212 @ The Secret Liji of NatureI worry that my visions may be starting. So I keep my eyes open and
thank heaven, as I close them briefly, that I still have my safe familiar
screen of black to fall back on. I am determined not to vomit.
We have been at it for almost four hours. Now comes a break as
marijuana cigarettes are passed around. Soon over a hundred devotees
are puffing pot in great deep breaths. Slowly the nave is awash with
light blue smoke that drifts up toward the arc lamps, filling the church
to the rafters with eerie clouds, almost alive.
I take only one short puff. I hate the taste and the way it scratches
my throat, and I don't like feeling stoned. This, however, is part of the
spiritual ritual. Followers of Daime believe that the weed acts as a key
to unlock quicker access in their minds to communion with thevirgin
Mary, "Queen of the Rainforest." Hence their name for the magical
leaf Santa Maria. Devotees claim that smolung it increases commu-
nion, directly through her, with the spirit of the Daime, a spirit much
like Steiner's Christlike spirit of the earth.'
Surfeited with inhalation, the devotees chant on.
Quem nao conhece Santa Maria
Efaz uso dela todo dia
Vive sempre em agonia
Mas agora chegou como eu queria.
He who knows not Santa Maria
Or does not use it daily
Forever lives in agony.The last line in English escapes me as I try to visualize how the
real Madonna might appear. Medieval and Renaissance art somehow
- As Easton elucidates Steiner's concept, the Christ, after his incarnation, death, and
resurrection, became the spirit of the earth: "The bread and wine, fruits of the earth,
are indeed his body and blood." This truth, according to Easton, is not symbolic but
a fact of complete actuality,"and if we are to have a conscious relationship with the
earth, we should know that in building this relationship we are performing what in
the highest sense of the word niay be called a Christian duty."