A Despacho is a ceremony that has been performed for hundreds of years by the Laika, shamans of the Peruvian Q’ero lineage. I learned about it during a weekend with Daniel Foor, a kind of modern day shaman, who facilitates ancestral healing workshops. At the end of his workshop, Daniel laid down a square piece of cloth and delineated the four directions. Participants were asked to bring grains, flowers, and other organic offerings. Daniel began creating a symmetrical circular design with all of the grains, much like a Tibetan Sand Mandala. We all joined in, adding lines and shapes to accentuate the symmetrical pattern. Throughout the building of this mandala, Daniel would speak prayers and blessings into the grains before placing them on the fabric. We followed his lead, holding a prayer in our hearts and minds as we funneled the beans, corn, rice into the larger design. An hour or more later, it was complete. We stared at in awe, a beautiful offering, a piece of art. Then quite quickly, Daniel swept and gathered all of the grains into the center and tied it up into a tight package. It would go into the fire after our sweat lodge as a blessing and a prayer to the ancestors and protectors. The package was placed in the fire and the smoke sent our messages and prayers to the sky.
I have always loved the ritual Tibetan monks perform with sand mandalas. I found the Despacho so similar, a mandala imbued with blessings and prayers, a work of art for the sake of beauty and love, and spiritual communion. The hasty destruction of the sand mandala, the pain of impermanence that I feel watching it change, and then it’s journey down a moving body of water – a chance for it to spread it’s prayers and blessings in the world. This communal ritual invites us to explore our humanity and connections to each other and the earth.
I began this wood carving a year ago at least, just wanting to carve something, wanting it to be organic and plant-like in form. As I worked on it, the piece started telling me it needed a second, it needed more carvings around it. I saw it looking like a mandala – that sacred circle. Instead of a generic plant form, it began to look like a piece of wheat. Wheat is a symbol of America. Wheat has been hybridized to grow faster and taller to meet a growing population, a symbol of capitalism and materialism. What if I added corn and other plants that have been modified to meet our needs for meat? What other plants have been misused by us to contribute to our global decline?
With that in mind, this piece will be a kind of apology to the earth, an acknowledgement of our failures as inheritors of the land and the price we’ve paid for our missteps. It will also be an offering back, a piece of beauty to say thank you and I’m sorry. As Dr. Alberto Villoldo says, “{The despacho ceremony has been used 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.” Let’s use this ceremony to heal.
I’ll be posting updates to this piece as I go. I imagine this piece including others as the mandala gets bigger. In Tibetan, mandala means circle, but it also means community. Once the piece has a foundation, I will welcome in other artists to contribute their work to the mandala. One idea is to have viewers add notes, prayers, and apologies to the wall or floor around the piece. Another idea, is to burn the piece in ritual and offering.
What comes of appropriating a ceremony to bring attention to our global crisis? Maybe it gives one pause to contemplate how we contribute to the crisis. Maybe it gives one an outlet to express their grief. Maybe it gives one hope that we have the capacity to change. Maybe it empowers someone to make change.
Stay tuned as this work evolves. If you’re inspired to contribute or have ideas for making this art more participatory, please reach out!
