Raqib Brian Burke - An Introduction to Whirling

Raqib Brian Burke has 28 years of study and experience under the Mevlevi Sheikhs Reshad Field, Suleyman Dede and Jelaluddin Loras, and Rifa'i Sheikh Sherif Baba Catalkaya. He performed in the first ever Sema Ceremony by North American dervishes in Konya, Turkey, at the tomb of Mevlana Celaluddin Rumi founder of whirling and has since performed in Canada and the United States at numerous spiritual gatherings, weddings, memorial services, arts festivals and music events.

Whirling Dervish Ceremony

Raqib Burke and his daughter Mira Hunter will share with us a "Zawq" …. A "Taste" of theOriginal Sema Whirling Dervish Ceremony, original moving meditation tradition. They will be accompanied by Jaffar Mufti, the Kurdish Rifa'i Sufi Sheikh, daf drum and singer and Nima Ghaemi, santur.

"Taste a sweetness in your mouth, that was before honey or bee" ~Rumi

Few know that well before the circling dance of the Whirling Dervishes and even before one of the greatest Sufi love poets, Rumi himself, there was an older original Sema Ceremony (literally: the listening).

"We rarely hear the inward music, but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,"~ Rumi

Many still hold Rumi as the creator of whirling, but he was in fact initiated into this even more ancient ceremony by his Beloved teacher Shams of Tabriz. In the intervening 800 years, we have lost direct touch with this original, more spontaneous dance. However, Sufi Orders such as the Rifa'i-Marufi have preserved parts of it. Part of the work of the Rumi Society of Vancouver has been "Remembering / Zikr" this original ceremony, as many of us witnessed at the Sacred Dance Festival in 2009.

May we invite Grace, "Good Luck", or Blind Chance (we get to choose the name!) to grant us Zawq, a taste of our direct connection to our Beloved Creator, and a contribution to healing and Peace in this world.