Finados at Ceu de Maria

At the top of a mountain, high above the city of São Paulo,



sits a beautiful Santo Daime church called Ceu de Maria.




In this most lovely place,



people gathered to make the Holy Friday spiritual ritual of "Finados" -- as are called the four companions of Mestre Irineu -- who together with him received the foundation of the Doctrine of the Santo Daime. Now, as the ritual unfolded, the people would sing and dance and remember.



And the remembrance would also include the great founders of Mapia who have passed on --

Padrinho Sebastião



and Madrinha Cristina



and now the man who had co-founded and helped to lead this church of Ceu de Maria and who, until the previous night, had lived in this house atop the hill.



Orlando Villas Boas, or "Orlandino" -- as he was known to all -- had been a grande amigo. His passage gave a profound and poignant significance to the mass that was sung at the end of this spiritual work.



I did not not have the pleasure of having known "Orlandino" but the energy of a great love was present throughout the day.

I'm not sure how to best express it? Maybe like this...

Earlier in the spiritual work -- while singing the hymns of Maria Damião -- I had thought of the child Saint John and the man who had grown to manifest his energies



and I had thought of the ones who are coming...







and I had called out Viva as Crianças.


There are a few more photos here.

(Note: The wonderful photo montages that decorate the church here and in Mapia are done by Carlos Gustavo N. Pereira. Thank you "Guta" for such marvelous works.)

São José at Reino do Sol

16 March 2008
São Paulo

When the Luiz Mendes comitiva traveled back home to Acre in early March, I remained in São Paulo in order to be with a fast Internet connection for uploading all the photos and videos that had been collected. It's hard to be so far from home but I'm really grateful for my friends in this metropolis -- the largest in South America -- who make me feel comfortable in their homes and spiritual centers and who share many "city adventures". With many Daime groups in the larger São Paulo region, I'm never too far from home.

Last Sunday I got to celebrate the festival of São José at Reino do Sol (Kingdom of the Sun)


This Dahlia in the garden of Reino do Sol looks like the blazing sun and fits perfectly with the energies of this marvelous Daime center.

What a celebration it was



with baptisms



and initiations



For the festival of São José we sang the hymns of Padrinho Alfredo. The strong connection to Mapia and the CEFLURIS line produced many vivas for Padrinho Sebastião, for Padrinhos Alfredo and Valdete and for Madrinha Rita.



Reino do Sol also has a very strong relationship with the Afro-Brazilian religion of Umbanda which offers connection with many spiritual entities and energies organized into phalanxes under the Orixas. I don't know much about Umbanda and I was surprised to see an American Indian represented on the altar.


Águia Dourada (Golden Eagle) and São Miguel (Saint Michael) on the altar at Reino do Sol.

I asked Gê Marquez for a teaching and he said that Umbanda makes contact with many spiritual energies that appear at different times in different cultures and in different forms. He said that the American Indian is Águia Dourada (Golden Eagle) and is the spirit guide for this church. "Wow," I thought, "I'm home again."

The seeming universality of the Santo Daime with its ability to embrace and connect spiritually with many traditions never ceases to amaze me. Here I was in São Paulo, Brazil feeling a deep connection with the Lakota tradition of the American Plains Indians -- the people of "All My Relations" who had given me the gift of tobacco prayers and some of the deepest friendships I have ever known.

Later, I walked around the church admiring the wonderful paintings and art depicting many spiritual energies and I was tremendously moved while looking at this print of a painting by the American (non-native) visionary artist Charles Frizzell


"Shaman's Last Journey" by Charles Frizzell

Some themes are so universal. I don't know of Frizzell's intention here but, perhaps due to the moon (or the power of the Daime I had drunk), I saw a great Queen depicted. I thought of the common Santo Daime image of a Universal Goddess or the Virgem da Conceição arriving in a little boat and I recalled a beautiful hymn by José Rosa...

It's coming, it's coming
The little boat is coming

It's the Love, the light
The little boat is coming

It's opening the path
Of God our Lord

The Virgin Mother is guiding
The little boat that's coming

I surrender, I surrender
To the will of the Eternal Father

In my heart
I am the Kingdom of Love

and I felt the power of Mituke Oyasin, of All My Relations.

More photos here.

FANTASTICO SANTO DAIME IN ENGLISH


In 2005 O GLOBO, Brazil's largest and most mainstream TV network, ran a documentary about Santo Daime on its weekly magazine FANTASTICO, which is the most widely watched family show in the country. The result was to bring the Santo Daime out from the Amazon forest into the central national media spotlight and living rooms across Brazil. Now, thanks to Benno from Holland who, together with Malcolm Kyle, made the subtitles, this report and the mission of Mestre Irineu may also reach out into the English speaking world.



More recently, O GLOBO presented a wonderful treatment of the special history of Mestre Irineu and the Santo Daime in its widely watched mini-series Amazônia.

Many ayahuasca traditions are now gaining legitimacy around the world. In the states, where the sacrament has been opposed by the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the União do Vegetal succeeded in bringing the issue of religious use of ayahuasca to the US Supreme Court which unanimously decided for the church and against the government. The full story of that victory and many fine perspectives on ayahuasca were recently written up by Michael Posner in an excellent article called "Plants with Soul."