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Despacho Ceremony – Gratitude ritual for earth, cosmos & spirits

Despacho- ceromonies come from the pre-Inca culture about 12,000 years ago. At that time it was mainly prayers and thanksgiving combined with offerings to the spirit to Mother Earth, that she would enable them to grow potatoes even on barren land at 4000m altitude. At the same time, her heartfelt respect and love for Mother Earth, nature and the forces of the cosmos found expression in it. The so important “Ayni” – the give and take – remained in harmony with the earth and the cosmos. Your thoughts, feelings and actions were geared towards living in harmony with all forces at work.

The ritual was passed on to the Q’ero, a mountain people in the Andes, who lived in seclusion at over 4000m altitude for the last few centuries. In this way they preserved these rites and the sacred knowledge of the forces of life without interruption from the Church and modern innovations. A few queros still live in the Andes today, living mainly on potatoes and enjoying excellent health. They have returned from the mountains since the 60’s with the prophecy of Pachakutek and have been passing on this sacred knowledge and their rituals ever since. The prophecy states that a time will come when the civilized world in particular will need the ancient sacred wisdom in order to regain balance and harmony.

I am very happy and grateful that this touching ritual has found its way to me and into my heart.

A despacho ceromony is a gratitude and heart-opening ritual that makes us feel love for all life and brings us into harmony with the earth and the cosmos. From a shamanic point of view, everything has a soul and so it harmoniously connects us with the forces that we devote our attention to in the ritual, such as Mother Earth, the elements fire, earth, water, air, the plant, stone and animal kingdoms or the angels, cosmic masters and spiritual ancestors.

When I did a Despacho for the first time, a wonderful heart-opening space opened up for me to thank Mother Earth and the elements on a deep level and thus become aware of the connection with their spirits and thus their power – with everyone This ritual has touched me more – the ever stronger merging with the forces of nature, being one in this moment. To feel how gently my heart opens and love begins to flow between me and creation. The inner peace that arises when you give something back to nature and the spiritual world in gratitude and mindfulness.

The effect on us and our lives when we turn to Mother Earth and the nature spirits and other spirits, give them attention and our gratitude has been forgotten in our latitudes. But we can learn to reconnect and experience how a gratitude ritual has a lasting positive effect on our perception, our feelings and thoughts and our quality of life.

So I feel it is a great gift to have gotten to know this ritual and to be able to practice it. Over the years I have intuitively adapted this ritual to a Western context without diluting the essence.

Despacho Ceremony – the connection to heaven and earth

A ritual bundles certain forces in and around us and brings us into a conscious heart connection with them. And when we align ourselves with rituals in love and harmony with the big picture, then we are also talking about white magic.

Rituals have been performed by humans for various occasions and purposes since time immemorial. They often marked important transitions or high points in life and served to strengthen the cohesion of a community. In our culture there are usually only watered-down relics or churchized versions.

A ritual, designed consciously and with love, can develop enormous power and give life a new direction. And most importantly, it can connect and strengthen people in love with each other or with the forces of nature.

All actions and prayers based on loving devotion, gratitude and respectful appreciation, blessings with the invisible forces of life and their diverse manifestations (nature, animals, elements, cosmos), multiply this energy and bring powerful, nourishing, living and lightful new things out. Change, compensation and reorientation are possible.

This is the essence of every ritual, so to speak. The specialty of the despacho is that one breathes one’s love, blessings and breath into the offerings such as flowers, seeds and grains of rice before placing them on the prayer bundle in the form of a mandala. Since our breath is connected to our soul essence and spirit, an energetic bridge to the respective spirit to which we dedicate the gift is built or the existing connection is strengthened and harmonized. This gives the ritual a special depth.

That means you take a gift for the element water and breathe your thanks, your blessing and your prayer into it and you get in touch with the water. like this

e.g. bless all waters that you have already been to, thank them for it and this creates a harmonious connection with the spirit of the water.

So, when you have thanked, you can also ask for your emotions to be cleaned (feelings want to flow). If you have blessed a lake with a gift and thus made contact and then go swimming in it, it is a completely different feeling. It will welcome you and become a place of healing for you. This can be done with all places that you visit or where you stay for a long time as well as with mountains, forests and other places. Connect with the spirit of your apartment or house through a candle, an offering (e.g. a flower or incense) and a short speech. If we pay attention to these, we will find more peace in our home and at the same time strengthen the energetic field. As a result, we are more aware of our surroundings and are more careful with everything that surrounds us.

In a despacho, thanks are always given as a basis for the 4 cardinal points, mother earth, the primeval water and the great spirit. Then you can continue to fill the ritual space. I recommend always including gifts for the elements at the beginning as well as the plants, animals and stone world.

Gifts can be flowers, blossoms, gems; herbs or objects of special importance to them.

Everything is packed together as a prayer bundle and given to the element of fire, water or mother earth and thus the spirits who send the energy.

Gratitude is the basis of every ritual

Of course, you can not only create such a ritual for yourself, you can also include your children and your family or partnerships.

In addition, the rituals can be designed for different occasions. The basis of every despacho is always thanks, especially to the 4 cardinal points, Pachamama and the creative spirit. Then you can connect with spirits that are meaningful to you and fit the occasion. Here are some inspirations:

My favorite: The Elements – Despacho. Addressed each element with a single offering of thanks, as well as the animal world, plant life, and masculine and feminine energies. I prefer to dig a hole in the ground in the forest or on a mountain and perform the ceremony right there. I’m always so inspired afterwards. Highly recommend and good for trying out and gaining experience with a Despacho.

Healing despachos, especially for cyclical and astrological events, which are based on the position of the moon and the sun are particularly powerful.

In harmony with the quality of time, mental issues can be worked on more easily and brought into consciousness and balanced.

Basically, rituals can be performed on all life topics. Individually tailored to the needs and soul, old emotions can be brought into consciousness and processed. A reorientation on all levels is possible (personal, physical, mental, spiritual, partnership, professional)

One can create an inner child or womb healing ritual, or for your professional projects, or for alignment with new beginnings and transitions in life. Everything is possible and several topics can also flow together.

Likewise, one can create a despacho to accompany life transitions such as a birth, marriage or farewell to a loved one.

Likewise, a lot or house can be bestowed with a Despacho to honor the spirit of the place and the surrounding nature spirits and to bring the elements into balance

When I come into a new house, when we travel and settle down for a while, I always greet the house spirit by breathing my blessings and greetings on a small flower and placing it at the entrance or a window.

When you go for a walk, you can also do a mini-ritual – watering your favorite tree with water charged by you with your blessings and thanks. Present a flower to your favorite lake. Greet the mountain with a blessed piece of wood.

There is a view that no rituals are needed for anything, a conscious attitude is enough.

But how conscious are we really? How aware are we of the forces at work within and around us? Do we know them and can we feel the connection with them through the hustle and bustle of everyday life and our limitations and fears?

And it’s like a relationship or friendship, it wants to be nurtured and nurtured. Why not do the same with our connection to nature, Gaia and the cosmos?

And that is exactly what rituals can do for us. Health, happiness and abundance come from a balance of forces within us AND around us. Everything is interconnected and sews and supports each other.

My personal experience is that when I regularly, preferably always on the full moon or solstices and equinoxes, connect in a ritual of gratitude, I perceive myself more as a cyclical being and I feel carried by life. I am more confident and feel more connected to all of life.

If you are interested in learning this ritual, then take a look at my Despacho Course or 4 months accompaniment for woman, where I will be happy to pass this ritual on to you.