In my very first post on here I spoke about the fact I was releasing things from my life to make the way for the new. Today is Easter, which as a pagan I’ve already celebrated this past week as the Spring Equinox, and the clocks in the UK today took a ‘leap’ forward one hour. What an appropriate time for new beginnings!
The releasing and new beginnings first started at the end of January when I became part of a ‘Spiritual Development 10 week course’. I think we all thought the course would be good, but not as good as it’s actually turned out to be. Next week will be the 10th week, but it won’t be the end, due to the amazing benefits everyone has gained from the group, although the group is now closed to new members, the group is carrying on! It’s amazing what can happen in just over two months.
In January, as seems to happen to me every year, I was feeling pretty low. I was getting constant sore throats, colds, I felt lonely and miserable. Since joining the group I’ve felt happier, stronger and feel like I have a wonderful support network behind me.
Two weeks ago, the group started the process of a White Despacho ceremony. A Despacho is a Peruvian ceremony which literally means ‘offering’. Black is for releasing, and white is for bringing in. I had never heard of this ceremony before, but was intrigued. We were each invited to bring 5 items of our choosing to represent- 3 things for what we wanted to gain from being in the group, 1 thing for someone else in the group and 1 thing for the world. It took me quite a while to decide my items as I kept thinking have I picked the right objects? But eventually I decided.
On this Thursday evening two weeks ago, we all sat on chairs placed in a circle. To go in or out of the circle, there was a small gap, a ‘gateway’, which you had to go through to keep all the power in the circle. Before we started we each got given two more things, one was a mystery item, something wrapped up in brown paper and a piece of tobacco. Tobacco is considered sacred in Native American traditions, our piece of tobacco was to represent our truth- to ourselves, to others, to the group, and it would be our decision whether to put this into the despacho or not.
In the centre, there laid a white material, with beautiful items laid on it, including flowers and even photos of money (and some real money too)! When the ceremony began, each person would say one of the items they had brought with them, why they had brought it, and then placed it wherever they wanted to on the material in the middle- the despacho. We spent most of the evening going round and it was incredible the amount of thought people had put into their ‘gifts’. Some were beautiful- one member had made something with all our names on to represent friendship, some people put things like crystals and flowers inside, some were funny, toothpaste, a bra and some shoes all went in!
I was really moved that two people that thought of me. One person had a poem called ‘Footprints in the Sand’ for me to represent the support I know have from the group and I’d never be alone, and the other person had brought an image of a Goddess called Lady Nada, a Goddess of peace.
The gifts I placed inside-
smiley faces for friendship from the group, lavender for deeper spiritual connection, an image of bright yellow flower for confidence, a gold chain for one of the other members to bring golden opportunities into her life, and a heart wrapped in cotton for loving relationships for those who have suffered abuse. My mystery item was some red hearts that I put in for love and compassion.
The picture is below is what the finished despacho looked like:
This rather large lot of items was then wrapped by three people, and we all had to stand holding hands in our circle with our backs to the people with the wrapped despacho. Then very carefully, they had to rub the despacho on each person so every person’s energy would be on it.
Normally the next part would be on the same day, but as we can’t have a fire in the venue we usually have the group, we had to wait until this week. We went to the Sungate household (these wonderful people run the group). First we each had to say a little bit about how we felt about the previous week, everyone had been really moved and felt it was really powerful.
We then made our circle outside around the fire area. Sacred space was opened using a traditional shamanic calling to the directions, the earth and the sky. We then all chanted, played rattles, drums and tambourines as the fire was lit. Surprisingly considering the cold weather, the fire lit fairly quickly and seemed to be full of vigour.
After a little while, we stopped, and two girls from the group (it was their birthdays this week so they got chosen for the task) then had to lift the despacho onto the fire. As soon as it was placed on the fire, we all had to turn our backs to the fire without looking back and go back indoors away from the fire and not look at the fire. A pretty hard thing to do when you know that party poppers were one of the many things that went inside!
This week has been a hard week for me, work has been really difficult, but maybe it is leading somehow to what burnt in that fire. We all walked away from the fire, not looking back, releasing what we’ve put in, and turning our back on our old way of being.
Now the journey truly begins!
