SEMA SPACE
ESPACE SEMA
SUFI WHIRLING MEDITATION Est.2014
Tiohtià:ke/Montréal QC Canada
THE FUTURE IS ANCIENT
Sema means mystic audition and movement. Join this monthly gathering to practice Sufi whirling alongside ancient poetry and music. It is a powerful, challenging and ecstatic meditation based on the teachings of Hz Mevlana Rumi, the Rifa’i-Marufi and Mevlevi Sufi orders, and the shamanic beyond. The future is ancient. The music is live. Come with passion, patience, comfortable clothing and good socks. Eat lightly beforehand. By donation.
With destur (permission) from Rifa'i-Marufi Sheikh Sherif Baba Çhatalkaya of Türkiye.
Ashk olsun
Tawhida Tanya Evanson has been a student of Tasawwuf for twenty five years with Turkish Rifa'i-Marufi Sheikh Sherif Baba Chatalkaya and Canadian Semazenbashi (sema master) Raqib Brian Burke. She has presented sema at hundreds of public events across North America, Europe and Asia with the Vancouver Rumi Society, Rumi Canada and music groups Mercan Dede (Türkiye) and Niyaz (Iran-US), among others.
Everything in the universe turns - planets around a sun, Earth on its axis, wind in the trees, the protons, electrons and neutrons in our body. The whirling dervish engages in sema (listening, turning) to align with this essential, cosmic movement.
Sema is an active meditation; a prayer during which a dervish's body can open to channel the Invisible Divine. "Dervish" literally means "doorway" and is thought to be a portal between the material world and the spiritual world, the conscious and unconscious. In order to open this portal, the dervish attempts to be empty of ego or sense of self. Whirling in place with one symbolic palm extended upward to receive and one extended downward to give, the dervish does not attempt to hold onto energy but to be a vessel for it to pass into the hearts of others. Sema is an open secret - the whirling dervish tries to get out of the way to reveal it. But as in any type of meditation, it is a struggle.
Ashk olsun
The origin of the Turkish Sufi Mevlevi whirling ritual lies with Persian mystic philosopher and poet Hz Mevlana Jalaladdin Rumi (1207-1273). It is said that Mevlana began whirling out of longing after the disappearance of his beloved teacher Shams-i Tabrizi.
Mevlana's son formalized the Mevlevi Dervish Order in 13th century Anatolia. The Mevlevi's ritualized the practice of whirling as meditation, but whirling has ancient animist and shamanic roots from across Africa and Asia. Whirling also occurs in indigenous ritual dance and prayer worldwide and is currently practiced in both ancient, modern and post-modern forms. It is considered a universal symbol of peace.
Whirling yields benefits on many levels for practitioners:
. Access to deep states of meditation . Sensitivity to others
. States of ecstasy . Intense workout at advanced levels
. Stamina . Patience . Balance . Flexibility
Ashk olsun
