40 Days / Night Sema Seminar
14 July 2007 – 23 August 2007
Mehmet Rasim Mutlu Center of culture
Gökcedere-Thermal
Yalova / Turkey
Hazreti Mevlana
700 years ago, lived in Anatolia, in Konya the genius holy man, mystic and philosopher, Hazreti Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi.
There were love, tolerance, hope and education in his teachings.
Until our time, his teachings have retained their validity. Especially at times when true values seem to be lost... The poetry and literature of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi are quite well known all over the world. They are touching our hearts and bringing us happiness.
We find, in his words, inspirations for our way of reasoning, recommendations for our behaviour; warnings, and help for us to have right decisions on our journey of life.
Mevlana was a virtuous person, a poet, a mystic, and a spiritual guide. He was an authority in the interpretation of the Holy Koran and in theology and a skilled man for mastering the problems of life. All this richness of his wisdom, his way of living found expression in the practice of Sema.
The praying person whirls from right to left towards his inner self, towards the depths of his heart. Because the heart is the home of God. Trying to be ripped from himself in the search of his real self, the whirling person, attempts to go to the home of God within himself. As he whirls, he faces all the directions remembering the ‘ayet’ (verse of the Koran) 2:115, telling that wherever you turn there is the face of God. Slowly the arms and hands find their places. The right one upwards, accepting with respect the beneficence of God from above, from the sky; the left hand downwards, to the Earth, and everyone on her, giving and sharing. Thus the whirling person becomes a recipient, who exists between the sky and the earth.
He respects all the gifts of God, takes them and shares them with his fellow men and everything on the Earth. This way he becomes a good conductor of Virtue. When his ego is receding, a person can realise and accept other persons´ needs and desires. This is an auspicious way of living.
The Sema is a prayer in dance form and a step on the path of universal love. Without loosing the feeling of unity, the individual is among all the others and together with them. The Sema, at the same time symbolizes the divine love for God; and through this love one can learn to love all the other people.
During the lifetime of Hazreti Mevlana, a man called Sipehsalar, started to write a book about his life, the people around him, and their stories. Later Ahmet Eflaki finished this book, with the title: “Ariflerin Menkıbeleri - menakıb-el-arifin” - legends of the wise men.
In this book we find information on how often and how long Mevlana performed Sema. According to this book, he performed it, sometimes continuously for three days and nights, sometimes seven days and nights, sometimes sixteen days and nights, and three times for forty days and nights.
He was whirling without eating, drinking and sleeping; while reciting his mystic poems in ecstasy.
The legend of Mevlana tells us that, after he lost his very dear friend and spiritual guide, Şems-i Tebrizi, one day in a condition of deep longing and ecstasy, he entered into the bazaar of Konya, and started whirling for the first time in his life, on hearing the rhythm of the hammer of the goldsmith, Salahaddin.
The pain of separation completed his transformation into a genius poet, a lover, a minstrel, who then poured out glorious mystic poems.
Some Quotations from Hazreti Mevlana:
“The divine light of Allah is coming from all the six directions. But man still asks: ‘Where is He?’ That, who does not know, continues to look in all directions. Learn, depending on your own perception and without having a concern for direction.”
“The light of the sema is coming from within the voice of the drum. Her symmetrical rhythm is a message for the heart.”
“Every movement enfolds a secret. Compare the brackish, still water to the fresh water of a flowing river.”
Sema is an invocation in dance form and has ritualistic elements.
The word ‘sema’ has two meanings:
- the sky
- to listen
Es Semii is one of the names of God, and means: He, who hears everything and who is the actual Hearer in everyone that hears.
Historic facts
The original form of whirling worship is unknown. But in many cultures, dances are central in the religious rites and ceremonies. There is an example for this phenomenon in the Zarathustra religion, in Iran, where, people are whirling very fast. These movements might help against the negative influence of the fire energy.
It is related about Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) that he prayed by dancing, when one of his friends recited a poem.
Whirling movements as in a vortex are known to exist as far back the shamanic times. With the help of whirling, they went in ecstasy and changed the state of their conciousness. When a shaman went in such an ecstasy, he could have contact with other dimensions and could find answers to his questions and resolutions for the problems.
Sema is a form of worship by whirling around oneself. Through the history of mankind for a lot of centuries we come across that form in different cultures. Whirling and the rhythmic movements are practices that alter the state of consciousness and thus provide a deeper contact to one´s own spiritual sources.
The dances and whirling prayers came to Anatolia from Central Asia. The idea behind these dances is that, each movement has a spiritual determination and conciousness.
Mevlevi Music
We know that in the lifetime of Hazreti Mevlana, instruments, like Ney (Bambooflute), Cenk (harp), Rebab, Kudüm (drums), Kopuz and others were used. We don´t have exact information on how the rites and ceremonies were carried out. But we can imagine that there was improvisational work along with compositions in these rites.
Our Seminar
Several years ago, we ventured into the experience of trying the original way of whirling, like Mevlana did 700 years before. We wanted to investigate the details and depths of our own spirituality.
In Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Austria, and Turkey we practiced in the last 5 years, 1x one day & night, 16 x 3 days & nights, 1 x 5 days and nights, 1 x 7 days & nights, and 1x 40 days & nights.
We had that 40 days and nights sema, last year, during the same dates and at the same place.
During these experiences the music continued and at least two semazens were whirling all the time. We had enough musicians and semazens, so we could continue the music, the zikir, the ilahis, the sema, for days and nights.
Under these conditions we could follow the cycle that Mevlana himself practiced.
After our experiences with this form of spiritual work, based on the traditional way of Mevlana, we decided to venture another 40 days and nights, with music, sema, zikir and praying. We hope that everyone has found in himself the essence of the meaning of sema while experiencing the educational aspects of the sema. This has also been a beautiful celebration for the Holy Mevlana Year for cultural heritage, as declared by the UNESCO.
