CATIMBÓ - JUREMA SAGRADA E-Book

Tilo Plöger

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 822

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

This book is the first and for the time being only comprehensive theoretical and practical work on the Indian tradition of the Brazilian Catimbó. On almost 600 pages, the concepts, the organization, the mythology, the rituals, the terms of this centuries-old Indian shamanic tradition are discussed. A book for anyone interested in shamanic traditions. The book is also aimed at those who deal with these traditions in practice and are looking for concrete tips for the traditional ritual implementation. The tradition of Catimbó, which is native to northeastern Brazil, is an enrichment especially for those who are already familiar with the Amazonian traditions of Ayahuasca and Kambô.

Leseprobe

CATIMBÓ – JUREMA SAGRADA

The Indigenous Tradition of the Sacred Jurema

Brazilian Shamanism

Tilo Plöger

Copyright: © 2022: Tilo Plöger

Publisher:

tredition GmbH

Halenreie 40-44

22359 Hamburg

Softcover

978-3-347-61383-6

Hardcover

978-3-347-61384-3

E-Book

978-3-347-61385-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher and author.

“Que as boas fumaças corram o mundo

Pelo bem da vida de todos.“

“A gente bebe a raiz da Jurema

pra chegar em outro mundo

e pra esse outro mundo

também chegar na gente"

“Vai fumaça pra onde eu mandar,

fuma cachimbo quem sabe fumar"

“Só fuma cachimbo quem sabe fumar,

Só manda fumaça quem sabe mandar.”

“O mesmo vento que leva a fumaca,

É o mesmo que traz ela para ti.”

“Os Juremeiros são médicos de almas

e a Jurema é o hospital do Nordeste"

“Meu pé de Jurema secou

Suas folhas caíram no chão

Veio o orvalho e molhou

Depois veio o sol e secou

E a Jurema se abriu toda em flor”

“Só pega no Cachimbo, quem sabe pegar

Só manda fumaça, quem sabe mandar”.

“Eu ando no mundo, e você não me pega,

Cada fumaça, eu dou uma queda”.

“May the good smokes run the world

For the sake of everyone's lives.”

“We drink the Jurema root

to arrive in another world

and to this other world

also reach us"

“Smoke goes where I send it,

smokes a pipe who knows how to smoke"

“Only those who know how to smoke a pipe smoke,

Only sends smoke who knows how to send it.”

“The same wind that carries the smoke,

It is the same that brings it to you.”

“The Juremeiros are doctors of souls

and Jurema is the hospital in the Northeast"

“My Jurema tree dried up

Its leaves fell to the ground

The dew came, and it got wet

Then came the sun and dried up

And Jurema opened up in full bloom”

“Just take the pipe, who knows how to take it

Only sends smoke, who knows how to send it”.

“I walk in the world, and you don't catch me,

Every smoke, I take a fall.”

CONTENT

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION

THE CATIMBÓ

The term

Catimbo and Jurema Sagrada

The history

The Catimbó-Jurema Umbanda of the northeast coast of Brazil

The origin of the Catimbós in Alhandra

Kingdom of Acaes – Reino dos Acaes

Jurema in a psychonautical context

JUREMA – DEFINITIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS

The term

The plant

Botanical aspects

Morphological description

Juremas various names

Geographic distribution

Therapeutic properties

INDIGENOUS AND URBAN JUREMA

Indigenous Jurema

Jurema of the ATIKUM

Jurema of KAPINAWÁ

Jurema of Kariri-Xocó

Jurema in Karapotó

Jurema in Alhandra (Catimbó)

THEOLOGY AND COSMOGENY

The theology

Definitions and delimitations

Catimbó is not Macumba or Candomblé

Pajelança and Toré

Toré

The spiritual cosmos of Catimbó

THE MYTHS OF THE JUREMA

Origin myth of the Jurema among the Kariri-Shoko of Brasil

Jurema as Christ's blood

The legend of Cabocla Jurema

The Myth Of God And The Indigenous Devil

THE SYMBOLS

Introduction

Holy Pipe

Maraca

Princes and Princesses – Príncipes e Princesas

Incorporation of the enchanted

Jurema's sacred drink

Trance and possession

KINGDOMS, REALMS, DEITIES, SPIRITUAL GUIDES

The Structure of Juremá (spiritual world)

The 12 Kingdoms of Jurema

The spiritual guides

Caboclos da Jurema

Pretos Velhos e Pretas Velhas

The Masters

Other entities (guides)

Malunginho

Zé Pilintra

MESTRAS E MESTRES DO CATIMBÓ - LIST OF ANCIENT MASTERS

Ascended Masters mentioned in Meleagro

Nanãgiê, Nanãgiá, Nanãbicô, Nanamburucu.

Rei Heron (King Heron)

Pai Joaquim (Father Joaquim)

Mestre Ritango Do Pará

Mestre Carlos, King Of Masters (Rei Dos Mestres)

Mestre Manicoré

Mestre Manuel Cadete, King Of Vajucá.

Mestre Itapuã or Itapurã

Mestre Tupá

Mestre Xaramundi

Mestre Roldão De Oliveira

Mestre Bom Florar, Bom-Florá

Mestre Inácio De Oliveira

Mestre Mussurana

Principe Da Jurema

Mestra Anabar

Mestra Iracema

Mestre Pequeno (Little Master),

Mestre João Pinavaruçu

Mestra Angélica

As Meninas Da Saia Verde (The Girls Of The Green Skirt)

Mestre Tabatinga

Mestre José Pereira

Mestre Antônio Tirano

Mestre Canguruçu

Malunguinho

Mestre Pinarona

Mestra Faustina

Mestre Luís Dos Montes

Mestre Filipe Camarão

Mestre Turuatá

THE ORGANIZATION

Mestre de Mesa (Master of Altar)

About the seed

Organizational basics

THE RITUALS

The "Mesa" (The Altar)

Construction of the Mesa

Opening of the Mesa (Abertura de Mesa)

Initiation

The Seven Sciences of a Master of Jurema

Juremação e Tombo (Tombamento) de Jurema – The tumble (tumbling)

HERBS AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

Introduction

Traditional remedies

Fumigações & Defumações – Fumigations & Smokes

Unguentos - Ointments and other procedures

The Rapé

The Garrafada

Theriaca Brasilica – The Brazilian theriac

The implementation of the Garrafada in the context of the Catimbós

Herbs as listed in Meleagro

THE MAGIC AND SPELLS

Fechamento de corpo - Closing/Protection of Body

Mau-Olhado. Quebranto. Amuletos. Evil Eye. Amulets.

SOME SPECIFIC CONCEPTS

Envultamento – Wrapping / Enveloping

The magic cross

"Orações Fortes”. "Strong Prayers".

Various Works (From: Ribeiro)

To Attract One's Happiness

To Soften Enemies

To Sign Up for Life

To Keep an Unwanted Person Away from Your Life

For Discharge (Descarrego), Protection and Against Disease

To Drive Away Spirit That's Leaning On

To Increase Your Money

For a Person to Quit Drinking Addiction

To Heal a Child of Any Kind of Illness

BATHS

Banhos de Firmeza – Firming Baths

Banhos de Descarrego – Discharge Baths (Cleansing)

TRADITIONAL PRAYERS

Oração da Cabra Preta - Prayer of the Black Goat

Oração do Sonho de Santa Helena - Saint Helena's Dream Prayer

Oração da Pedra Cristalina - Prayer to the Crystalline Stone

Oração do Rio Jordão - Prayer of the River Jordan

Força do Credo - Strength of the Creed

Oração das Estrelas - Prayer of the Stars

Oração do Meio-Dia - Midday Prayer

O Credo às avessas - The Creed in reverse

Oração das Almas - Prayer of Souls

Oração dos Sete Caboclos - Prayer of the Seven Caboclos

Oração ao Sol - Prayer to the Sun

São João Batista

Santo Amanso

Oração de Santa Pelonha para curar dor de dente - Prayer of Santa Pelonha to cure toothache

Poderosa Oração de Nossa Senhora Aparecida - Powerful Prayer of Nossa Senhora Aparecida

Para as 18 Horas de Cada Dia - For the 18 hours of each day

Contra Qualquer Espécie de Doença - Against Any Kind of Disease

Contra a Cólera - Against cholera

Contra Hemorragias - Against Hemorrhages

Contra os Maus Espíritos - Against Evil Spirits

Para ter bons resultados nos negócios – To have good results in business

Contra Espíritos Obsessores e inimigos Invisíveis - Against Obsessing Spirits and Invisible Enemies

Para Anular Dificuldades e Embaraços nos Negócios - To Eliminate Difficulties and Embarrassments in Business

Ao Anjo-da-Guarda - To the Guardian Angel

Oração sonho de São Pedro - Prayer dream of Saint Peter

Oração para abrir os caminhos urgentemente - Prayer to urgently open the way

Oração Das Sete Forças Do Credo - Prayer of the seven forces of the creed

Oração À Santa Rita - Prayer to Santa Rita

CANTOS, PONTOS, LÍRIOS, LINHAS – TRADITIONAL RITUAL SONGS

“Linhas” according to Ribeiro

“Linhas” according to Cascudo in Meleagro

The structure of the songs during the rituals

Abertura - Opening

Encerramento - Closure

Licença - License

Firmeza – Firmness (for concentration of vibrational energies)

Louvações - Praise

MESTRES, MESTRAS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVES OF CATIMBÓ

Chamada de Mestres e Mestras - Masters Calling

Malunguinho

Mestre Junqueiro

Mestre Zé Pelintra - O Rei de Alhandra

Mestre Antônio Olímpio

Mestre Benedito Meia-Légua

Mestre Bernardino

Mestre Carlos

Mestre Durval

Mestre Gavião Preto

Mestre José Galo Preto

Mestre Luis Dos Montes

Mestre Luís & Mestre Jacinto

Mestre Manoel Maior - “Mané Maior”

Mestre Nego Gerson

Mestre Oliveira Roldão

Mestre Pai Joaquim

Mestre Pau Pereira - Mestre Antônio Pereira

Mestre Manoel Quebra-Pedra

Mestre José Quebra-Pedra

Mestre Sibamba

Mestre Tertuliano

Mestre Xaramundi

Mestre Zé Bebinho – Seu Zé Bibinho

Mestre Zé Da Virada

Mestre José Pretinho – Seu Zé Pretinho

Mestre Zezinho Do Acais

Maria Do Acai (or Acais, Acaes)

Mestra Amélia

Mestra Ananí ou Naní

Mestra Aninha Do Angelò

Mestra Celina

Mestra Georgina

Mestra Geraldina

Mestra Iracema

Mestra Joana Pé de Chita

Mestra Dona Zefa 6 Dedos - Josefa dos 6 Dedos

Mestra Júlia Galega

Mestra Juvina

Mestra Laurinda

Mestra Laurentina

Mestra Luziara

Mestra Maria Do Bassulê

Mestra Maria Do Bagaço

Mestra Maria Bagaçeira

Mestra Maria Do Balaio

Mestra esquerdeira Maria Doida (Crazy Mary)

Mestra Maria Luziara ou Luziaria

Mestra Mariana

Mestra Nêga Luanda

Mestra Paulina

Mestra Rita Do Bagaço

Rita Ribonesa

Mestra Ritinha

Rosinha Do Amor

Mestra Severina

Caboclos – Songs for the whole working line

Caboclo Manuel Juremeiro

Caboclo Pena Branca

Caboclo Rompe Mato

Caboclo Sete Flechas

Cabocla Tapuia

Caboclo Ubirajara

Caboclo Urubatan

Boiadeiro - Cowboy

Mestra Rosinha Boiadeira

Família De Légua Boji

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

This book about the Brazilian Catimbó is probably the first work in English that gives a little insight into this mysterious Brazilian tradition. Catimbó is a true Brazilian tradition, with roots in Northeast shamanism. It is also called the Jurema Sagrada, the Holy Jurema, because the cult is essentially based on the Jurema tree species living there. The Ayahuasca of the Amazon is the Jurema of northeastern Brazil. In Catimbó it forms the basis of the magic drink, the idiosyncratic (upside down) smoking of the pipe, the ceremonies of initiation, etc.

Jurema Sagrada, the so-called Holy Jurema, is a spiritual tradition. It is based on Indigenous shamanism and, over the centuries, mixed with European spiritualism, Jesuit Catholicism, and various African traditions.

Catimbó is perhaps the best and clearest example of the processes of Afro-European-Indigenous convergence. The "three waters" (“três águas” - one often speaks of the "three races" in Brazil) flow into a common river, recognizable in their respective elements and yet inseparably connected.

There is no uniform model, no uniform pattern to clearly describe and experience the Catimbó. There are whole families, lines that fill the tradition, all with common elements that unite them but with their own characteristics that make them unique. The oldest families are the indigenous groups who, despite the violent process of colonization since the 16th century, have preserved and developed their rituals. The tradition is very dynamic in its development, very regional and very family-related (line-related) in its characteristics. And unfortunately, it was only described for the first time in the middle of the last century. Only in the last few years has an enlightened science (in opposition to the then tendentious reporting by Christian officials) attempted to grasp and describe this tradition. – The tradition of Jurema has certainly existed much longer than the discovery of Brazil, because Jurema, like Ayahuasca, has been an integral part of indigenous traditions since time immemorial. During Jesuit missionary work and the expulsion and enslavement of the Indian peoples, the rites of individual tribes merged with one another. Like the Afro-Brazilian tradition of Candomblé, syncretic forms of shamanic cults emerged. Much has been forgotten over the centuries, hardly anything has been written down. The collection of shamanic-spiritual traditions that was once summarized under Catimbó was persecuted and suppressed until the middle of the last century. Only with the official release of the Umbanda, another Brazilian spiritualistic tradition, could the Catimbó also be freed from the clutches of the judiciary - partly adopting the rites and terms of the Umbanda.

There have been fusions between indigenous and Catholic rituals and beliefs since the 16th century. The families of the “Sertão” (the dry inland of the north-east) practiced their cults by setting up tables with saints, crucifixes, and candles, possibly under deciduous trees belonging to the Caatinga lands and on large rocks formerly considered sacred. Between the 16th and 17th centuries the first expressions of what can be considered Proto-Catimbó emerged: the "Santidades" - hybrid catholic-indigenous manifestations of spirituality. The Catimbós do Sertão, on the other hand, are characterized by a strong presence of Catholic elements. These Catimbós mixed old Pajelança (shamanic traditions) with popular Catholicism, a little European spiritism, and some elements of Jewish Kabbalah and African Quimbanda. Especially in the Rio Grande do Norte area - due to the lack of a port for the arrival of African slaves during the colonial period and the resulting low presence of blacks (compared to Recife and Bahia) - these oldest Catimbós are characterized by comparatively little syncretism with the African one’s traditions.

In other regions of the Northeast, where African presence was very relevant during the colonial period, we see the emergence of so-called "Juremeiros", families in which African elements are prominent in their practices, worship, imagery, cosmologies, and theologies. Indigenous knowledge was supplemented by the "science" of African origin brought in by enslaved blacks. Africans from different nations identified with Catimbó because it is an animistic religion that worships and communicates with nature, just as African Orishás and Voduns are connected to nature. In addition, the slaves needed knowledge of Indian herbs for their own traditions.

After the arrival of the Africans in Brazil, fleeing the plantations where they were enslaved, they found refuge in indigenous villages and through this contact the Africans shared their common religious knowledge with the Indians. That is why the great well-known Masters of the Jurema are very often mestizos with indigenous and black blood to this day. The Africans contributed with their knowledge of the Egum death cult and the nature deities, the Orishás, Voduns and Inquices. The indigenous contributed with the knowledge of the invocations of the spirits of the ancient shamans and the work carried out in the forests and rivers with the enchanted ones (Encantados). Therefore, the Jurema consists of two main working lines: the Mestres da Jurema (Masters) and the Encantados (enchanted ones).

The cult of Jurema is to the Paraíba and Pernambuco regions what the Irocô is to Bahia. This typical Northeastern tree was worshiped by the Potiguares and Tabajaras Indians of Paraíba many centuries before the Europeans arrived in Brazil. There is a community in Pernambuco that is called Jurema due to the large number of these trees that are found there. The Jurema (Mimosa hostilis), once grown, is a leafy tree that can live for over 200 years. All parts of this tree are used: root, bark, leaves, and seeds used in cleansing baths, infusions, ointments, drinks and for other ritual purposes. Devotees initiated into the rituals of the cult are called "Juremeiros". In the town of Alhandra, a municipality a few kilometers from João Pessoa, this cult became famous in the form of Catimbó. Jurema has been worshiped since ancient times by at least two major indigenous groups, the Tupi and the Cariri, also known as Tapuias. The Tupi were divided into Tabajaras and Potiguares, which were enemies of each other. At the time of Paraíba's founding, the Tabajaras formed a group of about five thousand Indians. They occupied the coast and founded the villages of Alhandra and Taquara. These places are now considered the center and starting point of the Catimbó in its present form.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that, contrary to what many believe, Catimbó is not an addendum or appendix to the Umbanda, Candomblé, Santo Daime (Ayahuasca) or any other spiritistic, magical or religious tradition. Although it can exist in parallel and in close communion with other cults and religions, Catimbó is an independent tradition that has its own dogmas, precepts, principles, and liturgies.

This book does not claim completeness or correctness. Nor is it a guide to implementation. The Catimbó can only be selected to a limited extent, it is a cult of experience. Each region, each "family" is characterized by specific characteristics, united by the rites and insignia of the Jurema, as well as the cult and incorporation of the so-called "Mestres", the Masters of the Jurema. This elaboration is essentially a collection and classification as well as reproduction of older writings about the Catimbó. Except for scientific disputes, I have kept away from almost all newer sources, because they are all very obviously heavily mixed with modern, esoteric, spiritistic forms, especially the Umbanda. From my personal point of view, the Catimbó is one thing above all - shamanism. And in the second place it is spiritistic, in the sense of using ritual forms of trance and incorporation (which, however, also existed among the Indian tribes, so they are not an "invention" of European culture).

Historically, the Masters of the Jurema were both spiritual healers and naturopaths. The knowledge of naturopathy was often taken up by the Jesuits, integrated by the African traditions, but also often forgotten. Due to the problematic legal situation in Europe and the risks of self-medication, I will refrain from describing traditional naturopathy in this book and will concentrate on describing the spiritual rites. When describing individual herbs and recipes, I orientate myself on the older writings of the Jesuits and the notes from the middle of the last century. If you want to implement the Catimbó in Europe, you can certainly use European herbalism and work in analogies. Even the Sacred Jurema, an acacia form, offers European analogies - even in a spiritual sense it is deeply rooted in Christianity. An "accidental" coincidence. With the music and the ritual objects, it makes sense and is necessary to take on the Brazilian songs. The pipes also have a very special energy in their original form and can hardly be replaced by western pipes.

The songs and prayers cannot be translated in their full multidimensional meaning - the interpretation would often be a bit more complex and is beyond the scope of this book. The translations offered are just a “quick and dirty” frame to follow und understand the basics.

In the Brazilian traditions one speaks of the "Segredo do Sagrado", the “Secret of the Sacred”. There are important ritual details that must not be reproduced publicly. Nor is it in keeping with the nature of spiritual traditions and their rites that rituals, recipes conform to a standard. The book is more of a framework for comprehensive understanding and for individual work. I would recommend anyone interested to learn and experience the tradition through an experienced group with their respective Masters. No book can replace experience and the continuation of a “work and ancestral lineage”. Especially since the spiritual world cannot be ordered and cannot be reduced to baking recipes. Without trance, without incorporation, without ritual embedding, without group dynamics, all rites and recipes are meaningless and ineffective.

Salve os Mestres e as Mestras Juremeiros.

Tilo Plöger

THE CATIMBÓ 

The term

The origin of the term Catimbó is disputed, although most researchers claim that it comes from the ancient Tupi language, where caa means forest and timbó refers to a type of torpor akin to death. In this way, Catimbó would be the forest that leads to torpor, in clear allusion to the state of trance caused by the ingestion of Jurema wine in its variety of herbs. However, other theories relate the word to the expression cat, fire, and imbó, tree, in the same language in conjunction. Thus, the word would mean a "fire in the burning tree" or "tree producing a feeling of temporary burning" that consumption of Jurema typically causes. In several states of northeastern Brazil where Catimbó rituals are associated solely with the practice of black magic, the word takes on a derogatory meaning and can encompass any magical activity performed with intent to harm others. In fact, however, the cult of Holy Jurema is pure charity and aims to always provide free help, advice and healing to people who ask for it.

Some more quotes as interpretations and explanations of the term Catimbó (partially colored by religious preferences, note the date of the respective publication):

• Rodolfo Garcia: " Catimbau - practice of witchcraft or gross spiritualism. Etymology: Lenz, Etymological Dictionary, 183, gives as likely the origin of Quichua, from katimpuy: "to follow one who should have fallen behind"; but it is not impossible that the origin is African; indeed, Zorobabel Rodrigues, Dictionary of Chilenisms, 311 ascribes the latter origin to the term. Geographical Area: The term seems to be common in Chile and Brazil; the meaning mentioned here and what is not in the dictionaries is exclusive to Pernambuco, where Catimbó is also more commonly used." (Dicionário de Brasileirismos, Peculiaridades pernambucanas. Revista do Instituto Hist. Bros., 76, 732)

• Morais, 1831 edition: " Catimbau — Ridiculous man. In Brazil, a little old pipe. Domingos Vieira, 1873 edition: " Catimbau — Brazilian term. Small pipe. lazy term. Ridiculous man." Rafael Bluteau writes in a manner like Constâncio. The moderns copied the ancients. Pereira da Costa explains more clearly in Pernambucano vocabulary: " Catimbau or Catimbó - Mandinga, witchcraft, spell, witch-house, session, or practice of witchcraft … "

• Alfredo de Carvalhos: A corruption of caatin-imbai , bush or white leaf, bad catinga, which may very well also mean tobacco, nicotine tabacum, from Linnaeus. Catimbao, by a definition we have found, is a pipe, a long and smoky pipe, and as Morais writes, a small, ancient pipe, used from there, in witchcraft sessions, Catimbós or catimbaus. Thus, we have the etymology of the word according to the opinions expressed. However, there are doubts: Catimbao was a current term in Portugal and as early as the early 18th, undoubtedly of earlier date: "Tell Master Catimbáo to go away and give him the stick." It seems the term derives from cantibai, the term for a piece of wood used by French carpenters and joiners.”

• João Juvenal da Costa Lima, Mestre Zinho, one of the authorities on the tradition, said that Catimbó in its true meaning “he knew from those who know”, “from the Masters”, “from the Elders”, it was just ‘cachimbo’ (pipe), because without a pipe there was no Catimbó. Everything was ceremonially reduced to the invocations of the "Masters of the Hereafter" through the sacred smoke. And the "works" of Catimbó, which correspond to the "despachos" in Macumbas, are called "fumaças" (smoke).

• In the Tupi-Guarani languages, Catimbó means "fumaça de mato" and "vapor de erva", respectively "forest smoke" and "grass vapor". Currently, the term "Catimbó" is one of the terms that identifies a specific set of cultural and magical-religious activities, as well as mythical, cosmological, and theological aspects, originating from the indigenous peoples of the north-eastern region of Brazil - elements that make up what some researchers think of hold one of the oldest Brazilian religions, also called "Catimbó-Jurema", "Jurema", "Sagrada Jurema" and "Culto aos Senhores Mestres".

Catimbo and Jurema Sagrada

Jurema is also called Catimbó, which is an older nomenclature that can mean pipe, poison bush or magic. The pipe is an object of great importance to the Encantados (the enchanted ones) of the Catimbó-Juremas, be it Mestres or Caboclos, the latter the expression of the enchanted spirits of the natives living in the northeast (ancestors in the spiritual realm).

The practice of Catimbó is also popularly referred to as Jurema. This fact is since Jurema is the energy center, the essential element and catalyst of tradition. In fact, the Jurema is of paramount importance in the Catimbó. Within this tree are the enchanted cities where the Ascended Most of the Catimbó "live".

The two types of Jurema (black and white - Jurema preta and Jurema branca) correspond to the powers of white magic or black magic, depending on the color of the seeds they produce. To clarify: Jurema Branca produces white seeds, so associated with the powers of white magic, Jurema Preta produces black seeds, which in turn are associated with the powers of black magic. Whereby black magic is not negatively occupied, rather it is a symbol for the power of dissolution, the denser fields of magic. These seeds, as well as the bark, leaves, roots, their magical powers, and their complex symbolism are of fundamental importance in the initiation process of the Catimbó and in its further ritual practices.

The history

Although there are differing viewpoints on Jurema traditions, in almost all research on the subject, scholars agree that Jurema encompasses a mythical-ritual universe of indigenous origin that has existed in northeastern Brazil since colonial times. In the 1930s, the first writings on the ritual use of Jurema appeared. Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) and the "scholars" of the Christian mission "Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas", dedicated to the inventory of Brazilian cultural manifestations, catalog songs recorded, transcribed, and commented on by the modernist writer, for example in Música de Feitiçaria (“Witches' Music”) no Brasil (1933). There the author makes a melodic analysis of the chants of the "Catimbó" - the name then used to describe the use of the Jurema in rituals in the cities of Natal and Recife - pointing out the hypnotic function of musicality and highlighting it presence of some symbols in ceremonies such as "the Masters" and the "Jurema Tree". At the same time, the physician and folklorist Gonçalves Fernandes (1909-1986) used the terms "religious mixture" and "syncretism" in his works Xangôs do Nordeste: Investigations into the Black Fetish Cults of Recife, 1937 and O folclore mágico do Nordeste, 1938” to talk about the practice of Catimbó in the Recife context and to make contrasts between the Catimbozeiro rites and the universe of Xangô. According to some intellectuals, Xangô as a special form of expression of Candomblé was the legitimate cult of African origin. In 1945, in Black and White Images of the Mystic Northeast, the acclaimed French sociologist Roger Bastide (1898-1974) describes a Catimbó ritual that confirms the indigenous origin of Jurema and contrasts this practice with Candomblé in Bahia. Next, Câmara Cascudo (1898-1986), publishing some of his writings on folklore such as Meleagro (1978) and the Dictionary of Brazilian Folklore (1969), repeated the ideas of Mário de Andrade by proposing and disseminating an anthology of cultural manifestations a subject that has occupied, and still occupies, a prominent place in social thought and in Brazilian social sciences: the myth of the three races. In this sense he sees Catimbó as the result of the confluence of Iberian witchcraft, the indigenous naturopathy of the Jurema and the rhythmic musicality of the Bantu Macumbas from Africa.

Until the 1990s, researchers hardly focused on the traditions (religions) of the Jurema. In the first half of the 20th century some authors have described Jurema in the context of "magic", "witchcraft" and "low spiritism" and the analyzes are generally limited to brief descriptions of the rituals. A few exceptions are worth noting, including the work of René Vandezande (1930-2017) who studies the use of the Jurema (drink) in Terreiros (cult houses) of the Umbanda in Paraíba (in: “Catimbó: pesquisa exploratória sobre uma forma nordestina de religião mediúnica, 1975). In the 2000s, new research on the subject emerged; some emphasize the historical horizon, such as Guilherme Medeiros in “O uso ritual da Jurema entre os indígenas do Brasil colonial e as dinâmicas das fronteiras territoriais do nordeste no século XVIII, 2006”. It proves the use of the Jurema since at least XVIII. Other research - such as "Toré e Jurema: emblemas indígenas no nordeste do Brasil, 2008" by Rodrigo de Azeredo Grünewald on the use of Jurema by the Atikum Indians - turns to the ethnic identities constructed by the indigenous groups of the Northeast, who, with the aim of demanding the recognition of autonomy before the Brazilian state and the conquest of rights, use Jurema as a symbol of their status as "traditional peoples".

From the 2010s, the scientific literature on the use of Jurema is expanding and completely new narratives are emerging. In 2017, the Juremeiro and founder of the NGO Quilombo Cultural Malunguinho in Pernambuco, Alexandre L'Omi L'Odo, defended the Master's thesis "Juremologia: uma busca etnográfica para sistematização de princípios da cosmovisão da Jurema sagrada", in which he prepared a report on the Jurema tradition from the perspective of its practitioners and elucidates the prominent figure of the Malunguinho, who is both the name of the leader of the Quilombos do Catucá (the illegal "city" of fugitive slaves) - built and destroyed in the first half of the 19th - as well as a Deity from the pantheon of Catimbós.

The cult of the Jurema tree dates to primeval times, even before the Portuguese colonization of America. At that time, several indigenous tribes in what now northeastern Brazil is worshiped Jurema for its psychoactive properties and introduced it to various rites of communicating with the deities of their pantheon through trance, some of which are still preserved by the communities of the region. Among these rituals, the Toré, a specific form of Jurema worship, is perhaps the last remaining overarching form of cultural identification among the Northeast Indians.

However, this cult diversity was greatly reduced during European contact, so that the sacred and original Jurema tradition had to be adapted to catholic regulations due to the strong colonial suppression of all cults considered pagan. Thus, the vast aboriginal pantheon was gradually suppressed, and the deities of traditional Catholicism were incorporated into the rituals of the Caboclo people. However, due to its great influence, the cult of ancestors was retained and adapted to the reality of the Jurema Masters. Unlike in the Candomblé, the original pantheon of the indigenous population was largely lost or absorbed in syncretism.

The sacred Jurema is a vestige of the religious tradition of the Indians who inhabited the coast of Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and the Sertão of Pernambuco and their shamans, great connoisseurs of the mysteries of the afterlife, plants, and animals.

In 1742, the ritual of the Jurema of the Sucuru and Canindé Indians of the mission "Missão Boa Vista no Brejo Paraibano" is described in a denouncing letter to the king of Portugal. It states that as a drink, the Jurema produces visions that the devil produces:

… uzão dehuma bebida de huma rais que chamão Jurema; que transportando-os do seu Sintido ficão como mortos, equando entrão em Si da bebedeira, Contão as vizoens que o diabo lhes Reprezenta, Senão he que em Spirito os Leva as partes deque dão noticia. (CARTA do capitão-mor da Paraíba, Pedro Monteiro de Macedo ao rei D. João V. 1742, setembro, 22, Lisboa. AHU_ACL_CU_014, Cx. 11, D. 966.)

In his various works, Grunewald structures and describes the emergence and development of the Catimbó. The following presentation is based on this elaboration, supplemented by other sources wherever useful.

"In the semi-arid region of the Northeast, where Jurema is more abundant and where, from my understanding of experience, the bark contains much higher concentrations of DMT - as evidenced by its intense reddish tint characteristic of Jurema growing on dry soil - we have no historical record of their use in pre-colonial or even colonial times. In the historiography of Jesuit and Franciscan evangelizers there seems to have been a deliberate silence on the use of this plant, although rites such as those described by Pompa (2003) have been recorded. Archaeological elements that can be associated with the Jurema were presented by Hohenthal Jr. as part of one of his collections in the 1950s (Grünewald and Palitot 2011).

In fact, it was only from 1938 with the Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas, carried out on the initiative of Mário de Andrade (Carlini 1993), that the Toré, the most frequent performance among the indigenous peoples of the north-eastern country (in the above case among the Pankararu), systematically registered will. At the same time, the first records of the use of the Jurema appear, more precisely by Carlos Estevão de Oliveira (1942), who recorded the 1938 festival of Ajucá with the use of the Jurema also by the Pankararu of Itaparica in Pernambuco. It was also among the Pankararu in Tacaratu that Gonçalves de Lima (1946) isolated nigerine (later reclassified as N, N-dimethyltryptamine - DMT) from native Jurema. From then on, with Estêvão Pinto (1956) or Hohenthal Jr. (1954 and 1960), the ceremonial dance of the Toré and the associated use of the Jurema became a constant in the ethnology of the Indians of the interior of the Northeast and, frequently analyzed in more recent ethnographies, which were developed from the late 1980s, as shown by the dissertations by Mota (1987), Batista (1992), Grünewald (1993), Nascimento (1994) and later works. In fact, the use of the Jurema became emblematic of the ethnicity of the Northeast Indians and fundamental to their cosmologies to stand out as a distinctive feature of Northeast Indian "Indianity".

Although the Toré and ritual use of Jurema in public (mostly celebratory) and private contexts for different purposes (mostly healing) recurs among virtually all indigenous peoples of northeastern Brazil, each of them has their own specific approach to Jurema and ritual elaboration developed. I have no empirical knowledge of most of these populations, especially those who perform the praiá or still have the ritual space of the Ouricuri, although the literature on their rituals is already quite extensive. Attempting to describe the details or nuances of the use of Jurema in each of the records mentioned in this literature would be beyond the purpose of this article. Therefore, I will briefly characterize here how doe Jurema is used among the Atikum, an indigenous people inhabiting the Serra do Umã, in Carnaubeira da Penha, in the Pernambuco hinterland, with whom I have extensive empirical experience.

First, the ritual practice of Toré spread among the Northeast Indians from the 1930s and continues to this day. In fact, the Serviço de Proteção ao Índio (SPI) demanded that the indigenous peoples carry out the Toré as a recognition of indigenous territories from this decade onwards, as a kind of document of Indianity (Grünewald 1993; 2002; 2005a; 2005b). From a wide communicative network (Léo Neto and Grünewald 2012), many emerging indigenous groups began to learn from other indigenous groups (or to recover and revitalize from their own experiences) such rituals, which were largely based on the use of the Jurema.

While the Toré has a public dimension, with or without the consumption of Jurema, in the more discreet rituals the Jurema takes on greater prominence as a sacramental drink or entheogen—a term coined by Ruck, Bigwood, Staples, Ott and Wasson (1979) and refers to the coming of God in the person. For such rituals, the bark is harvested from the root (preferably) or from the stalk of the Jurema—usually the thornless Jurema preta (Grünewald 2008)—in the forest, crushed or macerated with stones, rubbed with hands in cold water, and left to rest. Later, the Jurema's bagasse is removed, and the drink (usually with pipe smoke) is consecrated for rituals in which the natives encounter the enchanted and other unseen beings. The remedy (“a cura”) is the actual Jurema drink mixed with garlic and cachaça (sugar cane liquor). This drink is lit to vaporize the alcohol - although the alcoholic flavor remains. Honey is a recurring element of these rituals and has an important function as food for the Caboclos, Canindés and other creatures from the forest, so we think of a "honey complex" associated with the indigenous Jurema (Léo Neto and Grünewald 2012.).). Just as the Jurema used must not have thorns, according to homology, the honey from the rituals must preferably come from stingless bees (ibid.).

Although visionary and other hallucinatory effects have been reported with the use of these Juremas, the perceptual alterations are generally understood to be broader spiritual or mediumistic phenomena - although there are frequent warnings that Juremas can be intoxicating. Proper hallucinatory effects are not sought in these rituals, which seek a broader spiritual connection with the unseen, whether from the sky, forests, rivers, or sea. Be they spirits of already dead Indians, be they beings that have no counterpart in the physical world, be they indefinable beings. And finally, pipes are another essential element of Jurema rites. In Atikum, for example, they are made from Jurema roots and many of the pipes may be very old - apparently from the time they were settled on a mission in the early 19th century. In their iconography, pipes bring several significant elements: for example, as an important pipe among these Indians, who drew rather large stars, crosses, churches, fish and a series of three broken lines, arranged in a vertical shape interlace, understood by them as the stream of the Jurema. The pipes can contain tobacco, canopy or also other plants like lavender, wild rosemary etc. I have found no reports of the use of Jurema reeds in native pipes, although this is sung in music, as in a traditional song (toante) for Mestre Carlos. These pipes are generally made from the roots of the Jurema itself and are used much less for smoking than for fumigation, where smoke is blown through the pipe nozzle with the head in the mouth.

Even though we know that during the northeastern winter (rainy season), black Jurema leaves can contain as much DMT as the root bark - in addition to tryptophan and tryptamine, as Nicasio et al. (cited by Gaujac 2013) - it doesn't seem to be the effect of this smoked substance (which would not do without an MAOI to become psychoactive - not to mention the ready absorption of DMT into the lungs) that the Native Americans look for in their rituals. With the pipe smoke, the Indians generally aim to expel negative energies and to purify the body and mind (Léo Neto and Grünewald 2012). Finally, in the context of these rituals we also find the presence of many Catholic elements (cross, Jesus, Virgin Mary, saints, etc.) and even those allegedly of African origin, such as the Orishás and their correlates.

As for the ritual itself, the natives generally begin it - after hissing in front of the ritual house wooden pipes announcing to the physical and unseen beings that the ritual is about to begin - seated with prayers and some songs (toantes) which the Open "Corrente" (energy chain). After this, the Jurema is served and the Indians then begin to sing their toantes or cantigas, always accompanied by the maraca, a native gourd rattle (Crescentia cujete) with seeds inside. In addition to the maraca, the tapping of the feet is very important, not only for the rhythm, but also to give strength to the ritual, which is danced in a circle that rotates counterclockwise. A 'leader' sings the toantes, always accompanied by a refrain (chorus) responding to the singer. This can be characterized as a response chant. When the toantes are mostly sung in Portuguese, the leader at the end enunciates complementary phonemes (Ha; Nah; Hê, Hey; Hô), considered by many to be the "indigenous language" - which is an important sign considering that they are indigenous peoples who only know the Portuguese language. Sometimes the toantes can also be supplemented with other vocabulary that asks Jesus or the Virgin Mary for help in Portuguese. After these melodic additions, it is customary to greet, invoke and praise God, the Blessed Mother, Catholic saints, the aborigines themselves, other peoples, those present and absent, visitors, the chief, and the shaman, etc. The Jurema can be served once or several times during the rituals, menstruating women do not usually drink it, nor do children participating in the ritual, who substitute them for a passion fruit punch. Adolescents who are less experienced tend to drink less Jurema than adult males, who consume it the most in rituals. During the ritual, some people (mostly women) radiate, embrace, or manifest the enchanted ones and other beings from the spiritual world, such as Zé Pilintra, an archetype of the Catimbó tradition. Finally, these rituals are not identical even within an indigenous village since different ritual leaders can work with different energy lines (Correntes). The specialists for these rituals are the holders of the so-called Indian science (ciência do índio) (Grünewald, 1993; 2002; 2005b).

This is therefore a summary of the Jurema under the Atikum. From what was uncovered it must have been clear how much of this religiosity is “mestiço”, mongrel (syncretic). With great Catholic elements, elements from the Catimbó and the Umbanda, which were present there through the most diverse cultural mechanisms in the history of the Torés of the Atikum.”

As is so often the case in the history of non-Christian traditions in Brazil, there are very few credible and independent descriptions of earlier times. The few sources are almost always colored and are based on descriptions of a few individual sources. Many of the old sources are not scientifically, but politically and religiously motivated and must therefore be interpreted with a lot of "distance". Only in the last 20 years has there been a scientific examination of the traditions - unfortunately too late for the preservation of rituals and belief systems that have been lost and, in the case of the Catimbó, have been systematically suppressed.

The Catimbó-Jurema Umbanda of the northeast coast of Brazil

The first more detailed references we have about the Jurema date back to the 18th century. It is known that the Tribunal do Santo Ofício (Tribunal of the Holy Office) was extremely strict with the "gentle rituals", "many Indians were accused of drinking Jurema and receiving "descending devil" while the Master played the maraca and to dance to indigenous chants". An example of this, as can be seen in the same text, is the testimony of a Tabajara Indian (south coast of Paraíba) “personally in the Mesa do Santo Ofício in Lisbon in 1720”. As early as 1739, the Junta das Missões Ultramarinas met at the Pernambuco Captaincy to advance investigations into “indigenous transgressions” and discovered that the Carmelites shared Jurema practices considered “diabolical” by the Holy Office (Apolinário, Freire & Diniz 2011).

Also, in the period between 1739 and 1744, there was a legal process by the Overseas Council involving the Holy Office and the Indians of Pernambuco and Paraíba over the use of the Jurema. There are also reports of deaths and arrests of “Native American sorcerers” on behalf of the Holy Office using the Jurema in 1739, reported to King João V in the following years (Oliveira 2011). But not only in Paraíba and Pernambuco, because we know that in 1758 an Indian from the village of Mepibu in Rio Grande do Norte was arrested for preparing "Adjunto da Jurema (the Jurema drink)" (Cascudo 1978). In a 1788 note written by Father José Monteiro de Noronha, quoted by Gonçalves de Lima (1946), there is evidence of a certain "tolerance" towards the Amanajó Indians who drink the Jurema drink (which is said to be "anesthetic" and prepared with the root skin of the plant). They fought in the wars on behalf of the colonizers (Gonçalves de Lima 1946: 60). In the following century, rituals were described using the Jurema—such as Henry Koster's (1978) 1816 account, which referred to the north coast of Pernambuco. In this century, Jurema was mentioned by some writers and even highlighted in the context of Romanticism, such as the publication by José de Alencar (1865) in the context of the cultural-sociological description of the state of Ceará. It is worth noting that these are all contexts of Native Americans from the Tupi tribe.

And precisely in the context of the indigenous “detribalization” of the Tupi on the Paraíba coast, we note a renewal of the ritual use of Jurema with the birth of a shamanism that contained non-indigenous elements in its configuration (Grünewald 2005b). It was in the city of Alhandra that a cult emerged that distanced itself from ethnic bias and focused more on perceptions of the mystical cities of the Jurema and their Mestres (Masters) (Cascudo 1937; Bastide 1945). In the 20th century, the Catimbó - increasingly called simply Jurema - is reached by the tradition of the Umbanda, which, with all its characteristic procedural plasticity, reconfigured this religious tradition and the associated use of Jurema. The traditional rituals of the Catimbó-Jurema and the indigenous peoples continued to be practiced in new mixed forms as well as in pure form.

Just like the indigenous people of the Sertão (steppe in north-eastern Brazil), the Catimbó were also “catalogued” by the Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas in the late 1930s. In this decade the first records of the Jurema began in the Catimbó in the coastal region of the northeast (Cascudo 1937) until they reached their monographic form in the 1970s (Vandezande 1975). Only in the late 1970s and in a more strictly scientific form since the 2000s was the Catimbó recorded in writing. Centuries-old traditions and the development of Catimbós in the Christian-shamanic context have largely been lost. And the few briefs are strongly colored by missionary intentions and the Christian world view of the time.

The origin of the Catimbós in Alhandra

Although Jurema Indian shamanism is certainly much older than Brazil (in the sense of its "discovery" by Pedro Álvarez Cabral), it is commonly defined and assumed that the Catimbó received its formal structure in the region of Alhandra on the southern coast of Paraíba. This is since a publicly legitimized Indian settlement arose there for the first time, which - under the cloak of Christian syncretism - united and practiced the remaining traditions.

Skilled Juremeiros expelled from the Tabajaras Indian village's Aratagui ethnic background were responsible for designing the Mesas de Catimbó (the rituals) - particularly the relatives of Inácio Gonçalves de Barros, the last Indian regent in that village. As mentioned elsewhere (Grünewald 2005b), Inácio had an AmerIndian sister, Maria Gonçalves de Barros (known as Maria do Acais), whom he taught to prepare the Jurema. Inácio also had a daughter, Maria Eugênia Gonçalves de Barros, also known as Maria do Acais (nicknamed "Maria do Acais a Segunda, the Second" by her family members). According to Salles (2010), this second Maria do Acais operated between Alhandra and Recife, a coastal region from which the Catimbó developed and spread.

According to Barros (2011), "the practice of the Northeastern Jurema, also known as Catimbó, is the result of a long process of admixture that took place as a result of contact between AmerIndians, Europeans and Africans". According to this author, the Aratagui indigenous settlement was consolidated at the beginning of the 17th century. As part of the "Pombaline policy" (Marques de Pombal) in 1765 "the settlement of Aratagui was raised to the status of a village under the name of Alhandra. As a result of this process, Indians of different ethnicities were gathered in the same territorial space” (ibid.). According to Salles (2010), many of these Indians were brought from the interior of the country, i.e., from the hinterland of the northeast (especially Paraíba and Pernambuco), where the Jurema has always been widely used among the indigenous people.

From the land redistribution carried out there, according to Salles, came the possessions of Estiva and Acais in Alhandra, where the Catimbó-Jurema emerged from the family of Inácio Gonçalves de Barros. This place is so important in the mythical universe of the Jurema cult that in the last decade a process aimed at having this place declared a cultural heritage has started. In fact, this process was not without conflicts.

The positive decision of the IPHAEP came in November 2009. However, the Juremeiros from Alhandra see no legitimacy for their tradition among the representatives of the Afro-Brazilian spiritualist centers of the Umbanda. Even if the influence of the Umbanda had a positive effect on the recognition of the Catimbós, and even if the mixing of the two traditions is unstoppable, the Juremeiros from Alhandra see their tradition as distinct and independent.

At the origin of the Catimbó, it worked with so-called Masters who were invoked by the songs sung in rituals in which the Jurema was consumed with the help of princes (glasses) and princesses (porcelain bowls). The maraca (rattle made from a gourd and seeds) and the pipe were used to perform the ritual. Alcoholic beverages were served to the incorporated Masters (Grünewald 2005b).

For Bastide (who wrote a great deal about the Candomblé in the Northeast), Catimbó (or cachimbó) would be 'the ancient festival of Jurema', created by the 'lower classes of the Northeast' (Bastide 1945: 205). For this author, it would be the capture of the Jurema that would allow the Juremeiros to "travel through the world of the supernatural, conceived as another natural world, with its enchanted beings, divided into states, and these in turn into Cities.” (ibid.: 208). In this enchanted world, according to Cascudo (1937), there would be kingdoms alongside villages, cities, and states.

It is noteworthy that the power of the Catimbó to lead the person into the world of enchantments was always attributed to the Jurema, yet not only the drink would possess this power, but the spiritual attitude of the individual that would empower him to enter the unseen world to penetrate would be of fundamental importance (Grünewald 2005b; Salles 2010). "Scholars" from the first half of the 20th century attributed the dominance of European witchcraft to the Catimbó (Cascudo 1978). Nonetheless, albeit with mixed cosmology, the tradition is clearly preceded and clearly recognizable by indigenous origins.

As for the mythical cities of the Jurema, these are the dwelling places of the Juremeiro Masters, whose “lives in the spiritual world”, according to Lima Segundo (2015), “are linked to the very existence of the tree”. Therefore, rural areas with the presence of the Juremeiras (Jurema trees) associated with certain Masters are something important for the strength of religiosity. In fact, as with the Northeastern aborigines, Juremal refers not only to a place with a dense concentration of Juremeiras, but on the cosmological level to a place (city or kingdom) on the invisible plane where Masters and other beings reside (here especially at indigenous peoples). In this sense Lima Segundo, following Mircea Eliade's suggestion, articulates the Jurema with the archetype of the “cosmic tree” that connects man with his mythical truths (ibid.: 56). Finally, for Salles (2010), the Jurema as “the “city” of the Master, his “science” (“ciência”), is “the greatest symbol of the cult” (Salles 2010: 17-18). As with the native peoples of the Northeast, the concept of science appears complexly as a central part of this mystical tradition.

In the 1930s, police repression against Juremeiros became nationally consolidated and lasted until the 1960s, a period in which the religious actors continued to follow and live out their beliefs and rituals in a very discreet way. In fact, their places of worship have been regularly destroyed over the years of persecution by Catimbó devotees. In 1966, the governor of Paraíba enacted a law regulating spaces for the "practice of African cults in Paraíba“ but indicating that such religious practices are subordinate to the Federation of African Cults of the State of Paraíba (Federação dos Cultos Africanos do Estado da Paraíba). should be responsible for regulating their activities (Lima Segundo, 2015: 71).

With the prerogative of religious liberty granted to the Umbanda (as had already happened in other states), this tradition greatly advanced over the Juremeiros. Motta (2005) describes this development in three stages as a "process of cultural accumulation" in the Catimbó. The first of these would be "connected with the introduction of the Master figure and magical techniques of European origin" (Motta, 2005: 285). The second phase would correspond to an influence of Kardecist spiritualism, which encoded a "popular mediumism" even before Umbanda was founded. The latter would refer to the influence of the "Afro-Carioca" religions (from Rio de Janeiro, the center of the "new" Umbanda), which caused significant changes in the Catimbó - through changes or innovations in rituals, with additions in styles, musical instruments and rituals, animal sacrifices, supernatural beings (such as the Exus), etc. - aspects hitherto unknown to the Juremeiros, who only offered the Masters cachaça (sugar cane liquor) or cigarettes.

The restructuring, adaptation of the Catimbós was a way for the Jurema to find legitimacy in a new political, social, and territorial context. Umbanda is a characteristic urban religion and, in these spaces, the Jurema conquered its place. It is no longer the trees, but parts of their trunks, that are placed in special rooms (altars), mostly Pejis, where they are consecrated like living plants. In this way, according to Lima Segundo, "Today, under the influence of Umbanda throughout the Jurema religious area, the cities of Jurema as the home of the Masters are now represented by the Pejís of Jurema, where the tribes are placed". (Lima Segundo 2015).

Thus, today the term Jurema, in its most elementary or primal form, but also in the most varied configurations resulting from its Umbanda embrace, with all its characteristic plasticity, is used as a synonym for many of these religious expressions. The same Catimbós that are still hardly practiced in small houses, as well as various forms of Umbanda in the Northeast, are given the generic name Jurema. Within these Umbanda houses (or "Jurema") there are rooms for Jurema-specific cults and rituals, often as in the classic mesas de Catimbó, working for the Masters summoned from their cities to deal with the earthly supplicants to interact.

This is the case with the "Jurema Arriada" or "Jurema de Chão" (Jurema of the Ground); Ritual in which the participants sit on stools, and, with their maracas and pipes, the Masters of their mythical cities work based on the science of “ciência dos pontos riscados” (magical symbols drawn on the ground) and other elements.

The mixing of Catimbó and Umbanda enabled the tradition to legitimize and expand - at the expense of gutting and sometimes a certain arbitrariness in urban implementation.

Kingdom of Acaes – Reino dos Acaes

The little city of Acais is the starting point for what is known today as Catimbó. Following, the birth story from the first house of Jurema as told bei Andrade Junior.

The Indians have always been gaps in the historiography of Paraíba, so making a history that goes back to an indigenous village on the coast of Paraíba is not easy, as there is little information and what exists is incomplete and often contradictory. When trying to build the History of Vila de Alhandra, we start from the idea that the Indian is the reason for its elevation to the first Vila da Paraíba, becoming the main part of this plot. However, the reconstruction of the history of this people is done in the retelling of stories and in the analysis of discourses, to understand these first inhabitants of the territory that today corresponds to Paraíba.

In Paraíba, the estimated population, in the 16th century, was 100 thousand Indians (MELO, 1999). On the coast lived the Indians belonging to the Tupis Tribe, who were divided into two large groups, the Tabajaras and the Potiguaras. In the interior region, along the Peixe, Paraíba and Piancó rivers, the Nação dos Kariris was present, which had a wide variety of tribes, while in the hinterland, Seridó, Curimataú and part of the Kariris Velhos, the group of the Tarairús. This information comes from José Elias Barbosa (1984), one of the few to speak of the existence of the Tarairú group in Paraíba.

The Indians who lived in the territory of the current state of Paraíba lived from hunting, fishing, and gathering, practicing a primitive agriculture, basically of manioc, corn, tobacco, and cotton. Most of them were nomads and their social organization was:

… in the form of tribes, made up of several villages, which brought together individuals for some type of work or war. The organization of work was based on the sex and age of the members of the group […] The women took care of all the tasks related to the maintenance of the village and the production of food for the people who lived in it. […] The men they prepared the land for planting, clearing the forest, burning, and clearing the stumps. They also hunted, fished, made weapons, and built houses and canoes. (CAVALCANTI. 1996, p. 20)

It is worth noting that all work was collective, as was the distribution of everything they produced. Children were inserted into village life, accompanying adults in their tasks. As for traditions, these were passed on orally from generation to generation, so the importance of the elders was of great relevance, as they were responsible for transmitting customs, traditions, rituals, for maintaining indigenous culture (Op. cit.., p. 20). This is a little, albeit superficial, of what we can know today about these peoples who lived here before the arrival of the colonizers, because from the arrival of these, nothing would be like before, the contact of these different cultures, changed not only the lives of the Indians, but also the very life of the European.

With the arrival of the Portuguese, the life of the natives did not change, at first, because at first the colonizers only exploited pau-brasil, using indigenous labor, through the well-known barter. However, when the Portuguese decide to populate these lands and implement agriculture, things start to take other directions and the Indians begin to suffer interdictions in their culture in the most varied ways.

When the Portuguese realized, as early as 1534, that sporadic expeditions were not enough, and the exploitation of pau-brasil was not enough to ensure their possession, they found that only settlement would guarantee greater income and avoid the loss of territory to other European powers. Brazil was thus divided into hereditary captaincies. The conquest and occupation of the territory of Paraíba began when the Captaincy of Itamaracá was created, which extended from the Santa Cruz River, today Igaraçu - PE, to the Baía da Traição, donated to Pero Lopes de Souza. However, Paraíba will continue to be an area little cared for by the Portuguese, where conflicts between natives and colonizers will be constant, especially the Potiguaras who have always been quite hostile to the Portuguese.

In 1574, by a Royal Decree, Paraíba was dismembered from Itamaracá, creating the Royal Captaincy of Paraíba, whose limits ranged from the Abiaí River to Baia da Traição (SILVEIRA, 1999). The conquest of Paraíba was only consolidated in 1585, with the foundation of the city of Nossa Senhora das Neves (currently João Pessoa), after eleven years of expeditions and countless bloody battles between settlers and local natives. The Potiguaras allied with the French did not facilitate the action of the Portuguese colonists in these lands. The act considered the founding of Paraíba was an alliance celebrated between the Portuguese and the Tabajaras Indians, whose well-known characters of this fact are João Tavares and Piragibe.

As happened throughout Brazil, after the definitive conquest of the lands of Paraíba by the Portuguese, missionary villages were created, such as Jacoca (current city of Conde) and Arataguis (current city of Alhandra). In the missions, the Indians were under the care of religious, who dressed according to Christian ideals led the Indians to practice “good customs”, teaching moral and religious education. The Indian was seen as the one to be saved, as they considered them as the “poor little ones” who did not know the truth, it was the duty of the priests to show them the way to heaven. The European and Christian mentality of the time did not understand or accept the different.

In this sense, indigenous culture was seen as something that needed to be overcome by Catholic ideas, with the Jesuits being the first missionary priests to be in Paraíba. According to Wilson Seixas (1979), the Jesuit priests Simão Travassos, Jerônimo Machado and Baltazar Lopes founded residence in the region, beginning the practices that were involved in the catechesis of the Indians located in the villages both on the coast and in the sertão. With the arrival of the Franciscans, who also began to occupy themselves with the services of catechization in the villages, conflicts arose. The Jesuits were eventually expelled from the Captaincy, in 1593, by the then governor of Paraíba, Feliciano Coelho de Carvalho, leaving the Franciscans to carry out all the missionary work in the region.

…after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the devotion and the number of Christians grew a lot in the captaincy, driven by the great trust they had in the Franciscan priests on whom the weight of many services in the villages fell, so much so that they came to be considered as the best helpers in conversion moral and religious life among the Indians and residents. (SEIXAS, 1979. p. 47)

For Seixas (1979) the Franciscans were better at indigenous catechization than the Jesuits, and they even held the affection of the natives of the region. In this naive speech, it seems that there were no conflicts or resistance on the part of the Indians, since behind this conflict between Jesuits and Franciscans there was a greater interest, that of the colonists for indigenous labor, which ended up triggering enslavement.

The Franciscans built churches and convents in the villages, with the intention of exerting a greater presence and, therefore, control over the Indians. This is how the church of Alhandra was founded with the invocation of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, one of the first to be built in 1740. Under a rural baroque style, the church of Nossa Senhora de Assunção has already undergone many alterations, but still retains much of its original architecture. Associated with this, there was the construction of the church and the convent by the Indians themselves, which corroborated the displacement of their culture and religion, through the vision and institution of the Christian god. From this perspective, we have that “In Paraíba, the tabas were being emptied, turning into missionary villages, manipulated by few religious people… The colonialist policy was to mix Indians from different tribes and nations…” (MELO, 1999, p. 201). The author reinforces the concept already discussed that the villages, in Paraíba, became the responsibility of the religious, where the colonialist policy mixed different villages and indigenous nations, demonstrating that whenever a new village was conquered by the whites, it was taken to another place. , this already space of tamed Indians.