Sema (whirling dervishes) performances

The dervishes during the performance and before the performance the group paused.    You can find the music of sema performances in the pages of recordings.

SEMA

(Mevlevi Ritual)

          The fundarnental condition of our existance is to revolve.

There is no object, no being which does not revolve. The shared similarity among all created things is revolution of the electrons, protons, and neutrons within the atoms that constitute their basic structure. From the smallest cell to the planets and farthest stars, everything takes part in this revolving. Thus the semazens, the ones who whirl, participate consciously in the shared revolution of all existance.

The Sema ceremony represents a spiritual journey, the seekers’s turning towards the truth and the God, a maturing through love, the transforrnation of self as a way of union with God, and the return to lif e as the servant and being responsible of all creation.

        One of the beauties of this 725 years old ritual is the way that it unifies the three fundamental components of man’s nature (mind, emotion, and spirit), com bining them in a practice and worship that seeks the purification of all three in the turning towards Divine Unity. But most significantly, the Sema is an act of service which of fers the refined energies for the enrichment of this earth and the well-being of humanity as a whole.

      The ritual starts with singing the Na’t-ı Sherif, eulogy to the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). He and all the prophets before him brought and the God are being praised. Than the Nay (the reed flute) makes an improvisation. İt represents the matured man and the God’s breath. Following this, Sultan Veled Waİk starts. It is the salutation of one soul to another acknowledged by bowing.

Then the main part of the ritual starts. It is 4 parts. They are called Salaam.

1.st Salaam is the birth to truth by way of knowledge.

2nd Salaam expresses the rapture of withnessing the splendour of creation.

3rd Salaam is the transformation of rapture into l o v e, the sacrifice of mind and self to love. İt represents complete submission and communnion with God.

4th Salaam is the samazen (whirling dervish) ‘s coming to terms with his destiny and his return to his task in creation. In the forth salaam Postnisheen (the Shaikh) enters the circling dervishes where assumes the place of the sun in the center of the circling planets. The Sema (ritual) ends with a reading from Qour’an Ai-Karim which represents God’s address:”.. . .withersoever ye turn there is presence of Allah........ When He decreeth a matter He saith to it:” Be." And it is “.