Sacrifice Despachos

A Despacho is a colorful prayersacrifice of things from the nature following the old Inca-tradition.
In principle only natural materials will be sacrificed, like cocaleaves, flowerleaves, lamafat, cotton and rice, sweets, cookies, limabeans, barley, lavenderseeds, shells, confetti, corn, reins, etc. Every element has it’s own function and meaning.
The depacho will be offered to Great Spirit, the Apus, Mother Earth and the Nusta’s.
Apus are spiritual creatures, savekeeping angeld of mountains, rivers, but also of villages and cities.
Nusta’s are eath-creatures, in connection with a particular spot.
In the despacho, you and the shaman will place prayers and intentions. By your breath you’ll connect your energy and your intentions.
The shaman who opens the space, and the 4 winddirections, Mother Earth and the Cosmos has called and all spirits, will connect by the breath with these energies with your despacho.
This is pretty much a time-killing happening. When the despacho has been formed, the shaman cleans your aura with the sacrifice.
The despacho will be burned on a quiet place and sacrificed by the fire to the spirits. In that moment the energy can transform.
The shaman then calls your essence with the smoke of the despacho, and new energy from the spirits.
This energy will be blown into you. From this moment on you can experience the changes of energy in yourself.
The despacho is a simple, but very powerful form of healing and transformation. Which is used frequently in Peru and other countries in South America.
There are over 200 different despacho’s to make, every shaman has it’s own specialization.
It’s a form of Ayni, reciprocity. An exchange of Holy Energy between you and the spirits.

Below some photo’s of despachos.

Ceremony of creating a Despacho.

There will be an offer with food from the nature prepared, which all have their meanings and stand as a symbol for our gratitude and intentions.
A shaman will be distributing coca plants to the participants, 3 leaves per person. In Peru people use the leaves of the holy coca plant. We use the same, or leaves of the laurel plant.
Some shamans think this is a strange impression, the cocaleaves come from a holy plant. Other shamans, like Don Sebastiaan who taught me making a despacho, think that it doesn’t care which leave you use, because it’s just all about our intentions!
These 3 leaves are called Qi’nto. With this you will connect your intentions and what you want to ask to the spirits, by bladder your breath 3 times over the Qi’nto.
You can take your time here, connect yourself with the Qi’nto, because it is a prolong of your feeling and wishes. Then hold these against your heartchakra, your throatchakra and then against your forehead.
Then give the Qi’nto to the shaman.

Of these Qi’ntos there will be created a nice shape by laying them on a white sheet of paper. It can look coincidentally for a spectator, where every part of a despacho will come to lay down on the sheet, but nothing is less true. With great care and on a fixed position each part will be lied down.
The shaman will ask to Mother Earth if she wants to receive this offer which is made with love from the heart, for her.
In this you’ll find Ayni again, reciprocity. You give some, you receive some, reciprocity. With every part separately the shaman will make connection, and in this way ask the elements and spirits that are present in the space to take part with the despacho.
After that the paper will be folded and folded in a cloth.
Before it will be sacrified, the aura will be cleaned with it. The shaman will stroke trough your aura to release your Hoocha, heavy energies, and also to let these transform in the fire.
Also here will be blown 3 times. When all participants are cleaned like this, the fire can be started.
The Despacho will be offered by the smoke and the fire to the Spirits. (or to bury these in the ground sacrificed to Mother Earth.)

During the sacrifice in the fire energy will release, which launches a transformation at the participants.
The original energy that every single person had at birth, will be recalled and will be free and able to use.
If the despacho is made for a big group, it could take a little while before everything is eaten by the fire. There could be meditated or sung.
In principle there may not been watched in the fire, because the spirits want to take from the despacho in all quietness. Only the shaman has the authority to watch into the fire and will check if everything is going well.

When the fire has burned for a while everyone may watch the flames again. After a little while the shaman will take some smoke from the fire with a cloth and give it to you.
After that everyone may flutter their arms trough the fire to bring smoke that way to bring smoke to your chakra points and heart.
The smoke will bring the intentions to the upperworld, the ashes of the fire will bring the intentions to mother earth. After that the shaman will close the space again.
There will stay a guard, or more with the fire until everything is extinguished.

A despacho can be made for several purposes:
- Enhancing of your communication with yourself and others, Curing of emotional pain.
- Curing of physical problems, at desease. A deeper contact with your soul and your livespath.
- The purifying and transformation of energy in love or familyrelations (you can also come together with your familymembers or partner).
- The placing of new intentions or the creating of new things in your life, for example a new home, work that fits you, etc.
- The purifying and bringing in harmony of your house, backyard, or workspace.
- The creating of a healthy company or a good workplace.
The making and sacrificing of a Despacho to the fire takes 2 hours.