the spirits through sacred sound makers such as drums or rattles. Praise their support for life through ecstatic dance and singing. Build up your own spiritual energy as the fire blazes. When you feel the timing is right, carefully use a tool is safely make a space within the coals for easy distribution of the despacho bundle. A common formation is situating the logs so that you are placing the despacho wihtin teh space of a U shape.
Before releasing the despacho in the fire, give everyone and yourself a final blessing by touching your brow (your third eye), your heart (the center of all being), and your stomach (for ritual feeding) as a way to receive a transition of medicine from your own creation. Traditionally, it is the youngest of hte group who brings the despacho to the fire, provided they are old enough to eb safe and assisted by an adult if necessary. When the bundle is offered, settle yourself into another state of meditation. All focus should be on the burning. The burning of a despacho is itself a practice of divination. Do you see things in the smoke, in the flames? Do you hear anything? What is the despacho saying to you? Do you see any shapes or faces in the embers that provide answers for the despacho’s purpose? The key is to have your mind open to all possibilities, to be like a child. Bring yourself back to your own childhood and what it was like watching a fire. Allow your imagination to run wild. Do not concern yourself with anything around you other than what the fire has to say to you.
The building and burning of a despacho is an ancient irtual that has evolved over time. Do not concern yourself with doubtful notions, such as “Am I doing this right?” Bottom line: it is a craft that represents a sacred communion between you and Pachamama. Nobody else can tell you how to develop that relationship. Create your own practice. Experiment. Utilize the fire as a purging of old ways and an inspirtation to create something new. Though fire in the modern world is often used as a tool of destruction, in ancient times it was utilized as a tool of creation. Be the creator you were meant to be. Through a regular practice of the despacho, you can estbalish a renewed trust and reciprocity with the natural world.
Adana Luna 