Food is Sacred, Holy, and Divine

Hello and Happy Midsummer!

This summer, I have found myself listening deeply to the work of Martín Prechtel. I love his storytelling, his reverence, and the way his voice carries old wisdom into the present moment.

For as long as I have been on this healing path, I have sought out writings, teachers, ceremonies, and living traditions that continue to inspire my own growth and deepen the wisdom I bring to clients and students. The book I just finished is The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic by Martín Prechtel, and it stirred something tender and important in me.

It reminded me that many of us, in our modern lives, have lost contact with our living food. We have forgotten the life force of seeds. We have forgotten that the land is not simply ground beneath our feet, but a holy being that feeds, holds, and supports us.

I grew up on a ranch. My mother and father had a big garden, and I remember the joy of picking fresh vegetables and eating them down by the creek. Those memories are beautiful to me. And yet, when I look back now, I also remember the seeds; I can still see them in my mind’s eye: coated in a pink, powdery film, treated with pesticides, planted in ground fed by horse manure but also by industrial fertilizer. As someone still recovering from heavy metal and mycotoxin poisoning, this has been troubling, humbling, and illuminating.

As I listen to Martín’s stories, I recognize a deep kinship between the people he lived with in Guatemala, the Q’ero, and other Indigenous peoples of Peru, Ecuador, and around the world. This kinship is not only geographic. It lives in the way they honor Pachamama as a holy being, and in the way seeds are offered not merely as something to plant, but as sacred gifts to the spirit of the Earth.

The Despacho ceremony is central in the high Andes, and there are said to be around 250 different kinds of despacho offerings. These beautiful gifts are created as sacred acts of nurturing and nourishing the land, the spirits, and all that is. They are given in reciprocity — Ayni, in the Quechua language — as a way of remembering that life is relationship, and that what feeds us also needs to be fed with gratitude, beauty, and care.

So I have been wondering: What would happen if, in our day-to-day lives, we began to see our food as sacred and holy again? What if we remembered that it is light, life force, memory, medicine, and prayer? What might change if we reorganized our relationship with food, farmers, soil, seeds, our gardens, our yards, and the living beings we cook and eat? How might our lives change? How might our world change? I believe it would change for the better.

At the very same time I was sitting with all of this, feeling inspired to write to you about seeds as holy beings and the sacredness of food, something arrived in my inbox. I laughed and thought, “Thank you, Universe.” It was a documentary about Food as Light, and about the healing our bodies and our planet are calling for right now. It’s called Farmacy of Light.

I always hope that when you open one of my emails, you leave with something more than you came with — a reflection, a practice, a resource, or a seed of inspiration. So, I am sharing the documentary link here, along with an invitation to scroll below for a guided meditation to help you stay centered in the sea of change we are experiencing on our beautiful planet.

Rising Fire has no affiliation with this documentary nor with the promotional company. In no way do we get remunerated for sharing this documentary with you. It is a gift of timing.  

https://farmacy.foodrevolution.org/

Seeds for sacred thoughts: What is one way you can honor your food, your seeds, your soil, or your meal today? 

Invitation: Sometime today, pause before a meal, a seed, a garden bed, or even a simple glass of water. Offer a moment of gratitude. Ask yourself: How can I be in deeper reciprocity with what nourishes me?

Then, if these reflections stir something in you, watch Farmacy of Light, try the guided meditation below, and email me with your “sprouts” — your thoughts, insights, questions, or small acts of reverence. I would love to hear what begins to grow in you.