Around 1900 hours 5 of us left in the bus with Göksel to watch a Sema (Whirling Dervish Ceremony) at a nearby caravanserai.
Once inside we were directed to one of the 4 banks of wooden seats rising from the centre, square, raised platform. Rather annoyed to see notices all around saying that photography was banned, I took myself up to the back of the seating area and took a few snaps surreptitiously.
What follows is a rather lengthy, but interesting I thought, explanation of the ceremony which I've lifted from a UNESCO approved Turkish website for the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Tangible Cultural Heritage:
The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony is a Sufi ceremony that
symbolizes stages on the path to accessing God and contains religious elements
and themes with detailed rules and characteristics. While this ceremony unique to the Mevlevi sect
had no specific rules in Mevlâna Celaleddin-i Rumî’s day (deceased December 17,
1273), it began to be performed in a disciplined way from the time of Sultan
Veled and Ulu Arif Çelebi. These rules
were developed until the time of Pir Adil Çelebi, when they assumed the final
form we have today.
The ceremony consists of the noble eulogy to the
Prophet Mohammed, flute solo, prelude, the Circling of Veled and four
segments (selam), which form an integral whole and contain different Sufi
meanings. The Sema Ceremony is performed
with traditional Mevlevi music in spaces where Mevlevi culture can be properly
transmitted. The ceremony begins with
the Noble Eulogy (naat-ı şerif), which is the score composed by Itri and
has been played since the late 17th century. Hymns written by composers such as
Pir Adil Çelebi are sung by a trained chorus, which is accompanied by
instruments such as the ney (flute), kettledrum and oud. The works of Rumi
written in Persian are the basic source of the compositions performed by the
musicians and singers during the ceremony.
The ceremony begins with the recitation of the Noble Eulogy (naat-ı şerif),
which praises the Prophet Mohammed. This
is followed by the ney solo. When the
ney solo ends, the whirling dervishes go to the places indicated by the head
dervish and begin the sema. The Circling
of Veled, which begins after this, depicts the resurrection from the dead. The whirling dervish’s cloak resembles the
grave, his hat the gravestone, and he is considered dead when sitting. In the service that begins after the Circling
of Veled, the whirling dervishes slowly remove their cloaks, thus freeing
themselves from worldly affairs.
While the whirling dervishes are spinning in the
Mevlevi Sema as a symbol of the heavenly realm, the chief dervish moves among
them, making sure they maintain proper distance between them. The person who
directs the ceremony is called the Post-nişîn, and he stands at the
end of a red fleece reciting prayers. It
is assumed that the sema represents the solar system because the place where it
is performed is round, and the Post-nişîn is compared to the sun, the
chief dervish to the moon and the dervishes to the planets. The selam portion of the sema
ceremony consists of four segments: The first selam describes how
humans accept their status as created beings, the second selam the
rapture felt when confronted with God’s omnipotent power, the third selam the
transformation of rapture at God’s power into love, and the fourth selam how
humans return to serve. The ceremony
ends with the reading of the Qur’an and prayers.
This ceremony requires skill and concentration to
perform and includes mystical symbols at several stages from the beginning to
the end. Whirling during the sema represents witnessing God in all
places and aspects. The stamping of
the feet symbolizes crushing the boundless insatiable desires of the ego
underfoot, striving against and defeating the ego. Holding one’s arms out to the side is the need
for ultimate perfection. During
the sema, the arms are open with the right hand held up and the left hand down,
which symbolizes blessing from God received with the right hand while turning
away from everyone else and distributing these blessings with the left hand.
The whirling dervishes who perform the ceremony
must undergo rigorous spiritual and physical training before they are ready for
the service. All of the postures and
demeanours in the area where the sema are performed conform to rule of decency. Individuals who perform the sema are
expected to be capable of reading and understanding the written works of Rumi
and to have the skill required to engage in arts such as music and calligraphy.
The course of training required for the
whirling dervish will put him on a spiritual journey, in other words it will
put him on the path of the Perfect Man, which envisions transformation and
development after the acquisition of knowledge. The spiritual journey includes
many different stages, such as loyalty, love, service, the remembrance of God
and solitude.
To ensure that the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony is
performed without compromising its essential character, the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism issued in 2008 the Circular Regarding Mevlevi Culture-Sema
Ceremonies. According to this Circular, the Sema Ceremony must be
performed with traditional works from Mevlevi Music, which are an inseparable
part of the Sema, in spaces where this culture can be accurately transmitted
and introduced and in environments that meet the necessary requirements. The
dervishes and musicians who participate in the programs must possess the
necessary technical and musical competence. They must conduct themselves
solemnly, aware that they are not only representing a culture during the
program but performing “a transcendent practice with Sufi characteristics.” Or in other words you can't put a bunch of dancers together to perform just for the tourists.
In actual fact I needn't have bothered with my snatched photos, as at the end of the real ceremony the lights were turned on and they performed part of a pretend ceremony which we were allowed to film.
And of course some stills for when I turn this into a Kindle book.
Taking off the cloak and freeing themselves of worldly affairs.
The man in the middle still in his cloak is the chief dervish and he's there to make sure a proper distance is maintained between the participants.
At the end the cloaks get put back on and they all troop off.
Göksel certainly considered followers of Mevlâna to be oddballs. From what I could gather they live in monasteries, but are allowed to be married and have children. In some sects there are also female whirlers. I'm glad I've seen the ceremony, they certainly go a lot slower than I'd imaged, but I can't say it was a moving or meaningful experience; I found it all rather monotonous and the music very annoying!