The sung word in the rituals of the União do Vegetal (UDV)

a study of oral poetics

Abstract

Composing a broader research, the present article intends to study the oral poetics present in the rituals of the Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal (CEBUDV), from the use of “lato sensu music”. This subject, although of interest to the academic world, “has received little attention in the literature so far” (LABATE & PACHECO, 2009, p. 14). Thus, music and religious experience instigate this work, focusing on the União do Vegetal, which is a religion with a reincarnationist Christian foundation, created in the Amazon rainforest, by José Gabriel da Costa, who uses in his rituals a Tea called Hoasca, also called Vegetable, considered sacred by its adherents (other religions or groups that make use of this drink call it Ayahuasca, a term that has become popular in academia and the media). Under the influence of this tea, during the rituals, the participants of the Vegetal sessions enter an expanded state of consciousness in which they can have the opportunity to receive revelations, through mirations or a deep dive into memory, possible to bring about transformations in their lives. These rituals are organized, since the origin of this institution, in order to privilege the oral tradition, seeking to “develop memory”. In this context, music is present, forming an anthology of this religion, either through the Chamadas - a native category that designates a kind of sacred chants evoked during the rituals -, or through a careful selection of some songs from the Brazilian popular universe. To assist in this endeavor, the ideas of Edil Silva Costa, Hampate BA, Paul Zumthor, Jean-Noël Pelen, among others that make up this vast epistemology on oral poetics and Ayahuasqueira religions will be used as a theoretical basis.