sufism

[stokastikos]

I mentioned the topic of whirling dervish style, which I had got taught totally out of context by some Austrian friends, on the old site. This drew a reply or two but it did not go much further. I have felt a certain reluctance to interest myself in anything to do with Islam, having travelled through numerous Moslem countries and aquired a general dislike of the medieval attitudes generally prevalent there, however the replies to my post seemed to suggest that sufism may stand in perhaps a similar relation to Islam as does say magic and mysticism does to christianity, I dunno. Does anyone forsee any mileage in contact with a magical underground counter culture hidden wthin the islamc world? Does it even exist? Would we have anything to share with them? Their cultures seem not yet to have had a reformation or a rennaissance, could we help? just an off the wall thought.
stokastikos.   

[dalryada]

I have this theory that all the major religions possess an exoteric and esoteric side.  I'm not sure if this theory applies to all religions yet, but it certainly applies to the People of the Book, i.e., Christians, Jews, Muslims.  And so the structure goes like this:

Exoteric:                   Esoteric:
Christianity                 Gnostics
Judaism                     Qabalah
Islam                         Sufism

Exoteric, outside form, consists of rules and regulations to follow.  The esoteric inside form consists of direct experience.  You stay in the outside form, sometimes for your entire life.  The idea might be, however, to pass from the outer form to the inner.  To progress to direct apprehension of the Truth. 

The outside form seems to always consider the inner form evil.  So the Christians killed the Gnostics, Qabalah is still considered a heresy in Judaism, and Islam has been executing Sufis for centuries.  They still do to this day.

The magick in each of these religion resides in the esoteric form and each tradition has a magickal side to it.  Sufism probably has more magickal tradition in it than all the others put together, since they purportedly invented alchemy, pioneered higher mathematics and trained the Knights Templar, among other things.  Lots and lots of magickal tradition in Sufism. 

And in one of my favorite conspiracy theories, the great "powerhouses" of the Sufis were all located in Afghanistan.  The Hindu Kush.  Gurdjieff and Crowley were both there studying, they say. Rasputin too, maybe.  For years, Afghanistan was the place of centralized power, and the home of the original Illuminati as it appeared in the 8th century.  The destruction of Afghanistan over the last few decades may, on one level, be seen as the destruction of those powerhouses so the Dark Ages will return and the people will have no freedom.  Maybe.  Then again, it's rumored that the Sufis knew the destruction was coming 100 years ago and made provision.

I seem to recall Fr. Stokastikos made mention of travelling through Afghanistan a long time ago.  Something about tribesmen and their women???  Does my memory fail me?

[anosognosia]

Certainly the Sufi's experience the same kind of violence as mystics of any era.

"Bombing kills 9 at Sufi monastery"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050604/news_1n4iraq.html

[alk mem]

...sufism may stand in perhaps a similar relation to Islam as does say magic and mysticism does to christianity, I dunno. Does anyone forsee any mileage in contact with a magical underground counter culture hidden wthin the islamc world? Does it even exist? Would we have anything to share with them? Their cultures seem not yet to have had a reformation or a rennaissance, could we help? just an off the wall thought.
stokastikos.   

o yeah..............nice question.


but take that to the mirror.

can they help (us....)?!

but with sufism, like taoism, you have to be careful.....even in these more esoteric, hidden traditions, there is alot of straight-jacket protocol...

i have studied ("studied"?? what does even that mean?) what i think and SENSE that sufism "is"....along with other counter-religious, pro-spiritual (w/o "saying" it) streams/currents like taosim, kabbalah...and i could go on and in detail...up to a point...

but to be to the point: sufism sprouted out of the middle east/islam but isn't really islamic.....same with taoism's chinese roots, kabbalah's hebraic roots.....jeez, even zen is chan is dhyana...........etc etc.

but specifically regarding SUFIsm, i say look into almost anything published by IDRIES SHAH and Octagon Press.........also, in america, look to Kabir Helminski...................and always, always, get the straight mouthpiece of it all.....(in english), THE ESSENTIAL RUMI (coleman barks translation)....

a whirling world for sure..............but so rich.....


and more western, even CHAOS, magicians (chaotes/maggotes....!) need to look into the slipstreams these spiritually chaotic, anarchic 'traditions' have to offer.......................

[alk mem]

...And in one of my favorite conspiracy theories, the great "powerhouses" of the Sufis were all located in Afghanistan.  The Hindu Kush.  Gurdjieff and Crowley were both there studying, they say. Rasputin too, maybe.  For years, Afghanistan was the place of centralized power, and the home of the original Illuminati as it appeared in the 8th century.  The destruction of Afghanistan over the last few decades may, on one level, be seen as the destruction of those powerhouses so the Dark Ages will return and the people will have no freedom.  Maybe.  Then again, it's rumored that the Sufis knew the destruction was coming 100 years ago and made provision....

yeah yeah (yeah): and there is more to be found in the past of that power spot of earth.....

i think even the tibetan DZOG-chen tradition is connected to afghanistan............

(read Namkhai Norbu's D'Zog material....true crazy wisdom stuff )

also, Samarkand (in uzbekistan?) is rooted deep..................and these aren't even the offshore mystic powerhouse shockwave generators like those found in our paradigmatic speculations of the Atlantis
lots to explore there...............



that whole far east, quasi-asian, megaSILKroad current has alot to offer. alot of keys there (as well as, of course, whirling in the prehistoric villages between the vertebrae......................)

[Subliminally Obvious]

You might want to glance at Laurence Galian's book, The Sun At Midnight - The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis (Quiddity Inc., ISBN 0-9679458-0-1).  So far nothing I've seen in it has seemed to deviat from what I've heard in conversation with Sufi's I've known.  

The author seems adept at tying it to more familier concepts.  For example, the following is from the section on Murid, the Dweller on the Threshold,

Some teachers have linked the Dweller on the Threshold with the Guardian of the Abyss.  This guardian is sometimes given the name "Choronzon." Choronzon is a name of mysterious origin, related to the workings of Dr. John Dee and his Enochian system.

I've kept the book in what I consider one of the more honored shelves in the house, on the back of the toilet, for the last few months.

[alk mem]

this was mentioned and slightly discussed on the MLAchaos site....

but check out THE PEOPLE OF THE SECRET by Ernest Scott  (Octagon Press) for a really interesting discussion of western esoteric traditions and the SUFIS......................a thrilling read for sure.......

[jungian]

It seems to me that these "esoteric" traditions you're talking about are more likely to be something totally outside the mainstream, masquerading as mainstream in order to remain unpersecuted.

I don't see QBL as particularly jewish, at least not the way I see it.  And I don't see a whole lot of similarity between Sufism and more traditionally practiced Islam...

[dalryada]

this was mentioned and slightly discussed on the MLAchaos site....

but check out THE PEOPLE OF THE SECRET by Ernest Scott  (Octagon Press) for a really interesting discussion of western esoteric traditions and the SUFIS......................a thrilling read for sure.......

alk mem -- sounds like you and me have gone down similar roads.

Ever heard the idea that Aleister Crowley was a Sufi walking the Path of Blame?  Path of Blame's a tricky idea, for those of you who haven't heard of it before, a Sufi obligates him or herself to take on all the negative feedback from his or her fellow humans that s/he can bear.  A Sufi on the Path of Blame seeks rejection, humiliation, negativity, suffering, etc. so to transcend it and alchemically transform these energies into their opposite.  Lots of trickster stuff too.  Followers of this Way may never ever reveal that they are on the Path of Blame.  If you look at this path and then look at Crowley's life, things do seem to click into place.  Maybe.

Much of what passes for Sufism I dismiss as emotional airy fairy spiritualization of feeling.  Sufism, in my view, much more complex, and yes, I got that from Idries Shah and Octagon.  But also from Gurdjieff and Crowley and E.J. Gold and a few other people....The Sufis don't come from Islam, they precede it, but they sought assimilation as a protective device.  I once heard Sufism described as "elegant Shamanism" and I always liked that.

[alk mem]

It seems to me that these "esoteric" traditions you're talking about are more likely to be something totally outside the mainstream, masquerading as mainstream in order to remain unpersecuted.

I don't see QBL as particularly jewish, at least not the way I see it.  And I don't see a whole lot of similarity between Sufism and more traditionally practiced Islam...

me either....only that sufis chant "al-la" but in a way that penetrates the dead locust shell of that designation/signification....

some sufis look like muslims. some look like "westerners"....etc and vice versa....

same with qbl....it's got definite connections, roots to judaism...but in a sense, it is a true, compassionate HACKING of the whole torah system etc....

i agree though....i don't connect these evolving paths with their cultural roots in any essential sense.

 

[alk mem]

yes yes dalryada, we are on the same burning page....

i have heard about the path of blame through Gurdjieff readings...never quite made the crowley connect...

interesting. and it makes sense.


but yes the blame path is sort of a scapegoat-meets-bodhisattva approach or mind(heart)set...

but yes as you say, more elegant and most certainly evolved, developed...

[Telarus, KSC]

I mentioned the topic of whirling dervish style, which I had got taught totally out of context by some Austrian friends, on the old site. This drew a reply or two but it did not go much further. I have felt a certain reluctance to interest myself in anything to do with Islam, having travelled through numerous Moslem countries and aquired a general dislike of the medieval attitudes generally prevalent there, however the replies to my post seemed to suggest that sufism may stand in perhaps a similar relation to Islam as does say magic and mysticism does to christianity, I dunno. Does anyone forsee any mileage in contact with a magical underground counter culture hidden wthin the islamc world? Does it even exist? Would we have anything to share with them? Their cultures seem not yet to have had a reformation or a rennaissance, could we help? just an off the wall thought.
stokastikos.

I did try this a couple of times. It definitely deserves more practice. It also reminded me of the times when I was a kid traveling in a car. I used to have fun hallucinating that I was the only still point in Universe, and that the rest of it was rushing past me at high speeds. I also found that the positioning of the arm helped to keep the "center" around which I spun projected slightly past my left hand. When I lost focus, the "center axis" of the spin returned to my spine, and I soon became quite dizzy. I understand why they used to whirl around a fire....it must help when your 1st circuit does not allow your center of gravity/spine axis to align with the center axis of the spin for fear of BURNING.

I experienced a blurring of sensation, and for a few breif moments got the 360 degree vision some-one mentioned. I also felt the bonds of gravity distinctly lessen (well, comparatively, eh? like sticking one hand in cold water, and the other in hot for a while....then sticking both in room-tempature water...one hand will read it 'hot' the other will read the same water 'cold'). My mind also flashed back to some Capoera (Brazillian Martial Art/Dance) and I felt that if I entrained my self to that state I could acheive some truely amaizing kicks and flips. Kinda scary imagining a 4 ft Scimitar in the hands on one of these whirling adepts.

Oh, here's an interesting Form that would make for some great Invocation:

From Cannabis Culture Magazine: (hmmm, the whole articcle besides the opening seems worth quoteing...bear with me)

April 23 is the feast day of Khizr, Islam's patron saint of cannabis.
...
Part of the reason for cannabis' eventual prohibition in some Moslem countries had to do with the drug's association with certain heretical sects that existed on the fringes of Islam. The Sufis were one such group – they originated in the 8th century and are referred to by cannabis historian Ernest Abel as "the hippies of the Arab world." The Sufis used hashish, along with wine and coffee, to stimulate mystical consciousness and appreciation of the nature of Allah.

(The Sufis are actually considered to be the inventors of the drink coffee, which they would consume in potent brews that enabled them to stay up for hours singing and chanting. An Arabic story records how a wandering Sufi revealed the drink's preparation to a Moslem woman, brewing a pot over his hash-filled hookah.)

Cannabis was made into a chewy medicinal confection called ma'joun, and to the Sufis eating hashish was an act of worship. The benefits they claimed from their use of hashish included otherwise unattainable insights into themselves, as well as laughter, happiness, reduced anxiety, reduced worry, and increased music appreciation. But most importantly, as the Sufi al-Is'irdi noted, was the "secret" of the drug, which permits "the spirit to ascend to the highest points in a heavenly ascension of disembodied understanding." It was for this reason that many of the more mystically inclined of the Sufi preferred cannabis over wine.

In Essays in Islamic Heresy, Wilson explains that "The Turkish Sufi poet Fuzuli... wrote a treatise on Bang and Wine in which he claimed that wine is merely 'an eager disciple setting the world afire,' but hashish is the Sufi master himself. Wine shows the way to the hermitage of the Shaykh of Love... but hashish is the refuge itself. Once a certain Sufi of Basra began to consume hashish regularly, his shaykh realized this meant he had reached the ultimate degree of perfection, and no longer stood in need of guidance. This (says Fuzuli) 'proves that hashish is the perfect being, sought after by mankind with great eagerness. It may not be the perfect being for everybody, but it most certainly is for the seeker of mystical experience.'"

Shayk Haydar, Sufi hash-head

According to legend, hashish was first introduced to the Sufis by Shayk Haydar, (1155-1221), the Persian founder of one of their religious sects. The story has it that after years of silent recluse, Haydar one day decided to leave his monastery. While walking in the desert, he noticed a plant that seemed to sparkle and shiver as it basked in the still desert heat. Wondering what this mysterious plant was, he felt compelled to taste of its leaves and flowers.

Usually a reserved and silent man, when he returned to his monastery afterwards his disciples were amazed at how talkative and animated he seemed. Cajoling Haydar into telling them what he had done to make himself so happy, his disciples ran off into the desert to try the magical plant for themselves.

Upon the return of the plant's new devotees, Haydar made them take an oath to refrain from revealing the mystery of the herb, telling them "God has granted you the privilege of knowing the secret of these leaves. Thus when you eat it, your dense worries may disappear and your exalted minds may become polished."

After living another ten years as the Sufi's psychedelic shaykh, subsisting mainly on cannabis preparations, Haydar passed on, leaving the request that seeds of his holy plant be sown around his tomb, so that even in death he might enjoy the shade of its leaves and scent of its flowers.

The Green Prophet

With this history, it is not surprising to find that cannabis had its own mythical prophet in the Arab world, as noted by Joseph Campbell over a century ago, in his epic 1894 study for the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, On The Religion of Hemp: "To the follower of Islam the holy spirit in bhang... is the spirit of the great prophet Khizr, or Elijah." That bhang should be sacred to Khizr is natural, as Khizr means green, the revered color of the cooling water of bhang. So the Urdu poet sings "When I quaff fresh bhang I liken its color to the fresh light down of thy youthful beard."

Islam inherited Khizr from many earlier myths, as can be seen from stories that associate him with such luminary figures as Moses and Alexander the Great.

By medieval times he came to represent the type of esoteric knowledge which breaks the trance of everyday existence through shock, usually in the form of outrage, laughter, or both at once.

Wilson explains that Khizr was seen as "the initiator of Sufis who have no human master." In the 1990 book Green Man, William Anderson describes Khizr as "the voice of inspiration to the true aspirant and committed artist. He can come as a white light or the gleam of a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood. The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one's normal capacities."

In his 1993 book Sacred Drift, Essays on the Margins of Islam, Peter Wilson writes "When you say the name of Khezr in company you should always add the greeting Salaam aliekum! since he may be there... immortal and anonymous, engaged on some karmic errand. Perhaps he'll hint of his identity by wearing green, or by revealing knowledge of the occult and hidden. But he's something of a spy, and if you have no need to know he's unlikely to tell you. Still, one of his functions is to convince skeptics of the existence of the Marvelous, to rescue those who are lost in deserts of doubt and dryness. So he's needed now more than ever, and surely still moves among us playing his great game."

Originally a sort of vegetation spirit in whose footprints plants and flowers were said to magically sprout, Wilson explains that "nowadays Khezr might well be induced to reappear as the patron of modern militant eco-environmentalism… Khadirian Environmentalism would rejoice simultaneously both in [Nature's] utter wildness and its 'meaningfulness.' Nature as tajalli (the 'shining through' of the divine into creation; the manifestation of each thing as divine light), Nature as an aesthetic of realization."

With the wealth of esoteric lore, environmental products and medicines sprouting from the renaissance of his beloved cannabis, it seems that Khizr is once again trying to communicate to humanity through his most holy of plants.

Interestingly, there are legends of Khizr in which he is dismembered and reborn. As well, certain prophecies connect him with the end of time and the revealing of esoteric truths.

April 23

The Green Prophet Khizr's feast day is April 23. On April 23, 1993, when Vancouver experienced its first major smoke-in since the 1971 Grasstown Police Riot, the organizers of the event had absolutely no idea that this was the feast day of the patron saint of cannabis.

On April 23, 1997, when the Senate of Canada proudly released an announcement stating: "Senator Lorna Milne... today praised the Senate Finance committee for persuading the government to expedite regulations permitting the

cultivation of hemp in Canada," the politicians were unaware of the implications of this most auspicious day.
On April 23, 1999, a government-appointed panel in Switzerland officially recommended that the government legalize the sale and use of Khizr's sacred plant.

Another curiously synchronistic example is found in the works of pot-smoking gnostic guru Robert Anton Wilson. In Wilson's newest Illuminatus book, Bride of the Illuminatus, he has an event take place in Vancouver, BC, on April 23, 2003, that leads to North America splitting into Christian and Non-Christian States.

Perhaps in these coincidences one can see the handy work of Khizr, the spirit of keyf working behind the scenes and speaking through his holy plant on his sacred day? So this April 23, why not take a moment to plant a seed, or light a sacred spliff in honour of pot's patron saint?
Salaam aliekum Khizr, wherever you are!

-|-

Haydar's Emerald cup


Give up wine and drink from the wine of Haydar,
Amber scented, green the color of emerald.
It is presented to you by a Turkish gazelle, slender,
Swaying like a willow bough, delicate.
In his hand, you would think, as he turns it,
It is like the traces of down on a rosy cheek.
The slightest breeze makes it reel,
And it flutters toward the coolness of the continuing breeze.
The grayish pigeons coo upon its branches in the morning.
And the cadences of the warbling doves cause it emotion.
It has many meanings the like of which are unknown to wine.
Therefore do not listen with respect to it to the words of the old censor.
It is virginal, not deflowered by rain,
Nor has it ever been squeezed by feet or hands,
No Christian priest has ever played around with a cup containing it,
Nor have they ever communion from its cask to any heretic's soul...
Nothing has been said expressly from Malik to declare it unlawful,
Nor is the hadd penalty for its use... prescribed...
Thus take it with the sharp edge of steel.
Stay the hands of worry with kyff and achieve joyful repose.
Do not lightly postpone the day of joy till tomorrow.
'The days will show you what you were ignorant of,
And someone for who you did not provide (to serve as your
messenger) will bring you the news'

- medieval Sufi poet, Ibn al-A'ma

[/size]

Here's a Google string for more.

[dalryada]

More associations:

Hashish = Hashashin = Assassins = Old Man of the Mountain = supposedly first coined the phrase "nothing is true, everything is permitted"
and Khidr (as I learned his name) equivalent to the Archangel Metatron.
The Metatron, Face of God, Viceroy of Heaven, once was human, i.e., the Prophet Enoch, but God saw him and said "make him one of us," so Enoch walked with God and was not.  Taken up bodily, transformed into the greatest archangel of them all.
Then again, Azazel of the Djinn or the Archangel Samael may also manifest as the Metatron when he wakes up grumpy.
Rumors have abounded among qabalists for centuries that the Metatron is also the Devil.
And I believe the pagan Green Man morphed into the Devil anyway at some point in western culture.

One more thing -- all the Sufi "love" poetry supposedly is written in code, and consists of technical terms which precisely delineate certain states of consciousness.  Taking it at face value and getting all emotional about it just aint the point, or so some say.

Good quote, Telarus.  Thank you.

[Telarus, KSC]

Ooh! Thanks for the alternate spelling (and the hints about the poems, dang esoteric cryptography ^_^).

On the Hassan-Assasin link:

In Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", in a chapter entitled "Sinbad the Sailor", Dumas tells of the meeting of Franz with a mysterious stranger who lives on a deserted island and refers to himself only as Sinbad.
...
Franz's encounter with his mysterious host, the underground palace, the blindfold, his initiation to hashish, the visions he experienced, and his dream-like impressions are all calculated to hold the reader's interest. They are examples of Dumas's expertise as a storyteller. And they are also examples of Dumas's subtle and masterful craftsmanship, for what the reader has actually been treated to is a rendering of Marco Polo's story of the Old Man of the Mountain and his band of Assassins.

The mysterious Sinbad is none other than Hasan. The cave is the Alamut stronghold. The smugglers are the Assassins. The magnificent palace is the Paradise of the legend. Franz is blindfolded; the candidates (fidais) are given a potion to render them unconscious before they can enter the gorunds, and like Franz they are taken from the grounds in an unconscious state. The analogy is so well executed that even the reader who is acquainted with Marco Polo's narrative is unaware that he is encountering the very same legend in the story of Monte Cristo.

From Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years

So, I take that as pretty good historical evidence that "Sinbad" was just another mask for The-Old-Man-on-the-Mountain. Now to open you mind a crack. Have you seen "Sinbad: the Legend of the Seven Seas", which featured Hassan-in-disguise running a-foul of one of ERIS' Illumination rituals?

[dalryada]

Have you seen "Sinbad: the Legend of the Seven Seas", which featured Hassan-in-disguise running a-foul of one of ERIS' Illumination rituals?

Just saw it last weekend, interestingly enough.  I thought Eris was too cool.
There's tons of stuff on Al-Khidr these days.  My my.......
http://khidr.org/
http://www.khidr.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khidr