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| The world's biggest Mevlevi Place is reopened after the long restoration period. State Minister and Vice Prime Minister, Mehmet Ali Sahin, has also atteneded the openning ceremony. In the openning ceremony, Mr SAHIN told that they are proud to open this fantastic building of Mesnevi Place. Known to the west as Whirling Dervishes, the Mevlevi Order was founded by Mevlana Rumi in the 13th century. The Order wrote of tolerance, forgiveness, and enlightenment. They survive today as a cultural brotherhood. They are not theatrical spectacles but sacred rituals. The ritual of the Mevlevi sect, known as the sema, is a serious religious ritual performed by Muslim priests in a prayer trance to Allah. Mevlevi believed that during the sema the soul was released from earthly ties, and able to freely and jubilantly commune with the divine. Dervish literally means "doorway" and is thought to be an entrance from this material world to the spiritual, heavenly world. The Whirling Dervishes played an important part in the evolution of Ottoman high culture. From the fourteenth to the twentieth century, their impact on classical poetry, calligraphy and visual arts was profound. Rumi and his followers integrated music into their rituals as an article of faith. Rumi emphasized that music uplifts our spirit to realms above, and we hear the tunes of the Gates of Paradise. The first part of the ceremony is The Sema, which represents a spiritual journey; the seeker's turning toward God and truth, a maturing through love, the transformation of self as a way of union with God, and the return to life as the servant of all creation. The Semazen (with a camel's-felt hat representing a tombstone of the ego; and a wide, white skirt symbolizing the ego's shroud), upon removing his black cloak, is spiritually reborn to Truth. The semazens stand with their arms crossed, ready to begin their turn. Each rotation takes them past the sheikh. This is the place of Mevlana Rumi, and the sheikh is understood to be a channel for the divine grace. At the start of each of the four movements of the ceremony, the semazens bow to each other honoring the spirit within. As their arms unfold, the right hand opens to the skies in prayer, ready to receive God's beneficence. The left hand, upon which his gaze rests, is turned towards the earth in the gesture of bestowal. Fix-footed, the Semazen provides a point of contact with this earth through which the divine blessings can flow. |
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| » Date added : 16.10.2009 |
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