Photos: The Worshippers of the Valley of the Dawn

Alan Taylor
May 1, 2019
18 Photos
In Focus

Every year on May 1, members of the Vale do Amanhecer spiritual community in Brazil gather for their biggest ceremony of the year, the Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator. The religion known as Vale do Amanhecer (or Valley of the Dawn, or, officially, Social Works of the Christian Spiritualist Order) was founded in 1959 by a charismatic woman known as Tia Neiva. Neiva had been working as a truck driver in Brasilia when she began to experience visions of spirits and extraterrestrial beings that she said imparted lessons to her. The spiritual group she began with her partner, Mario Sassi, grew into a community of thousands of mediums who claim to communicate with spirits, and it combines doctrines and symbolism from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Incan and Afro-Brazilian religions; ancient-Egyptian concepts; and a belief in extraterrestrial life, intergalactic travel, and reincarnation. Members of the movement claim to have hundreds of thousands of adherents worldwide who attend temples located in Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

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Nymphs, female devotees of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community, pray during their biggest ceremony of the year at their temple complex in Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn), a community on the outskirts of Planaltina, 50 kilometers from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, on May 1, 2019. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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A rainbow appears above the temple complex of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community in Brazil on April 21, 2019. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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An Egyptian-style pyramid stands in the temple complex in Vale do Amanhecer on December 31, 2018. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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A worshipper attends Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator annual celebrations in the Vale do Amanhecer community in the Planaltina neighborhood of Brasilia on May 1, 2017. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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Vale do Amanhecer worshippers attend Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations on May 1, 2017. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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Vale do Amanhecer devotees pray to Pai Seta Branca (Father White Arrow), a pre-Columbian native, at their temple complex on December 29, 2018. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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Faithfuls pray in a temple in Vale do Amanhecer on April 29, 2013. #

Evaristo Sa / AFP / Getty

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An image of the goddess Mother Yara stands in a temple during an annual gathering that celebrates the religious doctrine of the Sunrise Order (another name for Vale do Amanhecer) on May 1, 2014. #

Eraldo Peres / AP

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A nymph, a member of the Sunrise Order, takes part in a ceremony near Brasilia on December 20, 2002. #

Eraldo Peres / AP

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A worshipper attends Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations on May 1, 2014. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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Faithfuls gather during Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations in the Vale do Amanhecer community on May 1, 2014. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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Young female members known as ninfas gather for the annual meeting of the Sunrise Order on May 1, 2014. #

Eraldo Peres / AP

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A nymph, a female devotee of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community, walks to a ceremony at the group's temple complex on December 29, 2018. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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Worshippers attend Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations at the temple complex of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community on May 1, 2014. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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A boy looks out over a lake at sunset in Vale do Amanhecer, Brazil, on April 30, 2019. #

Carl De Souza / AFP / Getty

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Devotees attend Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations on May 1, 2017. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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Worshippers walk through the temple complex on May 1, 2017. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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A worshipper attends Day of the Spiritual Indoctrinator celebrations in the Vale do Amanhecer community in the Planaltina neighborhood of Brasilia on May 1, 2014. #

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

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