The Santo Daime Sacrament
Irineu is called "Empire-Chief of Juramidam" (Chefe Império Juramidam); the plant Psychotria viridis, found in the ayahuasca brew, is known as "Queen" (rainha) and a plantation of it is called a "kingdom" (reinado).
The drink per se is the vehicle, the sacrament. Its ingestion reorganizes our organic, neurochemical, and energetic foundation, adjusting us to spiritual reality and its multiple meanings. At this point, the Daime helps us to transcend both the positive and negative energies that emerge from the depth of our spirits. After this phase, the miração comes and archetypes, myths, and legends emerge from the collective unconscious^.Through this rough material, the universal Holy Spirit becomes accessible through the living images of the miração, the divine language.
The tea has had many names including Santo Daime (or simply Daime), Hoasca, Ayahuasca, Yage, and Caapi. It is made from two or more plants, one a woody vine (Ayahuasca vine or Jagube; generally b. caapi), and the others known as admixtures. While various plants are used throughout South America, most of which have high concentrations of dimethyltryptamine, the preferred admixture in the case of Santo Daime is Psychotria viridis, known to church members as the “Queen of the Forest,” after the figure who is said to have appeared to the church’s founder in a vision, prompting him to start the religion.
Santo Daime’s entheogenic* sacrament, known as Santo Daime or Daime, has been used for millennia in South American indigenous cultures. Historically the tea has had many names including Hoasca, Ayahuasca, Yage, and Caapi. It is one of the traditional sacred technologies of South American Shamans. In many regions it is still used traditionally as a medicine, for discerning and treating various ailments, as well as for its vision-inducing effects which are said to be profound and life-changing. The Daime can induce a strong emetic effect which is regarded as a purging of emotional, karmic, spiritual, or physical impurities.
The Santo Daime Church uses only the Jagube vine and the Viridis leaf, not adding any other plants to the mixture. The tea is prepared ceremoniously over a week by members of the church in a festival called a ‘fetio’. Hymns are sung, and Daime is drank while the men hammer the vine into powder and the women clean and sort the leaves. Because of the very specific manner in which they prepare their sacrament, and the very specific way in which they use it, the beverage is not called ‘Ayahuasca’, but ‘Santo Daime’.
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is an entheogenic tea originating from the Amazonian forest. For thousands of years, ayahuasca has been used by the native people of the forest in both religious ceremonies as shamanistic and therapeutic practices. The brown colored and bitter tasting tea is known under many names: yagé, nepe, kabi, natema, hoasca, daime, and ayahuasca. This last name comes from the Quechua language of the ancient Incas, and means 'vine of the soul'.
Entheogen
Ayahuasca is in the entheogen family. An 'entheogen' is a substance that takes one closer to God and other divine beings. Other known entheogens are peyote, San Pedro, some mushrooms and certain African plants like the Iboga root. All are power plants known by shamans and spiritual leaders to hold vital, healthy information and to open the doorway to the spiritual world. These plants have been revealing themselves for thousands of years. Entheogens, traditionally used as spiritual food, in the context of ritual, serve to create a shift in consciousness that opens up access to the Divine.
Healing
For many, the initial motivation to drink the tea is the desire for healing. Through the ayahuasca and the mediums that know how to work with its energy, people have been healed from drug addiction, cancer, emotional trauma and other serious ailments. A more common kind of healing is a purifying or cleansing of old thoughts and behavior patterns that are not for the highest good and do not serve a person anymore. Sometimes, this cleansing is accompanied by a physical purging where the individual vomits or 'throws out' the beverage. This phenomenon also indicates that the human body will only accept the quantity of ayahuasca that it can use.
Jagube & Rainha
Ayahuasca is made by combining the vine of the 'Jagube' (Banisteriopsis Caapi) with the leaves of the shrub called 'Rainha' (Psychotria Viridis).
Pieces from Banisteriopsis caapi vine are pounded, mixed with leaves from Psychotria viridis, and boiled for 10 to 12 hours in rust-free steel pots until all that remains is a thick liquid with globules of fat on the surface that shimmer in all colors of the spectrum.
While the leaf of the Rainha naturally contains the psycho-active substance DMT (dimethyltriptamine), the vine of the Jagube contains MAOI (harmine, harmaline), which together produce the known spiritual effects. The Jagube is considered by shamans to be the 'spirit' of the tea, the guide through the experience.
Revelation
The story goes, that during the time of the Spanish invasion of Peru from 1532 to 1534, the Inca prince Hayauasca took this knowledge with him to the Amazonian rainforest, and diffused it among the many indian tribes. It was only much later, with the ongoing urbanisation in Brazil, that the beverage reached civilization again. So it happened that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a tall and strong rubber tapper from African origin called Raimundo Irineu Serra got befriended with Peruvian shamans, who introduced him to this beverage called ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is an entheogenic tea originating from the Amazonian forest. For thousands of years, ayahuasca has been used by the native people of the forest in both religious ceremonies as shamanistic and therapeutic practices. The brown colored and bitter tasting tea is known under many names: yagé, nepe, kabi, natema, hoasca, daime, and ayahuasca. This last name comes from the Quechua language of the ancient Incas, and means 'vine of the soul'.
Entheogen
Ayahuasca is in the entheogen family. An 'entheogen' is a substance that takes one closer to God and other divine beings. Other known entheogens are peyote, San Pedro, some mushrooms and certain African plants like the Iboga root. All are power plants known by shamans and spiritual leaders to hold vital, healthy information and to open the doorway to the spiritual world. These plants have been revealing themselves for thousands of years. Entheogens, traditionally used as spiritual food, in the context of ritual, serve to create a shift in consciousness that opens up access to the Divine.
Healing
For many, the initial motivation to drink the tea is the desire for healing. Through the ayahuasca and the mediums that know how to work with its energy, people have been healed from drug addiction, cancer, emotional trauma and other serious ailments. A more common kind of healing is a purifying or cleansing of old thoughts and behavior patterns that are not for the highest good and do not serve a person anymore. Sometimes, this cleansing is accompanied by a physical purging where the individual vomits or 'throws out' the beverage. This phenomenon also indicates that the human body will only accept the quantity of ayahuasca that it can use.
Jagube & Rainha
Ayahuasca is made by combining the vine of the 'Jagube' (Banisteriopsis Caapi) with the leaves of the shrub called 'Rainha' (Psychotria Viridis).
Pieces from Banisteriopsis caapi vine are pounded, mixed with leaves from Psychotria viridis, and boiled for 10 to 12 hours in rust-free steel pots until all that remains is a thick liquid with globules of fat on the surface that shimmer in all colors of the spectrum.
While the leaf of the Rainha naturally contains the psycho-active substance DMT (dimethyltriptamine), the vine of the Jagube contains MAOI (harmine, harmaline), which together produce the known spiritual effects. The Jagube is considered by shamans to be the 'spirit' of the tea, the guide through the experience.
Revelation
The story goes, that during the time of the Spanish invasion of Peru from 1532 to 1534, the Inca prince Hayauasca took this knowledge with him to the Amazonian rainforest, and diffused it among the many indian tribes. It was only much later, with the ongoing urbanisation in Brazil, that the beverage reached civilization again. So it happened that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a tall and strong rubber tapper from African origin called Raimundo Irineu Serra got befriended with Peruvian shamans, who introduced him to this beverage called ayahuasca.
