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 The mother who we are accustomed to evoke as giving birth and taking care of life, also has a phase in which she receives, calls to herself and waits”.
Here, in the Andes, we have an Offering Ceremony to the Earth. Some of us call it payment. But, we call it OFFERING or simply, “AYNI” or reciprocity with our Mother Earth who gives us life.
In that way, we also give strength to the Pacha Mama, so that she might go on generating life. During that offering ceremony, prayers are made for the health of whoever asks for them. Often, prayers are made for the participants´ work, prosperity and protection. In our Andean cosmovision, everything that surrounds us is alive and we consider that offsets of balance frequently occur within our lives. So, one of the ways we have to harmonize and re-balance them, is through that Sacred Ceremony. Therefore, prayers are made with three undamaged coca leaves that Mother Earth gives us and which are offered to the Apus (Great Mountain Spirits). We also use elements like sweets, wool of different colors, myrrh, incense, animal fat and a great variety of foods and herbs we buy in the market and that the Andean people call “alcanzo” (allowance). But, one has to know how to prepare the offering, because not all that is being sold is being used, as each element has its meaning and reason to be.
These offerings are prepared by initiated people like the Andean Priests or Healers. It is a very ancient wisdom that our brothers and sisters from the most distant and well-known communities like Q´eros, Ausangate and Wasao, have managed to keep alive. And today, they share it with us.
According to the Andean cosmovision, ritual elements are being offered to our Grandfathers; the Apus (Sacred Mountain Spirits considered as our Grandfathers), to the Wak´as, Wamanis, Aukis, Q´ochas, to Mother Earth, the Creator God Pachakamaq and to all the Sacred Beings with whom we cohabitate. The offerings are different and the ceremonial tables, set in accordance with the interested parties´ needs.
The Pacha Mama receives her rites in the believers´ domicile, as well as in the great wayside shrines or summits situated in different places close to the Andean Cordillera. |
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Our ceremony will take place outside the city of Cusco, at the Archaeological Center of Moray or in some other place in contact with nature. However, we´ll have to burn the offering at the house of the Andean Priest or “Papacho”, as it is forbidden to burn products in nature, in order to avoid fires and other problems in nature.
The ceremony´s starting time depends on the participants´ program or on their time availability. But, it will only be so, if the ceremony takes place outside Cusco, in the morning or in the afternoon and only until 2:00 p.m., because, in the afternoon, strong winds in the countryside don´t allow the Shaman to correctly perform the ceremony.
On our way out, we´ll go to the place where the following ceremonies will be performed:
Flowering: Ceremony performed with several flowers and plants with energetic powers.
Offering: Ceremony that starts with a brief permission request made by the Shaman to Mother Nature.
The ceremony lasts from one and a half to two hours and to this must be added transportation time, according to the chosen destination. |
