ABSTRACT
Chronologically, the Unio do Vegetal or Union of the Vegetal (UDV), is known is the third ayahuasca religion to appear in Brazil. The UDV began in the early 1960s in a region near to what is now the state of Rondnia. It was created by Jos Gabriel da Costa or Mestre Gabriel, as he is called by followers. Mestre Gabriel joined the Rubber Army in 1943. He transferred to the Amazon and became a part of the mass of North-eastern laborers who were migrating into the region to join the rubber industry at that time. The case of the devotion to the saints Cosmas and Damian is not an isolated incident, since the UDV ritual calendar adopts other devotions and dates from Catholicism: the dates dedicated to the Three Kings, Christmas, and the Resurrection of Christ. The expansion of Kardecism also occurred in the Brazilian Amazon region.
