A divine hierarchy
The tenets describe belief in a single, all-encompassing God whose defining attribute is universal love, manifest throughout creation, and in an Imperial Kingdom of divine beings that includes the Divine Eternal Father, the Divine Sovereign Mother, Jesus Christ, the Patriarch Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, and the angels and archangels who make up what the tradition calls the Celestial Court, with particular devotion given to the archangels Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. Alongside this, the tenets hold that spiritual beings and traditions from Africa and the Americas are entitled to respect as sources of healing and wisdom in their own right.
Christ, the doctrine, and Mestre Irineu's mission
The tenets hold that the doctrine of the Santo Daime was received by Raimundo Irineu Serra through an apparition of the Virgin Mary in the form of the Queen of the Forest, and that his mission represented, within the tradition's own understanding, a second coming of Christ, symbolized in the doctrine's cross with its two crossbeams. This is held to carry both a specific and a more inward meaning, the latter referring to a presence of Christ believed to dwell within, and be experienced by, each person.
The sacrament as vehicle of communion
The tenets describe the Daime sacrament, prepared from the union of the jagube vine and the rainha leaf, as central to the faith's ritual life: a means of direct communion with the divine, a vehicle for self-knowledge and spiritual healing, and a practice the tradition holds descends from millennia-old Indigenous and pre-Columbian use of the same plants by sages and healers. The hymns received by Mestre Irineu and later elders are held to carry teachings of lasting spiritual value, centered on communion with the divine, reverence for the celestial beings, compassion between members, and respect for nature.
Community, choice, and nature
The tenets affirm that entering, and leaving, the Santo Daime is entirely voluntary, that no restriction applies to someone who chooses to step away, and that proselytizing is not practiced; the tradition describes itself as receiving, without invitation, all who come to it in search of spiritual comfort, regardless of nationality, race, or belief. Alongside this, the tenets commit the community to a life of daily prayer, forgiveness, and humility, to responsibilities as citizens, and to a deep identification with nature and an ecological consciousness the tradition treats as inseparable from its spiritual foundation.