What is the doctrine of Santo Daime?

A doctrine is generally considered to be a set of beliefs held and taught by a church. In the Santo Daime, however, this understanding of the word “doctrine” may be incomplete. For a powerful aspect of the doctrine of Santo Daime is the healing current created by singing Santo Daime hymns.

This is why, during a typical work, we sing hymns throughout our works. The healing current generated is used by the spiritual beings who come to work with each participant, whether in offering the person a merited healing or in guiding them through a healing experience.

There is also the doctrine that comes from the words of the hymns. There are numerous mentions of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the sea in the hymns, along with God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. There are also numerous references to various Orixas, who are the beings associated with the various elements of Earth, as well as caboclos, who are indigenous healing beings associated with the forest, along with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Michael the warrior and protector.

The hymns point, in a general way, to what our healing work must be about. But by their very nature of being hymns, they may not provide enough content to actually guide a person all the way through their healing journey.

“Each dreaded area bears the seed of the golden point.

There is no evil, no horror existing that does not bear the golden point within itself.

There is no death that does not bear the golden point of life.

There is no darkness that does not contain the golden point of brilliant light.

There is no evil in you that does not bear the golden point of your goodness.” –Pathwork Guide lecture #205: Order as a universal principle

Humility is the way home

As co-protectors of Casa da Calma, we have been deeply studying the the teachings of the Pathwork Guide since 1997 and 2001. (We were called together to Santo Daime in 2017.) With the Pathwork teachings as our foundation, we can see how the Santo Daime hymns point to the same truths as taught by the Pathwork Guide. But there is simply no comparison in terms of how substantial the teachings are.

It may seem odd—even maddening to some—to think that the path of Santo Daime does not contain everything we need to wake up. After all, the hymns talk about needing to wake up. But if we look at this from the other side, we may notice something important. Which is that one of the greatest faults humans must work to overcome is pride. And nothing is more humbling than realizing we may not have all the answers.

It requires humility to work together and ask each other for help. It takes humility to stumble, correct ourselves, and keep going. If we are humble, we can accept that there is more than one way to reach the mountaintop. Further, it may be necessary to follow more than one path to get there.

Humility is a recurring theme that Santo Daime hymns keep pointing to. Indeed, becoming humble—becoming teachable—is one of the most powerful things we can ever hope to learn.