The Santo Daime doctrine was primarily developed by illiterate caboclo,
or mestizo, people, the descendants of immigrants who followed the rubber
boom into the deep recesses of the Amazon jungle and mixed with indigenous or
native indian people, and of course shared their shamanic religious
practices. The resulting spiritual experiences gradually merged with the oral
tradition of Christian symbolism common to Catholicism, and thus entered
mainstream Brazilian culture. This potent alchemical transformation has
created a doorway, or portal, between two worlds, the ancient and the
modern, effectively decoding the language of Christianity and in turn revealing
the origins of religion itself.
The Santo Daime doctrine is a tried and true, time-tested form, for instance
like yoga asanas. It is a structure, like a path, bridge or ladder, which
provides support. The particulars of this doctrine also seem designed to
accelerate personal transformation or development by stimulating certain
reactions which expose blockages in the personal and collective flow of energy,
or current, perhaps akin to ch'i (qi). The goal being simply to
accomplish the form authentically and respectfully, in order to overcome and to
rise above it then being able to navigate more freely the spiritual realm, or astral,
while being securely anchored or firmly grounded on the material plane.
CRF - Círculo de Regeneração e Fé (Center for Regeneration and Faith)
According to Edward MacRae's account in
Guided by the Moon [pdf], two brothers, Antonio and André Costa,
black friends who were from the same town in Maranhão as Raimundo Irineu Serra
introduced him to a Peruvian ayahuasquero, Don Crescêncio Pizango, in the
Cobija region of Bolivia. Irineu then seems to have followed a more or less
normal process of shamanic initiation in the Amazon consisting of fasting and
vision quest.
Apparently the Costa brothers formed the CRF or Círculo de Regeneração e
Fé in the town of Brasiléia, Acre, sometime in the 1920s, in which Raimundo Irineu Serra
took part. The CRF is considered to have been a forerunner of the Daime,
and followed a military hierarchy. There seems to have been a dispute
between Antonio Costa and Raimundo Irineu Serra over leadership. Irineu
then
moved first to Sena Madureira and later to the town of Rio Branco. In
1930, while living in the district of Vila Ivonete, he began to hold ayahuasca
works for the general public using the name Daime.
Raimundo Irineu Serra
Raimundo Irineu Serra was born in the town of São Vicente de Férrer in the
northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão in 1892, and passed away in Rio Branco
the capital of the Amazonian state of Acre in 1971. Mestre Irineu as he became known is the founder of the Santo
Daime doctrine (Doutrina do Santo Daime in Portuguese), the name of the
spiritual activities that he developed. This happened over a
period of more than fifty years, first in Brasiléia (Acre), and then at his home
and church in Rio Branco, the Centro de Iluminação Cristã Luz Universal (CICLU-Alto
Santo).
Based on the ingestion of a beverage called
ayahuasca (obtained by the
decoction of the liana
Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of the bush
Psychotria viridis), millenially known by several tribes and nations in Western
Amazonia, and used in shamanistic rituals, mainly because of its entheogenic and
therapeutic properties, the religious system that he created has its foundations
in esoteric Christianity and the rich Brazilian Afro-Indian spiritual
culture. It is important to point out that the ceremonial use of the Santo Daime
is legal in Brazil, and that modern scientific researchers are testing its
medicinal effects.
Mestre Irineu was a rubber-tapper, member of the Limits Commission on the
three frontiers (Brazil, Peru and Bolivia), corporal of the territorial guard,
agricultural worker, and small breeder. He was respected and held in high esteem
by peers and authorities for his moral virtues, wisdom, altruism and power to
heal, and was recognized as a saint of a man, even outside of his community. He
was able to condense admirably in the poetry and musicality of his hymns all the
universal theological inheritance, and did that in an accessible language,
appropriate to his time and region, according to the teachings that he received
in direct communication with the Most Holy Virgin, Sovereign Mother, and Queen
of the Forest.
After his passing, family and disciples continued this work, which
constitutes today a true national religious tradition in Brazil. They did that
by giving birth to dozens of institutions in Brazil and abroad, and the
execution of his hymnal is the core of their activities. The authorities and the
people of Acre have been paying homage to his memory; for example, the
neighborhood where he lived and built the seat of the CICLU was named after him:
"Irineu Serra", and in 2005 was designated a Brazilian national
protected area, APA Raimundo Irineu Serra - APARIS.
Sebastião Mota de Melo
Sebastião Mota de Melo was born in the Monte Lígia Seringal (a rubber
extraction camp deep in the jungle) in 1920. He soon showed propensity for
astral travel and visions of the rainforest's enchanted beings, and started his
healing and praying work while still living in the wilderness of the Valley of
Juruá. He developed his mediumship and chanelling abilities in the context of
the Brazilian Spiritualistic Doctrine through his godfather Oswaldo, who
followed Allan Kardec's doctrine. He moved to Rio Branco with his family in
1957, where he lived the life of a country worker and assisted sick people from
his tight circle of relatives, friends and godsons. He was a simple man, of
solid spiritual conviction and a tireless worker.
Sebastião received from his Master, Raimundo Irineu Serra, the mission of
expanding the Santo Daime Doctrine to the whole country and beyond. In 1974 he
registered his religious and philanthropic entity, denominated Cefluris - The
Eclectic Cult of the Universal Flowing Light Raimundo Irineu Serra, a
non-profit association responsible for developing spiritual work with the
sacramental drink Santo Daime. In 1980 the community he started near Rio Branco
became a protected area, called Rio do Ouro Seringal (Gold River).
In 1982 he founded the community known today as Céu do Mapiá where he was
a tireless worker, in both the spiritual and material context. He liked to work
building canoes and to make long journeys into the forest he loved so much. In
his last years he affectionately welcomed the godsons that arrived from all
parts of the world. He made some trips to the south of Brazil to meet the new
churches and centers that had been founded around his teachings. Padrinho
Sebastião left the Earth 20 January 1990 in Rio de Janeiro, where he was sent
to treat a serious heart disease that had attacked him in his early years.
Caravaca Cross
The two bar cross commonly used by the Santo Daime church is known as the Caravaca
cross, or
Patriarchal cross,
and takes its name from the town of Caravaca (now known as
Caravaca de la Cruz)
in the Spanish province of Murcia; where as the legend goes, in the year 1231, a priest
was imprisoned by the Moors. Out of curiosity, his captors' king, Abu Zeid,
asked him to say Mass, but as the priest began, he realized he didn't have the
necessary Crucifix. As his captors grew angry, the Patriarch of Jerusalem's
Pectoral cross was transported to the priest through an open window, borne by
two angels. Seeing this, King Abu Zeid was converted or transformed from Muslim
to Christian. It is said that the second bar represents the arrival of the
second coming in the form of the Sacred Gift, or the Santo Daime. The
three bar cross seen in CICLU churches is called the
Papal cross.
Calendar of Works
The Santo Daime doctrine's works are accomplished according to an official
calendar, which defines the holidays and feasts of the daimistic year. The
churches and centers around the world should follow the stipulated dates in way
to integrate the positive current generated on these occasions.
On hinários days, the works begin at the sunset of the stipulated dates,
running through the whole night until the dawn of the celebrated day. It is good
to remind that, besides the dates above, in everyday 15 and 30 of every month
the traditional concentrations are accomplished according to Master Irineu's
instruction.
The
Official Calendar of Works (Céu do Mapiá)
Norms of Ritual CEFLURIS
Recommended Reading
Forest of
Visions: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Spirituality, and the Santo Daime Tradition,
by Alex Polari de Alverga (Park Street Press, 1999)
Amazon Online Reader
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