Pachamama Offering a Gratitude Ceremony for Mother Earth
A Pachamama Offering is a creative, natural expression practice done in a ceremonial and mindful way with the intention to express deep reverence, respect and gratitude to all Divine Energies that provide and sustain life.
Pachamama means Divine Mother Earth in Aymara and Quechua, two of the main native languages of indigenous people of South America. Pachamama represents both the physical planet Earth as well as the Divine Cosmic Feminine energy beyond time and space. She embraces the maternal energy, the energy of creativity, fertility, nourishment and unconditional love.
The Pachamama Offering as practiced at Kumali is based on the Peruvian Andean ceremony, which has been practiced sacredly through centuries, called Despacho. A Despacho is a prayer bundle and sacred offering. Traditionally this ceremony is both an opportunity to give gratitude to Mother Earth and to release heavy energies. Despacho are used for all types of occasions including to celebrate birth, and to celebrate the cultivation of someone’s life through death, to heal physical and emotional ailments, to restore balance and harmony, or to make a special request of the spirit world.
Below are some pictures of a traditional Despacho which was guided by Peruvian Spiritual Healer, Mary Ann Eddowes, as a celebration of my father’s life after he left this physical world at the beginning of 2019.
Kumali honours the essence of the traditional Despacho ceremony and aims to make it accessible and relevant to anyone as a sacred way to re-establish reciprocity with Nature. This is done with deep respect and appreciation for the traditional custodians of the Despacho ceremony in the Andean tradition and acknowledging that a Pachamama Offering does not intend to be a Despacho ceremony which is practiced in a very particular way and under the guidance of a healer from the Andean tradition.
I acknowledge the teachers and healers who introduced me in to this practice, Mary Ann Eddowes and Jorge Luis Delgado and their amazing work sharing these practices and making them accessible in their unique ways.
A Pachamama Offering is all about deepening, healing and embracing our relationship with Mother Earth by offering her a selection of good things with the intention that she feels loved, cared for and respected by her children, us. It’s fundamental to understand that this process does not only reflect or express our relation with Mother Earth but with the entire Cosmos, the whole Universal Creation represented by natural elements which are found on the earth and are given back into the earth.
As Jorge Luis Delgado mentions in his book, : Inka Wisdom: Return to Joy - “The most important thing is to go into ceremony with an open heart and participate using the purest part of yourself. If you do that, everything will be alright.”
These practices are more powerful when done under the guidance of someone who is familiar with them and can create a healing and safe atmosphere. I do facilitate personalise ceremonies for different significant moment in one’s life journey where I can include a Pachamama Offerings. I also run online and in person events where I take the participants through this sacred process. So if you get the chance to participate in any of Kumali’s workshop or retreats I highly recommended you to come along but if this is not possible and you feel the call to connect with this sacred practice I will offer you some guidelines.
Steps to create your own Pachamama Offering as practiced by Kumali:
Step 1: Setting up your intention for the Pachamama Offering
Take time to become really clear of your intention for creating a Pachamama offering, allow your intuition and your heart to guide you. You can use this ceremony as prayer bundle, sacred offering or both. In other words, you can use this ceremony to show your gratitude for all that has happened to you, even the lessons and also to release stored heavy energies into Mother Earth as she can transform and transmute anything into light and life again.
Step 2: Gathering the offerings
Gather items which are significant to you and are aligned with the intention of your offering. This can be natural elements which are part of your daily life and which represent the four elements (Air, Water, Earth and Fire). I will suggest to don’t rush this process and to allow as long as you need to gather slowly and intentionally all the materials you will include in your offering. Please only used biodegradable material that can be returned to Mother Earth, has been obtained without causing harm and is in a pure state.
These can include:
- Tissue Paper (if you have a nice gift paper you can recycle it)
- Cacao/Chocolate
- Flowers
- Nuts/Seeds / Spices
- Beans
- Rice/ Other Grains
- Leaves
- Shells
- Corn
- Feathers
- Sugar/Sweets / Raisins
- Herbs
- Sage/ Palo Santo / other incenses
- Special Stones
- Crystals
- Essential Oils
- Piece of string long enough to tie the offerings
- Anything that you feel is a valuable gift to Mother Earth
Step 3: Deciding what type of Pachamama Offering you will preform
Here is where I offer you two options.
Find a peaceful place outdoors where you will practice the ceremony directly in the earth or in the sand knowing you will leave it there, for it to be washed out by the rain or washed out by the ocean. This one is more of a freestyle one. Consider where are you doing it and make sure it is safe to do so.
2. Find a peaceful place indoor or outdoor, use a table, a rug or a blanket where you will prepare your offering in a paper that when you are done will be wrapped up and offered to the Earth in any of these three ways: given to a body of water, given to a fire, or buried in the ground. This is more traditional.
Permission from Mother Earth and the spirits of the place must be requested and granted. This is essential as the whole purpose of the ceremony is to enter into divine communication with the Divine Elements. This can be done by sitting in the selected place for a couple of minutes and feeling into its energy, with your intention at mind request for permission from your heart and notice the answer through how you feel. Trust in your innate capacity to establish communication with the Divine Elements (If there is confusion then probably that is not the ideal place or perhaps you need to review your intention).
Step 4: Opening Sacred Space
Once you feel you have a connection with the physical and energetic space you have selected and you’ve got permission it is time to bring all the offerings you have gathered to an easily accessible place and to open sacred space for the ceremony. Sacred space can be done in different ways, here are some suggestions but always work with what feels appropriate to you and with what you feel connected. Burn sage, palo santo or another incense (make sure it comes from a sustainable source) to purify the space. Call in the spirit from each of the four directions -North, South, East, West. Light a candle or 4 candles representing the 4 elements and the 4 directions. Say a prayer. Do whatever feels right to you and which resonates with your clear intent of gratitude.
Step 5: Creating the Offering
Take the offerings intuitively one by one, take time to connect with the offering as you say a gratitude prayer, you can bring the offering close to your heart while you do this. From there place your gift to the paper as you explain why you are grateful. You can go on creating a mandala or sacred design (anything can be sacred as long as you honour it that way). When creating the design you can follow you intuition or have an idea of the shape you will like to do, as long as you hold your pure clear gratitude intentions for Mother Earth the process will be perfect either way. The design becomes your mindful work of art that manifests your gratitude towards Pachamama.
Step 6: Contemplating the Offering
Once all the gifts have been placed on the paper, close your eyes and open you hands to receive the blessings from the Pachamama Offering. This is the time to feel full of gratitude for all what the Divine Energies provide to you with every breath and every heartbeat.
If you did your Pachamama Offering directly into the Earth or Sand you can leave it there knowing the Divine Energies have received and feel your gratitude. This will be the last step and you will finish by closing the sacred space using Sage, palo santo or another incense.
Step 7: Wrapping the Offering
If you did it in a paper fold the corner of the paper to create a present. Use your creativity and your imagination, don’t be afraid of “damaging” your design as the process is what is truly important not the result. Just make sure all the gifts are contained within the present and use the string to tie the bundle.
Step 8: Liberating the Offering
When the offering is complete you have the options to burn it, bury it or release it into the water. Make sure you do any of these in safe way for you and the ecosystem. Finally detach yourself from any expectations from your prayers or intentions. Remember the Universe works in mysterious ways we cannot comprehend and it will provide what we need, not what we want. Finish closing the sacred space using Sage, palo santo or another incense.
This is a practice based on ancient traditions which carries powerful knowledge, understanding and awareness of the interrelationship of everything and everyone within the Cosmos. It values the importance of rituals, gatherings and celebrations of our Nature.
If you would like to have a personalise guided Pachamama Offering online or in person please get in touch with me. If you make your own Pachamama Offering I will love to see it please share it with me by tagging me on social media @kumali.creative.wellness or by sending a picture of it to my email anaflavia@kumali.org.
I trust this practice and information will serve you connecting deeper with the Divine Energies and honour our beloved Pachamama, Mother Gaia, Mother Earth.
with love and gratitude,
Ana Flavia