A FORTALEZA PHOTO ARCHIVE

I have no idea how many photos I have posted of Fortaleza and the travels of the Luíz Mendes family and friends, but the number "feels" large. So, perhaps it's time to post a links to past collections.

Collections at Flickr

Collections from Cefli and elsewhere at Imageevent

FEITIO: THE MAKING OF SANTO DAIME

Many consider the making the sacrament -- the Santo Daime -- to be the most integrated and profound spiritual work of the tradition.




Every step in the process is ritualized, beginning as the women collect and wash the Rainha leaves



and the men gather and clean the Jagube vine.



Then the polarities -- men and women, macracá and mallet, leaf and vine, water and fire -- are brought together in the work of producing the holy sacrament.

The videos tell the story best.

























For more pics click here.

PEQUENININHO

Pequenininho (the very tiny one) symbolizes the essence of the Santo Daime spiritual path. It is also the title of the hymnal of Saturnino Brito do Nascimento, which was sung during the final spiritual work of the 2010 Encounter for the New Horizon


Saturnino and Luzirene

Pequenininho, pequenininho
Pequenininho to follow the path

Great in joy
Great in truth
Great in harmony
Great in humility

Pequenininho, pequenininho
Pequenininho to follow the path

Great in firmness
Great in love
Great in sureness
Of our Father Creator

Pequenininho, pequenininho
Pequenininho to follow the path


Videos from the spiritual work follow.

FORRÓ, DAIME and FUN

One of the most looked-forward-to events at the annual Encounter for the New Horizon is the cultural night which begins with a theater of family and folklore at the Salão do Cípo in the forest and then continues at the church with drinking daime, dancing forró and generally celebratiing the culture of Northeast Brazil, the place of origin for many of the rubber-tappers and migrating peoples who settled in Acre during the 20th Century.

This year the theater focused on the life of Padrinho Luíz.

Teatro ...


(or go to Flickr set directly)

Forró ...


(or go to Flickr set directly)


Cicero and popular culture ...


(or go to Flickr set directly)


The videos follow, first with forró and an unusual band where the normal accordion is replaced by a saxophone. The saxophonist is João Braz who used to be invited to play at the concentrações of Mestre Irineu.


























Popular culture and dance from Northeast Brazil ...

THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY KINGS

The Day Of the Holy Kings marks the beginning of the yearly calendar of the Santo Daime tradition ... a perfect time for fardamentos (Michela and Lucas) and a baptism (José Daniel).

Here are some photos:


(or go to Flickr set directly)




(or go to Flickr set directly)


And here are a few videos

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR MESTRE CONSELHEIRO LUIZ MENDES

To all of our great joy, Padrinho Luiz attained 70 years and we had what he would call a "festaissima" (a great party).

First, a few photos


(or view the Flickr set)

and here are a bunch of videos beginning with singing hinário of Mestre Irineu



















The festivities during the interval in singing the hinario were especially spirited.

















And in the morning a breakfast of song, birthday cake and fireworks...





PARABÉNS e VIVA para nosso Mestre Conselheiro Luíz Mendes

A TRIBUTE TO PAD LUÍZ
from Reino do Sol

The celebration of the 70th birthday of Padrinho Luíz Mendes was central event of the 2010 Encounter for a New Horizon. But the big party was a few days off so the delegation from the São Paulo church Reino do Sol gave a warm-up tribute.

Here are a few photos...


(or view the flickr set directly)

The videos follow:

A DAY IN THE FOREST

The day of spiritual works in the forest is a great favorite among visitors to Fortaleza. It begins with everyone gathering at the church, then hiking into the forest to visit three terreiros (clearings in the forest), drinking Daime at each one and singing hymns in praise of nature, the Queen of the Forest and the doctrine of Juramidam.

The slideshow below carries us through the first part of the day-long event which will extend into the night.


(or view the flickr set directly)

Videos from the day follow.

NEW HYMNS FROM SOLON

It is always a special moment of sharing when someone presents their new hymns (often informally during an interval). During the interval at the New Year's work, Solon Brito -- brother of Saturnino and son of Mad Rizelda and Pad Luíz -- offered three recent arrivals to family and friends.





more videos follow

NEW YEAR AT FORTALEZA

Bringing in the New Year at Fortaleza is a grand all-nighter -- about 15 hours reaching well into the first morning of the new year -- singing all of the hymns of Mestre Conselheiro Luíz Mendes and many interval entertainments.

Here are the photos across the 15 hour celebration:


(or view the flickr set directly)


The baptism of Daniel:


(or view the flickr set directly)

The videos are below:

PAJÉLANÇA AT FORTALEZA

This is the first in a series of posts documenting the 2010 Encounter for the New Horizon and recent scenes from Fortaleza (in Capixaba, Acre) which is the spiritual retreat center of the family of Mestre Conseheiro Luíz Mendes and many friends.

It has been taking quite awhile to bring this material together and to the Internet due to the challenges of being in rural Amazônia so I've had to wait to come to the city of Rio Branco where Internet and electric energy are much more dependable. Sorry for the long delay but I'm pleased to finally be able to share the results.

The 2010 Encounter for the New Horizon opened on the night of 30 December 2009 with a spiritual session of Concentração (concentration) which featured a pajélança presentation by Shaneihu, a young shaman ("pajé") in a line of shamans from the Yananawa people. Pajélança is a musical healing tradition. More about it (in Portuguese) here and here.

The slideshow below begins with the Concentration and ends with Shaneihu administering the Indian snuff called rapé.


(or view the flickr set directly)

3 videos of the beautiful songs of Shaneihu are below.

NEW MEDIA AT FORTALEZA

Sorry for the long break from blogging but I've been in the Inter-Not-Yet zone of rural Acre, Brazil on the border with Bolivia where there is a small Santo Daime community called Fortaleza and where we have a new media project. It's preparing to quick-launch the children into the 21st Century Age of Information as soon as Internet WIFI spreads across the State of Acre. (We are hearing stories that fast Internet will arrive by the end of the year.)

Here is a slideshow documenting the early stages of this project (during January 2010) which was brought to Fortaleza by Débora, Lorena and Pafy and funded by a grant from FUNARTE (a public agency supporting art and culture projects in Brazil).



The next video documents some of the artistic collaboration that the project is generating. Here, Clementino (our very talented local artist) is quick sketching a portrait of Loro (our talkative and engaging parrot) while Polidoro and Mateus use some to the new media equipment to document the process. As you can see, Loro developed quite a relationship with Pafy and Clementino, and then carefully inspected (with eye and tongue) his new portrait.



When the project finished, Loro returned to his favorite tree where I attempted to interview him. But he was up to his old trick of getting me to call him Jaco and giving a good laugh when I did.



To access more individual photos check out the Fortaleza Media Project set at Flickr.