Learning the ways of Living Reciprocity with Mother Earth

written by Deborah Brodey

If you are looking to deepen your relationship with the ways of living reciprocity book a discovery session with Deborah by emailing: [email protected]

If you are in the Toronto area Deborah is offering Nature Reconnection Walks in High Park: Next date August 19 at 6:30 pm. For more information and to register email above address.

In the Andes, August is devoted to honouring and feeding Mother Earth through the practices of ceremonial offerings. The practices of Reciprocity are built into the fabric of the lives of the Indigenous peoples there. The word in Quechua for Reciprocity is Ayni, which, refers to the sacred art of reciprocity. It is a word that speaks to the truth of our interdependence. It describes the energy of relationship between all beings. 

The first time I went to Peru was in August of 2007 It was part of answering the call to an invitation to “go to the mountain” by my mentor, Shona healer and Peacemaker Mandaza Kandemwa from Zimbabwe.  I had met Peruvian Healer, Hebert Jordan Lira a few months earlier in a synchronistic meeting in Toronto that set the stage for me to visit him and his now late wife Rosa in Aguascalientes or what is now known as Machu Picchu Pueblo. 

After I arrived in Cusco, Hebert asked me to go to San Pedro Market in Cusco to buy an already assembled despacho kit to prepare for a ceremony. ​

Despacho ceremonies are a tradition from the Q’ero Indigenous peoples of the Andes. They are offerings of Love in gratitude to Mother earth, the land, the cycles and to Life.  They can be offered to support any kind of intention of gratitude from honouring the Moon cycles, to weddings, to send prayers for healing, to grow crops or to support the community, or a creative project. 

In my case, the purpose of my ceremony was to introduce me to the Land and to offer my gratitude and my love to the land and the peoples. 

I walked with Hebert from Aguascalientes to the Mandir waterfall. We walked through the valley by the Urubamba River below Machu Picchu, surrounded by all of the sacred mountains. It was stunning. When we reached the waterfall, we created a sacred space for the ceremony. Hebert cleansed me with a sacred smoke and condor feathers and sound. Then we laid out the despacho on a paper in a mandala design, which had different items like flowers, rice, seeds, nuts, beans, chocolate, candies, shells, and herbs. We added coca leaves with our prayers and sacred smoke from Palo Santo and copal. ​

Hebert asked me to introduce myself out loud and to state my intention for visiting this sacred land. I asked for permission and for blessings to carry out my intention to walk this land in gratitude in the spirit of reciprocity and to help me remember who I am and to support the “mountain journey ceremony.” I offered my sound in love to the land. Hebert then offered me a sound journey that was a potent activation which opened my heart and prepared my being to receive. 

I then wrapped up the despacho and buried my offering in Mama Earth with prayers for Pachamama to receive this offering. 
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It was a deeply moving ceremony that began my beautiful relationship with the lands and peoples of Peru that continues to this day and also that deepened my experience into the power of  ceremonial arts. I am forever grateful to Hebert, to his ancestors and to his teachers for introducing me to the land, to this practice and for his mentorship.

Reciprocity is a Universal Law that is the glue of life and works with the circulating flow of giving and receiving. This law connects us with the truth of our interdependence and that we are all One. It is the wisdom that we desperately need now in our world. 

Sadly, in our postmodern culture we have forgotten this way of living.  ​

In our world, reciprocity is often understood and practiced in a more transactional way with each other as humans and is not extended to Nature, the Earth and our nonhuman kin. 

We have separated ourselves from Nature, from others and even from ourselves. Nature is seen as out there. This separation has created a total loss of balance and led to the destruction of our planet and our world where we are witnessing profound suffering on so many levels from climate change, species extinction, an epidemic of fear & hatred, mental health issues and social and political unrest.

We have much to learn from our ancient ancestors (the trees, the mountains, plants, elements etc.) and from Indigenous peoples whose ways of living close to the Earth and in harmony with Nature hold the key to our very survival and to the remembering of what our ancestors knew about owning our individual and collective responsibility to live with respect and right relationship with Nature and with our beloved planet Earth.  ​

We have separated ourselves from Nature, from others and even from ourselves. Nature is seen as out there. This separation has created a total loss of balance and led to the destruction of our planet and our world where we are witnessing profound suffering on so many levels from climate change, species extinction, an epidemic of fear & hatred, mental health issues and social and political unrest.

We must do this in way that is honouring of Indigenous,  and other cultural traditions, practices and teachings in an authentic, sensitive and respectful way, without appropriating them. We can do this by studying or apprenticing with authentic teachers and wisdom keepers, knowing our sources of where we learned practices, understanding and being sensitive to the cultural context, if we are sharing practices, do we have permission, and giving back to the communities we have learned from. 
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We can begin by entraining with Nature, our greatest teacher, by spending time in nature and being present to all of our surroundings. If we listen deeply we will observe that all of Nature is in ceremony. We are made up of the elements and so as we observe Nature we can reflect on how we are made up of these same elements. There is no separation: between our bodies and the body of the Earth; between the oceans and the waters flowing through our veins; between the sun and the internal sun within our bodies responsible for digestion and our passion; between the winds and our breath; and between ether and the space within our own bodies. What is within our own body is without. We are literally a walking ceremony. From this awareness, we connect with our gratitude and then make an offering from the depths of our heart. It could be a song, a gesture, a dance, a prayer, an offering of hair, etc. Once we make the offering, we let go, and listen, noticing how we feel in body, heart, mind and soul. If we bring this simple practice into our every day we will remember that we are Nature and we will become the medicine for the healing our planet. ​

May we learn to live the ways of reciprocity to bring love, harmony, healing, balance and wholeness to our beloved Mother Earth for the benefit of the next 7 generations and beyond. (Deborah Brodey)

Here is a sound piece I co-created with Ian De Souza from my CD Portals of Sound, called Right Relationship. It carries the sound frequencies of this message. Listen with your whole body and preferably with headphones. (Do not drive a car while listening as is altering! 

https://soundcloud.com/deborah-brodey/right-relationship

Deborah Brodey is a Transformation Guide, Vini Yoga Teacher/ Vocal Sound Healer, Ceremonial artist and a student of the Earth from Toronto. She has spent years studying and travelling the world learning from teachers, healers, Elders and Indigenous wisdom keepers and has a passion for co-creating ceremony wherever she goes through sounding as a way of righting our relationship with Mother Earth. She is the founder of the Radical Self Nourishment Program for Changemakers, a self care program designed for Healers, holistic practitioners and other change makers out there changing the world. She is currently working on her book 7 Keys of Living Reciprocity and is a recording artist. She has an MA in Adult Education and Transformative Learning and began her career working on the frontlines in social agencies in Toronto working in Native literacy, addictions as well as with women, youth, homeless and newcomers to Canada.
 https://deborahbrodey.com/