Whirling dervishes
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Email24.02.2011
In a recent visit to Turkey I was privileged to witness a “Whirling Dervishes” ceremony at a 13th century caravanserai in Saruhan, Cappadocia. Caravanserai are large fortified buildings which were once safe resting places along the Silk Road and other routes.
The ceremony began slowly in an inner room with the quiet, unostentatious procession of the dancers and musicians on to the darkened dance floor area, taking their initial positions seated on the floor.
The formal ceremony included prayer in which the dancers ultimately aimed to represent a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through love, relinquishing their ego in order to find truth and unity with God. The Sufi philosophy behind the ceremony is that the fundamental condition of all existence down to the tiniest atom is one of revolving in space.
The whirling dervishes engage their minds to participate in this mostly unconscious revolution of all beings. They aim to discern the “universal movement” of creation as they raise their hands upwards and start to turn around on their own axis. As they begin to whirl each dancer has one hand facing upwards to receive God’s love and the other hand facing down to return this love to the world.
The almost mournful-like music of the reed flute reminded me of the plaintive tone of the Japanese shakuhachi and it signifies breathing the Divine Breath of the Spirit into the universe. I sensed a strong Asian flavor in the initial ritual salutes or bowing, in the formal way in which the outer cloaks were removed, and in the respectful tone of the well -practised rituals. The leader did not participate in the whirling but monitored the movements.
There was a slow respectful rhythm in the structure of the dance and I reflected on the significance of often unnoticed rituals in our lives.
Our world today seems to value a much more instant and fast moving pace of life. The dancers aim to achieve an emotional ecstasy in an overflow of religious feeling but the pattern of the steps themselves struck me as well-practised and very much part of a ritual.
The founder of this mystic Sufi order popularly known as “Whirling Dervishes” was the revered poet Mawlana Jalaladdin Muhammad Rumi. For Rumi the rapture and attraction of all existence is due to the hidden attraction to the Divine.
Although he died 800 years ago his poetry still inspires people throughout the world to contemplate the creation of the universe and to desert their false self and all illusion on their journey to perfection and unity with God.
Fr Brian Vale was a missionary in Japan. He now works at the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations at the Columban Mission Institute, Strathfield, NSW.
Read more from The Far East, January/February 2011
