©1999 Alex Polari de Alverga

Editors' Note: This issue of Vibration Magazine is focusing on "Nature-Centered Wisdom." As such, we are exploring relationships humans have had with all types of plants, including those that are considered sacred by a variety of peoples. The editors' are not promoting the ingestion of these plants, as some are illegal to even possess much less consume in many countries. We are instead educating about their historic use. Our regular readers are aware that no part of the plant is used in making an essence, but newcomers might want to see our FAQ.

The author spent years as a political prisoner during the rule of the military junta in Brazil, enduring torture, brutality, and deprivation. On his release from captivity and in search of something to restore his spiritual connection to life, he had a transformational encounter with one of the two revered founders of Santo Daime, Padrinho Sebastião Mota de Mela. Santo Daime -- an Amazonian religion, born out of jungle etheogens, mediumship, and healing, that features a unique synthesis of Christian and indigenous practices -- provided Alverga with an alternative to his disillusionment with society.

Amazon -- a magical word with so many meanings. To this day, it evokes legends and awakens fascination -- El Dorado for greedy adventurers and yet a sanctuary for those who understand the future of our planet. It was once called the "Green Hell" by the Spanish conquistadores, the same who brought about the Incas' apocalypse. As they climbed the mountains with their horses and arquebuses, they encountered a people who were highly spiritual, gifted with great wisdom, with their own technology, as well as a knowledge of power plants.

Since time immemorial these people had known the secrets of ayahuasca, a sacred drink made from the vine Banisteriopsis caapi, and the leafy plant Psychotria viridis, used for healing, for contact with the mysterium tremendum and the unio mystico. In the Quechua language, ayahuasca means something like "vine of the soul," by which it is possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead. We can find some clues for the cult of the vine among many indigenous western Amazonian people. At the center of their cosmology are the images of the vine and the leaf, thus indicating their knowledge of the magical drink.

The spiritual knowledge of this secret comes from the miracão, an inner perception combining insight and fascination and ecstasy that can be induced by the ritualized use of these divine plants in a religious context. The miracão contains the model for a new state of being brought forth from an internal reality, revealing an ancient wisdom and foretelling a spiritual consciousness that is indispensable to our very survival on this planet.

Some theories speculate that at the dawn of time, divinatory plants were indeed the forbidden fruit that influenced us in our passage from biological semiconsciousness to something like our present human consciousness. Thus, spirit entered into matter, and the fall into flesh was consummated with a two-edged sword called free will. We are now at the twilight of an age, and it is not without significance that the evolutionary relationship between mind and consciousness and spirit, brought about by use of power plants, is confused in the misinformation and prejudice surrounding drugs, one of the most perplexing issues of our times.

For us to arrive at the new era, we need a new path and new knowledge. Many seekers of consciousness have traveled these sacred roads and, because of that, new routes were opened. One of these paths is the Santo Daime, a school of self-knowledge, spiritual work, and charity. Santo Daime combines the inheritance of the Christian esoteric traditions with the spiritual legacy and indigenous force of the pre-Columbian people. It bloomed in the tropical rainforest in the state of Acre, Brazil. This knowledge took doctrinal form through the work of Mestre Irineu Serra. A Santa Daime "works" is a sacred ceremony involving special preparation, prayers, and hymns in which the Daime (ayahuasca) is taken as a sacrament -- often several times. A typical Daime works lasts three to six hours and is attended by anywhere from three to over three hundred people.

Later in the book, Alex Polari de Alverga describes the works experience:

"During the Daime's force and miracão, our understanding is elevated, and everything that happens in the works is transformed. Like a flaming battering ram knocking down all the walls of illusion, true knowledge penetrates our hearts. It is in this state that the music of the spheres resounds in our beings and the celestial messengers bring to our consciousness their words, praises, and warnings. Our souls become exposed to each other's sight, allowing a clear view of what is happening in the interior of each person.

"At the instant the miracão descended, I saw a being like an angel among us playing an instrument that sounded like a mixture of rattles and sirens. A low humming was coming from within me. I felt pulled to an area of the sky where sudden changes of pressure would have threatened to tear me to pieces had I been there physically. I was mounted on an immense, undulating cosmic serpent, like a cowboy in a rodeo.

"From the smallest electrons to giant galaxies, through the mysteries that quantum physics endeavors to understand, everything was explained to me in this moment, in the waving rhythm of the cosmic serpent. Marvelous symphonies and painful clamor coexisted in my brain.

"All of a sudden, by the force of gravity, I fell into my world, the earth. With my eyes still closed, I saw the long journey of human beings that in some way crowns Divine creation. From a simple aggregation of cosmic dust, he or she became an organism able to receive cosmic intelligence and great evolutionary power. A being capable of asking about its own origins may remember the love that created us. Thus we find our way back to the celestial dwelling where Christ himself has secured our destined Father for those who cannot deny him.

"I saw all of this in a vertiginous form, like a movie in fast motion -- wars, victories, sublime moments, and harsh punishments -- the long journey of the human being on earth. I stayed for a while estranged to myself and to all around me. Slowly, the sensation of being in a vacuum disappeared. Only the soft waving of the feathered serpent was left and the verses of a hymn dancing in my head." (pp.100-101)

Editors' Note: The above excerpts are from Alex Polari de Alverga's Forest of Visions, featuring first a selection from Stephen Larsen's introduction to the book, then quotes from De Alverga's description of a Santo Daime ritual. These excerpts are reprinted with permission of Park Street Press/Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT. No further reproduction without the publisher's permission.

ART CREDITS: The art used in the border for this article is with permission of Pacific Northwest Native American artist, Lillian Pitt. To see more of her art, visit her web page. Page design by Donna Cunningham of Word of Mouth Web Design.

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