Wanderers, Worshippers & Lovers of Leaving:
You are invited to join us for our annual, slightly untraditional turning workshop, Rumi celebration, and Sema ceremony -Saturday and Sunday, December 13 and 14th. We will be celebrating the anniversary of the mystical poet, Jelaluddin Rumi, who died 752 years ago in 1273.
Schedule:
- Turning Workshop: Saturday, December 13, 2 – 4 pm | I teach the “inner turn”– training the “semazen” to become a conduit of the energy of love, with less focus on perfecting the movement.
- Rehearsal: Sunday, December 14, 10:30 pm – Noon. | We will run through the Sema ceremony. The training and rehearsals are normally a 40-day study within a 1001-day process– but we live in accelerated times.
- Performance: Sunday 7:00 pm. Semazens should wear comfortable clothes, socks, or even double socks. Skirts and silk scarves can add to the sacred occaision. Chai to follow.
Directions:
All events will be at Wild Peace Tai Chi
3794 Poplar Drive
Clarkston, GA 30021
Please park on the street and follow the driveway to the very back. The studio is a separate building behind the main house.
Questions: Text Bruce Miller 404-309-1222
COST: I share this tradition as an act of service and do not charge. A suggested donation of $35 to the studio is requested if you are taking the class. If you are coming to the performance only, any donation is appreciated. Please DM me with any questions.
BACKGROUND: In 1976, Rumi was virtually unknown in the United States. Today, he is possibly America’s most-read poet.
By luck or providence, I was among a group that invited Suleyman Dede Loras from Turkey to Los Angeles.
HISTORY: Soon after Dede entered the tekke (like an ashram) of Rumi at age 18, the Sufi orders were abolished by order of Atatürk with the creation of the Turkish state in 1925. Dede kept the flame alive in his heart until, as an old man in his 70s, he arrived at our door in Los Angeles fifty years later with a message: “I have come to plant the seed of Rumi in America.”
A few weeks later, the poet Robert Bly handed a stack of Rumi poems to UGA English professor Coleman Barks and asked, “Release these poems from their cages.”
Much of the Rumi read by Americans was reimagined in a contemporary idiom by Coleman Barks.
THE TRADITION: My late wife, Karen, and I observed the Whirling Dervish Ceremony every year for decades, and I continue the tradition. My friend Corinne Chaves has offered her Tai Chi studio in Clarkston to teach the turn on Saturday and Sunday, and then return Sunday evening for a 7 pm event.
THE WORKSHOP: I teach the “inner turn”– training the “semazen” to become a conduit of the energy of love, with less focus on perfecting the movement.
The music will have a contemporary flavor as backing to Rumi’s words.
I share this tradition as an act of service and do not charge. A suggested donation of $35 to the studio is requested. Please DM me with any questions.
Come, come whoever you are… Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
Rumi
