Earth Caretakers

Reciprocity: Sacred Exchange                            June 2012 

maui rainbow

 Reciprocity: Sacred Exchange     

 

 

All around the world people make daily offerings to spirit: incense on the altar (Japan), fresh flowers at the 'spirit house' (Indonesia), chalk designs by the front door (India), stones added to chortens at mountain passes (Himalayas and Andes).

 

We've all been inspired by seeing such offerings when we travel, and sometimes on our home turf as well. There's a fence post on a trail near my house where everyone leaves found bird feathers; there's a cleft in the rock above the Golden Gate Bridge where passersby place pinecones, stones, and tiny flowers. When we see these acts of reciprocity, our hearts sing.

 

Sacred Exchange

 

It wasn't until I spent time with non-western people that I began to understand the transformative power of reciprocity.

 

The perception that an exchange--whether offering, trade, assistance, or purchase--is a way of maintaining balance and harmony is really different than our dominant attitude (me first! I want more!). Reciprocal exchange honors the interconnection of all beings: what I do affects the whole. As my favorite Inca Glossary explains, "To practice ayni [reciprocity] with all people and all of nature is to open the heart." 

 

In Western culture we talk about generosity and sharing. Reciprocity is more inclusive, a kind of sacred and mutual exchange of energy, appreciation, and respect. Reciprocity is free of ego. There's no attachment to outcome. The context, when everyone and everything is interconnected, is that what you give will be returned in some way. Maybe not by the same person. Maybe even in a mysterious way. Watching the signs, we learn to know. And, as we have all discovered, giving in a tight-fisted or less than heart-ful way comes back to us too! This is because all exchanges involve energy given and received. The quality of energy we offer--in speech, behavior, and reciprocal payment--is what returns to us.

 

If I bring you flowers from my garden, my joy is in the sharing of beauty and in my relationship to my plants; I don't "expect" anything back. When my friends offer free healing clinics in the city, they are contributing to balance and harmony by making others' lives easier; their joy is being in service.

 

Living in reciprocity is a good way to stay in right relationship and balance. It is also profound to reflect on its implications in our lives, and to explore our consciousness (or lack thereof) of the ways we might step out of the money economy and into more sacred exchange.

 

As in all aspects of consciousness, there's a continuum of action and awareness that we each move along, making choices as we go. There's no guilt or blame when we have to charge for our services, or have two jobs and can't give of our time. We're talking here of attitudes of the heart.

 

Acts of Reciprocity

 

A spontaneous act of reciprocity is fun, and makes us feel good. Regular, daily, constant reciprocity may be less easy: why would we bother when everyone else is out for themselves?

 

Acts of reciprocity are acts of connection. When my friend brings eggs or strawberries from her garden, she's gifting me with the work of her hands, the food of her soil, the relationship she has with her garden. Without words, all of this connects me to her and to her life in deeper ways.

 

Acts of reciprocity are a way of acknowledging the interconnection of all things, all beings. We keep fresh water for the birds because our lives are enriched by their presence; we water trees during drought because our shade, our heat, our sanity depend on them. When we learn the native plants in our area and grow them, we are assisting the insect and bird life that we know our planet depends on.

 

Acts of reciprocity deepen our relationships. When we take time to be reciprocal, especially with our non-human companions, we begin to weave a thread that winds and expands in mysterious ways. Twenty years ago my friend Ginny Anderson began taking us to the mountains surrounding San Francisco Bay, where we hiked, explored, did ceremony, and buried crystals. I learned that each time we offer a stone, or despacho, or some other gift to a sacred place, we remember that place in detail. This means we can return there in imagination or journey; connect our filaments with that place; and know that place in our hearts. It becomes part of our sacred circle; our world widens. Relationships with our mountains--physical, metaphorical, spiritual--changed my life, my work, and certainly my connection to place. (My apprenticeship program evolved from these mountain relationships; Circling the Bay guides anyone, anywhere, in creating such relationships.)   

 

Ritual Reciprocity for Earth, Water, and Star People

 

Some years ago I met with Mandaza, a wonderful traditional healer from Zimbabwe, for help on my path. I had been called by spirit to make offerings to the star beings, and didn't feel very confident. How could I develop a relationship with star beings? Mandaza said, "Earth, water, and the Star People are the three legs of your stool" (an important practical and metaphorical symbol in most of Africa). He gave me rituals--prayers and offerings to make--for each of the three "legs." The instructions are an example of the substance of indigenous people's relationships with the living beings of earth, spirit, and cosmos. The connections are comprehensive, focusing on surrender; obstacles; mistakes; forgiveness; assistance; and reciprocity. They are also profoundly healing, deepening, and mysterious.

 

When we know we are related to the animals and plants who feed us, the ancestors who watch over us, the mountains that gather rainclouds to water our crops, and the spirits who teach us, we are inspired, even compelled, to acknowledge and honor them, to express our appreciation and gratitude.

 

"Go to a mountain and surrender to spirits. In surrendering, you are saying to them, 'I know nothing about your ways. I want to make body and heart an empty vehicle, an unpolluted temple, for spirit.'  

Let go of obstacles in heart, mind, and spirit.  
Ask for forgiveness for whatever wrong you did as a human. 
Ask the good spirits above to heal you physically & spiritually. 
Ask the spirits to give you clear sleeping dreams, visions, and messages that do not need interpretation. 
Ask them to be your teachers.
 

"As you pray, throw the offerings in six directions: North, South, East, West, Above, and Below."

For the Star People Spirits, offerings are made from a mountaintop. For the Water Spirits, offerings are made to river, ocean, or lake. For the Earth Spirits, offerings are made to the six directions while sitting under a tree. And, in the traditional African water ways, you jump into the water for initiation by the spirits once you have made your offerings, immersing yourself multiple times."

 

Cultural Reciprocity

 

The reason so many of us look to indigenous cultures is, I think, that they are more likely to model behavior and consciousness that embody reciprocity: giving before receiving, joyful connection, communal balance, and respect. Among Quechuas and Aymara people, in traditional communities (ayllu) in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, ayni (reciprocity) is a traditional form of mutual help still practiced. It is deeply ingrained in cultural practice and worldview on many levels. For example, half the ayllu is responsible one year for organizing community festivals, while the other half has established support functions. The next year, the two halves trade roles. "Leadership," along with cost, and the honor of extra work, is shared and rotated.

 

The difference in cultural assumptions is profound. Here's a story.

 

Some years ago we raised money for a women's building in Molla Marka, a small village in the Eastern Andes. The women had nowhere protected they could sit together to weave; huts were small and family-focused. We had visited the village, were godparents to many babies, and had learned much from the people there, so we wanted to help.  

 

Months later, we were surprised to hear that the women had shared half the money we raised with the men, though the men already had a gathering space. From a feminist perspective, it felt like another women-give-their-power-away situation. Yet from an anthropological and cultural perspective, sharing is so rooted in all aspects of people's lives that nothing would be done to threaten the long-held and complex balance between men and women. Even when it meant the women could only build a partial house with our funds!

 

The Oyster World

 

Much Western behavior derives from a deeply held assumption: "the world is our oyster, there for the taking" (Shakespeare, 1600). The myth of ownership, rather than reciprocity, has been promulgated by Church, State, and corporations for 2000 years. It's deeply embedded in our psyches that we control what we own, and that resources (oil, water, gold, timber, conquered peoples) are ours for the taking. You grew up, probably, being told humans are "above" animals (and earth, and indigenous people), resources are for our use, chemistry makes for better living. You were taught and encouraged to consume, to fill your needs with stuff, to want the latest IPhone. You were brainwashed into believing that a bottle of water tasted better and was more cool and convenient than a glass. And so on.   

  

Even if you live outside this cultural trance, it's still pervasive. "I deserve," or "it's easier" trumps consequences; the extremes of these assumptions can be seen on Wall Street. Yet we're all affected. We all make choices, at least some of the time, based on related notions. So our awareness of reciprocity requires consciousness. Shifting our consciousness, and our behavior, can be learned. It takes practice. It takes commitment!

  

Living in reciprocity helps bring everything into balance and harmony. It's a way of shifting our vibration and moving ourselves into homo luminous. It is a way of stepping into the future and creating a world our descendants will welcome.  

 

Meg Beeler/Earth Caretakers    

Copyright � 2012

Star despacho Mt. Shasta
Star Despacho Mt. Shasta

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." -- Zig Ziglar

 

"We now know that whatever you vibrate, you create and attract to yourself. So, you work on healing yourself in order to create peace around you. You become peace. If there's conflict living within you, you cannot live in a world of peace. The world mirrors back to you perfectly the condition of your love and of your intent. And if the world you're living in is not a world that is at peace and at joy and at grace, then you have to find peace, joy, and grace within you... It's a very active practice focused on healing."  -- Alberto Villoldo

 

Cool Consciousness Web Links
The links that follow offer you insight, beauty, and just plain fun.  Click the green underlined text to go to the link. For example, if you wanted to go to our website, you'd click Earth Caretakers.

'Sky People' Meteorite

Clackamas legend holds that the meteorite Tomanowos was sent to Earth as a representative of the "Sky People," exemplifying a union of sky, earth and water, with power to heal and empower the people of the valley. The successor tribe continues its relationship with the meteorite through annual ceremonial visits at the Natural History Museum.  

Initiations, Ceremony, and Healing in September with Q'eros

Q'ero healers Don Humberto & Dona Bernadina will be in Sonoma doing ceremony, karpays (Q'ero intitations), despachos, and personal healings September 6-9. He is a kuraq' aq'ullaq', the highest level of Q'ero healer currently alive; together they are a couple in yanantin, complementarity. I've spent three different weekends with them in various ways, and they are wonderful! More... 

Planning Ahead for 2012 Transistion 

Join Earth Caretakers Nov. 3-4 to explore and develop the mystical energies that support our 2012 transitions, and Dec. 16 for an Earth-Star despacho ceremony. Find out more. 

Thrive

Is it possible for humans to thrive? "What on earth will it take?" asks Thrive, a film focusing on "the most critical questions of our time," and "bringing together the new energy and Occupy in coherent synergy." Watch free.  

Catch Up on Consciousness

You can find last month's newsletter, "Staying Focused and Balanced in Troubled Times" and read other, previous versions of Shifting Consciousness News here.  

Shamanic Consultation

Empower yourself and step into your radiance, wisdom, and wholeness with shamanic consultations and energy healing, private instruction, soul retrieval, Munay-Ki transmissions, workshops, or the Sacred Earth Shamanic Apprenticeship. You can also read articles and find meditations relating to this work. Email or call our office at 1-707-939-7961 to make your appointment.

 

Clients say:
"Your kindness and spiritual connection are inspiring and magnetic." --PL
"Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the incredible and deeply healing work you did on me when I was so exhausted and in such physical distress. I fell asleep during your hands-on healing work, and when I woke up, I was no longer in pain." --CP

"I really, really, appreciate your gentle, thoughtful, loving, knowledgeable kindness and guidance during this entire process.  It has been life-changing for me." --BM
 
Join Our Mailing List