Laughter in the Temple......by Asa Huggett

Suddenly don Manuel Quispe holds up his hands, bringing our despacho ceremony to a halt. We are sitting in the ruins of the Temple of the Winds in Ollantaytambo, Peru, preparing to do a traditional Andean despacho ceremony. Don Manuel begins speaking in Quechua, the language of the Q’ero Indians of South America. He waves his hands in the air, speaking rapidly. Jose Luis Herrera, my friend, teacher and our expedition guide begins to chuckle. “He says we are much too serious,” Jose translates. “He says we should laugh more during this ceremony.” Naturally, we all laugh.

It seems to be a common problem for I’ve heard don Manuel say this before. Apparently those of us who come from a country which was founded with a conscious decision to separate church and state have a difficult time integrating the secular with the sacred. Add to that a Judeo-Christian belief system that requires silence while someone else preaches to us and you get a bunch of people who don’t say much, let alone laugh during a ceremony.

“No, no,” don Manuel declares in Qechua, “Laugh!” and then he does. As one of the oldest and most respected of the Q’ero medicine people he knows what he is talking about. Alberto Villoldo, who was don Manuel’s student and my teacher, used to say that while the medicine people take their work very seriously, they never take themselves seriously.

The group relaxes and we resume making our kintus of three coca leaves. I blow prayers into mine, using my breath, my life force energy to invest my prayers into the sacred leaves. I thank Spirit for bringing me to this incredible place and connecting me with this group of people. I am a stranger in this group, the only one from east of the Mississippi. The rest of the group, who I could refer to as “the others,” have come with their teacher from the Seattle area. They all know at least some other members of the group while I know only Jose Luis and don Manuel. No matter, the old man is taking care of that.

After we make our kintus and blow our prayers into them, we gift them to each other, reverently offering, and gratefully receiving them as a visible prayer. The coca leaves are then chewed so that the prayer is actually ingested, taken into our very cells. This is the old, traditional way of creating a deep connection between the members of a community, whether they have been living next to each other for twenty years or if they met only days ago as we had. This is how don Manuel begins our ceremonies, bringing these North Americans together in a process that illuminates and then weaves our luminous energetic threads, over and over to create and solidify the tapestry of our little group. It is a sweet and sacred act, one of joining our energies and our intention, preparing us for the ceremony so that we enter into it not as individuals, but as a community.

Don Manuel unfolds a large piece of paper, smoothing it onto the ground in front of him. In its physical representation the despacho is a mandala of ingredients which are symbolic of the ingredients of life; grains and nuts for our food and the energy of nurturing, chocolate and bright candies for the sweetness of life, flowers for the mountains, the stars and the earth. Gift upon gift fill the despacho to express our gratitude to our Mother Earth, for all that we have and all that we are come from her. Other gifts connect us to the elementals, earth, wind, fire and rain and to a higher wisdom which is so present in the ruins where we sit in ceremony. We bring our energy and our love to feed heaven and earth, restoring us to a place of harmony and balance.

A hush, a reverence, feels so natural, so necessary and yet as I pass a small vial of extra fine glitter to don Manuel and whisper “chaskas,” the word for stars, he grins, bursts into laughter and joyfully pours the entire container throughout the mandala. It sparkles and glitters as we laugh, filling the mandala with love, beauty, joy, abundance, laughter and the oneness of life. We do this so that we may then carry it out into the world, into our communities, feeling once again a sense of connection in the world.

The old Q’ero has given us each a wonderful gift. He has brought us together. We laugh often now as we continue our travels, trekking up the sacred mountain of Salkantay, performing ceremonies of cleansing and gratitude, interacting with the Indios we meet along the way, grateful when they invite us to camp in their fields. We share small gifts with the children and we all laugh as we watch them experience a bottle of bubble stuff for the first time. It is magical to them, and as I look into the dark eyes of their mother and we laugh together, I know that laughter is a sacred act that brings us together, creates bridges, and holds us in a place of oneness.

Copyright M.A. Huggett 2001

Asa Huggett is happy to share the despacho ceremony with groups and organizations. There is no charge. Donations are gratefully accepted as they are used to replenish supplies for the next despacho ceremony, connecting one group to the next in an act of support, and also to honor the ancient teachings so generously shared by the Qero medicine people. For more information, please contact Asa.