Visions of Christ in the Amazon
The Gospel According to Ayahuasca and Santo Daime
Keywords:
Cosmologies, nature religions, Amazonian history, new religious movements, native traditions, Amazon, Andes, Brazil, ayahuasca, yage, jagube, santo daime, aguarico, napo, Christ, native christianity, native theology, mestre ireneu, comparative myth, shamansAbstract
In the Amazon, under the influence of ayahuasca, eco revolutionary Christian visions describe how Christ’s power takes root in the Amazonian ground. The article explores the “Gospel”—the story of Christ’s life and teachings—according to ayahuasca as told by the Quichua Aguarico Runa, a native people of the Ecuadorian upper Amazon and then traces local phrasings of the Gospel according to Santo Daime, a Christian sect indigenous to Brazil. As the Christian myth transforms, these radical botanical visions reinterpret South American history, bringing healing to continental and communal memory, and to the decimated and threatened land.
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