It is a true manifestation of esoteric Christianity.
Modern forms of Santo daime that pull in from orixás and involve medium ship might be, but the core of Santo daime is wholly a manifestation of esoteric catholicism.
One does not need to combine any two religions framework in order to create the daime. It is a revelation direct to Irineu.
Often times people like to emphasize over and over the various other cultural currents that lead to the development of the daime. For example, how it’s Brazilian, how it’s African influenced, all the umbanda, spiritism, and it’s all used as an explanation to describe and justify the outer garments of the practice.
However, Santo Daime doesn’t resemble any traditional ayahuasca ceremonies. It does not resemble a seance. In it’s traditional form, it’s nothing like a free form African event. It is something truly unique and christian, and can be best understood as a rite of Christianity.
Catholic and Orthodox, but there is byzantine Catholic who are identical to orthodox in their outer garments. But they inside are fully catholic, even though they use different sacraments and have different languages and formats of the mass.
That is like the daime. It really is genuine Christianity. It is not a combination of Christianity and a different religion. The Ayahuasca component is only the outer garments, the visual expression. Understand the concept of Catholicism as societal infrastructure