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In Love with Nature

Despacho ceremonies originated in the pre-Inca culture about 12,000 years ago. Back then, they were primarily prayers and thanksgivings with offerings to the spirit of Mother Earth. They asked Pachamama for her power and love so that they could grow potatoes even on barren land at 4,000 meters altitude. And it still works today :-). At the same time, this expressed their deep reverence and love for Mother Earth, nature, and the forces of the cosmos. The so-important “Ayni” – the giving and receiving – remained in harmony with the Earth and the cosmos. All thinking, feeling, and acting was oriented toward living in harmony with all the active forces.

The ritual was passed down to the Q’ero, a mountain people in the Andes who have lived secluded at over 4,000 meters altitude for centuries. In this way, this small people preserved these rites and the sacred knowledge of the forces of life without interruption from the church or modern innovations. A few Q’ero still live in the Andes today, mainly subsisting on potatoes and enjoying excellent health. According to the prophecy of Pachakutek, they have returned from the mountains since the 1960s. Since then, they have been sharing their sacred knowledge and rituals. The prophecy states that a time will come when the civilized world in particular needs the ancient sacred knowledge to regain balance and harmony.

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

Why Perform a Despacho Ritual?

A Despacho ceremony is a universal ritual of gratitude and heart-opening that allows us to feel the love for all life and brings us into harmony with the Earth and the cosmos. From a shamanic perspective, everything is ensouled. Thus, it harmoniously connects us with the forces to which we give our attention in the ritual, such as Mother Earth, the elements of fire, earth, water, air, the plant, stone, and animal kingdoms, or angels, cosmic masters, and spiritual ancestors.

When I first participated in a Despacho, my heart was deeply touched. A wonderful space opened up for me to thank Mother Earth and the elements on a deep level. And to become aware of the connection with their spirits and thus their power. Each time, this ritual touched me more. An increasingly deeper merging with the forces of nature arose, moments of oneness. To feel how my heart gently opens and the love between me and creation begins to flow. The inner peace that arises when I give something back to nature and the spiritual world in love, gratitude, and mindfulness.

I therefore consider it a great gift to know and practice this ritual. Over the years, I have intuitively adapted it to the Western context without diluting its essence.

What Is a Ritual or Ceremony?

A ritual bundles forces and energies through intentional actions for a specific purpose. And when we align ourselves through rituals in love and harmony with the greater whole, we also speak of white magic.

Rituals have been performed by people since ancient times for various occasions and purposes. They often marked important transitions or highlights in life and served to strengthen community cohesion. In our culture, usually only diluted remnants or church versions remain.

Consciously and lovingly designed, a ritual can unfold enormous power and give life a new direction. And most importantly: It can connect people in love and harmony with each other or with selected natural forces.

All actions and prayers based on loving devotion, gratitude, and respectful appreciation, blessing with the invisible forces of life and their diverse manifestations (nature, animals, elements & cosmos), allow a powerful, nourishing, vibrant, and luminous new to emerge. A balancing and harmonization of the energies within us and around us becomes possible.

The Special Aspect of the Despacho Ritual

What makes the Despacho special is that we give our love, blessings, and prayers into the offerings with our breath. Since our breath is connected to our soul essence, it builds an energetic bridge to the respective spirit to which we dedicate the offering. In this way, the spirit receives energy from us, and our connection to it is strengthened and harmonized. This gives the ritual a special depth.

For example, you take an offering for the element of water and concentrate on it. Then you breathe your thanks, your love, and your blessing into the offering. Already, you are building a conscious connection to the element of water. Now you can bless and thank all the bodies of water you have ever visited. In this way, a harmonious connection and energetic balance with the spirit of water can arise.

In addition to your message of gratitude, you can ask for the clearing of your emotions (emotions want to flow). If you have once blessed a lake with an offering and make contact with it and bathe in it, this will be a much more conscious experience. The spirit of water welcomes you, and the lake becomes a place of healing for you. You can do this with all places you visit or where you stay longer (mountains, forests, and other places).

Connect with the house spirit of your apartment or house through a candle, an offering (e.g., a flower or an incense stick), and a small inner conversation or prayer. When we give attention to these spirits, we find more peace in our home and simultaneously strengthen the energy field. We perceive our surroundings more consciously and treat them more mindfully.

In a Despacho, offerings for the four cardinal directions and Mother Earth are always included as a base. I recommend to include offerings for the elements, the plants, animals and stones. In this way, over time, you become more and more familiar with these elemental spirits.

Offerings can be various natural objects and foods, e.g., flowers, petals, rice, nuts, gemstones, or herbs.

Everything is bundled into a prayer package and given to the element of fire or Mother Earth to release the energy.

Gratitude Is the Foundation of Every Ritual

Of course, you can design such a ritual not only for yourself. You can also include your children, your family, or your shared living community.

Additionally, you can create rituals for various occasions. The foundation of every Despacho ceremony is always gratitude, especially to the four cardinal directions, Pachamama, and the creator spirit. Then you can connect with the spirits that are important to you and that fit the respective occasion. Here are some inspirations:

My favorite: The Elements Despacho. Each element is addressed with its own thanksgiving, as well as the animal and plant worlds, masculine and feminine energies. I prefer to dig a hole in the earth in the forest or on a mountain and perform the ceremony right there. During the ritual, you merge more and more with nature, and the heart opens wide. And you can easily learn this and use it as a source of power for yourself.

Healing Despachos, especially aligned with cyclic and astrological events oriented to the moon and sun positions, are particularly powerful. In harmony with the quality of the time, soul themes can be processed more easily, made conscious, and brought into balance. In principle, rituals can be performed for all life themes. A realignment on all levels (personal, physical, soul, spiritual, relational, professional) is possible.

You can design an inner child, ancestral, or womb healing ritual. Or rituals for blessing professional projects or for new beginnings. Despacho ceremonies can accompany life transitions such as a birth, a wedding, or the farewell to a loved one.

You can also gift a property or house with a Despacho to honor the spirit of the place and the nature spirits and to bring the elements into balance. When I arrive at a new house on my travels and settle in, I like to greet the house spirit. To do this, I take a small flower, breathe my blessing and greeting into it, and place it at the entrance or a window.

Even when you go for a walk, you can perform a small ritual: for example, water your favorite tree with water that you have previously charged with your blessing and thanks. You can gift your favorite lake a flower, greet a mountain with a blessed piece of wood.

Why Do We Need Rituals?

There is the opinion that you don’t need rituals for anything; a conscious attitude is enough.

But how conscious are we really? How aware are we of the forces that work within us and around us? Do we really know them? Can we feel the connection to them through the hustle of everyday life, through our limitations and fears?

These small attentions described can simply connect us with the forces of nature and gift us the experience of interconnectedness.

And since we are connected to everything, whether we perceive it or not, it can give us a lot of power and awareness to activate this connection and nurture it responsibly and with joy.

You can compare it to a partnership or friendship. It wants to be nurtured and nourished. Why not also our connection to nature, Gaia, and the cosmos?

Rituals are a wonderful tool for this. Health, happiness, and abundance arise from the awareness of the balance of forces within us and around us. Everything is interconnected, nourishes, and supports each other. We are part of the greater whole and may develop devotion and trust in it.

If we regularly connect gratefully in rituals, e.g., at full moon, solstices, and equinoxes, we begin to perceive ourselves again as cyclic beings. This makes it easier to gain trust in processes and feel more carried by life.

If you are interested in learning this ritual, you can book it as a course with me. Or join my shamanic healing accompaniment “Your Sacred Path” for women, where I am happy to pass on this ritual to you.