Don Augustine making a Despacho in the Sacred Valley
In my previous blog post, I introduced the pilgrimage that I made to Q’eros with a small group of friends. This pilgrimage led me to become a shamanic practitioner here in the UK. In this post, I will be talking about the first week of our trip, which was visiting the many sacred sites in the Sacred Valley around Cusco.
We spent time making despachos at different sites. The despachos were so intricate and beautifully made. Don Augustine, my teacher often burnt the despacho in a cave or a hole dug into the ground and if it burnt white, this was a good sign.
The despacho (also called a Haywariqui), is a powerful ceremony of thanksgiving and intention setting, performed in honour of Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apus (spirits of the mountains). They are mainly created with flowers, coca leaves, seeds and nuts, and chocolate. They are a beautiful way for us to practice sacred reciprocity (Ayni) with the world in which we live and a fine opportunity for the community to come together in collective prayer and to manifest together through conscious intention.
“The despacho places us in right relationship, right ayni, with the Pachamama. It establishes a linkage between our three centers of interaction in the kaypacha (the physical universe); our llankay (our personal power and source of action, located in our solar plexus), our munay (the source of our love, located in our heart chakra), and our yachay (wisdom, sourced from our foreheads or “third eye”)…
The contents of the despacho are in part determined by its purpose. The various elements that comprise the despacho energetically interact to permit access to portals or bridges from the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds. When working in ceremony with the despacho, one is accessing the non-ordinary energetic dimensions, the source of things. Though the contents may have symbolic significance, the despacho, when performed with the correct intent, transcends literal and symbolic domains and directly accesses the archetypal and energetic realms…
In order to build a good co-existence with nature, the only real choice we have is to enter with our heart, wisdom, and our action. We call upon the spirits of the waters, of the mountains, and of the Pachamama to come and help us prepare the offering. We have the intent of seeking to establish and maintain a continuous dialogue with the Mother and to bring balance and harmony to our lives, and to all our relations. It is through the dynamics of love, of right thinking,and of right action that our lives become bountiful.”
-Q’ero Elder Don Manuel Q’espi
I have since discovered that Don Augustine worked with Don Manuel Q’espi, one of the most respected Elders of this tradition, an Altomesayoq who died in 2004. Q’espi means crystal; he was kamasqa, which means he received some of his training/teachings directly from Christ.
My Favourite Places in the Sacred Valley
Pisac and the Temple of the Falcon
We made a despacho at Pisac and the Temple of the Falcon .
Moon Temple
We were blessed with a despacho and honoured in the moon cave, which was the Temple of the Moon at Killarumiyuq, (Quechua: killa moon “the one with a moon stone”).
Cleansing ceremony with fresh water from the mountains.
We made offerings with a water ceremony at Tipon, using fresh flowers to cleanse each other. This place had channels of water dug into the earth, that helped cleanse our luminous bodies and mesas. A mesa, also known as a misha, is a portable altar or medicine bundle from this tradition.
Don Augustine made a despacho at Moray (see main image) with us and I sensed the energy of the land, perceiving him calling in his unseen helpers. Moray had infinite star energy and a palpable downward pull towards the central core of the earth.
This landmark is widely agreed to have been used for farming, and soil samples have shown that soils were brought in from different regions to be used in helping grow crops at the different levels of the terraces, it also has an irrigation system. The wide temperature differences in the terraces have created micro climates, similar to what is achieved in greenhouses in modern times, and is believed to have been used by the Incas to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops.
In Chinchero, we sat in a Huaca. A Huaca is a sacred power spot, it is any object or place that’s infused with refined energy or ‘sami’.
Machu Picchu Sunrise
We were present for our summer solstice sunrise at Macchu Pichu (their winter solstice is also the Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun) At Wanu Picchu – the feminine sister mountain of Macchu Pichu. I saw hummingbird, eagle and a column of white light come up through our mesa’s and then into my mesa through Don Augustine as we made ceremony together. There was such beautiful, powerful energy from these two mountains. Don Augustine often blessed our mesa’s, bringing in strength and power from the nature beings that he was connected to.
Machu Picchu and Wanu Picchu
One of my favourite walks was to the Grand Cavern near Macchu Pichu – this was a long trek down through the jungle, with lichen-covered trees and butterflies galore.
The Pachakuti Prophecy
At Ollyantaytambo ruins, Don Augustine had told us that we are in the time of ‘Pachakuti’ when the earth turns upside down and that it was important that we spread the truth. The Q’ero Nation knows that another Pachakuti has come and they know that this change will be for the good: when an order will emerge out of chaos. They are helping us to prepare for a new world.
Ollantaytambo is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru. The Inca Emperor Pachacuti conquered this region, building a town and ceremonial centre. The word Pachakuti (pah-cha-koo-tee) literally means world turned upside down. In Inka history, this term refers to a cosmic transmutation occurring between one era and the next.
My teachers talk about a time of ‘The Return of the Inka’. When they saw that the melting of the snow had started in the sacred Ausengate mountain, the Q’ero knew that they would have to leave their towns, because the Earth needed their knowledge. Now that the permanent snows of the high Andes have begun to melt, the Q’ero Elders are sharing their knowledge with their brothers and sisters, their earth family. Don Augustine has been guided to visit other countries to share his knowledge and offer a special series of seven karpay, or energy transmissions to us in the West. During the pandemic, the Q’ero community has also been sharing its teachings online, all over the world.
The Time of The New Seed
Américo Yabar refers to the Pachakuti time as, “the time of the new seed.” This is the new humanity that will be able to perceive the Universe in a radically different form and know that we are seeds of divine light. “It’s not the return of a single individual who embodies what we’re becoming, but a process of emergence available to all peoples.” Americo Yabar says.
The Age of Taripaypacha
This time is also known as the Taripaypacha, the age of meeting ourselves again. My teacher Elizabeth Jenkins says that “the importance of this time is to carry out the Tukuyayniniyoq, which means the Great Ayni, or cultural exchange of the knowledge and achievements of all the children of Pachamama around the world.”
The Seven Levels of Human Consciousness.
The prophecies give us hope that as human beings we have the power to embody the fourth level of consciousness. This is where we can choose love over fear in every human interaction. A fourth level human is able to own their own shadow, to work with their community and Mother Nature, in order to raise the energetic vibration of the collective. At the moment, most of the world is at the third level of development, where we are dominated by fear and the lower base emotions.
Currently, the fourth level is the highest level believed to be manifested on earth in humans (The Dalai Llama is at this level for example). A fourth-level person would be called a Teqse Paqo or Kuraq Paqo ( meaning a shepherd for all humanity, of planet earth). I have been initiated as a fourth-level healer in the Andean mystical tradition. Paqos are actively engaged in working towards the conscious evolution of humankind, helping to raise the energy so that the fifth and higher levels can manifest. The teaching about these seven levels of human consciousness originates from Don Benito Qoriwaman Vargas.
In my next post, I will talk about my favourite trips to Apu Umantay, Apu Salkantay and our pilgrimage to Huaman Lipa Mountain.
In Munay,
Ali
