Winter Solstice Despacho & Sacred Fire Ceremony
The Ayni Despacho - In the Q’ero tradition, healers create a Despacho (a Q’uechua word meaning a dispatch) for rites of passage such as marriages, births, birthdays, deaths, Solstices, Equinoxes, and other transitions. There are several kinds of despachos, each with a specific purpose.
An Ayni Despacho is an envelope of dreams. It helps bring all aspects of our life into Ayni (right relationship). It begins with a large white piece of paper to which we add ingredients such as bay leaves, herbs, grains, beans and corn, fruit, chocolate, sugar, candies, wine, sacred items, and flowers. We will use our breath to infuse the bay leaves with our gratitude and highest intentions for our lives. Our focus will be on Health, Work, Abundance, Family, Travel, and our Home (literal home, potential home, earth, nature). Also, we will offer our highest wishes for the Collective. Once complete, we will fold our Despacho into a bundle and tie it. Participants are cleansed with the Despacho, and the package (which very much resembles a present now) will be burned – so that the intentions/prayers can release.
In the Fire Ceremony Q’ero elders, and many other indigenous societies, hold sacred fire ceremonies to dream the world into being. The new or full moon is the most powerful time for a fire ceremony. We use sticks to hold our intentions, and ..
Give to the fire that which no longer serves, or that which is not held in love.
Then, we offer the Pachamama stick, which holds our intentions for the Earth. We call in the Ancestors of the land, so that they can find healing and peace. Then, if we have made a Despacho, we place it in the fire, to release our prayers. Fire ceremonies help us to clear our personal, ancestral, and collective hucha (heavy energy) and can do the same for the land and water. The lore says to observe the shifts and changes that occur over the two weeks following a fire ceremony.
Supplies: Feel free to bring your camping chairs, flashlights, hand drums, rattles and Mesas (if you are a Mesa Carrier). Additional supplies that may be needed are food and water (see just below).
Parameters: Open to the public, to guests, to accompanied minors 12 years or older. We will be working outdoors after dark. Also, fire ceremonies will require walking to and from the fire pit and standing for a considerable period, so please support yourself with food and water, in addition to any supplies listed above that would be helpful. If you have a medical condition, please monitor yourself to ensure that attendance is in your highest best interest. Kindly do not attend if you are impaired due to alcohol or drugs. This would not be safe or respectful in ceremony.
Clothing: Generally, we dress in dark clothing, for fire ceremony, but this is not a requirement. Please dress according to outdoor weather. Events are rain or shine, unless there is unsafe weather such as flooding, fire bans, thunderstorms, or high winds. **Please Meet at The Stable Spa : Map located Below
WAIVER & REGISTRATION
REQUIRED TO ATTEND
Cost:
$40 registration fee
Directions:
This event will take place at
The Horse Shoe Farm near the River
You will meet at The Stable Spa parking lot unless otherwise notified.
Enter through the THSF main entrance off of S. Rugby Rd.
Go left towards the Big Barn that Says The Stable House & The Stable Spa
You will meet Victoria in the Stable Spa parking lot.
Shaman. Teacher. Writer - The Condor Journey
Victoria Johnson
Victoria Johnson is a seasoned practitioner and experienced teacher of shamanic arts. She maintains her practice, The Condor Journey, near Asheville, North Carolina, and provides workshops locally and globally. Prior to her spiritual studies, and for a total of ten years, Victoria was a Special Agent with the FBI, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney. In the ensuing twenty-eight years, Victoria has avidly studied numerous healing modalities, most notably Traditional Chinese Medicine, for which she holds a Master’s Degree, and Q’ero shamanism. She also trained with and served as teaching faculty with the Four Winds Society, an international shamanic training and research organization, founded by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D. As a Four Winds instructor, Victoria led shamanic trainings at retreat centers such as Kripalu, Omega, Shambala (now Drala Mountain Center), Joshua Tree Retreat Center, and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), as well as retreat centers in Germany, Canada and Australia. She also served as Chair of Faculty at Four Winds and led Peru expeditions. In 2014, Victoria’s shamanic studies and offerings deepened when she began to work directly with Q’ero elders such as Don Francisco Chura Flores, Dona Juana Ccapa Apaza, and Don Mariano Quispe, a powerful Kuryek Akuryek. Together with these esteemed elders, she has offered numerous trainings and personal work opportunities, in the United States. Victoria is passionate about helping clients remember who they really are – heart centered multi-dimensional beings, and potent stewards of the Pachamama (the Earth). She is thrilled to support clients in reclaiming their original grace and destiny so that they can build courageous mythic dreams for themselves. Victoria supports them with deeply transformative processes such as shamanic interventions, tracking, divination, journeying, mythic mapping, sacred dramas, and ceremonies. Currently, Victoria enjoys facilitating shamanic workshops, Medicine Wheel trainings and intensives online and in person through her practice, The Condor Journey.