The Account of Jairo da Silva Carioca

Jairo da Silva Carioca
From the original in Portuguese at www.mestreirineu.org

The Life of Raimundo Irineu Serra, according to the personal account of Jairo da Silva Carioca – Directory Member of CICLU – Centro de Iluminação Cristã Luz Universal (Universal Light Christian Illumination Center) Alto Santo / Acre territory.

The glossary is placed at the foot of each paragraph [foot notes].
There is also a complete glossary, in alphabetical order, at the end of the document.

Table of Contents

Spiritual Destination

Mestre Irineu, according to verbal accounts, was a man who placed a high value on everyone’s personal history. “He used to say that, like him, who was destined, all of us are also destined. He was always looking forward to making it clear that we are part of a divine creation that is being evolved throughout time,” says Mrs. Percília Matos. “One day he told me about what he was accomplishing on earth, and told me that we are here obeying to our Father’s determination, paying for or giving continuity to a past life,” adds Júlio Carioca.

Mestre used to try to explain the existence of what the Incas had mentioned before: The Superior Plane that the hinários* reveal as the Astral Plane, and this plane where the spirits are sent to earth to accomplish life in accordance with each one’s merit. It is similar to the explanation for Karma in Kardec’s* doctrine. Through this line of thinking Mestre was showing the interchanging relationship existing between, as we characterize it, the physical and astral plane. This line of thinking becomes well clarified when we accompany the continuity of his life.

*hinários (from hinário – singular) – a set of hymns.

*Allan Kardec (1804-1869) – is the “nom de plume” of Hippolite Léon Denizard Rivail, renowned nineteenth-century French pedagogue and author. Albeit his immense contribution to the Sciences and to present day society, Allan Kardec’s name remains vastly unknown and unrecognized in our time. Besides coining well-known terms such as “reincarnation” and “spiritism”, Allan Kardec was the first to ever conduct, document and publish scientific, evidence-based, systemized studies of the paranormal and their astounding implications to humanity. As a result, he is often called the “compiler” (or “codifier”) of “Spiritism” (also known as “The Spiritist Doctrine”), a vast body of knowledge with scientific, philosophic and religious aspects. (Wikipedia)

The birth

On the 15th of December of 1892* was born, in São Vicente de Férrer — Maranhão, the boy that would be called Raimundo Irineu Serra. His parents — Sanches Serra and Joana Assunção Serra, were of humble origins, descendants of slaves who lived from the cultivation of the land.

*1892 – it is now known, upon the discovery of his baptism certificate, that Mestre Irineu was born in the year of 1890, and not 1892, as it was previously acknowledged.

“Mestre was indeed a slave descendant from both his father’s and his mother’s side. His grandparents were slaves brought to Brazil and placed in São Vicente de Férrer county, Maranhão state,” narrates Mr. João Rodrigues (aka Nica). Irineu Serra was the first born, followed by Dico, Veronica, Maria, and Nha Dica, the youngest.

“Catholicism was predominant in the area. There was a Dominican Church with thick walls painted in white, which seen from up close seemed to wave in iridescent colors due to the mastery of the builders that build it, obviously, for the land lords and slave owners, rather then the poor blacks imported from Africa.” (Eduardo Beyer)

The young Irineu Serra was the only family member to follow his African heritage, both in physical appearance and also in the preservation of some of the traditions of the race. “A fight between youngsters in a tambor-de-crioulo* made Raimundo Irineu Serra leave the region where he was born and go towards São Luiz, the capital. When it was Ten, Eleven o’clock PM, they argued and started to fight. They put everyone on the run and contrived to obtain a knife and cut down all the hammocks of the house owner. They even broke down the door. Irineu went to this party and at this time the children that had no father were raised by their uncles (maternal). Irineu went without the knowledge of his mother, in agreement with his cousin Cassimiro that was about the same height.” (Beyer)

*tambor-de-crioulo – afro-Brazilian-drum – a traditional expression of the state of Maranhão with roots in the Angola Congo ritual from candomblé (African religion). Mixed with other liturgies, it is composed of a series of chants accompanied by three drums, a bottle gourd and an iron triangle.

This strong nature of Irineu Serra would later be confirmed by him personally. He told Júlio Carioca “that every time he would behave badly or play a trick on the elders he would be severely punished by a lady in dreams that punished him in a place similar to a rice barn until he would repent of the sins committed.” It was certainly the self-indoctrination of someone that came to earth pre-destined, as attest the teachings received by Mr. Antônio Gomes da Silva, one of his great followers. “Since his birth he showed his worth.”

A Second version of his departure

Another version, narrated by followers like Luiz Mendes do Nascimento, talks about the leaving of Irineu Serra from his homeland due to a premature wedding, which he was close to consummate with a cousin. In this version his uncle Paulo was of decisive importance in his coming to the Amazon. It was supposedly from him that the recommendation to Irineu Serra to know more of the world before thinking about marriage came. “You know Raimundo… a man wanting to get married should first give the world a turn. When he comes back he will know how much it costs for a kilo of salt, a kilo of sugar, and a slip for a woman. Then a man can get married,” narrates Mr. Francisco Grangeiro.

“It was then that the next day he saw a ship enlisting people to go to Amazon,” adds Mr. Francisco Grangeiro. Irineu Serra, at 20* years of age, was leaving his home state, his family, and all the traditions of the city that he lived in, with its festivities during Holy Week, and the Patriarch of the city (São Vicente de Férrer) celebration, which always was held under the summer moonlight. Paulo Serra and Raimunda Castro Serra, his uncle and aunt from his father’s side, were also his God Parents. Irineu Serra worked with cattle at that time and earned 500 Réis*, which he used to make the trip to São Luiz.

*20 – according to his baptism certificate he was now with 22 years of age.
*Réis – Brazilian currency of the First Republic (1889/1930).

From there, in 1912, Irineu Serra went to Belém do Pará on a ship, working there as a gardener to raise money to head towards Manaus. In the Amazon’s capital he gathered with a group of North Easterners going to Acre, territory suffering a strong migration pushed by the rising of its rubber market and the strong drought that was punishing their region since 1877.

He also narrates this course of his journey in his hinário when he says: Equiôr, Equiôr, Equiôr, Equiôr who called me, I came bordering the land, and I came bordering the sea.

In 1912, when he first set foot on the state of Acre, his objectives became to meet his fellow cousins, also from Maranhão — Antônio Costa and André Costa, that he heard were also there. The territory was for the first time undergoing social changes, with the installment of the first administrative structures, and the formation of the middle school level government employees.

The difficulties were huge, offering the immigrants an almost migratory life, where the fight for survival would dictate the activity of the moment. From Rio Branco city he continuous on his journey to Brasiléia (at the time called Brasília), where he had heard his fellow citizens would be, the brothers Antonio Costa and André Costa. In this year, when he passed through Brasiléia, Irineu Serra was seen by Germano Guilherme, later to be his first follower in the mission still unknown to the young Maranhense*. Irineu Serra called attention wherever he passed, due to his physical bearing and his height of 6.5 feet.

*maranhense – a native from Maranhão state.

His initial Journey was finally reaching the rubber plantations of Peru, where at last he met his countrymen, Antônio Costa and André Costa. There aren’t testimonies that give detail to how this encounter happened. One fact we do know is that he was frequently asked why he was so far from his motherland.

The answer quickly came with the encounter with the drink, at that time known as Ayahuasca. “They stayed living together. Antônio Costa wasn’t a rubber tapper. He worked in the regatão* business, buying and selling rubber. He was the one to give the news about some caboclos* in Peru that drank Ayahuasca,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes. “And it was Antônio Costa that gave him the Ayahuasca. He and his brother invited Mestre to drink it,” adds Mr. Francisco Grangeiro. “Mestre was invited by Antônio Costa to meet a caboclo named Pisango, who was a Peruvian caboclo, descendant from the Incas. It was Pisango who, as a way of speaking, knew where the swallows made their nest,” also affirms Mr. João Rodrigues (aka Nica). Upon the invitation, according to accounts, Mestre said: “I’ll go, and if it is something good I’ll bring it back to my country.”

*regatão – a boat that does commerce with the river communities, in the form of trade, exchange.

*caboclos – in the old usage, caboclo is name once given to indigenous people who had constant or long-term contact with the dominant civilization as in “tame Indian.” Understandably, today indigenous peoples prefer the term Indian which places value on their pure ethnic identity. The term caboclo has also come to refer to a person of mixed Brazilian Indian and African or European ancestry, which is the dominant racial mix of most of the contemporary mestizo populations living along the waterways in the Brazilian Amazon basin. And, additionally, in some religious traditions caboclos refer to spiritual entities from the forest.

At this time the sacrament was used to guide the Indians in hunting and fishing, and also to entertain the white man in the moonlight. But it already exerted a function of worship, as described Mr. Valcírio Genesio, the only son of Mestre Irineu: “They would organize themselves in huts and praised the ayahuasca drink in their rituals. They would beat the drums, dance in circle, it was a big celebration.”

Until this moment only two races knew of the work with the Ayahuasca: the Indian, and the white through Antônio Costa and André Costa. With the acknowledgment made by Irineu Serra, who started to drink the indigenous sacrament, the ethnical composition of the Brazilian population was met: the Indian, the White and the Black; the union of the visible races in the principals of the doctrine to be formed.

It was on the third encounter with Ayahuasca that the first contacts with spirituality occurred. “He set the hammock in a way that he could see the moon. It was a clear night, very beautiful, when he started to mirar*. He looked and the moon began to approach until it came very close to him. She asked him:

*mirar – to stare at/to gaze at (to have a vision, in the doctrine’s jargon. The act of having a miração).

“Do you dare to call me Satan?”
And Irineu Serra replied:
“Holy Mary, my Lady, of course not!”
“Do you think that anyone else has ever seen what you are seeing now?”
At that point he lost some heart, thinking that he was seeing what others had already seen. And the Virgin continued to speak:
“You are wrong. What you are seeing no one ever saw; only you. Now you tell me, who do you think I am?”
And he answered:
“You are a Universal Goddess,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes.

“In this first miração this Lady presented herself identified as Clara (Clare) and asked him to sing the first hymn of the doctrine presented to him at that moment,” narrates Mrs. Percilia Matos.

“God salutes You, Oh! White Moon
Of such silvery light
You are My Protectress
You are esteemed by God

Oh! Divine Mother of the heart
There in the heights where You are
My Mother, there in heaven
Give me forgiveness

Amongst the flowers of my country
You are the most delicate
With all my heart
You are esteemed by God

Oh! Divine Mother of the heart
There in the heights where You are
My Mother, there in heaven
Give me forgiveness

You are the most beautiful flower
Where God put His hand
You are My Advocate
Oh! Virgin of Conception

Oh! Divine Mother of the heart
There in the heights where You are
My Mother, there in heaven
Give me forgiveness

Star of the Universe
That looks to me like a garden
Being bright as You are
I want You to shine upon me

Oh! Divine Mother of the heart
There in the heights where You are
My Mother, there in heaven
Give me forgiveness”

01 – Lua Branca (White Moon), from Mestre Irineu.

It was the opening of the spiritual works for the young Irineu Serra. At that moment he discovered that the objectives of the sacrament would go way beyond the simple effects of how it was being handled in the region. Clara, who was the same Lady that would indoctrinate him in his dreams, according to Mestre Irineu’s testimonies, asked of him to undertake a rigorous fast. “Well then, she said — now you are to undergo a fast to receive what I have to give you. You will be seven days feeding only on boiled manioc without salt, and tea, and without seeing a woman’s skirt (popular saying that means not having relations with a woman),” narrates Mr. Francisco Grangeiro. Irineu Serra told Antônio Costa what had happened, and he went even further into the rainforest of the rubber plantations to accomplish what had been determined.

He, in person, would narrate in lectures to his followers that in the third day of fasting he was already hearing voices and having visions of the spiritual realm and of the caboclos of the forest. The mission for which he was predestined was revealed to him on the seventh day.

“Clara, now appearing as the Queen of the Forest, said that she had something to deliver to him. Mestre said that if it was something for the improvement of his country he would accept it. And in this way it was revealed to him the Juramidã* mission. He asked of her to make him one of the best healers in the world. She replied that he could never make money out of it. He asked of her to associate everything that had a relation to heal in the drink. He received it, and then went to work to start acquiring knowledge, perfecting himself, receiving every day powers that one needs,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes.

*Juramidã – Mestre Irineu’s name in the astral, according to the Alto Santo fraternity. “It is the spiritual name given to Raimundo Irineu Serra. He lived in this world with this name, but there, in the astral, he received another one, which is Juramidã”, tells Mr. Luiz Mendes. He asks the cameraman about his name, and after the answer he says: “this is for… this name is given to identify you in the matter. There, in the spiritual world, you have another. Do you understand? Here I am Luiz, but there isn’t Luiz anymore, no, it is another name. The greatest example was Mestre Irineu, and as he preached equality, it isn’t different for us. Here we have one name and there we have another. His name in this world was Raimundo, there is Juramidã…” says again Mr. Luiz Mendes do Nascimento (from a video interview).

This passage is also explained by Mr. Sebastião Jaccoud: “His own coming is demanded by the Divine Mother for the harvest of what was planted way behind, gathering the flock that was scattered in the time of Jesus Christ.”

After all, it wasn’t by accident that the young Irineu Serra had left his motherland, leaving behind his family and traditions to come and meet once more his countrymen Antônio Costa and André Costa, and meeting later on the Ayahuasca drink. His dreams with a lady that would indoctrinate him and the apparition of Clara, that gave him a mission, make us believe that this whole trajectory followed by Mestre Irineu was pre-destined. His life has continuity in a process of self-discipline and evolution, which we describe as material destination.

First Period – 1912 to 1931

The material destination – evolution and self-discipline processes of the great Master

By now Irineu Serra wasn’t unaware to what divinity had destined to him. It was the beginning of a new phase based on a process of self-discipline and evolution in the divine project in itself unchained. As he knew that from now on nature would be his eternal apprenticeship partner, the next step was to “Know the power of the forest and to love God,” as he himself explains through his hinário.

Already adapted to the region, he was aligning with the laws of nature, the secrets and the utilities of the plants, their healing effects, and finally, it was important to learn everything that could evolve him inside the spiritual project received. The strong temperament of the black Irineu Serra was opening a space for the serenity and love towards the sacred elements: Sun, Moon, Star, the Earth, the Wind and the Sea. It is the true alchemy revealed in the ayahuasca.

This cycle of great intensity is supposed to have begun around 1913, when Irineu Serra parted ways from his cousins in Peru. In his short convivial with the Indians of the region and the mirações* with Pizango, considered “the ayahuasca spirit,” he learned how to make the Ayahuasca and to identify the vine Jagube (banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaf Chacrona (psychotria viridis) in the Amazon Forest. Irineu Serra started to always pay attention to the moon cycles that determine the right season for the harvest and the making of the tea. From there on we can observe the permanent partnership in between Irineu Serra and nature.

*mirações – from miração (singular) – A vision, in the doctrine’s jargon.

The rules that were being naturally made were inviolable. “One day Mestre told me that he tried to make it easier to beat the Jagube with a hammer. He told me that he was severely warned by the Queen, feeling heavy headaches throughout the day, because the Queen wouldn’t allow the utilization of work tools that weren’t natural like a hammer made of wood. Today we even see machinery being used to grind the vine,” Júlio Carioca comments.

In 1916 Irineu Serra returned to Brasiléia. In this county he met Mrs. Rosa Amorim, with whom he had his only son, Mr. Valcírio Genésio da Silva. “At that time everything was very hard, and even to go from one point to another had to be done by the so called varejões*. When I was born, in January 20th of 1917, my father was a rubber tapper worker,” narrates Mr. Valcírio Genésio. According to him, from the union of Irineu Serra with his mother also came the birth of a girl who lived for only a year and eight months. In Brasiléia, still called Brasília at that time, Irineu Serra met once more with Antônio and André Costa. “They were good friends, and Antônio Costa was chosen by dad to be my God-Father,” adds Valcírio.

*varejões – from varejão (singular) – pole-driven floats and river rafts.

The first Ayahuasca center

Research conducted by the anthropologist Clodomir Monteiro — Federal University of Acre — UFAC, reveals that from the first reunion between Irineu Serra and the Costa brothers came the organization of the first center of Ayahuasca that we know of. Settled in Brasiléia, the center was called Círculo de Regeneração de Fé (Circle of Faith’s Regeneration) — CRF, founded by the Costa brother’s right after the departure of Irineu Serra, who at some time between 1913 and 1916 also passed through Sena Madureira, another district of Acre.

Irineu Serra even came to participate in the works organized by Antônio Costa and André Costa, but he left the spiritual organization due to the persecution the sacrament was suffering at that time. “He left due to the strong persecution,” narrates Mrs. Percília Matos, referring to the police and ecclesiastic leaders of Brasiléia, largely dominated by the Catholicism. The disconnection of Mestre from this center, linked to the Ayahuasca, culminated with his separation from Mrs. Rosa Amorim due “because mom didn’t agree with the spiritual line followed by daddy,” relates Mr. Valcírio Genésio. It is known that the center closed its doors right after Irineu Serra left.

The work of Irineu Serra in the Borders Commission

Around 1918 he was selected to participate in the Border Commission that would delimit the frontiers of the Acre territory with the countries Peru and Bolivia. He was the person responsible for the safe where the officers kept their objects of value. It was his return to the Amazon forest and a new cycle of apprenticeship and evolution in his process of self-discipline and knowledge of the secrets and mysteries of the rainforest. Everything seemed to conspire with his predestination. Now he was helping in the demarcation of the borders of the state that later on would be known throughout the whole world for the spiritual mission he would plant. In the contacts he had with the Indian tribes of the region Irineu Serra learned to speak Tupi-Guarani* and perfected his knowledge with the secrets of healing. “Mestre told me a lot about this commission, that they were serious and dedicated people. He started to work in this commission, achieving such trust that he became the treasurer,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes.

Guaraní – /gwara’ni/ (local name: avañe’? [avan?’??]) is an Amerindian language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by 94% of the population. It is also spoken by indigenous communities in neighbouring countries, including northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. (Wikipedia)

His pass through the Territorial Guard

In 1928 “he served alongside Germano Guilherme in the old Territorial Guard. There they got together and became like brothers,” tells Mrs. Cecília Gomes, Germano’s ex wife. Germano Guilherme meets again with the maranhense Irineu Serra, after 14 years, since the last time in Brasileia, 1912. With the passing time he became his first follower. “He told me that on their time off they would go into the forest to drink ayahuasca,” adds Mrs. Cecília Gomes. “In Rio Branco he joined the Police. During some time he was a soldier, with much merit he was promoted to corporal and soon after he left his post,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes.

In truth, the leaving from the guard was an order from his spiritual teacher Clara who at that point was calling him to the fulfillment of his spiritual mission. It was time to take charge of a battalion of universal ranks; the Battalion of the Queen of the Forest.

Second Period – 1931 to 1945

1931 – The implantation of the Santo Daime doctrine

This period is marked by the decline of the Amazonian rubber market, which was losing to competition from Malaysia (whose plantations were founded with native seeds taken from Brazil). Hundreds of northeastern families started to abandon the rubber plantations in search of a better life in the city. Rio Branco began to suffer disorganization in the process of occupancy of its urban areas.

After his discharge from the Territorial Guard, Irineu Serra tried to live in a contested area close to the Army Headquarter, known at the time as the 4th Company. Not succeeding in the attempt, he participated alongside a group of rubber tappers taking possession of a land from the rubber tapper Barros, which was very close to the neighborhood known today as Vila Ivonete in Rio Branco. As Mr. Luiz Mendes relates: “Through the strength of his companions they got him a colony at Vila Ivonete. It seems to be that Mestre was one of the first tenants.” From the start, in the very act of taking possession of the land, Irineu Serra started to organize his portion of the land with the intention of planting and making it productive. He built a small adobe house similar to the ones in his motherland, and began living in the area, alongside other rubber tappers.

It is in this region, after 20 years of total adaptation, self-discipline, and gaining knowledge of the deep secrets of nature, that Irineu Serra will organize and form a group of spiritual workers and implementing the doctrine of the Santo Daime. His first measure in this direction was the naturalization of the name of the drink, still known as Ayahuasca, to Santo Daime. Daime, which comes from the divine verb to give. Give me strength, give me love, give me the bread of the Creator. “He used to say that we should ask to whom could give to us, and by that he chose the name of this drink, Daime, and through it we ask of God everything that is good for us and our fellow man,” comments Mr. Júlio Carioca

1933 – The arrival of the first followers

In 1933 Irineu Serra began to receive his first followers. After Germano Guilherme, who had been taking Daime with Mestre since they both joined the territorial guard in 1928, José das Neves, as he himself witnessed, was his second follower. “It was on the 26th of May of 1931 that I started this work with him.

”It is possible, doing a joining of other names that were rescued in our research, to introduce a chart of Mestre Irineu’s followers that arrived in between 1931 and 1945:

First generation of followers — From 1931 to 1945:

Germano Guilherme – 1928
José Francisco das Neves – 5/26/1931
João Pereira – 1931 (approximate)
Pedro Marques – 1931 (approximate)
Maria Damião – 1931 (approximate)
José Afrânio – 1931 (approximate)
José Capanga – 1931 (approximate)
Antônio Tordo – (unknown)
Maria Franco – 1932 (approximate)
Dona Raimunda – 1933
Francisco Martins – 1933
Antônio Gomes – 1938 (approximate)
Maria Gomes – 1938
Zulmira Gomes – 1938
Sebastião Gonçalves – 1938
Guilherme Gomes – 1938

Note: the approximate dates are presented according to cross-referencing information obtained from among the elders. The confirmed dates are certified through concrete facts.

All these followers came to Acre territory certainly attracted by the rubber market, expelled from the northeast due to the severe drought that emerged in the region. With the exception of José das Neves, who was a merchant, the others were former rubber tappers and farmers living from the strenuous work with the land.

In 1933, after living some years alone, Irineu Serra got married with Mrs. Raimunda, a woman that according to testimonies had indigenous roots. She became the “person of trust of Mestre and everything he thought she learned,” narrates Mr. Francisco Grangeiro. It is said, on the other hand, that this marriage was not approved by Clara, the spiritual teacher of Irineu Serra. According to Mrs. Percília Matos “the Queen didn’t agree with the marriage and sentenced Mestre to spend twenty years of suffering,” she detailed. It is known that since the beginning of his acquaintanceship with Mrs. Raimunda that Irineu Serra faced problems, especially with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Franco.

The Spiritual and Social Organization Process

The group acquaintanceship had already existed since the first movements towards the occupation of the land that is today known as Vila Ivonete. Irineu Serra started to stand out as a leader amongst the farmers and their families, with ground to initiate the spiritual organization of his works and the systematization of the Christian-Daime doctrine: Its liturgy (ceremonies and rituals) and the social relations inherent and necessary to the mission (evangelization movement, searching out and conversion of human kind, and the reward of health and well being).

Healing and Concentration Sessions

The first commandment in this process was the institution of the Concentration and healing works (works, as the ceremonies are called in the doctrine), the first rituals implemented in the doctrinal formation of Irineu Serra. On Wednesdays the group would gather with the healing objective, whenever a brother needed spiritual assistance to the healing of ailments or diseases. All united, in a concentration work of one our and a half, they would seek within the light of the Daime the healing of the ones in need. On Saturdays the brotherhood would gather for the simple concentration work, with similar liturgy: one hour and a half of concentration in the benefit of each other individually, and of all collectively. “He would recommend in his lectures that we should also ask for mankind to be rid of the terrors and rebelliousness that we are accustomed to seeing,” states Mrs. Percília Matos.

Mestre Irineu would preside while they sat around a table, in the form of a square, with the Caravaca Cross* — first symbol of the doctrine that was already making part of the ritual — placed at its center. The first spiritual works “were held at the house of Mestre; that little group, and he started to assist us,” remembers once more Mrs. Percília Matos. Trying always to be joined with his followers, this beginning was difficult. Along with some financial difficulties Mestre Irineu faced persecution for the implementation of his doctrine. As had happened with the Center of Regeneration and Faith, created in 1917 in Brasiléia, the distribution of the Santo Daime was facing social and religious prejudice. “At that time it was very few people, and persecuted by the justice. It was a sacrifice. But we overcame everything and nowadays we live in a favorable condition,” says Mrs. Cecília Gomes.

*Caravaca Cross – the cross of Caravaca is a double-cross-barred crucifix. The original of this cross appeared miraculously in the Spanish town of Caravaca during the 14th century. It is said to contain a fragment of the True Cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Caravaca is known to archaeologists as the site of one of the oldest settlements in Spain, to occultists as a former stronghold of the mysterious Knights Templar, and to historians as a military fortress occupied during the struggle to oust the Moors and re-establish Christianity in Spain.

The financial difficulties were solved amongst the brotherhood, especially by Mr. José das Neves. “They would share groceries and José das Neves became his great friend since then,” adds Mrs. Percília Matos.

The spoken word, in this beginning, was therefore the greatest educational instrument. “He would give a lot of lectures, talk, would give advice to us, and would state how he wanted the work according to how the Virgin was teaching him,” comments Mrs. Maria Gomes. “Our work started as a class. You gather four, five kids, make a classroom and begin teaching, and more kids start to arrive. With the passing days the lessons also arrive, the teacher goes indicating how it is supposed to be, and the student goes about learning the ABC’s,” narrated Mr. José das Neves.

Spiritual Socialization

On the other side the plantings and the harvests were further enriching and valuing the acquaintanceship in group, which started to be organized by the leader Irineu Serra. “He became the first community leader in Rio Branco. He was everything. A lawyer, a doctor, he would conduct marriages, and finally, it was to whom we were resorting in all the instants of joy and sadness,” said Mrs. Percília Matos. Men and women started to unify as a work force. The rice, the corn, the beans and the manioc flour were all products that soon started to be consumed by the group that became self-sustainable. This form of joined cooperative began to be established in his line of work.

At the same time in which they were producing for their material survival, the group was evolving spiritually. The spiritual works of Wednesday and Saturday were indispensable. The healings and the benefits of health carried out in the doctrine were making the name of Irineu Serra more and more known in Rio Branco. Though there was still not a standardized uniform, in the garments of the followers the white was already one of the predominant colors, perhaps under the strong influence of northeastern culture.

1934 – The first command formation and the receiving of the first hymns of the Santo Daime doctrine

With the growing number of adepts in his works, it was necessary to take the first steps towards the order of the group. The leader decreed, therefore, the first formation of the command. The oldest ones were assuming the first positions in the rows composed sequentially by the order of arrival in the session (mission).

Presided by Irineu Serra, after him, on the men’s side would follow: Germano Guilherme and José das Neves, João Pereira and others that were beginning the formation of the rows of the men’s side.

In the female wing Mrs. Raimunda, Mestre’s wife, and Mrs. Percilia Matos were the ones heading the formation of the rows, followed by Maria Damião, Maria Franco, Maria Gomes and others.

The first hierarchical divisions were also automatically appearing in the work: The male commander — Irineu Serra, and the female — Mrs. Raimunda.

It started in the same year the receiving of the first hymns channeled by the followers. “In 1934 we had Lua Branca, Tuperci and Ripi, and at that time we didn’t have farda (uniform),” recalls Mrs. Percília Matos. Although we had these hymns, “in fact was Germano Guilherme who first received and sang his hymn in the doctrine, the reason why his hinário is executed before the hinário of Mestre Irineu up to today,” reports Mrs. Cecília Gomes (ex wife of Germano Guilherme). Therefore, in this year, was presented the first hymn sung in the doctrine by the follower Germano Guilherme:

Divine Eternal Father
His world came and formed
And inhabited it, and inhabited it
With the whole creation
With the whole creation
With thy love
Left and took
And so distant he stood
Looking at his creation
With thy brilliance of the love
With thy brilliance
With thy brilliance of the love

01 – Divino Pai Eterno (Divine Eternal Father), from Germano Guilherme.

This hymn would firm more then ever the universal creation destined to Irineu Serra, who started the formation of his world; the verbalization of the sacred character he wanted to implant through his doctrine. After the presentation of Germano Guilherme’s hymn Irineu Serra was presenting to the fraternity, twenty two years later, the hymn that he had received in 1912 in Peru: Lua Branca. The music and the lyrics were still lively in his memory in a divine proof of the power and of the value of the doctrine that started to be implemented. “It was when we knew the hymn Lua Branca, that he had received in Peru when the Virgin handed to him the Mission,” comments Mrs. Percilia.

The first hymns

His first hymns invoke the presence of beings like the Virgin of Conception, Jesus Christ and the Omnipotent God, presenting the relations of his works with nature and the beings of indigenous and perhaps African origins: Tuperci, Jaci, Ripi Iaiá, Formosa, Tarumim, Equiôr, Papai Paxá (Daddy Paxa), Barum, Marum, Begê and Princesa Soloina (Princess Soloina). We naturally perceive the narration of his history in the canticles of his hinário. These indigenous beings were revealing the experience lived by Irineu Serra in the period of adaptation and evolution, referred before, where the leader learnt to coexist with the secrets and mysteries of the nature, working with the plants and learning about their healing effects, giving sequence, from there on, to his divine apprenticeship.

Later on we are going to observe, still referring to his hinário, his invocation to the domineering beings of the universe: The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, the Wind and the Sea, which they are revealed in the verbalization of his hymns as sacred elements of the eternal love:

I want to be
A son of my Father
Of my mother with my brothers and sisters
Who accompany me to love Him
Of all mine heart
Following on this path
With the truth in hand

Oh! Virgin Mother
Oh! Mother of Mercy
I want to be Thy son
I always follow in the truth

The eternal love
I must consecrate
The moon and the stars
The earth and the sea
The sun there in the heights
With its crystal light

15 – Eu Quero Ser (I Want To Be), from Mestre Irineu.

It was the opening of a line of communication between the material and spiritual. The hymns started to be the conducting line of the spiritual works; the live verb of the divine word received through the man in contact with the Astral Plane. They were also becoming, beside conductors of Christ’s word, a disciplinary adjective, stimulant and educator of the memory and of the human thought; an endless spring of knowledge and deepening of the secrets and mysteries of nature.

The Hinários

Later, in 1935, when João Pereira and Maria Damião also started to receive their first hymns, the Queen orders Irineu Serra to establish a new ritual: The execution of the hinários — ritual that has as a base the canticles and praises to the Divine Beings of the Sacred Mission. Hinários are messages received in verse from the astral plane; the liturgy of the Santo Daime doctrine formed by a set of hymns.

The first hinários to be formed from 1936 to 1947 were:

O CRUZEIRO (The Cross) – from Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra
SOIS BALIZA (You Are a Mark) – from Germano Guilherme
06 DE JANEIRO (06 of January) – from João Pereira
O MENSAGEIRO (The Messenger) – from Maria Damião
AMOR DIVINO (Divine Love) – from Antônio Gomes da Silva

In 1935, with the receiving of the first hymns of the doctrine, the first hinário was carried out. “It was the 23rd of June of 1935. Mestre organized two fronts of labor. The men went to get logs for a bonfire and the women prepared the ornamentation and a big supper which Mestre requested for the interval. When it was around six in the afternoon, at the house of Mrs. Maria Damião, we got together, prayed a rosary, drank the sacrament and went to sing until midnight. We only had eight hymns! One from Germano Guilherme, four from Mestre, two from João Pereira and one from Maria Damião. They were repeated in the same order for the whole night. When it was midnight he gave an interval, the supper already prepared on a great table, when he told us to sing for three times that hymn:

Father of heaven of the heart
Who today on this day
Was who gave our bread
Thanks to mom

Mother of heaven of the heart
Who today on this day
Was who gave our bread
Praised be God

5 – Refeição (Meal), from Mestre Irineu.

This hymn was sung in such a beautiful way that I never forgot… even today…” cries, moved, Mrs. Percília Matos. After midnight the group came back to sing the determined sequence of hymns till the dawn of the day. It was the day of Saint John the Baptist. Afterwards, following the orientations of his teacher Clara, Irineu Serra ordered new dates for the realization of the hinários, forming the first calendar of the doctrine’s official hinários:

First Official Calendar of Works

05 to 06 of January – Epiphany (King’s Day)
18 of March – Saint Joseph’s Day
Holy Week – Passion of Christ
23 to 24 of June – Saint John the Baptist’s Day
01 to 02 of November – All Saints Day and Dead’s Day
07 to 08 of December – Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception’s Day
21 to 25 of December – Christmas

Besides these dates was normal to have the concentration sessions on Saturdays and the healing sessions on Wednesdays. The dates highlight the first traces of the Christianity in the mission of Irineu Serra. Parallel to these teachings, that started to be received from the Astral Plane, building the communication between the group and the spiritual world, Irineu Serra was teaching his followers to pray. The prayer was appearing in the bases of the doctrine as one of the elements of basic importance for the individual. “He got tired of saying to us, and still today he tells us spiritually, that we should pray to reach our objectives without embarrassments and to get rid of the maladies that exist in the world,” said Mrs. Maria Gomes.

In the Our Father, taught by the spiritual leader Irineu Serra, instead of us saying: “Thy kingdom may come to us,” as teaches the Church for millenniums, he ordered with the orientation of his spiritual teacher, Clara, that it was to be said: “Let us go unto Thy kingdom” — because the kingdom is divine and as well as we came, we go to the throne of our father.

My mother accompanied me
And told me to teach
Those who are her sons
To at least learn how to pray

From 26 – Leão Branco (White Lion) – Mestre Irineu.

Let’s all get to work
Because we are going to present ourselves
Before to our Father
And the accomplishments to Him present

From 18 – Mensageiro (Messenger) – Maria Damião.

With this philosophy Irineu Serra was starting to teach his followers to materially work in order to present themselves to the Divine Father. Consecrated was six o’clock in the morning, the peak of noon and six o’clock in the evening. It was the beginning of his indoctrination to his people without the use of the thought of total domination. Mestre Irineu was working the conscience through the sacred drink, which shows through the hymns our duties in the world.

The healings and the humility of the leader towards the group were elevating his own spirit. The leader started to be referred in the hymns that were being received by Germano Guilherme, João Pereira and Maria Damião as Mestre (Master).

Jesus Christ is on the earth
Our Father of Heaven was who sent him
in order to teach us
the doctrine of the Savior

From 8 – Louvada seja Nossa Mãe (Praised be Our Mother). Germano Guilherme.

His work was evolving. His group was gradually growing and so consequently was the prejudice of religions and society. Mestre Irineu started to care towards the legalization of his session and show the ecclesiastical leaders that his mission in anything threatened the traditional religions.

1936 – The introduction of the Baile, the rehearsals and the Fardamento

In 1936 two measures marked a new phase of work with the group: First, the introduction of the bailado* in the hinário rituals, followed by the officialization of the first farda of the doctrine, an organizational measure that rehearsed the initial steps of Mestre Irineu in the institutionalization of his works.

*baile – a dance with lateral steps to the right and left in the rhythms of the march, waltz and mazurka.
*fardamento – uniform.
*bailado – the baile group of steps.

The Baile

It was introduced as a dance with lateral steps to the right and left in the rhythms of the march, waltz and mazurka. Men and women, in quadrilateral form, execute the rhythmical steps with the beat of the maraca — first percussion instrument of the doctrine, made of one pound thin cans, spheres and wooden handles, originated from the Indigenous tribes — that serves to give rhythm to the bailado (the baile group of steps).

Its introduction in the hinário works, as the elders affirm, was one of the most difficult tasks that Mestre Irineu faced. “Even I, many times, didn’t have patience to rehearse and would step out of the form. One time I got so irritated that I threw the maraca on the table and said that I wouldn’t dance anymore,” remembers Mrs. Percília Matos. Since then starts to occur the Doctrine rehearsals. Mestre Irineu started to gather the group on the weekends and on a patiently way. “He would teach us one by one how to dance, many times grabbing us by the hand and showing the steps that had to be done in accordance with what the Queen was asking of him.” From what we know, it took almost six months of intense rehearsals until the ideal form of bailado instructed by Mestre Irineu was ideally executed.

The Fardamento

At the same time, Mestre Irineu, altogether with Mrs. Raimunda and Mrs. Percília Matos determined the confection of the first official fardamento of the doctrine. “The first fardas were like a medley tunic, like dolmans. It had a white hat in the head. They were two fardas: The official fardamento (medley tunic and white pants) and the blue fardamento (medley pants and white tunic),” narrated Mr. Raimundo Gomes.

These first fardas, according to Mrs. Percília Matos, were made amongst the very own community. “We would gather on each other houses and it was like a party to make it. At this time I was already tailoring as a self employed. Everyone wanted to dress the Doctrine Farda,” related Mrs. Percília Matos.

The farda gave a new identity to the group of Mestre Irineu. They would dress the white farda (official) in all the works considered official, and in the concentration work they would dress the blue fardamento. We are going to observe, with the passing time, the improvement of the official fardamento of the doctrine, which evolved altogether with other thoughts firmed by the master.

The new Order of Command

Following the instructions of his spiritual teacher Clara, Still in 1936, Mestre Irineu determined also a new order of command to his group, creating a disciplinarian element alike to the one of a barrack, with ranks divided by the hierarchy through stars.

HIERARCHY MODULE:

Six stars – General
Five stars – Lieutenant Colonel
Three stars – Lieutenant
Two stars – Corporal
One star – Private

It was considered a private the brothers and sisters newly arrived in the mission. We once again observe in his command orders the valorization that Mestre Irineu would give to seniority. Inside this hierarchy it is known that only Mestre Irineu used the rank of six stars. He was the general.

1938 – The arrival of the Gomes family

Brazil was still under the dictatorship regime of Getúlio Vargas. In the state of Acre ships still would bring entire families of north easterners that were running away from the drought, seeking a better quality of life in the region. “In one of those ships, narrates Mrs. Zulmira Gomes, daddy brought us here. We suffered a lot during the ship journey until here but we arrived with faith in God. Here, after a wile, daddy was very sick, feeling a very strong mind perturbation and I was tired to look all around on the search for his cure. Compadre* Zé das Neves asked if I didn’t know the session of a tall black guy that was doing healings in Vila Ivonete. I said no. He insisted until he convinced me to go there. I presented myself to Mestre, he looked at the state of my father and made an appointment for the next Wednesday as the beginning of his healing work. But he walked out of there better at the same day (she smiles), and with three healing sessions he was cured. Then my father said he would never abandon that (spiritual) work,” narrates Mrs. Zulmira Gomes.

*compadre – a colloquial way of saying ‘God Father’.

In this way the Gomes family presented themselves to the session of Raimundo Irineu Serra. This story Mrs. Zulmira liked a lot to narrate. Sometimes, whenever I would go visit her in Alto Santo*, I would get impressed with her memory capability. On a very advanced age and well tired of the suffering routine lived until then, Mrs. Zulmira would never get tired to speak of the past. With a dry branch in hand (to cast away flies), always that a newcomer would arrive in Alto Santo, there she was narrating the unforgettable moments lived by Mestre’s side.

*Alto Santo – Holy Summit – due to the land that was higher then the surrounding area. A popular name given to the last headquarters of Mestre Irineu’s mission. This name was incorporated later in time in face of the healings carried out in the fraternity.

She narrates the end of the first formation cycle of the doctrine. Mestre Irineu, which was already giving the first steps in the institutionalization of his works, relied on a considerable group of followers. Of the new family, besides Antônio Gomes da Silva, the patriarch, his children Leôncio Gomes, Raimundo Gomes, Adália Gomes, José Gomes and Mrs. Zulmira Gomes also started to attend the sessions. Mrs. Zulmira, married to Mr. Sebastião Goncalves, took his children Raimundo Gonçalves, João Gomes, Benedita Gomes, Eloisa Gomes, and Peregrina Gomes to the mission. This family strengthened the edification of the doctrine like Antônio Gomes himself who started to receive a rich and instructive hinário where he narrates, “Mestre worked, was seeing himself almost alone, and asked of Jesus Christ to open his path.”

The Forest Crew

Besides the concentration and healing rituals, the official hinários, the service orders and the fardamento, it is known that existed in the organization the so called Forest Labor, responsible for it Mr. José das Neves and later on Mr. Manoel Dantas. These men, in every new moon cycle, would enter the Amazonian virgin jungle in search of the plants for the confection of the Santo Daime. They formed with João Pereira, Mr. Francisco martins, Antônio Gomes, Guilherme Gomes, Antônio Roldão, Pedro marques, Antônio Capanga, José Afrânio, and Mestre Irineu himself, the first Forest Crew of the Santo Daime doctrine.

The improvement methodologies

As the improvement methodologies of this first doctrinarian cycle, the rehearsals and the first formation of the General Staff were measures developed by Mestre Irineu for the self discipline of the group.

The General Staff — “In the spiritual language it meant the reunion of graduated people able to transmit comfort to whoever needs it in the sessions and hinários. They had to be effective people that were always ready upon a call made by Mestre. I remember of two groups that were formed. One before he left Vila Ivonete and the other before he passed away. Those people were graduated by him in the hinarios of Saint John and Christmas. He would choose and include the person in the board of the General Staff.”

Still, according to Mrs. Percília Matos, would form the General Staff of the doctrine until 1940:

Members of the General Staff formed in between 1931 and 1945.

1. Germano Guilherme – arrived in the mission in 1928
2. José Francisco das Neves – arrived in the mission in 1931
3. João Pereira – arrived in the mission in 1931
4. Maria Damião – arrived in the mission in 1931
5. Dona Raimunda (Mestre’s wife) – arrived in the mission in 1933
6. Percília Matos – teacher, arrived in the mission in 1934
7. Antônio Gomes da Silva – arrived in the mission in 1938
8. Maria Gomes – arrived in the mission in 1938

The Farewell of Maria Damião

On the second of April of 1942* Mestre Irineu and his group said farewell to Mrs. Maria Marques Vieira, that was affectionately called Maria Damião. The elders say that with the death of her father, Mr. Damião Marques, in 1935, Maria Damião faced the arduous task of raising seven siblings. She dedicated herself, aside from the doctrine, exclusively to the cultivation of the land. She planted, tended the fields and harvested her daily necessities to help in raising her siblings,” relates Mrs. Percília Matos, with whom she had a strong friendship.

*1942 – Recent studies says that she really died in 1949 and the consensus is that she had seven children with her husband Damião Marques. It is important to mention that aside the notes the rest of the document is accurate, until further notice, as everyday a new information or correction, in all subjects regarding the doctrine, is revealed to us.

Spiritually speaking, Maria Damião received one of the most beautiful hinários of the doctrine, today named as “O Mensageiro” and composed of 49 hymns. Her hymns verbalize in its totality the words of Mestre Irineu. It belongs to this hinário the origin of the word pátria (mother land) in the doctrine. Maria Damião, through her hymns, speak to us about the love for the mother land and in another passages foretold events that were going to happen in the future, such as the divisions of the group in 1974 and 1981. During World War II, in 1942, when the Japanese Navy was defeated and the Italians and Germans were ejected from the North of Africa, Maria Damião announced through her hymns: “New revolutions with the foreigners.” Her hinário also describes the figure of a foreign Chief, a mysterious spiritual being about whose significance and origins very few in the Doctrine know about.

Portraying this passage, Mestre received the hymn “Choro Muito”. Nobody new that she was sick. After three days of the appearance of this hymn news arrived that she was agonizing. She suddenly got sick and died at 32 years of age. Maria Damião also talks of her passage to the spiritual life in her last hymn, named “Despedida” (Farewell).

Your little house is ready
Open pathways
Gardens of flowers
To you they offer

Jesus Christ the Savior
And the Queen of the Forest
If you see that I deserve
Receive, oh honest Mother

On my hearings I heard
A great celebration
My brothers and sisters arriving
And my body being liquidated

I corrected my thoughts
Asked pardon to my Father
For me to be able to follow
My happy journey

Life followed in the works of the mission implanted by Mestre Irineu. His circle of friends grew, especially in the political scenery. Mestre Irineu met one of the greatest politicians that the Acre state ever had, Senator Guiomar dos Santos, as well as the Colonel Fonteneli de Castro, Jorge Kalume, Wanderley Dantas and others that dedicated to his person and work the affection and the attention deserved.

The enlargement of Mestre’s activities, both material and spiritual, became a necessity due to the growing of the group that surrounded him. Mestre Irineu began to prepare his exit from Vila Ivonete in 1945. The location begun to be influenced by the population swallowing that the city of Rio Branco was suffering. With the decline of the rubber market more families of rubber tappers and farmers were abandoning the rural life to try a new beginning in the capital. The Queen ordered Mestre Irineu to move the doctrine headquarters.

Third period – from 1945 to 1971

The systematic evolution of the Christian-Daime doctrine:

The improvement and institutionalization of its liturgy, ceremonies and ritual.

1945 – The moving to Alto Santo

After two visits to the location known as Colocação Espalhado (Dispersed Settlement), surrounded of rich native vegetation in rubber trees and hardwood, Mestre Irineu manages to close the deal of a land that was donated by the state government through a settling project implemented by Guiomard dos Santos. “Guiomard dos Santos sought at that time to correct the exit of the countryside population to the city. It was out of control. Everyone was abandoning the rubber trees and the rubber to go look for a better life in the streets. He created these production centers, donating through the friendship he had with Mestre Irineu this large area of land for him to work,” narrates Mr. Luiz Mendes.

It was May of 1945. World War II had come to its end. Honoring the history of his country, Mestre Irineu, upon moving to his new land, re-baptized it from Colocação Espalhado to Alto da Santa Cruz*. It only had an old little house made of Paxiuba*. The initial preoccupation of Mestre Irineu was to organize a space to hold the spiritual works of his mission, after all, the official hinário of Saint John was approaching.

*Alto da Santa Cruz – Summit of the Holy Cross – it is also important to know that the country had two significant names prior to Brazil. The first one was Terra da Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross), given in the act of the discovery (16th century), and the second name, given some time later by the Portuguese clergy was Terra da Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross). The name Brazil became popular due to a tree of that name that was being exported to Europe. With the passing time it was accepted as official, as the merchants around the globe would refer to the country as ‘Brazil’.
*paxiuba – palm tree used by the Indians to make tools, including flutes.

Even though the distance to the group that he left in Vila Ivonete was great, the disconnection didn’t break the rhythm of the works, and Even though the absent leader was missed everybody kept their life’s going. On the gathering dates, such as concentrations and hinário sessions, they all would walk miles and miles along the road Alberto Torres to participate in the sessions. An example of this was the realization of the first hinário in Alto da Santa Cruz, as we mentioned before, in praise to Saint John the Baptist.

“The work was held under an orange tree, and as the move had happened at the end of May, there wasn’t time enough to build a headquarters. It was an unforgettable work, on a very cold day, and everybody wondering if they would endure the coldness of the forest that night. But we didn’t even feel the passing of time. We took the Daime and started to sing Mestre’s hymns, feeling that comfort that seemed to come from above. And it came, really. In the middle of the woods we sang like we were in the very salão*,” recalled Mrs. Percília Matos.

*salão – salon; room – place where the spiritual works are held in the headquarters.

We presume that during this period Mestre received his 60th hymn: Laranjeira (Orange Tree), marking the works that were held in the orange grove. It is known that this new stage of work in the life of the great leader was troublesome. He had to restart all the rice plantations, corn, beans and cassava, working many times alone due to the distance that separated him from the group of Vila Ivonete. Tireless in the mission that the divinity destined to him, Mestre Irineu faced all the difficulties with determination and courage.

1946 – The suspension of the works

Basically a year after his move to Alto Santo, in the middle of May of 1946, Mestre Irineu, following orientations of his spiritual teacher, Clara, decides to suspend all the spiritual works of his mission. Very little is known of the real reasons that led Mestre Irineu to take such profound decision. Approaching the subject evokes unpleasant memories among the old followers. In our researches silence as an answer prevailed among the majority and the ones that had courage to talk affirmed that besides the fights in between group, that in its majority had stayed at Vila Ivonete, Mestre Irineu’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Franco, would also have been one of the reasons for the suspension of the session.

“One of the causers was his mother-in-law. A confusion created by her was what carried Mestre to close the session. He suspended the works that were always under his responsibility. It was a very difficult time for all of us,” relates lady Maria Gomes, wife of Antônio Gomes at that time. The date of the session shutdown coincides with the period of her husband’s death. Before his passage, strongly shaken in his physical health, Antônio Gomes had received a hymn that announced this moment that would be lived for everyone of the mission. One of the verses of this hymn tells: “The session being closed, we are outside of the power, we are inside the clamor (outcry), for everybody see.” Fearing this clamor was that Antônio Gomes “went on a horse from house to house asking for the brothers and sisters to humble themselves and ask Mestre to open the session,” tells Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

In fact, the discords in between the fraternity had always been one of the main dynamics that displeased Mestre Irineu. This disqualified attitude that was being practiced for some of his group was really the strongest reason for the courageous attitude taken by the great leader. For who was always preaching evolution, the fact that his followers were hurting one another was Inadmissible.

The surrender of the Gomes family

The reopening of the sessions was one of the dreams that Antônio Gomes da Silva saw in the spiritual planes. In August of 1946 he started his farewell to the community. In one of the visits that Mestre Irineu made to him, before his passing away, Antônio Gomes asked that, before his closing of eyes, Mestre would remain responsible for his family. Exactly what his hymn described: “Here at your hands I arrived almost dead, to thee I surrender myself altogether with my family.”

On the 14th of August of the same year he passed away. “The hymn Só Eu Cantei Na Barra (I Sung Alone on the Bar), is about the passage of Antônio Gomes. He was very sick. The hymn states: Death is very simple, it is equal to being born. When I listened to it I realized that we couldn’t do much. The prescription, as Mestre says, is the earth,” narrates Mrs. Percília Matos.

His short trajectory through the doctrine was marked by the receiving of his hinário, which is nowadays called “Amor Divino”. The verb of his hymns testifies the mission preached by Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra as a truthful universal school. One of his most well-known hymns, Preleição (Lecture), talks of the union, of the pardon and of the humility as the main sources for the improvement of human kind and its full happiness. His death culminates with the reopening of the spiritual works. “Little after he died was that Mestre opened the session again,” comments Mrs. Maria Gomes.

Attending to his request, Mestre began to look after all of his children. Among them were Mrs. Zulmira Gomes, Leôncio Gomes and Raimundo Gomes, that were already standing out in the preservation of the doctrine teachings. Mrs. Zulmira and Mr. Raimundo Gomes, for example, started to receive two wonderful hinários. Leôncio Gomes had been cured of alcohol addiction through the healing works of the doctrine, alongside with Mr. Daniel Pereira de Matos, fellow citizen of Mestre, which strongly suffered from the same ailment.

“He would drink a lot, drink to fall on the ground. He had surrendered to it. It was when he met with Mestre who was also from Maranhão. Thus Irineu Serra, as he was already established, took Daniel to Alto Santo. He would tell of it this way: he spent some time there and got better, staying without drinking. After a while he came back here and started to drink again. Then Mestre went after him and took him back to Alto Santo for the second time, and that time he stayed there longer,” narrates Mr. Antônio Geraldo.

The sessions with music

The history of Daniel Pereira de Matos in the doctrine, however, does not ends just in this healing episode. Reestablished of the vice, Daniel Matos began to dedicate himself to the mission. “Black only of skin but on the inside a big Capuchin monk,” as Mr. Antônio Geraldo affirms, Daniel Matos was an intelligent man. “Of wide and muscular shoulders, he would talk a lot with us in a deep voice. He wouldn’t work here in the crops or in the rubber trees. He would stay at home studying. He was very fond of it. His business was to read, work as a carpenter and he was also the barber of Mestre Irineu,” relates Mr. Raimundo Gonçalves.

It was in the development of his activities as a carpenter that Daniel Pereira de Matos started to manufacture his own instruments and compose his own music. “He only played his music and even the instruments were made by him,” return to affirm Raimundo Gonçalves. With the passing time Mestre Irineu began to use his waltzes to establish a “session with music” ritual. “We had a work system that was the following: Padrinho (God Father) Irineu would do a concentration service and Daniel had some concepts for his waltzes. At certain point he would ask Daniel to play those beautiful waltzes of his and we would concentrate in the music that he was playing. It was this way that Daniel participated in the works for the time he was with Mestre Irineu,” added Mr. Raimundo Goncalves.

The foundation of Barquinha*

The first Ayahuasca ramification in the Acre state

The friendship and the spiritual commitment of Mestre Irineu and Daniel Pereira de Matos went beyond these horizons. “Mestre would always go visit Daniel in Vila Ivonete. Almost every time he would go out he would pay a visit to him. They were really great friends and Mestre Irineu liked him a lot. In one of these occasions Daniel told him that there were a lot of people seeking him out for a cure. Then Padrinho Irineu gave permission for the continuity of his work. For a good while Padrinho sent Daime for him to help the people. It was easier that way, because at that time Daniel had no conditions yet to make the Daime at Vila Ivonete. It was too far for the people to go from Vila Ivonete to Alto Santo. It was too hard. This is how Daniel began and how he worked, until he established himself, working with the Esoteric Circle* and doing healings,” reports Raimundo Goncalves.

*Barquinha – a split of the SD and the smallest of the three established Brazilian churches who use ayahuasca. As with the others, the religion incorporates beliefs from Spiritism, Christianity and the native jungle tribes. The name implies ‘boat’, and their main church is on a river boat in the Amazon.

*Esoteric Circle of the Communion of Thought – spiritual organization founded in the city of São Paulo in the year of 1909 by the Portuguese Antonio Olívio Rodrigues under the slogan of “harmony, love, truth and justice”. He would also create in 1917 the Thoughts Publishing Company, right from the start translating and distributing in Brazil humanist texts of different philosophical or religious shades (Gnostics, Hindu’s, Humanists, Kardec’s, Theosophy and of occultism slopes at that time popular in Europe as the non Jewish cabalists and the Rosicrucian’s, among others). Little by little it multiplied centers all over Brazil, as Mestre Irineu personally became a member only in May of 1961, in Rio Branco, thirty years after having began the preaching of the SD doctrine, when more then ninety percent of the doctrinaire base hymns had been received and the liturgy was entirely defined (with the exception of the blue farda, used in the concentrations and in the danced services of contrition, introduced after 1971 in obedience to the instructions given by Mestre Irineu in the previous year of his passage). (From www.juramidam.jor.br)

Thus the first ramification of the ayahuasca arose in Acre state. The Centro Espírita e Culto de Oração Casa de Jesus Fonte de Luz (Spiritist Center and Worship Group House of Jesus Source of Light) was founded by Daniel Pereira de Matos and is still located at Vila Ivonete today. In this center Daniel Matos spiritually developed himself. His friendship with Mestre Irineu continued to exist. “Daniel would say that he used to take Daime with Irineu, and would tell about the visions that he had in this period of living with him,” report Mrs. Francisca Gabriel.

1948 – The construction of Alto Santo

It is as a great Father that Mestre Irineu decided in 1948 to build the house that was going to be the headquarters of his spiritual works. Until then the sessions and the official hinários were being held at the orange grove. With many Godsons and daughters, and the increasing arrival of newcomers, it was time to adapt his mission for the number of followers that it comported and to take one more step towards the institutionalization of his doctrine.

He ordered the taking of all the wood needed to build the house. Raimundo Gonçalves, older son of Mrs. Zulmira Gomes, was responsible for that. “We spent several days in the forest collecting the wood that Mestre had asked for. I also worked on the construction, with Mestre always ahead of everyone, having a lot of strength and settling the foundations of the big house almost by himself,” narrates Raimundo Gonçalves.

With its architecture similar to the first houses built in the territory of Acre, Alto Santo had four sides representing the cardinal directions and a big living room at the entrance. Rooms were placed on the left and right side, and on the rear the kitchen, which is remembered even nowadays for its abundant table and the solid wooden stools made by Mestre Irineu himself. He also constructed an office where the bottles of Daime are stored till this day and that in that time served also as a place for Mestre’s audiences with his followers. “He attended everybody in that office, spending hours talking and giving advice to us,” relates Mr. Francisco Grangeiro.

From here on the doctrine enters a new era of reflections and corrections. Mestre Irineu, in this period that goes from 1945 to 1971, implements new service orders and seeks support for the legalization of his works, also receiving a great number of followers and new families that set roots in his doctrine, providing the definitive implantation of the great spiritual philosophy that to him was destined. The big house, which later on became known as Alto Santo, for the countless healings that Mestre performed, became the headquarters of the spiritual works of the mission.

The donation of land and the definitive implantation of the joined cooperative system

It is at the land of Alto da Santa Cruz that the implantation of his activities with the land also happens. Work that was able to take place due to several adhesions of new followers, along with the arrival in the area of the families that were settled at Vila Ivonete.

Mestre Irineu gradually brought the families that stood at Vila Ivonete, implanting his spiritual and communitarian system in the act of donating land for them. “He said that there would come a day when happy would be the ones who had a piece of land to cultivate. This way he was stimulating the ones arriving to get engaged with his work,” remembers Francisco Grangeiro, who arrived at the mission in 1950.

The adhesion of new followers was increasing the rhythm of his works at the same time that the oldest ones would say farewell. The pioneer João Pereira, natural of Porongaba city – CE (Ceará), made his passage in 1952. He was one of the first followers of the doctrine. He had followed the works of the mission with dedication since 1930, receiving, like Germano Guilherme, Maria Damião and Antônio Gomes, a rich and instructive hinário that talks about the three noble sources; a King and a Queen that came to this world to replant the Holy Doctrine of Jesus Christ.

The separation with Mrs. Raimunda

In March of 1955 Mrs. Raimunda decides to abandon the relation with Mestre Irineu. This is also a subject of this doctrine that few comment. It is common knowledge the difficulties in the relationship, mostly due to the problems created by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Maria Franco. “Her mother would put a finger in everything that Mestre determined, being a perturbation in his life,” comments Mrs. Percília Matos.

From origins not well known, Mrs. Raimunda was a Pajé* from birth and had a great spiritual knowledge. “She was the key of trust for Mestre. He taught and she learned. She would really make invocations. He taught her the pontos*. She took care of the men and the women,” reports Francisco Grangeiro, until the day that of her own free will she decides to leave behind all the years of companionship with Mestre Irineu. “She left to São Paulo with her mother, where she went to die, as it seems to me, run over by a car,” reports Mrs. Percília Matos.

*Pajé – name for a shaman who is also a powerful medicine-man. From native tribes of Brazil.
*pontos – dots (from ponto / singular) – In the doctrine they are small verses that once invoked are able of cure, of taking a person out of embarrassing situations in a miração for example, and so on and so forth. They can be whistled or simply invoked through the concentration. Few people know these calls. Mrs. Raimunda, Mrs. Percília Matos, Mrs. Lourdes Carioca, Mrs. Veriana and madrinha Peregrina are women that know some of these secrets (according to Jairo da Silva Carioca). Pontos, in some afro traditions, means chanting and callings to invoke spirits.

With the absence of Mrs. Raimunda Irineu Serra brought to Alto Santo the young Paulo Serra, a son of the marriage in between José Francisco das Neves and Mrs. Cecília Gomes, and Marta Serra. Paulo Serra was named after Mestre’s uncle from Maranhão, the one that had a decisive role on his coming to Acre. Paulo and Marta were baptized as the adopted children of Mestre Irineu and started to live with him, along with Mrs. Percília Matos, in the official residency of Mestre. “Whenever Mestre would receive a hymn, she was the one to copy them. She became like a governess, taking care of the house, and on the mission she proceeded exercising the same functions of Mrs. Raimunda in the female command,” relates Mr. Francisco Grangeiro

1956 – The marriage with Madrinha Peregrina

In 1956, after spending three years alone, Mestre Irineu began the preparation for a new wedding. This time, following the orientation of his spiritual teacher, Clara, he was more cautious in the choice of his new companion. In fact, of 66 years of age he knew that he had to choose as a companionship the one that would be heiress of the whole fortress of his teachings.

This way the preliminary contacts with Mrs. Zulmira Gomes, mother of Peregrina Gomes, were made. Peregrina Gomes was a woman that at the peak of her youth stood out as the ideal person for the great master. “It was months of observation before he had the first talk with Mrs. Zulmira,” reports Mrs. Percília Matos. After receiving the family acceptance through Zulmira Gomes, who acted as a mediator, Mestre Irineu sought the bride’s consent that was only 17 years old. “He asked me if I would accept to marry him and I said yes, if it is also accepted by my family,” reports Madrinha Peregrina.

And so it happened. After the arrangements and document preparations, the 15th of September of the same year was settled as the date for the great festivity. “I met him two or three times before the wedding”, told me Madrinha Peregrina. The fraternity was invited for three days of intense festivities. It was Mestre’s matrimonial union. On the 15th of September, after the civil and religious ceremony, the new couple hosted the fraternity at Alto Santo. Music, dance and a feast marked the unforgettable day. From that day on Peregrina Gomes started to sign her last name as Serra. It was unified the divine love that united the couple. Mestre Irineu was aware that from that point on he would be preparing the one that would be the heiress of his teachings.

The trip to Maranhão

The memory of his family, which he had not seen in 45 years, makes Mestre Irineu to plan a trip to Maranhão, exactly on the 13th of November of 1957, with little more than one year of marriage. Before his leave he took the measures necessary in the spiritual organization of his works. With an experienced group he left in the administration José Francisco das Neves and Raimundo Gomes da Silva, uncle of Mrs. Peregrina Serra.

The trip to Maranhão was all made by boat. “The coast of Maranhão has stormy seas, and he would be seated at the prow, sometimes with the boat full of water,” relates Mrs. Peregrina Serra.

In the reencounter with his family, in São Vicente de Férrer, Mestre Irineu didn’t find his mother alive. José Serra, Mestre’s brother, was the one to give information about his relatives. It is known that in Maranhão “He didn’t talk about the Daime, but only mentioned the work he had with a group in Acre, when he decided to bring me along with his two nephews: João Serra and Zequinha,” comments Daniel Acelino Serra, that also embarked in the travel back to Acre with Mestre Irineu.

The lack of news in Alto Santo, due to the pour system of communication at that time, started to worry his followers. Some, lead by Raimundo Gomes, even held “search sessions” (spiritual works where the brothers and sisters would try to resolve problems of personal matter or that involved the group) with the goal of knowing whether Mestre was still alive or not. The news of his disappearance was even commented in between the fraternity, causing some misunderstandings among the brothers and sisters, after all, it was three months without news, even though Mrs. Peregrina Serra, his wife, kept her faith. “It was his biggest wish to make that boat trip. It was forty days being fed on mujangué (beaten eggs) to stand the strength of the miração.” She comments.

His nephews also say that he “made the whole trip back mirando* at the prow of the boat,” affirms Daniel Serra. “It was on this trip that he received the instructions for the fardamento,” adds Mrs. Peregrina Gomes Serra. She had an arduous mission in the administration of the works in the absence of her husband. The plantations and the harvest led by Mestre Irineu had normal rhythm in his absence, and Mrs. Peregrina Gomes Serra would begin early in the day on the fields, directing and helping on the cultivation of the products that would assure the livelihood of the group.

*mirando – present continuous tense for mirar (from miração).

On February 13th of 1958 Mestre disembarked in Acre’s harbor. There were three more days of intense festivities in Alto Santo. The afflicted fraternity was relieved with the physical presence of Mestre, who made indispensable to each one of them the introduction of his nephews from Maranhão. The integration of Daniel, Zequinha and João was quick, and soon they were adapted to their uncle’s line of work and the living among his group of followers. “Upon the arrival we marveled at such a reception and the festivities. It looked like a great dignitary was arriving,” reports Daniel Acelino Serra.

The arrival of the Carioca Family in the doctrine

In October of the same year the Carioca family presented themselves to Mestre Irineu’s command. Through Mrs. Olivia Facundes and Mr. Antônio Facundes (who also joined at the same time), Mrs. Lourdes Carioca, disillusioned by doctors who attested she had chronic appendicitis, arrived in Mestre Irineu’s hand.

“The spiritual work was a concentration session. After taking the Daime given by Mestre’s hand I had my first miração. That night I saw that I didn’t have appendicitis, but that I was in fact pregnant of a girl,” related Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. We observe through her deposition that the Daime revealed secrets that are only possible today, in the modern medicine, through an ultrasonography exam. Mrs. Lourdes left that session conscious that she wasn’t sick, and carried in her womb the gestation of a girl who was born on April 3rd of 1959 and was named Marise Carioca. “I am used to say that if I would never again take the Daime I would still have the same esteem held for Mestre and his doctrine,” adds Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

At home, dreaming, Júlio Carioca sought a light. “I saw myself under an orange tree, where I saw an open door to the firmament. At the hearing of a groan made by my old lady (referring to Mrs. Lourdes, his wife), I kept on going in my journey until I met her on a hospital in the firmament. A very beautiful crew of physicians was taking care of her that, in the act of seeing me, said that she was pregnant,” tells Mr. Júlio Carioca. “When I awoke I thought she had died,” he added.

“The rigorous diet that the doctors prescribed to me was abandoned. I started to eat everything. Mestre told me that from that day on I was cured,” narrates Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. By the seventh time that she took Daime was that Julio Carioca started to attend the session. “At my first miração I confirmed what I had seen in dream. I saw that your mother (talking to Jairo da Silva Carioca, his son) had being cured and was within a very serious truth,” he narrates.

Mestre Irineu would always interview the newcomers at the end of the session, in everyone’s presence, and with Mr. Júlio Carioca it wasn’t different. “When he asked me about what I had thought of the journey I said that I had seen two paths: The path of good, the path of evil and the result of them. I had also seen the results of men that are false to their women.” He, as a wise man, said that “every thing that I was saying everyone there had already seen, but when they would leave, in the act of passing through the gate, they would leave behind what they saw and they would take with them what they brought’. I asked of him to repeat and he said: ‘That’s it Júlio, they leave behind what they saw and they take what they brought,” reports Júlio Carioca.

It was clear in the words of Mestre Irineu that his doctrine presented a life system for each follower. When Mestre says from the gate of his house to the inside he is explaining in other words the systematization of his teachings, the creation of his own world, of its rules and the universe represented by love and humility. He always fought so that his followers would present in their daily lives what they saw in the moments of miração. This is what narrates the hymn Palmatória (ferule), from the hinário “O Cruzeiro”, which says: “Because nobody carries out, with the duty and obligation, to know this truth, to call each other as brothers and sisters.” His philosophy is of fraternity, of group acquaintanceship, of collectivity, the social interaction, the community.

This initial lecture became engraved in the memory of Mr. Júlio Carioca who started to regularly follow the works along with his family, which at that time was formed only by his siblings João Batista, Júlio junior, Fátima Carioca and Francisco de Assis.

With the crescent arrival of new followers Mestre Irineu built a puxada de palha (open space made of natural wood and covered with straw) next to Alto Santo to shelter the adepts during the nights of long work. Visible changes were already made in the official fardamento. The men were using palms on the coat and colored ribbons on the right shoulder. Although receiving orders to implement the new farda, Mestre Irineu waited a little more to better organize his group.

1958 – The introduction of musical instruments in the ritual

Daniel Pereira de Matos, who had followed his spiritual path, left open in Mestre’s school the gift of music; the harmony of musical chords which he performed with splendor and mastery. The arrival of the Carioca family in the session marked the introduction of musical instruments in the sacred ritual instituted by Mestre Irineu.

Although Alto Santo had some guitar players, the one that stimulated the idea of solos in the hymns was Mr. Júlio Chaves Carioca. “I bought a mandolin for Lourdes but Mestre said a ukulele would be easier to learn. I bought it, and after a while Mestre gave me eight thousand Réis to buy a guitar for her and also to by a guitar for his wife, comadre* Peregrina,” reports Júlio Carioca. It was from the purchase of those instruments that the first musical groups in Alto Santo were formed. “Mestre would rehearse the rhythm with us playing his maraca by our side. He would ask of us to concentrate and to invoke Mestre Daniel Pereira de Matos to come and teach us how to play. In no time we would see the golden dots where we should play the strings. If you tell this, no one will believe,” says Mrs. Lourdes Carioca, who formed the first trio of players along with Peregrina Serra and her husband Júlio Carioca.

*comadre – colloquial way of saying “God Mother.”

Further on other followers were getting interested in the learning of music.

Banjo
– Raimundo Gonçalves

Guitar
– Maria Laurinda
– Jovita Gomes
– Adália Grangeiro
– Tolentino

Mandolin
– Enoque

tambourine
– João Serra (Mestre’ nephew)

They would form new musical groups of the doctrine. It is known that from these followers were formed as lead players: Júlio Carioca, Lourdes Carioca, Peregrina Serra and Maria Zacarias (guitar); Raimundo Gonçalves (banjo); João Serra (tambourine).

The guitar, the banjo, the mandolin and the tambourine became the original instruments of the ritual. We couldn’t forget to register in this context the passage of Francisco in the mission. Chiquinho Cego (blind Little Chico), as he was known, due to his blindness acquired at the age of seven, was who started to give guitar lessons to the brothers Júlio Carioca Junior, João Batista Carioca and José Carlos Carioca, further on also firming themselves as official musicians of the doctrine.

1960 – The receiving of the Hinos Novos* and the last measures of the great Master

*Hinos Novos — the New Hymns. The last 14 hymns of the hinário “O Cruzeiro” (as they are known among the elders). Mestre Irineu started to receive The New Hymns after a long period, when he gave authorization for seu* Loredo to make Daime. When he tried the newly made sacrament, given to him by seu Loredo, looking for his approval, he received the hymn ‘Dou Viva a Deus Nas Alturas (117 – I Give Praise to God in the Heights). Mestre Irineu used to say that the New Hymns were the resume of his hinário ‘O Cruzeiro.” Seu Loredo became a great Daime feitor.

*seu – colloquial way of saying “Mr.”

The official headquarter of the works

In 1960 Mestre Irineu returns to give steps in the institutionalization of his spiritual works. The elevated number of followers would determine the immediate construction of the first official headquarters of the doctrine. The wood was once again taken form their own land. The project was simple, presenting a four sided roof, identical to Alto Santo, with rounded porches and a cavaco (wooden tiles) cover, giving full originality to the headquarters temple.

The community labor began, accompanied by his followers and gathering the majority of the fraternity, usually formed by the ones living in the surroundings of Alto Santo. “He would finish those community services and would call the ones that couldn’t spend a day of work without being paid. And he would pay. He had an awareness of the ones that could help him and the ones that he could help,” narrates Mrs. Peregrina Serra.

In no time the foundations were raised, made of hardwood, and taken from the labor strength of Mestre Irineu that was already with 70 years of age. Projected on the margins of an açude (little dam, often times made by nature), the rounded porches divided the men’s and the women’s side. The temple construction marked a new stage in the lives of the precursors of this great mission. The inauguration was once again marked by the day of Saint John the Baptist, with white fardamento and the canticle and dancing, during the whole night of 23 to 24 of June, of the hinário “O Cruzeiro”, from Mestre Irineu.

The friendship with José Guiomard dos Santos

Mestre Irineu was broadening his relations in the political field. An admirer of the politics applied by José Guiomar dos Santos, Mestre Irineu even got to make of Alto Santo one of the first directories of the ARENA – Aliança Renovadora Nacional (National Renewing Allegiance). During this period “this Guiomar dos Santos would come here at home and spend days chatting with him. Once he arrived and the old man was in the fields. He asked to tell him that he was there, and he said, upon his arrival: ‘Come on Irineu, I get here to spend the day with you and I find you in the fields. Get rid of that, you are not supposed to work that way’. And then the old man said: ‘I have to work because I don’t have a person to give me anything’. And then Guiomard said: ‘I am going to retire you as a veteran, would you like that?’ But he answered: ‘No, I don’t want it because I don’t know how to lie,” reports madrinha Peregrina. “I saw Mestre for the first time in 1950 at a rally of José Guiomar dos Santos, out there in this world. He was there, Mrs. Lidia and Mestre Irineu,” comments Dr. Manoel Queiroz.

With this sincerity Mestre Irineu had the trust and the respect of the greatest political authorities of the state at that time. Besides his friendship with Guiomar dos Santos, Mestre Irineu enjoyed a good reputation with Valério Magalhães, Jorge Kalume, Vanderley Dantas and Colonel Fonteneli de Castro. “Irineu knew the effects of the adversity. He kept on, even more determined, cultivating the seed in a slow and progressive way, germinating to become trees under his friendly shade, specially during canicular (hard – dog days) moments of life,” described Jorge Kalume.

The Cruzeiro School

With the construction of the official headquarters was possible for the Alto Santo fraternity to implant the Cruzeiro School, named that way because it initially began in the headquarters salão de baile (baile room). The initiative was a common idea of the teachers João Rodrigues Facundes, Mrs. Percilia Matos and Francisco Matos.

Mestre Irineu supported the proposal, which automatically gave better qualifications to the inhabitants of the region. The school started to operate with classes from 1st to the 4th grade. It was also created a new social class in Alto Santo. Besides the small farmers and rubber tappers, started to exist the public service workers. All the children of the families living close to Alto Santo began to attend the school classes. One day, working as an inspector, Júlio Carioca ordered one of Francisco Grangeiro’s sons, called Valcírio, to go back home by the fact of having arrived late for class. On his way back he came across Mestre’s presence, passing through his backyard, crestfallen and ashamed to go home. He asked why he wasn’t at school and he told the story. Mestre Irineu, in a straight forward tone of voice, said: “Go back and tell Mr. Júlio that I don’t teach this way. Do you hear me well?” Tells Júlio Carioca. The boy then went back, related Mestre’s orders and walked into the school. “Personally, for me, he showed that some expressions of authority does not make any good and are not of value for any one’s education. I never repeated that act again,” adds Júlio Carioca.

Partnership with the Esoteric Circle of the Communion of Thoughts

At that time, already approaching 1963, Mestre Irineu, according to the elders, was searching for a doctrine that would resemble his own. Among this search he became a member of the Rosicrucian Order where he received the diploma of honor and merit. Later on he also became a member of the Círculo Esotérico da Comunhão do Pensamento (Esoteric Circle of the Communion of Thought), brought to his knowledge through Mr. Francisco Ferreira. “He started to drink Daime here and such, traveling a lot to São Paulo. And there he met, liked, and brought it here. Mestre Irineu approved”.

In fact, we are going to observe that both Mestre’s filiations, either with the Rosicrucian and as well as with the Esoteric Circle doctrines had to do with the search for support to the consumption of his drink. After all, since the creation of the first center of Ayahuasca in the municipal district of Brasiléia, 1917, organized by the brothers Antônio Costa and André Costa, that the Daime, as it was baptized in 1931 by Mestre Irineu, suffers prosecution from traditional religions and some segments of society, which by lack of knowledge about the doctrine real fundaments characterized it as a hazardous vehicle to humankind. There was the need, therefore, of Mestre Irineu to legalize these foundations; the religious educational thought constituted in his mission.

History registers moments of great intensity in the spiritual evolution of the group led by Mestre Irineu in this partnership with the Esoteric Circle. With the advent of his affiliation the closest members did it as well. “The Esoteric Circle was very well awarded by Mestre, which advised us all to also become members. Who knew how to read to become affiliated and who didn’t know how to read to become affiliated as well,” comments Mr. Francisco Grangeiro.

Francisco Ferreira, who was coordinating the link of spiritual works with the headquarters of the Esoteric Circle in São Paulo, started to hold encounters on every Monday and on every 27th of each month, where he would gather a larger number of followers in sessions resembling the concentration works. “We would take Daime and concentrate for an hour and a half. When the force of the drink would arrive compadre Luiz Mendes would read the Consecration of the Sanctuary*, followed by the canticles of the esoteric and spiritual hymns. That would shake our hearts. Outside the session, during the Monday’s meting, we would read the Thought Magazines* and the Prayers of the Beginner*. Finally, we would elevate our thoughts as the order determined,” reports Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

*Consecration of the Sanctuary – Esoteric Circle prayer.
*Thought Magazines – Esoteric Circle publication.
*Prayers of the Beginner – Esoteric Circle publication.

“It was at that time that I took my first steps towards lecturing. Well, after some time in concentration I would read the Consecration of the Sanctuary and we would listen to comadre Lourdes sing the Circle songs with mastery,” comments Luiz Mendes, who became the first official lecturer of Mestre Irineu’s mission. “The vibrations of harmony, love, truth and justice, repeatedly invoked by the communion of esoteric works would illuminate the unifying thoughts sought by Mestre,” adds Mr. Luiz Mendes. One of the hymns that were sung in the Esoteric Circle concentration sessions would say:

Vibrate us all on behalf of our motto
Accomplishing the joyful fraternity
Let’s form a supreme egregore*
Able to illuminate the whole humanity

(Chorus) from our soul’s eager of light
Let’s open the doors without fear
Seek the Eternal and the well conducting
Of the workers of the house of the Lord

Illuminated by the harmony’s sun
Ruled by the universal love
In the temple of truth, consoled,
We shall set our ideals with justice

As on a simple and eloquent prayer
By the light of the deepest thoughts
Let us be strongly saturated
By the flowers and the worlds essence

In the beauties that the motto synthesizes
Far beyond of this barbaric cilice
Let’s seek this light that symbolizes
The crystallizations of the sacrifice

*egregore – from the Greek egregoren: “Reunion of terrestrial and celestial beings, constituting a hierarchic unity, propelled by an idea-energy. In the act of unification, by their will, a new being is created, called Egregore”. La Voix Solaire (The Solar Voice – publication). “Astral images created by a collectivity”.

Another hymn that we couldn’t avoid to register is the spiritualist hymn, and its lyric synthesizes the values of both doctrines:

We are sons of the supreme Brahma
Because earth created us for the good
From the infinite and extreme universe
Its power gives us also strength

(Chorus) Let’s rejoice in happiness
From the fight, in the act of entering the arena
Let’s invoke Harmony
Love, Truth and Justice

Fraternal feelings are uniting us
Transformed from sacred fervor
And a sublime duty is gathering us
In this temple, the mansion of the Lord

When the soul, at last engages,
Free of the illusion that in life seduces
Elevated and surprised awakes
In its kingdom of peace and light

However, in between the oral and written documents about the influence of the Esoteric Circle and its importance on the intellectual and religious formation of Mestre, one stands out for clearly showing the relationship in between the Circle and the CICLU*. We are talking about an authorization signed by Leôncio Gomes da Silva and dated June 10th of 1974. In this authorization Leoncio writes that the CICLU “… formerly known as Centro de Irradiação Mental – Tatwa Luz Divina (Mental Irradiation’s Center – Tatwa Divine Light), authorizes the Fraternidade Luz no Caminho (Light on the Path’s Fraternity), in the past named as Centro Humilde Rui Barbosa (Rui Barbosa’s Humble Center) and later on as Centro Eclético de Correntes da Luz Universal (Eclectic Center of Currents of the Universal Light), to function according with the CICLU ‘s work orientation…”

*CICLU – original name of Mestre’s center, nowadays called CICLU – ALTO SANTO.

The denomination from Tatwa to CICLU leaves no doubt about his relation or the attempt of an organizational relationship with the Circle, as in that way their centers are named after. The letter refers to a time where Mestre Irineu tried to legitimate the ritual use of the Ayahuasca in the organization scope of the Esoteric Circle (Anthropological thesis of Oneide/Roraima City). This connection, however, suffered a split when the president of the Esoteric Circle, Mrs. Matilde Preiswerk Cândido, acknowledged in São Paulo the link of the Daime in the Circle ceremonies. The answer of Mestre was prompt: “If they don’t want my Daime they also don’t want me. I am the Daime, and the Daime is me,” he said.

In the attempt of this legitimization Mestre Irineu would have suggested, to the head of the Esoteric Circle in São Paulo, the name Centro Livre (Free Center) for the organization of his group. The name wasn’t accepted by the board, which sent as an answer: Centro de Iluminação Cristã Luz Universal (Universal Light Christian Illumination Center), which was approved by Mestre Irineu. “The first name here was Centro Livre, But Mestre accepted the choice pointed by the Circle and this way it stood,” reports Francisco Grangeiro Filho.

And the facts would not end only in this link between the doctrine and the Esoteric Circle. It was from this relationship that Mestre Irineu determine the days 15th and 30th as the official dates for the concentration sessions, starting from 1963, when it also became official the 27th of each month for the realization of the esoteric sessions. From the Circle Mestre also extracted the principals of Harmony, Love, Truth and Justice, added by Peace, Love and Silence; key words in his Mission.

It is also known that it is through the readings of the Circle magazines, sent every month to Mestre Irineu and his group of associates, that he developed his reading. Mr. Sebastião Jaccoud says that “He himself would tell of one day when he went to the city, Rio Branco, which he would visit a few times a year, and someone asked if he knew how to read. He said that he did. He fell into reflection, regarding the answer, and concluded that he hasn’t said the truth. He decided then to learn how to read and write. He became an avid reader of the Esoteric Circle of the Communion of Thought’s publications.” Mrs. Percília Matos also had a fundamental role in the Mestre’s learning. She was the one who helped in the lessons that taught him to read and write.

The Healing Commission

It was from the foundations of the Esoteric Circle that Mestre Irineu also organized his healing works. Until that date, as we have seen, the healing sessions were being held on Wednesdays. Mestre Irineu, whenever a brother or a sister would be in need, would gather his members to work on the person’s cure in spiritual works that could be repeated for three and up to nine sessions. With the organization of these spiritual works Mestre Irineu created a Healing Commission — which would be responsible for the accompaniment of the sick brothers and sisters. Nine people, members of the General Staff, formed this commission:

1 – Madrinha Peregrina
2 – Percília Matos
3 – Lourdes Carioca
4 – Zulmira Gomes
5 – Maria Gomes
6 – José das Neves
7 – Francisco Martins
8 – Francisco Grangeiro
9 – Júlio Chaves Carioca

It is commented by the old followers that the objectives of Mestre Irineu in founding this crew were wider. One day Mestre commented with Júlio Carioca: “I want, Júlio, to concentrate myself here (referring to Alto Santo) to work for the benefit of a person that could be sick in Japan,” witness Júlio Carioca. “On two occasions we came together for that objective, adds Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. The first time was when there was a large fire on the forest of Maranhão that nobody was managing to stop. Mestre gathered us, we took Daime and we ended up there. In the miração I would see him ahead of us and us all with little brooms to help to extinguish the fire. The other time was during the World War II, and at that time I wasn’t still in the session, but Mestre told me that he also came into concentration asking for peace in the whole world,” comments Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

“People around think that when Mestre says: ‘To indoctrinate the whole World’ is to go opening churches and creating masters in every state and country. But he was referring to this work of indoctrination with the whole World on a very responsible way. It wasn’t the way things are,” comments Mr. Pedro Matos, husband of Mrs. Percília Matos. “To indoctrinate the whole world but from here, in the place he is,” he adds.

Still, in the healing process organization, Mestre Irineu ordered the realization of the Table Opening’s Work — that consists in the driving away of the bad spirits of people which are poorly assisted spiritually. This work was handed to Mrs. Percília Matos and it consists in the reading of a prayer. “This prayer Mestre took from the Esoteric Circle and was determined to be read in the simple ritual that heals the sickness of poorly assisted spirits. It is very serious,” comments Mrs. Percília Matos. Aside these prayers others were also incorporated by Mestre in the following of his rituals. However, in his improvement as the master of the masters, Irineu Serra received invocations and prayers that are not to be found in any kind of book. “One of them, that we can reveal, refers to our protection when we leave our home to work or to do any other activity. Mestre thought us to say it, in the act of crossing the house gate, making the sign of the cross:

The Divine Eternal Father +
With Thy Divine Power +
Good spirits accompany me +
For me to overcome everything,” teaches Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

The Decree of Service

the elaboration of the first Decree of Service were also stimulated by this partnership in between the doctrine and the Esoteric Circle. We are going to observe, in the language of this decree, which appears as an internal official by law of the doctrine, the foreseen purposes in the issue “G” of the Esoteric Circle statute: To incentive in between its members the civic worship of the great benefactors of humanity, the respect for the laws and the constituted powers of the country. Three articles of the center statute, made official in 1971, also dedicate lines related to civic questions. Dozens of magazines of the Circle and esoteric books find themselves stored, even today, in the files of the Raimundo Irineu Serra’s Memorial. Marking the end of this connection, Mestre Irineu received the hymn number 125 of his hinário that would say, among other lines:

Here I am telling
Here I am singing
I tell for all
And the hymns are teaching

The reorganization of the Fardamento and the Service Orders of his doctrine

At the same time Mestre Irineu was accomplishing the changes that had been determined on the trip made to Maranhão, in 1957. He ordained the blue fardamento for the concentration sessions on the 15th and 30th and the white fardamento for the official hinários. He also changed the Service Orders. As we previously saw, his followers were classified by ranks that would vary according by the number of stars. Mestre Irineu lowered all the ranks to a single star that placed all in equality of rights. The men proceeded using a single star both on the blue and white fardamento, on the right side of the chest. There were also changes for the women and girls. In the white fardamento the girls proceeded using a green lily on the right chest and the women a green rose. In the blue fardamento the women and the girls used the drawing of a Solomon star with the initials C.R.F, which stands for: Centro da Rainha da Floresta (Queen of the Forest’s Center), by coincidence, the same initials of the Circle of Faith’s Regeneration, name given to the first Ayahuasca’s center in 1916.

This way Mestre Irineu, oriented by his inseparable spiritual teacher, looked forward to correct some disagreements that were occurring in his group. “Soldiers that were given more stars wanted to command more than the others that had less, and this way intrigues would be formed, and gossip, so he clipped the wings of everyone and made all equal,” comments Francisco Grangeiro.

The spiritual, economical and social interaction of the group

These Service Orders, in truth, were the final steps of Mestre in the organization of his doctrine and the legitimization of his works. In practice, the perfect alignment of the group could be observed in the spiritual relations, economical and social.

Spiritually they would all gather on the days 15th and 30th and in the official hinários. Members of the General Staff, the Healing Commission and the Forest Crew would gather with more frequency. All in the General Staff, whenever a brother or a sister would find themselves in need, would be in the composition of the Healing Commission, which for three and up to nine following Wednesdays would get together, drink the Daime and work in the benefit of the cure of the needful ones.

The Forest Crew would get together on every new moon, entering the forest to confection the holy drink in one of the most serious and prolonged rituals of the mission, demanding at times, of the so called Soldiers of the Queen of the Forest, diets that could reach twenty one days, three of those inside the woods of the Amazon Forest.

Mestre Irineu established, Aside from these works, the rehearsals and the Circling Hinários as parallel activities of qualification for his followers. The rehearsals, as we’ve have seen, were happening since the appearance of the hinários and the introduction of the baile in the ritual of the doctrine. There was, with the passing time, just a few adaptations, and the system would happen with encounters on Saturdays for the men and girls and on Sundays for the whole battalion, male and female.

Circling Hinário — this was a new and highly organized activity. In truth it was one more way for Mestre to work on the cohesion of his group. “At the time of Mestre we had on every Sunday a hinário in the house of one member of the community. It would start in the closest house from the headquarters and it would go circling until it ended up at the headquarters again. Every Sunday from two to four in the afternoon. It was called Circling Hinário,” reports Mrs. Percília Matos.

The Masses of the Seventh Day after death, formed with hymns received by Mestre and of hymns from the hinários of Germano Guilherme, João Pereira and Joaquim Portugês were also a ritual that would happen whenever that a brother or sister would make the passage, or on the anniversary of passage. It was a way for the fraternity to remember their loved ones and at the same time to pray for his soul and for all the dead on that occasion.

The Arraiais* and social festivities

*arraiais – small villages (from arraial / singular); a festivity celebrated in Brazil, traditionally during the June Celebrations, with regional food, a tall bonfire, dance, music and characteristic costumes. The place where it happens is set with stands resembling a small village.

The group started to organize, socially speaking, and to place as part of the social calendar the festas juninas*, a Northeastern tradition that brought much joy for the Alto Santo society at that time. Organized by a unified force, these festivities had as headmasters Mr. Júlio Carioca and Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. The first one would take care of the stands, the modalities of each one of them and would present the chicken auctions. Mrs. Lourdes, along with Mrs. Peregrina Gomes Serra would take care of the preparation of the chickens and the ornamentation of the place, which was situated next to the residence of Mr. Leôncio Gomes, where today lies buried the mortal remains of Mestre Irineu. More then twenty poultries would be given away on bingo rounds or auctioned in the nights of festivities, which would also count with the presentation of the boi bumba*, played by the members of the mission who would have much fun with all the events. This arrangement had financial objectives, of an administrative perspective, and the money raised, mostly through auctions, would go to the maintenance treasury of the center.

*Festas Juninas – June Celebrations – religious celebrations happening during the whole month of June. They start on the 12th, eve of Saint Anthony’s day, and they end at the 29th, Saint Peter’s day. The festivities reach their peak on the 23/24th, Saint John’s day. The June Celebrations was originally brought to Brazil by the Portuguese and French and becoming a celebration as important as the carnival in the northeast of Brazil.
*boi bumbá – bumbá bull – a traditional popular opera in the northeast of Brazil; a tale of an owner’s favorite bull that was killed by a worker to please his pregnant wife longing for a traditional dish. The owner asks the Indians to haunt the men that who in return ask a shaman to bring the bull back to life. It all ends in happiness for them all.

The youth born in the region would also be responsible of unforgettable happenings in the social scope. The students of the Cruzeiro School, exclusively formed by sons and daughters members of the doctrine, would organize plays, musical acts and the celebration of the Brazilian independence day, this one relying on the participation of Mestre Irineu that “many times withdrew money from his pocket to collaborate in the activities held in the school”, comments Mrs. Percília Matos.

The Sport

A soccer field was built in front of Alto Santo, and it was one of the favorite sports of the youth. They would compose the team that received the name Santa Cruz (Holy Cross): Júlio Carioca junior — ball’s chief; Valcírio, Guilherme and Crispin — the great player of the community; Cipriano, Carlos and others. “Every afternoon, after the home chores and the labor on the fields, we would gather to play. Grandpa (referring to Mestre Irineu) would be watching us in many occasions from the window of Alto Santo. I had to get the ball from his hands and to return it back after the match,” reminds Júlio Carioca’s son.

The parties

Besides these events they would also celebrate, usually with three days of great festivities, Mestre’s birthday on 15th of December, Madrinha Peregrina’s birthday on 14th of July and other celebrations like the anniversary of their wedding on 15th of September. João Cruz, known as a great sax player in Acre, was one of the chosen by Mestre to brighten the parties. The dance partners of Mestre, excellent waltz dancer, are remembered still today. “When they played those waltzes and mazurkas of those times Mestre would stand up and say: ‘A lady made of gold to dance with a gentleman Made of silver,” remembers Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. “In many occasions he would give us Daime to dance and everybody would respect. It was a beautiful party, full of moments that we never forget,” says Paulo Serra, his adopted son. “I played, and it wasn’t once or twice at Mestre’s house or leôncio’s for one, two, and even for three days in a row. It is hard to find some one with that much joy,” reports João Cruz.

The Joined Cooperative System

Economically the group lived of the land cultivation. Rice, corn, beans, cassava and verdure were all produced by the united force of the fraternity that would organize themselves in communitarian labors. Alto Santo became one of the biggest production centers in the period that marks the end of the 50’s through the end of the 60’s. Although the majority of the products were used for the self sustenance of dozens of families settled in the region, some producers, like Mestre Irineu himself would sell his crops in the Rio Branco market. Cattle didn’t have great economic relevance. Just a few cattle heads and the cultivation of a small pasturage were kept by Mestre Irineu, who even then helped donating dozens of heads of cattle to the brothers and sisters financially in need. “It was largely used in the transportation of animals and products (ox’s cars). Even to me he gave ten heads of cattle that pulled me out of the limbo. I was working with transportation and it helped me a lot,” reports Luiz Mendes do Nascimento.

“That kind of life was what he really liked. He would plow ten hectares, and, well said, by himself. The month of May would begin and by June he would get two or three to help. Close to the end, because he was already tired with age, was that he would put some one to work. It was such union that it was beautiful to see. At the last gathering that the old man did here he gathered sixty people. It was March 30th of 1969,” reminded Mrs. Peregrina Gomes Serra, whose help to her husband was already expressive. Besides “getting firm on the hoe” (working hard) at the fields with Mestre, she was the one to organize breakfast, lunch and dinner for everyone who participated at the times of planting and harvesting. Since then Mrs. Maria Laurinda began to render significant services to Mestre and Madrinha Peregrina, as well as Mrs. Percília Matos, Mrs. Lourdes Carioca and her mother Mrs. Zulmira Gomes. “The lunches at grandpa’s house were big. That abundant table would receive several courses of food. I remember that the men were served by group turns and the food was more then enough. It was much abundance, thanks to God,” affirms Júlio Carioca Junior.

Only one merchant store was held in the area, managed by Leôncio Gomes, and it would sell food products that weren’t produced in the region like sugar, tobacco and others. Beyond this commercial relation some followers of Mestre Irineu would do a kind of products trade with the neighborhood placement called Custódio Freire. Pork, chicken and ducks were traded by rice, corn, a cutover of land or even bought by cash. “Every time that we would find ourselves tight on anything we would go to Custodio Village to trade animals by food and giving it a fix to the problem,” reminds Júlio Carioca.

The death of Germano Guilherme

In 1964 one of the last follower pioneers made his farewell to the group led by Mestre Irineu: Germano Guilherme, the first to meet and to follow Mestre Irineu steps left the material life. The friendship with Mestre Irineu was visible in the treat between them both. “They would refer to each other as ‘little brother’. Everything that Mestre wanted he would go talk with him and vice versa. They were great friends,” reports Mrs. Cecília Gomes.

Germano Guilherme received the hinario Sois Baliza, with 53 hymns that relate the creation of Mestre Irineu’s doctrine; the ways and directions in between the material and spiritual plane, and the supreme affirmation of the Christianity in the Santo Daime doctrine. Shaken in his physical health, Germano was leaving behind memories and the example of firmness and loyalty to the new followers.

The access and the ways of transportation of the community

The road that linked the community to Rio Branco was the Alberto Torres, and it passed through the army barracks. A Williams Jeep was one of the only cars, kept by Mr. Leôncio, who later on would acquire also a Rural Jeep. Funny stories of the adventures lived inside this Jeep entertain even today the oldest followers. Paulo Serra was the driver. Newly arrived from Belém do Para, where he got married with Mrs. Altina Serra, he would conduct the crews sent by Mestre to Hinário services at Mr. Louredo and at Limoeiro (lime tree) place. “The roads were more like boat harbors and we would always get flat, tucked in the mud, uniting us even more, laughing at will on both ways of the trip,” reminds Paulo Serra.

Another mode of transportation that helped a lot, even the forest crew, was the horses and the donkeys. “We would take a lot of Jagube and leaves in distant areas difficult to access like Limoeiro and Barro Vermelho (red mud). I remember arriving many times with Jagube and leaf on the back of horses and donkeys after three, sometimes even four days in the forest,” reminds Mr. Júlio Carioca.

The foundation of CECLU

At the end of the 60’s the links in between the CICLU (Alto Santo) and CECLU of Porto Velho (capital of Rondônia state, North of Brazil) were opened. Mr. Regino Silva is the follower pioneer of Mestre Irineu responsible for the foundation of the group in Porto Velho. Little is known of the conversations that originated this fact, but we do know that Regino Silva became a friend of Mestre Irineu and started to carry sacrament from Rio Branco to Porto Velho, where he would consecrate with friends. This small group, as the example of the doctrine itself, grew and it originated the foundation of CECLU – Centro Eclético e Correntes da Luz Universal (Eclectic Center and Currents of the Universal Light), that was statutorily subordinated to the CICLU.

It is from the creation of this work nucleus that Mestre Irineu gets to know two more great companionships of his spiritual journey. The first known as Mr. Antônio Sapateiro (shoemaker), this way named due to his work field in the shoes production, activity that made him the official shoemaker of Mestre Irineu and the second, Mr. José Vieira, an intellectual that according to reports loved to write. It is this man that will write the Official By Laws that cemented the Santo Daime doctrine.

In October of 1967 Francisca Nogueira and Virgílio Nogueira do Amaral also presented themselves to the battalion of Mestre Irineu, joining as characters of fundamental importance in the continuity of the relations in between the CICLU and CECLU. A humble man, being born at the boarders of Acre with Bolivia, Virgílio Nogueira soon did stand out in the group directed by Regino, in Porto Velho, becoming the element of trust that was transporting the Daime from Rio Branco to the neighboring city. He met Mestre Irineu on the 10th of April of the same year; “Holy Week, Ash Wednesday of darkness. I arrived in the presence of Mestre and my joy was different from others, like I was going to be guided by God, and by the next day, 11th of April, I was turning 45. It was the first time that I met Mestre, also the white farda and the bailado of the Holy Week…” seu Virgílio Nogueira testifies.

At the same year, by the end of the Holy Week hinário, seu Virgílio takes 45 liters of Daime to Porto Velho. “… I went to the city to the house of Wilson Carneiro, whom Mestre had recommended to guide me in this transportation until boarding to Porto Velho,” turns again to narrate Virgílio Nogueira. The link with the group led by Regino Silva would tighten after the moment that José Vieira would start, as a Request of Mestre Irineu, the statute to fundament his center.

This work, though, Regino Silva didn’t see in life, as in June 15th of 1969 occurred his death in Rio Branco. A strong crisis of tuberculosis took the life of the founder of the CECLU, who spent his last days at the house of Mestre Irineu in Alto Santo. According to testimonies the disease was acquired in the militancy. “He was a political militant and his subversive activities do not refer to the Daime, as his contact with the doctrine happened after his imprisonment. It is said in the testimonies of contemporaries that the Daime saved him not only from the tuberculosis, but also from his ‘hate’ that he accumulated in his militant practices in prison after 1964*…” (Sources – Anthropological thesis – Arneide, Porto Velho – RO). Mr. Virgílio Nogueira do Amaral would take charge in the leading of works after his death.

*1964 – military coup in Brazil leading to a dictatorship regime that came to its end in the 80’s.

In the early years of the 70’s was presented to Mestre Irineu, in Alto Santo, seu Valcírio Genesio da Silva, his only son that was born during Mestre’s period in Brasiléia in 1917.

After 57 years the reencounter with his father was moving… “I introduced myself to my father through my children. I had a daughter that was taking a course with Mrs. Percília, and they got along very well. They talked about padrinho Irineu Serra and my daughter got interested to come here in Alto Santo. Through my daughter he sent pictures and newspapers along with other posts, and this way I could make my mind to go to his house. It was August 15th of 1970 and in this first visit I was 53 years old. I did not even know the way to get there, but I arrived asking along the way for his person. He was resting when I got there and they asked me to sit. I didn’t even know what to say to him, who gave me a hug with much dedication and care. I was very pleased,” relates Mr. Valcírio.

The lectures and the receiving of his last hymns

At the end of the 60’s Mestre Irineu was receiving his last hymns, known as the Hinos Novos, which clearly were announcing the end of his trajectory in the terrestrial plane. They were received in one of the most enlightened phases in the communication exchange in between Mestre Irineu and the Supreme Divinity. Its melodies, lyrics and messages summarize the huge genealogical tree of teachings formed by the pioneer’s hinários of the mission. “Mestre received the utmost hymns straight, one after another,” affirms Mrs. Percília Matos.

It is also in this period that the spiritual leader intensifies the advices, the teachings and lectures that aimed to prepare his group for his absence. One day Mestre Irineu surprised the Forest Crew, that was led by Francisco Grangeiro, asking a question to him, João Rodrigues Facundes and his brother Antônio Facundes: “You hear people around singing Flor das Àguas (Flower of the Waters) but for you who is Flor das Àguas?” Asked Mestre, as Júlio Carioca tells. Compadre Chico answered to him that it was the Daime, the same answer given by compadre Nica and compadre Canção, as the brothers João Rodrigues and Antônio Facundes are known. He, then, gave ten days for them to come back with the answer, and he said: “Júlio, Flor das Àguas is the ocean, as you all sing:

Flower of the Waters
From where you come, where you are going,
I will do my cleansing
In my heart is my Father

The Home of my Father
Is in the heart of the World
Where all the Love exists
And there is a profound secret

This profound secret
Is in all humanity
If only all knew each other
Here in the Truth

126 – Flor Das Àguas (Flower of the Waters), from Mestre Irineu.

This secret Júlio — he would continue — is the knowledge of all the ones that are with me. But it is that way for everyone if they get to know themselves. But no one pays attention; they prefer to talk about each other’s life. But I know my flock and in my work I don’t miss a single one,” Attests Júlio Carioca.

For one single time, registered in the history of this marvelous doctrine, Mestre Irineu spoke in Tupi-Guarani in a lecture made in one of the last sessions that he participated in the headquarters. In this occasion Mestre spoke of the principals of the doctrine. “Daime is not to exist where war exists. Daime is peace, harmony, love, truth and justice. In the war we have bullets.” In another part of this lecture, recorded in a K7 tape, he says: “How come you bring your children for me to pray if you don’t even believe in the Hail Father you pray? How are you going to believe in me?”

It was very clear through his own words a certain dissatisfaction of the leader with some intrigues and conflicts existent in his fraternity. However, as an indefatigable teacher, Mestre Irineu would indoctrinate and command through his word how human kind should behave on earth. Already in 1970, after three days of a deep coma, agonizing in high fever on his bed “he received a hymn giving a warning,” relates Mr. Wilson Carneiro. “We would stay in groups, alternating, to pray and giving assistance for him to come back,” reminds Mrs. Lourdes Carioca. It was when Mestre Irineu received the hymn:

I arrived in this House
I entered through this door,
I came to give thanks
To those who prayed for my return.

I am in this House,
Here in the middle of this room,
I am happy and satisfied
Here next to my brothers and sisters.

I was about to travel
I was thinking about not coming back,
The requests were so many
They sent me back.

The sent me back
I am firm, I will work,
Teaching my brothers and sisters
Those who will listen to me

128 – Eu Cheguei Nesta Casa (I Arrived in this House), from Mestre Irineu.

It was his penultimate hymn. The fraternity received him back and reestablished, however they knew that his passage was close. It was when Mestre Irineu started to organize the doctrine for his absence. He stopped going to the concentration sessions and official hinários, ordering Leôncio Gomes da Silva to preside these works. It was the beginning of his preparation to later on take charge in the mission commands. Mrs. Peregrina, his wife, was still passing through the stage of spiritual formation.

Other measures were being made by Mestre Irineu who said many times to the whole group: “I am going to depart and leave here a finished doctrine, without the necessity to even adds a dot on the I,” reminds Júlio Carioca.

After the reopening of the works in Porto Velho, which were suspended in 1970 due to conflicts in between the leaders Virgílio and Francisca Nogueira, Mestre Irineu sent a crew led by Leôncio Gomes and formed by Francisco Grangeiro, Júlio Carioca, Francisco Martins and Daniel Acelino Serra with the mission to teach the members of the CECLU to make Daime. Due to the poor conditions of the road BR-364 and the financial difficulties for the transportation of the drink at that time, Mestre Irineu determined to these men to teach Mr. Virgílio Nogueira Amaral to work in the confection of the drink. The mission lasted eleven days, making 51 litters of Daime with the crew of Mr. Virgílio Nogueira. The expenses reached R$ 551,00. Mestre Irineu was clearly planning the continuity of the works in the region.

The opening of the First Aid Clinics

In Alto Santo other providences of Mestre were drawing the outcome of his final trajectory on earth. Mestre Irineu kept in the more different places, like Colonia Cinco Mil* and the house of Mr. Joaquim Baiano, what the brothers and sisters called the first aid clinics — a unit of work that held encounters in the sessions of the 15th and 30th due to the existing difficulties of transportation for these brothers and sisters to Alto Santo. Mr. Louredo, another old follower of Mestre Irineu, also kept this kind of work in his residency at Bairro Vermelho (Red District), in Rio Branco. It was a duty for the people in charge and the members of these units to participate in the official hinários held at the main headquarters of Mestre Irineu.

*Colônia Cinco Mil — Five Thousand Colony – headquarters of Padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo’s mission. Approximately six hours by foot from Alto Santo. At that time they had to walk, in the absence of any way of transportation.

The works in Porto Velho, after the visit of the Daime confection instructor’s crew, kept on going normally. In a communication sent by letter to Mestre Irineu we can observe the participation of José Vieira in the formation of the CECLU directory that stood subordinate to the works of Alto Santo.

It says in the letter:

“For administrator I present you the name of our brother Virgílio. For secretary a friend of mine that in the UDV* held a significant post and was the editor of their Official By Laws and with difficulties works with our vehicle. A man of a brownish color that carries in the skin the mourning for the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As a Counselor I indicate our brother Valdemar de Almeida, a literate man and capable of helping us with his work. I only indicate the capable ones, because the indication is up to the Lord Emperor. This could be also extended to the brother Antônio Sapateiro, who seems to not look for responsibilities, if he accepts the indication. As for me it is not interesting to step up, but if Our Lord Jesus Christ wants it and you determine I’ll try to perform the duty of any function, although not feeling capable, but knowing that we can’t run away from the burden that he indicates for any one that engages on the religious scope, when necessary.”

*UDV (União do Vegetal) – The Vegetal Union – a non-profit religious society, also using the sacramental drink Ayahuasca, whose objective is to contribute to human development through the improvement of intellectual qualities and moral and spiritual virtues, without discrimination on the basis of color, creed or nationality.

In these letters, sent to Mestre Irineu by José Vieira, stand before our eyes the sizable respect and the cultured language used by the man who stood out as a true messenger of CECLU. He placed with much sincerity his ideas, delineating categorically the profile of each member that shaped the new center directory because in truth José Vieira had consciousness of the responsibility that had to be cemented in the subordinate branch of Alto Santo.

The Doctrine regulation

Jose Vieira was already firm in the text that cemented the Official by Laws of the doctrine. In one of the letters written by José Vieira to Mestre Irineu, signed in November 26th of 1970, he related the mission that Mestre assigned to him.

“I thank you for your lovely remembrance in the last missive of the 19th, reporting myself to the program previously rafted, affirming to be together with you, my brother in Christ, in the consolidation of the reform that you undertakes in our ritual, needing, for that, the consciousness of the visions, using me as instrument in the elaboration of our Official By Laws and other ways that were probably settled in the global objectives of your platform. Moreover, upon the rumors made in the religious circle about our vehicle, I made myself present in the field, starting with an interview with the priest Reverend Mario, according with the copy that I sent you, of the request made by me to his person, and going after to the presence of the Reverend Dom João Batista Costa, prelate Bishop of the Rondônia territory, this one eager to know more of our Official by Laws through the raft that to him was presented by me. After that I conferred with some evangelical priests due to the fact that some of their believers seek to know our mystery and one of them already takes part of our spiritual works, almost converted to the Virgin’s veneration and her merits, a fact working against our conceptions and principals for the security of our group and records, facing the necessity of coordination due to the divergences with our fundaments, always warning against the false Christ’s, which is, the false doctrines with the appearance of legitimate, these and other topics being the principal subject that I presented in writing to the previous prelate Bishop that seems to be willing to support us, together with the Catholic Church.”

These main extracts of the letter, sent eight months before the passage of Mestre, showed clearly, through the intellectual José Vieira, the need to create the Official by Laws for the center and the main objectives of Mestre Irineu: “For the security of our doctrine, and registration, upon the necessity of coordination due to the divergences with our fundaments.” The intellectual verb of José Vieira, great connoisseur of Mestre’s thinking, expresses itself in an even more true way when he affirms that “It is not up to us to just know the great truths, but to them imprint the positive reality.”

This man provoked with his determination one of the few interchanges registered in the whole trajectory of the doctrine of the Santo Daime with the Evangelical and Catholic Churches.

José Vieira, as we saw in his text, sought the support of these segments in the elaboration of the Official by Laws even as a base for the affirmation of the doctrine in the terrestrial plane. “José Vieira was a man who used to take a lot of Daime. His room was packed with books all over. To make this statue, upon Mestre’s request, he took more then five litters of Daime,” reminds Júlio Carioca.

The death of Raimundo Irineu Serra

The presence of the Catholic and Evangelical churches, searching for knowledge about the works of Mestre Irineu, as quoted by Mr. José Vieira in the previous letter, happened exactly in this period. “One day Mestre Irineu called me and said that his teacher had told him that one of the warnings that She would give him, when he would be near to his passage, would be the presence of a priest in his headquarters,” comments Júlio Carioca.

“In the later days of 1970, after his birthday, around 17th or 18th, he received the hymn Pisei Na Terra Fria (I Stepped on the Cold Earth),” comments Mrs. Percília Matos. “He summoned a meeting and clarified: ‘This hymn is not only for me but for everyone; everyone that gets born dies,” relates Wilson Carneiro.

Already in the second half of July of 1971, right after the festivities of Saint John the Baptist, the first and last official hinário with Mestre Irineu alive, at the beginning of a beautiful afternoon, when the sun rays were still punishing the faces of that suffering people, Priest Pacífico (peaceful) shows up at the gate of Mestre Irineu accompanied by two nuns. Júlio Carioca, present at this time, heard Mestre exclaim: “what a time is that my Mother’. He was remembering the signal that the Virgin had warned him,” tells Júlio Carioca. “I remember it like it was today. He welcomed very well the priest and the two nuns. He remained talking with the priest while comadre Peregrina and my wife (Mrs. Lourdes Carioca) went to host the nuns. The priest asked to witness a spiritual work of his mission. Mestre then appointed the presentation work for July 14th, the birthday of Madrinha Peregrina. Right after they left he called me and said: ‘Júlio, tomorrow you go to the city and warn everybody that on the 14th, for this presentation to the priest, the fardamento is going to be white. Receive them with all the honors,” he adds.

His last words in this service order to Mr. Júlio Carioca already expressed what was about to happen: “Receive them with all the honors.” Mestre knew that he was no longer going to be present in the matter. Before his passage He also told Júlio Carioca that he was learning with the Virgin one of the last lessons that he had to learn. “What lesson is that Mestre? Asks Júlio — and he answered to me, staring away, with those tiny eyes of his: When I see some one at the gate, Júlio, for me to already know the issue that he has in dealing with me and what kind of answer should I give.” At this moment, although I don’t know how, there comes an old little man with bags on his shoulders really struggling to walk. And he said: “You see over there? This one comes from so far only to receive my blessing,” tells Júlio Carioca.

On the 5th of July, as it was the routine, I went to tell him that on the next day Mrs. Lourdes was going to pay him a visit. Upon the arrival in his room I asked how he was and he told me: “I am better my son”, and I said: “How come better if when I get home I hear that you got worse?” He turned to me and said: “Júlio, you want the truth? For me there isn’t anything good. I hear up there a great festivity, like if the President of the Republic is going to arrive, a chief of state. But it isn’t me my son. When I leave this place attach yourself with the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the wind, the sea; there are all these beings. If not, firm yourself with the wife of a friend of yours,” tells Júlio Carioca.

At this same day, “precisely at 7:30 PM, I arrived at Alto Santo and Mestre was in bed. He got up to receive me. It was when I read all the documentation properly registered on a notary’s office in the Book of Legal Entities of the district of Rio Branco,” reminded Mr. João Rodrigues Facundes. In the act of approving the Official by Laws of the center, Mestre Irineu, according to testimonies said: “It is done. I gave a name to who did not have one before.” It was being consolidated a fight of 81 years in the attempt of Mestre towards the regulation of his mission. It was the last dispatch that Mestre Irineu did in the physical plane.

By Wednesday, 6th of July of the same year, the third healing session held by the commission in the benefit of Mestre Irineu’s healing was going to be completed. “It would go much more then nine people. Everybody wanted to pray for Mestre. At the second healing session Mestre had called one by one asking who had seen his deathwatch. He listened to the answer of each one and when lasted me, comadre Peregrina, comadre Maria Zacarias, Marta and her father, he said: Conform yourselves because I am close to leaving you,” reminds Mrs. Lourdes Carioca.

And this way it happened. On that somber morning, around nine o’clock, Mestre said farewell to the world. He passed out over the hammock, with a strong renal crisis, while trying to urinate. Held by Francisco Martins, who yelled for the presence of Madrinha Peregrina, Mestre was taking his last breath, already with a candle in his hands.

The outcry and sadness took over the region. In no time the news gained dimension. The broadcaster Mota de Oliveira, one of the last persons cured by the hands of Mestre Irineu was announcing his passage in the radio waves of the Rádio Capital (capital radio). The city of Rio Branco came to a halt to listen to the sad news. Members of the fraternity living in the capital were caught by the news of the loss. It began, in the early morning of that day, one of the saddest days in the history of the Santo Daime doctrine.

Arrangements for the realization of the deathwatch were made. Mestre’s body stayed in his house until he was dressed with the official farda used by the great leader. In the headquarters the men were setting up the chairs and the center table for the vigil ritual. All the brothers and sisters that received Mestre’s body were dressed in white fardas and aligned in the form of “V”, that meant victory. His coffin was placed in the center, covered with the national flag, giving him the honors of a Chief of State. In the city the government of Valério Magalhães released a note of sorrow for the passage of the great leader. A chronicle read in the radio also evidenced the sad happening.

During the remaining of the day and the whole night, from the 6th to the 7th of July, were sung the base hinários of the doctrine by him diffused. The emotions and the feelings of pain and sadness were visible, especially in the execution of the hymns that composed the hinario “O Cruzeiro”. The semblance of each follower seemed to fluctuate on a fact that they never expected at that moment to happen.

At dawn, after long hours of lectures and speeches from authorities and the center speakers, escorted by the military police band, in funeral tune, drawn-up in male and female lines, the battalion singing the Hinos Novos was heading to the last home chosen by Mestre, next to the residency of Leôncio Gomes da Silva. Everyone from big to small was crying over the loss. Mrs. Peregrina Gomes Serra, accompanied by her mother and siblings, were receiving the condolences from authorities, friends and admirers of the great leader. She would feel, naturally, more then anyone the deep loss of the great companion, advisor, friend and husband. Some, like the speaker Luiz Mendes do Nascimento, even came to pass out over the closed coffin of Mestre Irineu that was lowered to the grave wrapped by the national flag.

The fraternity, moved, was giving its farewell to Mestre. The 79* years of history were marking that unforgettable moment; the mysteries and wonders of a life dedicated to kindness and companionship. A new chapter was open in the history of that people. Mestre now rests eternally laid in a splendid cradle, by the sound of the sea and by the light of the deep sky.

*79 – 81 years, according to his baptism certificate.

The spiritual philosophy decreed by Mestre Irineu

In these 79 years of life was up to Mestre Irineu the role of knowing the supreme truth destined to him through divinity. As a great student, he was humble and serene in the acquiring of strength and qualities that led him to evolution. After the total knowledge with the secrets and sacred elements of nature, another hard task was to imprint the positive reality in the truth diffused by him. This was the summarizing of the greatness of his being, the valorization of his spirit. The man became a master; a rank acquired after half a century of intense works due to his fight against the maladies and the human rebelliousness, and to his role as a pacifier, ordainer, guide and empowerer of light and seeds for goodness. His life is a philosophy, left by him as a decree, for the continuity of his endless work.

DECREE OF SERVICES OF THE SANTO DAIME DOCTRINE

“In accordance with the previous orders of our Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra, in effect on the works to him ordained, giving continuity to this endless work, maintained and executed by the president of this center, Mr. Leôncio Gomes da Silva, comes through this vehicle to awake and strengthen the rights of each member of this house”.

1. THE GENERAL STAFF – Has the due competence to uphold the reverence and peace of this house, upon the laws in effect and the National Constitution. Within this equality everyone will have the same rights. In the case of sickness a Healing Commission will be designated for the benefit of the brother (sister) in need.

2. ON THE DAY OF WORKS – All of you who come seeking physical, moral, or spiritual aid should bring a healthy mind that is full of hope in the Supreme Divinity, imploring to the Infinite and Eternal Spirit of Goodness and the Sovereign Virgin Mother for your ideals to be accomplished according to your merits. In this way it will be expressly forbidden to invite anyone to this house, and here we are with open arms to receive all that came in their own free will without classification of color, race or nationality. However, each one of you, in the act of approaching this house shall contritely come already making your prayers to achieve the Divine Blessings and to be assisted by the Supreme Entities.3. TO

3. TO BEGIN OUR MEDITATION – Every one, upon the act of receiving the sacrament shall consider himself, and herself, inside the current, not being allowed to leave for a talk, placing yourself, silently, in the assigned place. On the days of Festivals or Hinários, upon the call made by the maraca, every one shall get in formation, both the male and female battalions, because everyone has the same obligation. The truth is that the center is free, but who assumes responsibilities should carry it out, because we shall report our works to the Supreme Creator Father. Still in reference to the formation of the rows, it will be only allowed to enter the rows whoever is properly uniformized, with the exception of the pregnant ladies or convalescent ones, those first ones with the option to sit at the table. We also shall avoid the bad addicting habits like the alcoholism and other inebriants that can lower the moral of our personality.

4. INSTRUCTION TO THE PARENTS – Every parent shall be an exemplary teacher to his children. Husbands and wives shall treat each other with dignity and respect, including the petals of this love towards the most firm intent of happiness. You shall never verbalize words that could jeopardize the moral and personality of your children. Treat well from the more graduated to the humblest one, to teach the rights and duties of a Brazilian citizen and to dedicate yourself in the mission of truth. Discipline is the main instructor of order. To indoctrinate is to educate and to motivate in the path of good. Because if this is the house of sincerity, let’s be honest and respect each other rights within sincerity and order. If in this way we act, will be formed the desired union that our Mestre always fought for. The house where we are in is a school of civism, with Divine Instructions towards the path of goodness. The achievement of these teachings will depend solemnly in the efforts and attention of each one of us. But with willpower nothing to us is arduous, because the hymns are showing and teaching the power of this Sacred Mission of the Divine Lord God.

5. SUMMARY – According to the orders above cited, will be, from now on, this way: The brother or sister that by the force of incomprehension does not abide with fidelity to the above mentioned duties, resolving to wander through contrary paths, will be by the first fault called upon a council at the directory; by the second fault will be suspended for 30 days; by the third fault will be suspended by 90 days, and if one keep still disobeying, will be expelled from the works. My brothers and sisters, lets pay attention for things to not come to this point of sadness.

Addendum

ARTICLE 20 – Of the Statute of the Center says that “consolidating the foundations of the Order in the evangelical constitution, its bases are built on Christian discipline, consecrating to members their forums of workers on the margins of vicious erosion, with the Center as a rule not allowing the use of polydeliça (Daime) to those who, on a religious basis, present themselves as suitable, but in the current practice violate a provision in law, whose addicts want to circumvent the entity’s criteria and without connections defile the traumatic effects or the crisis that the spirit goes through in purification by this agent and affect these principles, will be banned from the community and reported to the authorities for consequent discipline.

1st – On the other hand, the institution is able to admit for mental hygiene and educational purposes in accordance with the law, the following:

a) untimely; b) crazy; c) paranoid; d) procacious; e) retarded; f) protect you; g) rebels; h) salacious; i) ignoble; j) ruffians and the like with the feasibility or not of moral or mental recovery, for which their guardians will sign observation for the time necessary for full normality or negative results, thus collaborating the entity with:

I – public authorities in improving social and human values and with;
II – legally constituted doctrines.

2nd – As for those who meet the prescribed disciplinary requirements, there will be no restriction of this kind, the management is committed to showing them a faithful portrait of this eye drop carrying divine magic to be taken with pure intention and purity of spirit for religious and conics that everything is pure for those who are pure (Epistle to Titus 1:15) and with thanksgiving to be filled with the Holy Spirit consistent with Timothy 4:4-5; Ephesian 5:18-20 and Revelation 3:18, safeguarding the Penal Code art. 282, 283 and 284 and the like, and thus cannot be rejected or confused, furthermore, the tergifications were dissected as to narcotics and the censorship was resolved, the evidence of which is revealed through laboratory chemical analysis carried out and approved.

In chapter IX of this same statute, Master Irineu decrees the norms of morality and prophylaxis of the doctrine:

ARTICLE 21 – capitulating for the morality and health of the association, everything is prohibited in accordance with paragraph “b” and article 8 of the Brazilian Constitution and decree-law nº 159, arts. 281 and 311 of the Penal Code and the like, the use and trafficking of intoxicants and their respective plants, refuting:

a) heroin; b) morphine; c) codeine; d) marijuana; e) cocaine; f) marijuana; g) cachaça; h) LSD; i) STP and others that also have a deleterious effect, incompatible with human dignity, which obscure conscience and noble feelings, leading to perversion and fatalism, their victims in the insatiable desire for fortuitous joys and degradations.

ONLY – To indulge in the senselessness of the libation and to defame the purposes of the soul, is to plunge the ego into panaceas of illusions and acts evident to moral integrity and to compromise health and personality, leading its victims to vicious slavery and the saddening end expressed in 1st Corinthians 6:10 and the like, whose addicts will not enter the Kingdom of God.

The moral and national character is also present in his philosophy:

ARTICLE 22 – Made torches of this sublime light, the eclectics also target the evocation of national values.

1st – Hence the recognition of the tribute to the Fatherland, which is not a monopoly, formalism or sect, but rather is precisely in summary:

I – The sky and the ground;
II – Tradition and regime;
III – The community and customs;
IV – Freedom and folklores;
V – Language and teaching;
VI – National and religious ideals;
VII – Laws and justice, the organization of which this guild pays homage to by sharing:
a) Collective sacrifices and joys, as well as;
b) Helping to overcome situations and;
c) Individual preparation, useful to the community and the country, however carrying the spirit of modesty, altruism and politeness, sobriety and elevation and other values in a dignified and noble way.

2nd – As class harmony becomes instinctive, it tends to expand, sincerely and fraternally loving each other with naturalness and simplicity, spiritually confined to Christian circles and the system of the center, without internal pretension or arrogance towards outsiders. , however, actively abstaining from sessions and the use of the same sacred vehicle in similar entities out of respect for them and the tradition of CECLU and CICLU respectively in Porto Velho and Rio Branco, except for reasons applicable to higher criteria.

3rd – Failure to comply with this rule will result in an argument or suspension from duties ranging from 3 to 6 months or suspension from the use of Daime for the same period, and in case of repeat offenses the penalty will be doubled, with a mitigating factor in special cases and if the circumstances are considered by the Master Emperor.

4th – Inspired by this purpose, the entity will promote equality with its counterparts, aiming not to compete with them or usurp their rights so that successes benefit them equally, as well as possible assistance, according to the doctrinal character that defines them and the outstanding issues.

(Sources: Doctoral thesis in anthropology – doctor Arneide/RO)

These norms, among other important rules of the Center’s statute left by Master Irineu, summarize the Master’s true purposes towards his affiliates, as well as the disciplinary rules defined by him for the true evolution of his followers in the spiritual line spread throughout the Santo Daime.

We clearly observe the prohibition enacted on the use of intoxicants such as marijuana and any other that can undermine the morality of the human personality. Followers of this Doctrine are also prohibited from taking Santo Daime in centers that use customs different from the principles left by Master Irineu.

Based on these norms and decrees before his death, Mestre Irineu projected the problems that his group of followers would face after his material absence. In fact, while he was present during his work, only persecution from ecclesiastical groups and some social groups disturbed the perfect order of his work. There is no recorded moment in his trajectory, and in the historical trajectory of his Doctrine, his involvement or that of any follower of his teachings with elements of a criminal nature. In the 79 years of its history there was a true administrative and social balance.

Other recommendations of a spiritual nature were also left by Mestre Irineu before his death:

HIS SUBSTITUTE IN WORK MANAGEMENT / Reports Luiz Mendes – “I’m going to be away, I’m tired, I’m looking for a rest. I look at the brotherhood, a lot of people, but I don’t see anyone to deliver this work. There’s José das Neves, this It’s not possible. There’s Leôncio. He’s so skinny! The first person held responsible as leader was Leôncio, who was handed over to the Master while he was still alive.”

THE HEAD OF WORK IN THE DOCTRINE / Mrs. Percília Matos reports – “I don’t feel pain, I don’t feel hungry. I don’t feel anything. What I feel is that I don’t have anyone to hand over my work to. Leôncio, you will take the direction of work, you won’t be the boss, the boss is mine. But I stayed there to receive people, to teach the Doctrine and that’s fine. Listen to what I’m saying, don’t do more than I’m giving you because if something changes , you will not resist. After 50 years of work, he received the command: You are boss. In heaven and on earth and in the sea. For all intents and purposes. Everyone who remembers you and calls on you, with your heart and trust, you will receive the light.”

Reports Daniel Acelino Serra – “My brothers, when I’m absent here, you unite and go to work. Unite and no one wants to be the boss, because I’m the boss. When you need me, form the table, call me and I’ll I’m here to indicate whatever you need. Unite and get to work.”

YOUR DOCTRINE / Reports Júlio Carioca – “I’m going to go out and leave a doctrine ready, without needing even a dot of the i.”

Dona Cecília Gomes da Silva reports – “The Master said that this doctrine will dominate the world, his word is in force eternally, growing and multiplying throughout the universe.”

DAIME / Master Irineu said – Daime is not meant to exist where there is war. Daime is peace, it is harmony, it is love, it is truth, it is justice. In war there are bullets. the Daime is me and I am the Daime”.

ABOUT MAN / Master Irineu said: “Your actions and not your knowledge determine who you are.”

Master Irineu’s greatest concern in his material absence would be with the preservation of the work ordered in his doctrine and the behavior of his followers in the administration of the session. He knew better than anyone the group he indoctrinated for decades. Thus, in addition to the disciplinary rules contained in the center’s Statute and the Service Decree, Mestre Irineu established the following administrative structure:

SUPERIOR COUNCIL AND CONSTITUTION
Master IMPÉRIO JURAMIDÃ – Raimundo Irineu Serra
IMMEDIATE Master – Leôncio Gomes da Silva
COUNSELOR – José Francisco das Neves

CONCILIARY MEMBERS
PROVECT CLASS – Antônio José Rodrigues
NOVICES CLASS – José Lima da Silva
CLASS OF LAY PEOPLE – Luiz Mendes do Nascimento
BENEFICIAL CLASS – Emílio Furtado Mendonça

BENEMÉRITO – PROVECTO

Percilia Matos da Silva

These members of the Superior Council, in accordance with the statutory rules, were reserved the rights to conciliate and deliberate on dogmatic matters of the institution, of which they were prelates. Classified as proven – those who progressed and advanced; and benefactors – they were worthy of honors for the relevant work performed. In this context, Ms. Percília Matos, classified as a benefactor, draws our attention.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL AND CONSTITUTION
President – Raimundo Irineu Serra;
Secretary – João Rodrigues Facundes;
Treasury – Peregrina Gomes Serra;
Manager – Francisco Grangeiro Filho;
Monitor – Daniel Acelino Serra;
Caretaker – Júlio Chaves Carioca.

These members, as Master Irineu himself delegated during his lifetime, were reserved the right to administer and teach an established and ready-made doctrinal philosophy. It is clear in this administrative line organized by Mestre Irineu, the definition of two plans: The superior and the community.

– SUPERIOR: represented by the Master Império Juramidã, the Immediate Master and the Counselor;

– COMMUNITY: represented by the Administrative Council coordinated by the action of a president.

Even with his passage to the spiritual planes, the harmony between the material and the astral remained – which was a constant in the 79 years of Master Irineu’s life with his spiritual teacher Clara. Now he was the eternal teacher who would send his messages and spiritual orders from the astral plane. These are his words: “The teacher is the Daime and the book is the Master’s word” reported Mr. Valcírio Genésio. “I am sure in the Divine Eternal Father that if I make a short trip, I will serve you in the same way or even better. Whatever happens, you get together, unite, drink Daime and call me. Well, I will be there”, reported Luiz Mendes. Unity, therefore, was the key word in the great Master’s philosophy, which began to exert total influence on the group’s community and spiritual life. Still with reference to the organization of its work, let us look at the following organizational charts:

[image]

SECOND FORMATION OF THE GENERAL STAFF FROM 1945 TO 1971

1 – PEREGRINA GOMES SERRA
2 – ZULMIRA GOMES
3 – PERCÍLIA MATOS
4 – LOURDES CARIOCA
5 – MARIA ZACARIAS
6 – ADÁLIA GRANGEIRO
7 – LEÔNCIO GOMES DA SILVA
8 – RAIMUNDO GOMES DA SILVA
9 – RAIMUNDO GONÇALVES
10 – DANIEL ACELINO SERRA
11 – GUILHERME GOMES DA SILVA
12 – FRANCISCO GRANGEIRO FILHO
13 – JÚLIO CHAVES CARIOCA
14 – FRANCISCO MARTINS
15 – LUIZ MENDES DO NASCIMENTO

MEMBERS OF THE HEALING COMMITTEE

1 – PEREGRINA GOMES SERRA
2 – PERCÍLIA MTOS
3 – LOURDES CARIOCA
4 – ADÁLIA GRANGEIRO
5 – ZULMIRA GOMES
6 – LEÔNCIO GOMES
7 – RAIMUNDO GOMES DA SILVA
8 – JÚLIO CHAVES CARIOCA
9 – FRANCISCO GRANGEIRO FILHO

STRUCTURE OF RITUALS AND WORK

OFFICIAL CALENDAR OF TIMES, SESSIONS and UNIFORM

OFFICIAL OPENING OF WORK: JANUARY 15th – Concentration session, blue uniform
FEBRUARY 10 – President Leôncio Gomes da Silva’s birthday hymnal, official uniform;
MARCH 18 – Hymnal in praise of the Passion of Christ, blue uniform;
JUNE 23 – Hymnal in praise of Saint John the Baptist, official uniform;
JUNE 6 – Master Raimundo Irineu Serra’s death hymn, official uniform;
NOVEMBER 1st and 2nd – Hymnal and Mass in praise of All Saints and All Souls, blue uniform;

END OF YEAR FESTIVALS
DECEMBER 7 – Hymnal in praise of Our Lady of Conception, official uniform;
DECEMBER 14 – Hymnal in praise of Mestre Irineu’s birthday, official uniform;
DECEMBER 25 – Christmas Hymnal, official uniform;

CLOSING OF WORK: JANUARY 5th – Hymnal in praise of the Day of the Holy Kings, official uniform. In this work, all members submit their work for the previous year. They are offered to the Universal King and Queen.

The calendar of concentration sessions opens on January 15th of each year and ends on November 30th.

HYMNARIES OFFICIALIZED BY Master IRINEU

SANTO CRUZEIRO RAIMUNDO IRINEU SERRA

YOU ARE BALIZA GERMANO GUILHERME

JANUARY 6 JOÃO PEREIRA

MESSENGER MARIA MARQUES VIEIRA

DIVINE LOVE ANTÔNIO GOMES DA SILVA

a) THE HOLY CRUZEIRO – received by Mestre Irineu from 1912 to 1970, is the hymnal base of the doctrine, sung on the days: February 10th, March 18th, June 23rd, July 6th, December 7th, 14th and 25th and January 5th;

b) SOIS BALIZA – received by Germano Guilherme from 1934 to 1963, it is sung together with Santo Cruzeiro on the dates of: July 23rd, December 7th and 25th and January 5th, as well as at the opening of the All Saints hymnal;

c) JANUARY 6 – received by João Pereira from 1934 to 1952, it is officially sung in the hymnal of all Saints and All Souls;

d) MESSENGER – by Maria Damião, it was received between 1934 and 1942, it is officially sung in the hymnal of all Saints and All Souls;

e) DIVINE LOVE – by Antônio Gomes da Silva, was received between 1938 and 1946, and is officially sung in the hymnal of all Saints and All Souls.

As we have seen previously, this chain of hymns that form the hymnals made official by Mestre Irineu, lead to the teaching philosophy of the Santo Daime Doctrine. Singing in praise of the main characters in Christian history, these hymns testify to the life story of Mestre Irineu, as well as the formation of his spiritual community, rituals and forms of work established here, developing through his dancing and singing, a true process of discipline and human evolution, based on the power of the spiritual forces of Santo Daime and its entire universe of mysteries and lights. The rituals of the Santo Daime Doctrine can be considered magical in the sense of beauty and spiritual riches contained in their executions. However, they are developed with the most perfect harmony and human balance, in tune with a Sovereign and Divine line of work. Throughout this process, there is the establishment of a philosophy of life triggered by each human consciousness present.

GROUP LIVING AS A BASIS OF SUPPORT

At the beginning, when we studied the origins of this doctrine, we spoke of its references to the Inca Civilization, deepening our knowledge based on the thinking of the Huacas – a civilization with the greatest historical-popular cult reference. There is no doubt in our minds given the historical statements that this doctrine originated through this ancient civilization. Master Irineu leaves enough evidence in the systematization of his works, for us to affirm the Santo Daime as an Inca Doctrine perfected through time, in a process that we refer to as magical translation of epochs.

Living in a group as a basis for man’s support is one of these clear pieces of evidence that links the doctrine of Santo Daime with the Incas. Mestre Irineu also used this system for the work and improvement of his followers. Upon moving to Alto Santo in 1945, he implemented his cooperative cooperative system, associating spiritual work with the land and man. Adjuncts of up to 60 men were made due to its administrative strength, which guaranteed, at the same time, the support of families and their spiritual work.

This thought Master Irineu also made very clear when he institutionalized his Doctrine, targeting his followers with the evolution of national values, the community and customs, sharing collective sacrifices and joys, helping to overcome situations and individual preparation, useful to the community and the country, whilst carrying the spirit of modesty, altruism and politeness. Sobriety and elevation and other values in a dignified and noble way.

In this relationship, the superior spirit of Master Irineu acted in the reaction between man and nature, triggering, through the Celestial Plan ordered by him, a series of positive manifestations that facilitated the ordering of his work and guaranteed daily bread for everyone around him. with fidelity. It is the Santo Daime universe created and ordered on different planes and different functions. This regulatory force, at the same time that it acts in positive manifestation for the perfect balance of man, also overflows light into the universe and everything that is created in it.

Simply put, the set of dogmas and principles of this doctrine leads us to affirm it as a sect – a group of followers of the Raimundo Irineu Serra Philosophy. In this point it differs from other religions, because it does not use the name of Jesus Christ as a market product, much less the image of an interlocutor who lives preaching what he himself does not establish as disciplinary rules in his life. “He showed that since he was the Master, he was the first one to work”, says Mrs. Peregrina Serra.

The Santo Daime Doctrine speaks of the existence of a creator present in the universe, in the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the wind, the sea and our body and soul. Its rituals direct the divine verb in an objective and easily assimilated way, working on man’s own consciousness, without dogmatic discussions that end up confusing human thinking.

It is a school of civics, with divine instruction for the path of good, as Master Irineu well defined in the Service Decree. Just like any other religion, what is sought is the attention, dedication and effort of each man to the word of God, the path of good preached by Jesus Christ, who like a planet lives in our “inner self”. Using a universal language, the philosophy taught by Master Irineu penetrates our innermost being, perfecting our life techniques and modifying our personality. The man disciplined by the divine faculty of Santo Daime learns to respect his homeland and love it as land and creative mother. He is a citizen who complies with constitutional laws. This is certainly one of the greatest contributions that this Doctrine has provided over the years to the public authorities and society in general.

At the beginning of the new millennium, when man is still looking for ways to overcome his adversities, the Santo Daime Doctrine emerges as one of the greatest avenues for harmony, love, truth and justice that our society so desperately calls for. Master Irineu and his entire body of advisors continue to work in the hope that one day… all of us, from big to small, can transform ourselves in the defense of our nature, in the formation of families and in our true dedication to the supreme truth that is God and his infinite omnipotence. We only have Good Will left, a step towards salvation that is beating inside our hearts every day. God is the eternal, infinite and true philosophy…

Glossary

*1890 – it is now known, upon the discovery of his birth certificate, that Mestre Irineu was born in the year of 1890, and not 1892, as it was previously acknowledged.

*1964 – military coup in Brazil leading to a dictatorship regime that came to its end in the 80’s.

*Alto da Santa Cruz – Summit of the Holy Cross – it is also important to know that the country had two significant names prior to Brazil. The first one was “Terra da Vera Cruz” (Land of the True Cross), given in the act of the discovery (16th century), and the second name, given some time later by the Portuguese clergy was “Terra da Santa Cruz” (Land of the Holy Cross). The name Brazil became popular due to a tree of that name that was being exported to Europe. With the passing time it was accepted as official, as the merchants around the globe would refer to the country as ‘Brazil’.

*bailado – the baile group of steps.

*baile – a dance with lateral steps to the right and left in the rhythms of the march, waltz and mazurka.

*Barquinha – a split of the Santo Daime and the smallest of the three established Brazilian churches who use ayahuasca. As with the others, the religion incorporates beliefs from Spiritism, Christianity and the native jungle tribes. The name implies ‘boat’, and their main church is on a river boat in the Amazon.

*boi bumbá – bumbá bull – a traditional popular opera in the northeast of Brazil; a tale of an owner’s favorite bull that was killed by a worker to please his pregnant wife longing for a traditional dish. The owner asks the Indians to haunt the men that who in return ask a shaman to bring the bull back to life. It all ends in happiness for them all.*caboclos – Amazonian aboriginal: descended from one or more of the indigenous peoples of Brazil. People along the Amazon river – from caboclo (singular).

*CICLU – Actual name of the Alto Santo fraternity.

*Colônia Cinco Mil – Five Thousand’s Colony – headquarters of Padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo’s mission. Approximately six hours by foot from Alto Santo. At that time they had to walk, in the absence of any way of transportation.

*comadre – a colloquial way of saying “God Mother.”

*compadre – a colloquial way of saying “God Father.”

*Consecration of the Sanctuary – Esoteric Circle prayer.

*farda – uniform.

*fardamento (from farda) – elements that compose the uniform.

*hinários (from hinário – singular) – a set of hymns.

*Hinos Novos – The New Hymns – The last 14 hymns of the hinário “O Cruzeiro” (as they are known among the elders). Mestre Irineu started to receive The New Hymns after a long period, when he gave authorization for *seu Loredo to make D. When he tried the newly made sacrament, given to him by seu Loredo, looking for his approval, he received the hymn ‘Dou Viva a Deus Nas Alturas (117 – I Give Praise to God in the Heights). Mestre Irineu used to say that the New Hymns were the resume of his hinário ‘O Cruzeiro.” Seu Loredo became a great D maker.

*Juramidã – Mestre Irineu’s name in the astral, according to the Alto Santo fraternity. “It is the spiritual name given to Raimundo Irineu Serra. He lived in this world with this name, but there, in the astral, he received another one, which is Juramidã,” tells Mr. Luiz Mendes. He asks the cameraman about his name, and after the answer he says: “this is for… this name is given to identify you in the matter. There, in the spiritual world, you have another. Do you understand? Here I am Luiz, but there isn’t Luiz anymore, no, it is another name. The greatest example was Mestre Irineu, and as he preached equality, it isn’t different for us. Here we have one name and there we have another. His name in this world was Raimundo, there is Juramidã…” says again Mr. Luiz Mendes do Nascimento (from a video interview).

*Madrinha – God Mother.

*maranhense – native from Maranhão state.

*mirações – from miração (singular) – Visions, in the doctrine’s jargon.

*mirando – present continuous tense for mirar (from miração).

*mirar – to stare at/to gaze at (to have a vision, in the doctrine’s jargon. The act of having a miração).

*padrinho – God Father.

*Pajé – name for a shaman who is also a powerful medicine-man. From native tribes of Brazil.

*paxiuba – palm tree used by the Indians to make tools, including flutes.

*pontos – dots (from ponto / singular) – In the doctrine they are small verses that once invoked are able of cure, of taking a person out of embarrassing situations in a miração for example, and so on and so forth. They can be whistled or simply invoked through the concentration. Few people know these calls. Mrs. Raimunda, Mrs. Percília Matos, Mrs. Lourdes Carioca, Mrs. Veriana and madrinha Peregrina are women that know some of these secrets (according to Jairo da Silva Carioca). Pontos, in some afro traditions, means chanting and callings to invoke spirits.

*Prayers of the Beginner – Esoteric Circle publication.

*regatão – a boat that does commerce with the river communities, in the form of trade, exchange.

*Réis – Brazilian currency of the First Republic (1889/1930).

*salão – salon; room – place where the spiritual works are held in the church.

*seu – colloquial way of saying “Mr.”

*tambor-de-crioulo – afro-Brazilian-drum – a traditional expression from the state of Maranhão with roots in the Angola Congo ritual from candomblé (African religion). Mixed with other liturgies, it is composed of a series of chants accompanied by three drums, a bottle gourd and an iron triangle.

*Thought Magazines – Esoteric Circle publication.

*Tupi-Guarani – is the name of the most important subfamily of the Tupi languages of South America. It includes 53 languages in 11 groups. Tupi – is the name of a language family that was spoken along the Brazilian coast at the time of its discovery. The Portuguese, when landing in Brazil, found out that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, natives spoke a similar language which was then named “língua geral” (general language). It was systematized by the Jesuits and spoken until the nineteenth century in that region. It is still used today by Indians around the Rio Negro region, where it is called Nheengatu [ñe-engatOO], or “fine language”. The Tupi language subgroup consists of 6 languages in the Tupi-Guarani language family: Tupi Antigo, Nhengatu, Tupinkin, Potiguara, Omagua, and Cocoma.
Guaraní – /gwara’ni/ (local name: avañe’? [avan?’??]) is an Amerindian language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish), where it is spoken by 94% of the population. It is also spoken by indigenous communities in neighbouring countries, including northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. (Wikipedia)

*UDV – União do Vegetal (The Vegetal Union) – a non-profit religious society, also using the sacramental drink ayahuasca, whose objective is to contribute to human development through the improvement of intellectual qualities and moral and spiritual virtues, without discrimination on the basis of color, creed or nationality.

*varejões – from varejão (singular) – pole-driven floats and river rafts.

*vila – town.

Spiritual Destination

The birth

A Second version of his departure

First Period – 1912 to 1931

The first Ayahuasca center

The work of Irineu Serra in the Borders Commission

His pass through the Territorial Guard

Second Period – 1931 to 1945

1931 – The implantation of the Santo Daime doctrine

1933 – The arrival of the first followers

The Spiritual and Social Organization Process

Healing and Concentration Sessions

Spiritual Socialization

1934 – The first command formation and the receiving of the first hymns of the Santo Daime doctrine

The first hymns

The Hinários

First Official Calendar of Works

1936 – The introduction of the Baile*, the rehearsals and the Fardamento*

The Baile

The Fardamento

The new Order of Command

1938 – The arrival of the Gomes family

The Forest Crew

The improvement methodologies

The Farewell of Maria Damião

Third period – from 1945 to 1971

1945 – The moving to Alto Santo

1946 – The suspension of the works

The surrender of the Gomes family

The sessions with music

The foundation of Barquinha*

1948 – The construction of Alto Santo

The donation of land and the definitive implantation of the joined cooperative system

The separation with Mrs. Raimunda

1956 – The marriage with Madrinha Peregrina

The trip to Maranhão

The arrival of the Carioca Family in the doctrine

1958 – The introduction of musical instruments in the ritual

1960 – The receiving of the Hinos Novos* and the last measures of the great Master

The official headquarter of the works

The friendship with José Guiomard dos Santos

The Cruzeiro School

Partnership with the Esoteric Circle of the Communion of Thoughts

The Healing Commission

The Decree of Service

The reorganization of the Fardamento and the Service Orders of his doctrine

The spiritual, economical and social interaction of the group

The Arraiais* and social festivities

The Sport

The parties

The Joined Cooperative System

The death of Germano Guilherme

The access and the ways of transportation of the community

The foundation of CECLU

The lectures and the receiving of his last hymns

The opening of the First Aid Clinics

The Doctrine regulation

The death of Raimundo Irineu Serra

The spiritual philosophy decreed by Mestre Irineu

DECREE OF SERVICES OF THE SANTO DAIME DOCTRINE

Addendum

Glossary

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1936 – The introduction of the Baile, the rehearsals and the Fardamento