The Symbols of the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi Order*

The Symbols of the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevlevi Order*

The divine may be experienced through a variety of means. In various global spiritual traditions, these include prayer, meditation on sacred texts, participation in religious ceremonies and going on pilgrimages. There are other means of achieving a religious experience that are perhaps not so common in the Western world. One of these is through the medium of dance, the most famous of which may be the incredible whirling dance practiced by the Sufi dervishes of the Mevlevi Order.

The Mevlevi Order was founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi (popularly referred to as Rumi) in 1273. Rumi was a 13th century Islamic spiritual leader who was born in 1207 in Balkh in present day Afghanistan. With the onset of the Mongol invasion of Central Asia between 1215 and 1220, Rumi’s family journeyed westwards, eventually settling down in Konya, Anatolia, in present day Turkey.

One of Rumi’s most fruitful friendships was with Shams-e Tabrizi, whom he met at the age of 37. Among other things, Shams had introduced Rumi to music, poetry and dance as a mystical way of connecting with the divine. It is these artistic expressions that are the characteristic features of the whirling dervishes of the Mevlevi Order, which was founded after Rumi’s death by his son, Sultan Veled, his disciple Çelebi Hüsamettin, and his grandson Ulu Arif Çelebi.

The Mevlevi Sema ceremony is arguably the Order’s most distinct practice, and is said to have been created by Rumi himself. Its form, however, was only finalized sometime in the 15^th century by one of Rumi’s great-grandsons, Pir Adil Çelebi. The Mevlevi Order became a respected school of Sufism (the esoteric dimension of Islam). Moreover, a blood relation was formed between the Order and the Ottoman imperial dynasty when one of Rumi’s descendants, Devlet Hatun, married Sultan Bayezid I.

Although the Mevlevi Order was occasionally criticized for holding heretical ideas, it was still highly regarded by both the Ottoman sultans and the common people.

Whirling dervishes in Galata Mawlawi House (Ottoman Empire), 1870

Whirling dervishes in Galata Mawlawi House (Ottoman Empire), 1870.

In 1925, the Mevlevi Order was outlawed in the newly formed Republic of Turkey as part of its plans for the secularization of the country. In the 1950s, the ban was eased, and the Sema was allowed to be performed in public in order to attract tourists to Turkey. In the 1990s, the ban was further eased, and the Sema was inscribed in UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

Despite now largely being a cultural performance for tourists, the Sema is imbued with religious meaning, and a greater appreciation for the dance may be achieved by exploring these symbolisms. For instance, the semazen’s (a person performing the Sema) camel hair hat represents the tombstone of the ego, while the white skirt symbolizes the ego’s shroud. When the semazen removes his black cloak, it is meant to signify his spiritual rebirth into the truth. Additionally, when the semazen crosses his arms over his chest, he represents the number one and testifies to God’s unity.

The dance begins with the singing of the Nat-i Serif, a eulogy to the Prophet Muhammad and all the Prophets before him. This is followed by a drumbeat symbolizing God’s command ‘Be’ for the creation of the universe. After this is the Taksim, an improvisation on the reed flute meant to express the life-giving breath of God.

The Taksim is followed by the Derv-i Veled (‘Sultan Veled procession), in which the semazen make a circular, anti-clockwise procession thrice around the turning space. The semazen greet each other thrice, representing the three stages of knowledge: knowledge gained from others or through study, knowledge gained through one’s observations and knowledge gained through direct experience.

After the procession, the semazen begins the Sema, which consists of four selams or musical movements. Each selam has its own distinct rhythm, and explores different religious themes. The semazen opens both arms to the sides and revolves from right to left, expressing his embrace of the entire universe. With an open palm, the semazen’s right had is then extended upwards, thus indicating his reception of God’s beneficence. As for the left hand, it is extended downwards to indicate the distribution of these divine gifts to all mankind.

Contrary to popular belief, the semazen do not aim at losing consciousness or falling into a state of ecstasy. Rather, the Sema is meant to help the semazen to completely submit himself to God, and unite with him. When the four selams are completed, a verse from the Qur’an is recited, followed by a prayer for the repose of the souls of all the Prophets and all believers. The semazen then retire silently to their rooms for further meditation.

This divine dance is well recognized the world over as a renowned symbol, an amazing performance, and unique spiritual tradition.

Source*

Related Topics:

Transformation: Lessons from Rumi*

Dance of the Heart

Huseyni Makami Taksim

The Japanese Dance of the Pleiades

Demonizing Teachers, Privatizing Schools: The Big Lies for Big Plans*

Demonizing Teachers, Privatizing Schools: The Big Lies for Big Plans*

By Bruce A. Dixon

Should we be wondering if the prosecution of cheating Atlanta teachers for racketeering was racist? Or should black parents and educators be leading a movement against high-stakes standardized testing as the gateway tool to privatizing public education in black and brown communities across the country?

When drama queen Fulton County judge Jerry Baxter demanded public post-conviction apologies from Atlanta teachers already convicted of racketeering lest he hand them double digit sentences, it struck raw nerves in parts of black America. Black pastors and community leaders called press conferences. They held rallies and issued stern statements. They denounced the judge for making “common criminals” out of black teachers. Inevitably, they wondered whether white teachers would have been prosecuted or subjected to post-conviction humiliation of this kind.

They’re asking the wrong question. What they ought to ask is why the teacher perp walk is being served up in the first place. They need to ask who profits from the continuing crisis in public education in black and brown communities? The answers are not hard to find.

The whole thing, from the indictment of Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Beverly Hall, who died before the trial was complete, to the posturing of public officials and corporate media about “cheating the children” is the latest act of a long, long fake crisis. Judge Baxter’s histrionics too, in which he called the cheating scandal

“the sickest thing that’s ever happened to Atlanta,”

were a great contribution to the story our billionaire-owned media wants to paint about public education.

The one-percenters need us to believe public education in our communities is some new kind of sewer infested with incompetent teachers who are cheating children and the public every week they draw paychecks. The long, long crisis of public education has been designed, engineered and provoked by powerful bipartisan forces to justify their long game, which is the privatization of public education. That’s the Big Plan.

Since at least 2001, when George W. Bush’s conservative Republicans teamed up with Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s liberal Democrats to pass and implement the No Child Left Behind Act, it’s been the policy of both capitalist parties implemented by the federal Department of Education to create, to provoke and to exacerbate a phony educational crisis. This program of crisis-creation has been backed by Wall Street, by banksters and hedge fund types, by giant corporations like Wal-Mart and powerful right wing interest groups like the US Chamber of Commerce as well as the so-called philanthropic tentacles of corporate America like the Gates, Broad, Heritage and Walton Family Foundations. The solution to the fake crisis has been the whole industry of testing experts, turnaround consultants, diploma mills for fake principals, lucrative charter school companies and their contractors, and the private but government sanctioned agencies that rate school districts. Even the agencies that rate school districts are staffed by the same “run the school like a business” experts approved by the US Chamber of Commerce who were employed to write President Obama’s Race to the Top program, which punishes school districts that don’t privatize or implement “run the school like a business ‘reforms’” fast enough.

High stakes standardized testing, like the tests educators cheated on in Atlanta, is an essential tool in provoking the crisis, but it’s a big lie. These kinds of tests don’t reflect student progress or teacher competency. They track to family income, and family income in the US correlates largely to race. So as Glen Ford put it back in 2012

“The standardized tests were bombs, designed to explode the public schools and the teaching profession. Everyone involved knew that inner city kids would fail the tests in huge numbers, setting the infernal machine in motion for the closing of schools and the wholesale firing of teachers…”

The bombs were planted not just in Atlanta, but in thousands of school districts across the nation, with predictable results. A 2012 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that the same suspicious patterns of radical test score improvement seen in Atlanta could be found in more than 200 school districts across the country, from Philly to Portland, and from Alaska to Alabama. Clearly, cheating teachers and principals in Georgia were and likely still are doing the same things the same way as their colleagues across the country.

It’s also very true that Atlanta’s teachers were singled out. Other teachers in other states were merely stripped of their jobs and professional licenses. Teach For America alums Michelle Rhee and Kayla Henderson both headed Washington DC’s public schools when massive cheating scandals occurred, but unlike Atlanta’s Beverly Hall, neither they nor their subordinates are in any danger of prosecution. Atlanta on the other hand, is closely associated with the notion of African Americans running big cities, so making the example of black educators in Atlanta makes perfect political sense for those orchestrating the crisis. Still we shouldn’t feel too sorry for the Atlanta teachers. Beverly Hall turned big chunks of Atlanta’s public schools over to privatizers, and even helped divert $140 million a year for more than 20 years away from Atlanta’s public school children to line the pockets of developers and gentrifiers in a lucrative boondoggle Atlantans know as “the Beltline.”

If the black political class and black educators really stood for the interests of their students and communities they would be educating black parents and students across the country about their right to opt out of tests that serve no legitimate educational purpose, as teachers in Chicago and Seattle are already doing.

But that’s problematic too. Opposing standardized testing would place the black political class in conflict not with the slippery nebulous demons of institutional racism, but biting some of the very real and easy-to-find hands in corporate America that feed it. Taking issue with standardized testing, Common Core and the drive to privatize education would put black educators in opposition to corporate America, to the Gates, Walton Family (Wal-Mart), Eli Broad and other foundations, and to Republicans and Democrats including President Obama and Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education. This is not an easy thing to do when national black “civil rights” organizations from the National Action Network and the National Urban League have eagerly accepted corporate-engineered school reform with corporate dollars, and President Obama is deeply beholden to the charter school sugar daddies.

So it looks like we can count on our black political class to stick to the script on the Atlanta teachers cheating scandal. They’ll talk about whether the prosecution was racist, and they’ll wring self-righteous hands over teachers “cheating the children.” But they won’t question those who set up the rigged game of high stakes testing or why.

Source*

Related Topics:

U.K. Bleeding the Teaching Profession Dry*

The Pressure Cooker under Baltimore*

Obama Anaesthetizing Black Resistance*

The Fight against Corporate Education Reform is Just Beginning*

Thousands of Students Boycott Common Core Testing*

The “War on Cash” Migrates to Switzerland*

The “War on Cash” Migrates to Switzerland*

By Pater Tenebrarum

The war on cash is proliferating globally. It appears that the private members of the world’s banking cartels are increasingly joining the fun, even if it means trampling on the rights of their customers.

Yesterday we came across an article at Zerohedge, in which Dr. Salerno of the Mises Institute notes that JP Morgan Chase has apparently joined the “war on cash”, by

“restricting the use of cash in selected markets, restricting borrowers from making cash payments on credit cards, mortgages, equity lines and auto loans, as well as prohibiting storage of cash in safe deposit boxes”.

This reminded us immediately that we have just come across another small article in the local European press (courtesy of Dan Popescu), in which a Swiss pension fund manager discusses his plight with the SNB’s bizarre negative interest rate policy. In Switzerland this policy has long ago led to negative deposit rates at the commercial banks as well. The difference to other jurisdictions is however that negative interest rates have become so pronounced, that it is by now worth it to simply withdraw one’s cash and put it into an insured vault.

Having realized this, said pension fund manager, after calculating that he would save at least 25,000 CHF per year on every CHF 10 m. deposit by putting the cash into a vault, told his bank that he was about to make a rather big withdrawal very soon. After all, as a pension fund manager he has a fiduciary duty to his clients, and if he can save money based on a technicality, he has to do it.

A Legally Murky Situation – but Collectivism Wins Out

What happened next is truly stunning. Surely everybody is aware that Switzerland regularly makes it to the top three on the list of countries with the highest degree of economic freedom. At the same time, it has a central bank whose board members are wedded to Keynesian nostrums similar to those of other central banks. This is no wonder, as nowadays, economists are trained in an academic environment that is dripping with the most vicious statism imaginable. As a result, withdrawing one’s cash is evidently regarded as “interference with the SNB’s monetary policy goals”. Thus SRF reports:

“Since the national bank has introduced negative interest rates, pension funds in the country are in trouble. Banks are passing the negative rates on to them. This results in the saved pension money shrinking, instead of producing a return. A number of pension funds are therefore thinking about keeping their money in an external vault instead of leaving it in bank accounts.

One fund manager showed that for every CHF 10 m. in pension money, his fund would save CHF 25,000 – in spite of the costs involved in vault rent, cash transportation and other expenses.

However, as our research team has found out, there is one bank that refuses to pay out money in such large amounts. The editorial team has gotten hold of a letter from a large Swiss bank in which it tells its customer, a pension fund

“We are sorry, that within the time period specified, no solution corresponding to your expectations could be found.”

Bank expert Hans Geiger says that this “is most definitely not legal”. The pension fund has a sight account, and has the contractual right to dispose of its money on demand.

Indeed, although we all know that fractionally reserved banks literally don’t have the money their customers hold in demand deposits, the contract states clearly that customers may withdraw their funds at any time on demand. The maturity of sight deposits is precisely zero.

So how come the unnamed “large bank” (they should have named it, just to see what happens…) is so bold as to break the law by refusing to pay out funds in a demand deposit? Note here that it is indeed breaking the law, as there is nothing in Swiss legislation that states that banks are allowed to refuse or delay servicing withdrawals from demand deposits upon request.

The answer is that it has probably received a “directive” from the Swiss National Bank. Note here that these directives are not legally binding. SFR further:

“The president of the pension funds association ASIP, Hanspeter Konrad, has been irritated for weeks that pension funds are suffering from negative interest rates. He says: “We simply cannot understand that the banks are butting in here”. Konrad suspects that the National Bank is exerting its influence.

Indeed, the SNB confirms that it doesn’t like to see the hoarding of cash to circumvent its negative interest rate policy. “The National Bank has therefore recommended to the banks to approach withdrawal demands in a restrictive manner.”

Hans Giger, professor eremitus at the University of Zurich, says to this that the question how far the SNB can go is legally complicated. While the SNB is not allowed to influence the contract between a bank and a pension fund, it can however “issue directives to the banks in the collective interest of the Swiss economy”. What banks do with the SNB’s directives is however up to them.

In other words, large depositors in Swiss banks have now become victims of collectivism. Collectivism is of course precisely what informs all central planning endeavors. Obviously, property rights count for nothing if the central planners can revoke them at the drop of a hat.

Conclusion

It is undoubtedly a huge red flag when in one of the countries considered to be a member of the “highest economic freedom in the world” club, commercial banks are suddenly refusing their customers access to their cash. This money doesn’t belong to the banks, and it doesn’t belong to the central bank either.

If this can happen in prosperous Switzerland, based on some nebulous notion of the “collective good”, which its unelected central planners can arbitrarily determine and base decisions upon, it can probably happen anywhere. Consider yourself warned. As the modern day fiat money system inevitably cruises toward its final denouement, individual rights will come increasingly under attack as the world’s ruling elites and centrally directed banking cartels begin to batten down the hatches.

Better continue stacking, and keep a pile of this within grabbing distance – after all, it can be purchased at a generous discount these days:

Source*

Related Topics:

Europe: Negative Interest has Banks Paying Borrowers*

More Banks Preventing Cash Withdrawals*

NWO: France Clamping Down on Cash in the Name of Terror*

Cash Banned in Louisiana*

Canadians Sued the Bank Of Canada & Won*

Lawsuit Forces Canada to Give Up its Privately owned Central Bank*

Iceland Wisens to Banksters Game with Plan to Remove Power of Commercial Banks to Create Money*

Saudi Blood Money for Mass Slaughter in Yemen*

Saudi Blood Money for Mass Slaughter in Yemen*

By Stephen Lendman

UN officials appealed for an immediate $274 million in desperately needed emergency humanitarian aid for Yemenis.

Saudi mass murderer/King Salman offered to contribute the entire amount – while he continues daily terror-bombing, targeting civilians and exacerbating a horrific humanitarian crisis.

Billions of dollars in aid are needed to address it. A small fraction of it barely scratches the surface.

Saudi oil wealth won’t restore lost lives. It won’t replace lost limbs. It won’t soothe traumatized children.

It won’t erase the agony of lost loved ones. It won’t stop US planned, orchestrated and directed Saudi-led aggression.

Yemen is being raped in plain sight. It’s being systematically ravaged and destroyed.

Perhaps 3,000 or more died so far in 25 days of fighting – over 85 alone in the past 24 hours in one Yemeni province alone.

Thousands have been seriously injured – many maimed for life, their limbs blown off by Saudi terror-bombing.

Many Yemenis have no access to healthcare. Untreated serious wounds may lead to death. Human suffering is extreme.

An entire country is under siege. On orders from Washington, land, sea and air blockade was imposed. US warships are involved enforcing it.

Nothing can get in or out without US or Saudi permission. On Saturday, fighting raged in most Yemeni governorates.

Saudi-led terror-bombing targeted Sanaa, Aden, Taiz, Marib, Saada, Shabwa, Lahj and other areas.

Yemen’s illegitimate government in exile rejected Iran’s four-point peace proposal on orders from Washington. It called for:

• warring parties agreeing to halt fighting;
• providing desperately needed humanitarian aid;
• initiating intra-Yemeni dialogue; and
• establishing unity governance with all parties participating.

It’s a sensible way to end conflict – to resolve differences between both sides diplomatically.

Obama wants war continued. He categorically rejects peace. He has lots more death and destruction in mind for Yemenis. He may not quit until he slaughters them all.

Tehran rejects accusations it’s aiding Houthis militarily. It very much wants to provide humanitarian aid. Blockade prevents it.

Yemeni tweets best explain ongoing nightmarish conditions.

“My life in #Yemen, no electricity, no water, no food, no security, no work. We’re dying every day,” said one.

“They’ve forgotten all about us,” said another.

“Children are extremely terrified,” a victim explained.

“After all of this is done. The Saudis better pay for PTSD treatment of 26 million Yemenis.”

“24 nights straight of heavy bombing. More than any human can take.”

“12:40AM and can hear neighborhood kids/women scream with each earth shaking bomb jets drop…never this intense since onset 3 W ago…”

“My little girl crying silently. Her tears and shaking body while I hug her tell alot.”

Saudis intend to continue daily terror-bombing without letup. Scores of ongoing sorties terrify Yemini civilians.

Saudi military spokesman General Ahmed al-Assiri said

“(w)e are not in a hurry…We have the time, and we have the capabilities.”

Tehran University Professor Mohammad Marandi said

“(a)s long as the Saudis are carrying out this shock-and-awe campaign against ordinary Yemenis, there’s really no hope for any sort of peace plan to work.”

“So the Iranians are waiting for the Saudis to run out of steam and to recognize the enormous mistake that they have made.”

Iran’s Security Council head Ali Shamkhani calls Saudi-led aggression a “historic mistake.” He warned of dire consequences for Riyadh, saying:

“The Saudi aggression against Yemen is against the UN Charter, against the principles of peaceful coexistence and against the legal tenets ruling the UN and aims to deviate the path of the Muslim world and wear off the internal power and capacities of the world of Islam.”

“Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia has made a big historical mistake, and this heresy will definitely have no end but loss and damage for them.”

Iranian General Ahme Reza Pourdastan believes Saudi aggression “will certainly fail.”

“The Saudi army is a hired (mercenary) army, and now that no bullets have been fired at it, we see the symptoms of defeat in them already…”

Washington is directly involved in ongoing fighting. It’s choosing targets to strike – including civilian ones.

Last Saturday, reports indicated one or more US warships fired cruise missiles on Yemeni sites.

They’ve done it several times before. Perhaps much more to come. Western media remain silent. They support what demands denunciation.

Millions of suffering Yemenis don’t matter. Imperial aims alone count. Yemen’s nightmare continues.

Obama’s latest atrocity threatens an entire nation with mass slaughter, destruction, overwhelming deprivation and unspeakable human suffering.

Source*

Related Topics:

Top 10 Ways Islamic Law Forbids Terrorism*

Zionist-Saudi Onslaught Reveals Civilian Casualties*

Barbarism and Aggression against Yemen Echoes of the 1930s*

Yemen: U.S. Backed Government Forced to Flee, but Will that Stop Them?*

Unholy Trinity United States-Israel- Saudi Arabia Sowing Discord amongst Muslims*Greater Israel”

Saudi Arabia Providing anti-Tank Missiles to Rebels in Syria*

DEBKA Report: Saudi, Egypt and Israel Orchestrated Palestinian Holocaust*

Requires the Breaking up of Existing Arab States*

Europe’s Population ‘Management’ Agenda in Yemen.

ISIS/L and European Neo-Nazis United under Pentagon’s 5th Generation Warfare*

Saving the Economy!? First Islamic Bank opens in Germany*

Saving the Economy!? First Islamic Bank opens in Germany*

Germany is to get its first fully operational Islamic bank on July 1. Opened by the Turkish finance group Kuveyt Turk it will provide Sharia compliant banking services.

“This new achievement will open vast areas of business and investment in Europe’s largest economies, as this is the first bank to obtain a full function license to take deposits and offer credit finance facilities in Germany as per Islamic rules and regulations,” Kuwait Finance House said in a statement on Thursday.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of the Turkish lender will be called KT Bank AG with its headquarters based in Frankfurt and branches in Cologne and Berlin. It will serve Germany’s 4 million Muslims but also plans to expand its services throughout Europe.

“Our market research has shown, that 21% of Muslims in this country would see an Islamic bank as their natural household bank,” Kuveyt Turk’s managing director Kemal Ozan was cited as saying by Deutsche Welle.

The bank will operate under the principles of Islamic Sharia law, under which it can’t participate in speculative ventures or investments, can’t charge interest on loans, based on the Islamic teaching that a Muslim may not benefit from lending money or receiving money from someone else. Islamic banks, however, may still purchase assets and resell them for a profit. Sharia law also forbids investment in industries like gambling, alcohol or pornography. Islamic banks tend to stay away from companies with debts amounting to more than 30% of their value.

Islamic banking is growing faster in Britain and France than in many Islamic countries in the Middle East and Asia. Britain remains Europe’s main Islamic finance hub with its five Islamic banks. Luxembourg is also planning to launch an Islamic lender of its own. The Islamic Bank of Britain reported a 55% rise in applications for its savings accounts by non-Muslims in 2014 after the Barclays rate-fixing scandal.

Britain became the first non-Muslim country to begin trading in sukuks that are the Islamic equivalent of bonds. Hong Kong, Luxembourg and South Africa have also issued sukuks.

In 2010 Kuveyt Turk, the largest Islamic bank in Turkey, which is 62% owned by Kuwait Finance House, set up a branch in the southwestern German city Mannheim, but was not fully operational. In 2012 it applied for a full banking license, and plans invest $48.7 million in the planned German unit.

Source*

Related Topics:

Islamic Finance Meets the New Age!*

Islamic Wills Become Legal in the U.K.*

Vermont Towns Vote to Start a Public Bank that Works for Them*

Canadians Sued the Bank Of Canada & Won*

Germany to Represent Israel in Islamic Countries*

Reflection on Islamic Work Ethics V