Like a circle in a spiral,like a wheel within a wheel...

[soulchaos]

Hi,I've just become interested in Sufism(please bear with me!)and understand that the whirling dervishes spin in their dances both to go into a trance-like state(the easier to commune with the Divine),and also to emulate the spiral motif present throughout Nature-right from the sub-atomic particles to the galaxies etc
My question is:do the Sufis always spin in the same direction(if so,which?),and what direction(e.g.clockwise or anti-clockwise)do "things" in Nature spin-or does it depend on the individual thing?
My head's spinning!

[wil]

One direction you are spinning to connect with the earth, the other to source.

I love whirling, have not done it with dervishes, my understanding is that some are very protective and insist you do it correctly. (some bare foot nail in the floor spinning around it with your toes thing) Me, I started whirling our labyrinth on a whim, and now whirl it all the way in, hang in the center whirling till I compelled to whirl out, whirl all the way back out, and then keep whirling for a while until I feel the need to stop. I've never done it with others, I feel group whirling is a whole nother dimension and will be easier to continue...currently I'm just under 15 minutes max.

Now if you can find a place to dance, this is an incredible interfaith sufi experience. The International Network for The Dances of Universal Peace

I honor your exploration of the path of the Sufi, I feel they are brothers of Kabalists and New Thought Christians.

[soulchaos]

Hi,Wil,thanks for the link-I'll follow it up...Does it "matter" which way round you go to connect to the Source/the Earth?
I've seen dervishes in Cairo,but it was a long time ago and I was so mesmerised I didn't notice the direction!
I understood that the dervishes danced with one hand raised(to the "Heavens")and one hand down towards the ground-keeping that position whilst whirling...
Have you read any poetry by Rumi?

[wil]

Yes with the hands, I've got to contact my sufi friend on the direction thing, I don't recall. She had initially asked me which direction I was going. People gravitate to different ways as most relaxing. I think the dervishes are counterclockwise.

Rumi, love it...one of my favs....

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.

In this I contemplate him discussing the quantum field!

[flowperson]

Hi SC and wil... Like the both of you I nave had a long love affair with Sufism and all that may apply thereto.

As for the hand symbolisms in the "dervish" whirling dances, we saw parallels to this, IMHO, in the 60's. 70's and 80's with the "spinners" who performed at the back of the arena during Grateful Dead concerts. They spun themselves into ecstatic states in which they lost track of time and place, but then that was exactly the point.

It was done to emulate "spiritual disconnection" from the material world of suffering and pain. Highly symbolic stuff, and the hands pointing up and down symbolizes that ancient spiritual proverb, "as above...so below". The proverb has origins among alchemists all the way back to it roots in China and India four thousand years ago.

Here's a site that should be informative for you on your spiritual journey soulchaos.

flow....

http://www.goldenmuseum.com/index_engl.html