From the forest's traditions to Mestre Irineu
The Santo Daime describes itself as a syncretic religion, drawing on both Christian and Indigenous Amazonian roots. Its practitioners trace the ceremonial use of ayahuasca, the sacred tea also known within the tradition as Daime, back to Indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and further back still, by tradition, to the Inca. According to the tradition's own account, Raimundo Irineu Serra took part in ceremonies with a local community while working in the Amazon border region in the early twentieth century, and during one such ceremony experienced a vision of a woman identifying herself as the Queen of the Forest, later understood within the doctrine as an aspect of the Virgin Mary, who instructed him to fast and pray alone in the forest and, in doing so, gave him what the tradition describes as the mission of founding the Santo Daime.
The miração and direct experience
Central to how the Santo Daime understands its own ritual is the idea of the miração, a state of visionary consciousness that practitioners describe experiencing during a work. The tradition holds that this is not merely an imagined experience but a form of direct contact with spiritual teaching, and that no human intermediary stands between a participant and that contact; leaders of a work are understood, within the doctrine, to hold the space for that contact rather than to interpret it on anyone's behalf. This is a belief central to the faith, offered here as the tradition's own account of the experience rather than as an independently verifiable claim.
The sacrament and its symbols
The Daime itself, prepared from the jagube vine and the rainha leaf, is understood within the doctrine as more than a beverage: practitioners describe it as a living sacrament through which teaching, healing, and spiritual growth are made possible. The tradition's two central symbols, the six-pointed star and the cross with two crossbeams, are read within the doctrine as ancient images of the union of heaven and earth, and of the masculine and feminine principles meeting at the heart.