Summer Solstice Despacho Ceremony & Gong Bath

The Summer Solstice is happening this year on June 20th at 2:50 PM.  This is the moment that the Sun moves into CANCER, which is the first water sign of the zodiac and represents The South in the Medicine Wheel.

Cancer is a Cardinal Water sign, this is a deeply sensitive, intuitive sign, and also an initiating energy.  This is bringing us into a time of enjoying the fullness of our soul essence, and acknowledging all of the beauty, the love, and the bounty that our Mother Earth provides!

Harnessing this energy and working with the themes of CANCER (mother, the past, ancestry, family, compassion, nurturing, self-love, going with the flow, the water element) will help us to be more in-tune with the flow of life, and allow us to focus our energies on creating the life we want!

DESPACHO CEREMONY DESCRIPTION:

At this time on the Planet it is time to bring the indigenous rituals back into our everyday life.  When we do ceremony, we receive great healing and also provide much needed healing to our earth, our mother.

A despacho is a prayer bundle or offering.  It is an ancient Andean ceremonial practice of making offerings to the mountains (Apus), Mother Earth (Pachamama), and other spirits of nature in reciprocity, reverence, and thanksgiving.  It is an act of love and a reminder of the connections we share with all beings, elements, spirits, and sacred places.  For hundreds of years, the Laika (high shamans or wisdom keepers of the Q’ero lineage of Peru) have used the despacho ceremony for a wide variety of occasions – births, deaths, as an expression of gratitude, to heal physical and emotional ailments, to restore balance and harmony, or when there is a specific request of the spirit world.  The despacho ceremony takes participants into ritual space and operates at the level of the soul.  Similar to a mandala or sacred creation, the despacho holds symbolic elements and the prayers of the participants. As the elements are added to the despacho, the vibration of the participants and the room raises. The despacho becomes a living prayer that brings energy shifts and great healing!

Suggested offerings include chocolate, sugar and sweets for Pachamama and the Deva kingdom (they love jelly beans and all the bright colors), corn and/or other grains, coca leaves (I will provide these), flowers, sacred incenses, paper (or “play”) money if you want to call in abundance, salt, feathers, beans, colorful yarns, and any other item that is significant to the occasion. If someone in your life requires healing, you can bring a picture of them to put into the bundle, etc. 

Bring anything you feel called to include.

The Despacho Ceremony will be followed by a multiple gong bath, for powerful deep healing and transformation of old patterns.

The gong is one of man's most powerful and oldest transformation and therapeutic instruments.  This incredible multidimensional tool is ideal for stress reduction, breaking up emotional blockages and stimulating the glandular system.

When skillfully played, ripples and powerful waves of frequency are generated as the sounds of the gong bathe your entire body and being, offering recalibration of the parasympathetic nervous system, while stimulating and resonating all cells simultaneously.  Doors and windows open to one's soul and the infinite within.

ITEMS TO BRING:

• Yoga mat
• Bottle of water
• Offerings for Despacho - chocolate, candies *all kinds, incenses, salt, herbs, crystals, feathers, beans, pictures of loved ones in need of healing/blessing, etc. etc...

SCHEDULE:

• Open sacred space
• Smudge
• Talk about the Solstice portal
• Drum - opening song
• Intention ceremony/meditation
• Ceremoniously create despacho bundle
• Songs/Limpia for everyone
• Gong Journey meditation
• Closing