Introduction
The idea is often presented to Daimistas throughout the world that Padrinho Sebastião is the successor of Mestre Irineu. This is often presented as a single lineage direct from the start. However, the complete picture is more complex than that.
Our goal with this article is to give a complete and comprehensive explanation as to how the succession of leadership progressed through the various lines of Daime that lead us to where we are today. Daimistas should not hesitate to learn the full story so that they can come to a complete understanding of the doctrine. One can work in the line of Padrinho Sebastião and give reverance to him and Céu do Mapiá while also accepting that Mestre Irineu had a specific intention that the Daime was meant to stay on its original path with a different successor.
This is also where the great controversies arise in which the claims of Mestre Irineu
Mestre appoints Leoncio Gomes and tells him to not make any changes to the format of the work as he described it
FROM THE ACCOUNT OF DONA PERCILIA MATOS:
He was getting down, getting down… he no longer ate meat. He said that his body no longer accepted these things. And we see him fall down. Around June 30, 1971, I asked him:
– Wouldn’t you like a Concentration to improve your health?
– It is good! So, lets do it. Call the nearest personnel.
But, days before this Concentration, he had already called Leôncio Gomes and handed over the direction of the work:
– Leôncio, you will take charge of the work. You won’t be boss. The boss is me. But stay there to welcome 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 you change something, you won’t resist.
My greatest pleasure is to see this work stay firm, exactly, as the Master wants, not as he wanted, as he wants, because I do not consider that the Master is absent. Everything we do within this work has to be done with him, we have to ask for his permission, because he is the owner, he is the commander and the general head of the mission. Therefore you have to give obedience to him. I don’t allow everyone to do it their own way. It was one of the things he asked for. On June 30, 1971, a few days before his death, there was a rally for his benefit. When he finished, he said this:– Today I received my chair as president; I arrived there in the astral, there was a lounge, the table was set, and the chair at the head was empty, my mother arrived and told me to take charge of the chair.– From now on, you are the general leader of this mission, she said. Like it or not, in heaven, on earth and at sea, you are the boss.Now, this after how many years of work? And he says:– I’m handing this work over to Leôncio; He is not the boss, he is the representative of this work. Now I’ll say one thing, no one wants to be a boss, get together and go to work.It was on that day that he learned that when the table was formed to open a work, he had to leave his chair empty, because if he called, he would come to teach.– But no one wants to be a boss, and don’t invent fashion within this job, he said.
It even specifically mentions the empty chair!
At this point, we can see that Mestre Irineu instructed Leoncio Gomes to carry out the works exactly as he left them. Leoncio Gomes who had a close relationship with Mestre Irineu for many years accepted this.
The vivas including “viva nossa presidente” as an ode to Leoncio, this viva is never given outside of the traditional daime lines.
Who was Leoncio Gomes?
Leoncio Gomes was …
Leoncio Gomes had a car and a driver’s license, and would drive Mestre around whenever necessary. There are no known photos of the car but it is hard to image given how huge Mestre Irineu physically was.
Padrinho Sebastião as the spiritual successor to Mestre Irineu
While it is clear that Leoncio Gomes did succeed Mestre in the presidency of Alto Santo, it can be said with certainty that Padrinho Sebastião is a spiritual successor. Without his work, this article would not possibly be written by myself or read by you. One should not approach this topic with total black and white thinking that it is A or B, but see the complete picture of the various breakaway groups from Alto Santo after the death of Mestre Irineu. Without Padrinho Sebastiao’s work, how many daimistas around the world would there be today? How many people would be returning to Christianity and having their faith renewed and affirmed through the hymns? This is undoubtable and deserves a great respect. However, no matter what line they work in, all Daimistas should still be called to study the hymns and teachings of Mestre and his Companions.
narrative presented is that Mestre Irineu held a secret meeting with Sebastião before his death that nobody else was present for. In this meeting, Mestre Irineu would have told Sebastião that he understood the doctrine better than anyone else, and he is giving him his blessing in confidence and secrecy to go start his own group that will be the succession to Mestre Irineu.
This narrative continues after the death of Mestre, the story goes that Mestre Irineu came from beyond the grave and started giving Padrinho Sebastião and Madrinha Rita instructions beyond the grave on how to change the works. This is even stated directly in the book “the religion of ayahuasca” by Alex Polari. In the book he even says that Mestre told him that now the works are supposed to be guided by teacher plants and plant consciousness. I will include an exact quotation here. the hymns say that the guide is Virgin Mary “in life and in death”.
Sebastiao, also after meeting with the man on the horse, openly says that he is moving into a new different line that is going to include cannabis, which was formally prohibited according to the
References of Leoncio Gomes’ presidency found in the line of Padrinho Sebastiao due to his relationship with Teteu
In the serving hymns by Teteu, the President being referenced is Leoncio Gomes.
Padrinho Sebastiao went his own way in the early 1970s, however the split in Alto Santo between the original center and Teteu’s group happened in 1980-1981. At that time the original group later to be known as “CICLU – Alto Santo” kept its own original path and the other group contained figures known today by many different Daimistas such as Teteu and Luiz Mendes. That group later became CICLUJUR, and then after the departure of the Mendes family to Fortaleza it became the CRF Centro da Rainha da Floresta.
The line with continued as Teteu and Luiz Mendes went on to re-establish a relationship with Padrinho Sebastião’s daime and Céu do Mapia. While many parts of their line remain traditional, many parts incorporate components from Sebastião such as smoking cannabis and orixás.
Teteu is a little black bird. It’s a nickname. Teteu had a close relationship with Leoncio Gomes, and he referenced him many times in his hymns. Partiicularly – in the hymns that would later become the serving hymns that are used in churches worldwide in the line of Padrinho Sebastiao!
In the line of Padrinho Sebastião those hymns are often sung during the service of Daime, where everyone is singing “Eu tomo daime com meu presidente” … directly in reference to Leoncio Gomes himself!