1 July 2023

Dear Companions on the Path,

Summer greetings!

In the past I’ve had the pleasure of recommending books that captured my imagination. This time I would like to recommend a movie. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) by Werner Herzog is an enthralling exploration of the Paleolithic art that adorns the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southeastern France.

Dating back as far as 32,000 years, the paintings in the Chauvet Cave are sublime masterpieces that evoke animal spirits with incredible vigor and subtlety. The cave was clearly a site of numinous initiation, a portal to the World of Images. For reasons of preservation the cave is closed to visitors, and Herzog’s film is therefore an indispensable resource for anyone who wishes to glimpse the shamanic mysteries of Chauvet.

The people of the cave were hunters. In our world, meat reaches grocery store shelves deblooded, deboned, skinned, and wrapped in cellophane. Cows, pigs, and chickens today are factory farmed, meaning they spend their lives in densely packed confinement. In the eyes of the industry, these animals are not beings but a product: protein packages.

The cave painters saw matters differently. A bear or an aurochs was first and foremost a vital spirit. It might kill you and send your soul to the netherworld. Or perhaps, by a feat of skill and courage, you might prevail. You would then lift up a song of thanksgiving, feed your clan, and make clothing from the animal’s hide. You might even craft a flute from one of its bones. In dreams and visions you would become the animal.

The people of the cave were in touch with the Sovereigns of the Species (arbab al-anwa’), the oversouls of each kind of animal. This familiarity was the legacy of the primordial Adam Kadmon — Adam and Eve as yet undivided — who was taught the name of every animal in the Garden. In our time, with the exception of certain indigenous tribes and a few other adepts of Nature, most people are thoroughly estranged from the Sovereigns of the Species. Is it any surprise then that a mass extinction is underway?

There is no going back to the Paleolithic. Having said that, it bears recognizing that the spiritual guidance that reaches human beings through the course of history unfolds more in the manner of a winding spiral than a straight line. Archaic people have much to teach us. They may, indeed, help us to find the Adam-Eve of our own being and, in so doing, renew the channel between ourselves and the Sovereigns of the Species.

It is time to dream again of fleet deer, bellowing bears, and majestic lions.

Yours ever,
Bawa

SPECIAL NOTE OF CLARIFICATION REGARDING THE ABODE

In Pir Zia’s tribute to Pir Vilayat shared on Saturday, June 17th, it mentioned that the Abode of the Message recently changed “ownership” from the Inayatiyya to Friends of South Family, Inc. As a clarification, the New York State Office of the Attorney General recently approved a transfer of the membership in the Abode from the Inayatiyya to Friends of South Family, Inc. The membership transfer did not entail transfer of ownership in the Abode or the Abode real property. Again, we deeply appreciate everyone’s care for the Abode—may the Abode reopen and flourish into the future!

Suresnes Sufi Summer School
July 1st – 10th, 2023, via Zoom & in Person

All are invited to this year’s Sufi Summer School with Shaikh-al-Mashaik Mahmood Khan, Pir Zia Inayat Khan Maulabakhsh, Mir Ravanbakhsh Yüzkhan and many other special guests. Our 9-day hybrid programme will include lectures, music, meditation and zikr. All sessions will be in English. For those interested in attending in person at Anna Paulownastraat 78 in The Hague, please contact sufifoundation1923@hotmail.com.

The programme will be carried out in cooperation with the Shaikh-ul-Mashaik Maheboob Khan Foundation & The Foundation International Sufi Centre 1923 & Fonds de dotation Mir Pyarumian Van Goens & Gayanshala Sufi Centre Mannheim. More details and registration.

 

Zenith Camp 2023
Ticino, Switzerland & via Zoom
July 23rd – August 19th, 2023

Zenith Camp returns to the Swiss Alps this year with four weeks planned, July 23rd to August 19th, 2023. The theme of this year’s Camp is Finding and Playing Your Note.
Pir Zia will lead programs for Week I: July 23rd – July 29th, and for Week II: July 30th – August 5th. Both of these weeks will be also streamed via Zoom.

Additional Inayatiyya teachers and guides offering programs include Cheikh Sufi, Robin Becker, Mehmet & Ali Ungan, Deepa Gulrukh Patel, Saki Lee, Latif Brinck, Zuleikha, Ophiel van Leer, Sarida Brown, Jacob Ellenberg, Aziz Dikeulias, Srinivas Reddy, Sinan Arat, Faz’l Stein, Malik Hirschberg & Batin Hermes, with more faculty and special guests soon to be announced. Click here for details and to register.

Katwijk Retreat w/ Pir Zia
August 15th – 27th, 2023

We return to Katwijk, The Netherlands, a place most sacred to Inayatiyya Sufis, for an annual retreat with Pir Zia Inayat Khan. Join us for two days, 26 – 27 August, and also for a public event the evening before featuring our dear Shaikh-al-Mashaik Mahmood Khan. More details and registration.

The Sufi Path of Immortality
Dying Before Death & Living in God w/ Pir Zia Inayat Khan
London Sufi Centre, United Kingdom & Via Zoom
16th – 17th September 2023

Our physical existence is a transitory interval between the preexistence of the soul and the looming hereafter. For a person of foresight, it is never too soon to step into the worlds that lie beyond. These invisible worlds are the hidden dimensions of what is already before us here and now. Each step takes the soul further on the path of awakening and closer to the Eternal Beloved.

Pir Zia Inayat Khan, Sufi scholar and teacher of Sufism in the lineage of his grandfather, Hazrat Inayat Khan, guides us in spiritual discourse (suhbat), contemplation (muraqaba), meditation (mushahada), and ritual remembrance (zikr). Together we explore the core Sufi teaching of initiatic death and renewal, resituating ourselves within a vast process of the endless disclosure of the One. More details and registration.

 

The Zephyr is a monthly newsletter of Inayatiyya, an interfaith mystical fellowship with branches worldwide. For more gatherings, please visit our Inayatiyya Digital Programs Calendar .