Whirling into Oneness
Whirling into oneness.
Dance has always been the primordial way I connect with Alaha. Since I was a child, I expressed all of my emotions through dancing. Moving my body awakened within me clarity and a sense of connection that I couldn´t receive from the traditional Catholic Sunday Masses. Dancing my prayers and moving my emotions somehow felt like reading a book.
I lived in Egypt for 2 years where I finished my PHD in Dance Movement Therapy. Every Wednesday I would go to my Sufi Masters Temple and we would chant, meditate and whirl. This day was a ritual for me. He had his Temple space in Giza so I would walk around the pyramids before going to our Sufi Service. I loved listening to the Arabic music coming from the Egyptian black taxis and the smell of food in the air was an orchestra of spices.
When I arrived to my Masters temple we always had to wash our feet before going in, barefoot of course, and we were gifted with an exceptional Arabic coffee with cardamom. As we drank our coffee we greeted each other so harmoniously. I just loved that moment. Everyone looked so beautiful, calm and open.
On one occasion my Master said:
THE UNIVERSE WILL BE REVEALED TO YOU WHEN YOU DANCE TO GOD.
This phrase really moved me as when I was a child I felt that when I danced I had read a complete book and that I had experienced so much as I moved ecstatically into oneness.
We started chanting first, always with live music, and then we slowly got up and started to whirl. That particular evening I surrendered to the movement without being worried if I was going to feel dizzy afterwards or not. Whirling is about releasing control and in essence, if we get dizzy, it is because we must learn how to release control and allow the Ego to disappear. Easier said than done…
The music continued infinitely and that evening I finally went into trance with my whirling practice. I finally understood that my heart was spinning with Alaha. This was prayer, devotion, lovemaking and manifestation.
From this moment I knew that I could always come home when I came to my body.
When we give ourselves over completely to the rhythm of movement, we become aligned, and all of the separate parts of ourselves come back together.
One of the deep wounds of our culture is the broken relationship we have with our own bodies. We have been raised to separate Spirit from Earth, as we have been told that our heavenly Father is way up in an unreachable, celestial paradise and the body and its desires are temptations which have to be overcome in order to gain eternal life. Did you know that Dancing and chanting was considered Holy in the time of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene? The Essenes also drummed and whirled in the Desert.
Dance makes us feel comfortable in our bodies and when we are comfortable in the body, we treat our bodies like our home, our temple. This awakens the quality of reception in us. We may tend to think that receptivity is the opposite of strength or action, yet this is not so. The Quality of reception happens when our soul knows that it has a comfortable and safe place for repose. The Mystical practice of DWELLING has to do with this quality of reception. The Mystics believe in the relationship of Lover and Beloved, to be completely penetrated by ALAHA. This is receptivity, it is to be completely opened, just as the word Yeshua used when he healed people: EHPHETAH.
So dance creates a sacred relationship between the inner and the outer, the soul and the body, Heaven and Earth.
We must also remember that everything that we have experienced is recorded in our bodies. Through a sustained, conscious movement practice, we can transform the weight of our personal history. Dance and Movement Therapy can help us digest our experiences and turn them into wisdom.
Let us pay attention to our bodies and treat our body as a friend and a home. Let us honor the intelligence stored in our Bodies. There are many rewards to be gained from discovering the natural intelligence, wisdom, creation and energy of a Body that Dances and Moves with the Spirals of the Cosmos.
Now that you have read this. Put some music on and Dance, Feel, and understand your emotions. You can also create and manifest with your body. This is when we know that we are truly infinite.
AHAVA,
Ana Otero
