Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
The staff at Southwestern Counseling Center works very hard, so at our last staff meeting we decided to arrange a ceremony to call in some extra support and prayers for ourselves. Luckily, Carol Parker agreed to facilitate an authentic Peruvian ritual, more accurately, a “Becoming Despacho”. Despacho translates into “dispatch,” so here we are collecting all of our intentions into one package to send off to the spirits. This process involves gathering specific materials to represent different elements and aspects along with our prayers into one bundle. It is quite a delightful ceremony, even little Austin would agree (our currently-on-leave-Coordinator’s baby)! See below:
As the “incienso” dies down and we have blown each of our ‘prayers of becoming’ into the sacred leaves, we bless it with gratitude using colorful candies, milagros, seeds, sparkles, carnations and much more.
From here I will take the bundle home, careful not to turn it over, and ritualistically burn it. This intentional process should dispatch our intentions out into the world helping us to make practical changes in our lives and become bigger and brighter beings! Thank you Carol for having the expertise to carry out such a sacred ceremony. I am grateful to have such a loving and supportive group of people to work along side.
~Heather Wulfers, MA, ATR-BC, LPAT, LPCC
