The Ayahuasca Voices
Guillermo Giucci, Sebastián Torterola
May 2, 2023 DOI: 10.4324/9781003396246-22 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractAyahuasca, the main Amazonian entheogen, spread beyond the jungle into Brazilian cities after the founding of the Santo Daime religion in Acre in 1930, evolving into a syncretic religion. This chapter examines the dissemination of ayahuasca through Brazil as a form of entheogenic mobility, drawing on current mobility theories. In Rio de Janeiro, neo-shamanic expressions blend traditions like Umbanda, spiritism, science, esoterism, and astrology. The authors participated in ceremonies at the Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Ptah e Sekhmet, a spiritual center in the city's outskirts led by Pai Luiz. Their narrative combines theoretical approaches with personal observations, describing both the exterior journey from city to suburbs and the interior journey into the depths of Being guided by the leader.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Ayahuasca ceremonies |
| Topics | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Psychology |
| Key finding | The dissemination of ayahuasca in Brazil is an expression of entheogenic mobility, studied through a narrative combining theoretical approaches and personal observations from ceremonies at a neo-shamanic center in Rio de Janeiro. |
Abstract
Ayahuasca, the main Amazonian entheogen, increases its presence within Brazilian society with the foundation of Santo Daime religion in the state of Acre in 1930. Along the following decades, turned into a syncretic religion, the pre-Columbian brew leaves the jungle and heads to the cities. The dissemination of ayahuasca throughout Brazil is an expression of entheogenic mobility, a phenomenon that is studied in this chapter in light of current mobility theories. Neo-shamanic expressions are fruitful in Rio de Janeiro, combining diverse traditions such as Umbanda, spiritism, science, esoterism, and astrology, among others. One of them is Ordem dos Cavaleiros de Ptah e Sekhmet, a spiritual center named after two Egyptian deities which is located in the city's outskirts, where the authors of this chapter participated in several ayahuasca ceremonies. The result is presented here in a narrative that combines theoretical approaches with personal observations. To that end, we had to travel from the city to the suburbs (exterior journey) in order to get to the center headed by Pai Luiz, the spiritual leader who, month after month, guides a crowd of people along a journey into the depths of Being (interior journey).