The book
Liquid Light
AYAHUASCA SPIRITUALITY AND THE SANTO DAIME TRADITION.
G. William Barnard
The Book
Liquid Light by G. William (Bill) Barnard
In Liquid Light, I serve as your proxy – letting you, as it were, see through my eyes (and hear through my ears, etc.) as I entered into the intriguing world of the Santo Daime for the first time. This book is my attempt to describe, in a way that is as highly personal and vivid as possible, some of what I have encountered during the over fifteen years that I’ve been drinking Daime, the name given by the Santo Daime tradition to ayahuasca.
In Liquid Light, I focus primarily on my two and a half month stay (from June-August, 2010) in Céu do Mapiá, the intentional community created in the early 1980s in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest that is the epicenter of the most prominent “line” of the Santo Daime.
In Liquid Light I reflect on the beauty, richness, and complexity of the Santo Daime religious tradition, underscoring the crucial difference between taking psychedelics as part of a committed, disciplined, on-going, spiritual path, and taking psychedelics in a recreational or even therapeutic way. However, I make no claims here to represent “the” Santo Daime – this entheogenic tradition is much too complex, changeable, and multifaceted for any one “voice” to somehow “capture” it. I also make no claims that reading this book is, in any way, a substitute for just plunging in and drinking Daime and singing hymns for hours within one of the ritual structures that the Santo Daime tradition provides.
But Liquid Light can at least offer its readers a glimpse into just how magical and mysterious the universe is when we peer beneath the surface, and how dramatically most of us have underestimated our inner capacity to connect with, and learn about, previously hidden strata of our own consciousness. It is my hope that after reading this book, readers will come away with the understanding that, at least in the case of the Santo Daime, psychedelics can be used reverently, as genuine sacraments, and that this religion with roots in the Amazon rainforest is, at least for many people, a powerfully transformative, and profoundly illuminative, spiritual path.
The mandala (sacred image) on the cover of the book was “received” by J.C., a daimista artist-friend of mine (who has chosen to remain anonymous). She had a powerful miração (visionary/mystical experience given by the Daime) during a Santo Daime ritual in which, while seeking inspiration for the mandala to adorn the cover of my “Awakening Heart” hinário (collection of hymns), she was taken into a vast and beautiful temple in the angelic realm. On the floor of the “ascension chamber” of the temple (a chamber in which souls of those who had just died stood in order to be purified by divine energies so that they could ascend to higher realms), she saw the living, moving forms that became the basis for the mandala that she later drew (the souls would stand in the center of those living forms of energy to receive their purification). The yellow, white, and orange colors represent the Light of God; the purples and blues represent the Peace of God; and the blue droplets of water represent the cleansing power of the ocean and the rain. The mandala also includes laurel branches that symbolize overcoming negative energy.
Introduction to Liquid Light: For those of you wanting a glimpse into the underlying guiding principles of Liquid Light, here is the Introduction to the book.
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