The Zephyr, November 2022

16 November 2022

Dear Companions on the Path,

November greetings! I hope this note finds you and your loved ones well.

Two weeks ago I visited Berkeley, California. I saw my mother Taj and brother Mirza, and spent a meaningful weekend with companions on the path from many parts of the Western U.S., as well as from Mexico and Canada. It was a chance to reconnect with old friends and to meet new ones. I stayed at the Incarnation Monastery, a place of serene quietude where stellar jays peered in from the trees. Our gathering took place at the charming Hillside Club. The arrangements were made by our impeccable hosts Risala and Rashid, who worked assiduously for months to make this first post-Covid North American gathering possible. Our theme was The Soul’s Journey, the subject of my forthcoming commentary on Murshid’s eschatological teachings, Immortality: A Traveler’s Guide (Suluk Press, March 2023). It’s a theme to which I plan to return in two weeks’ time in Paris. Friends in Europe, I hope to see you soon in the City of Lights.

Among the honored elders present with us in Berkeley was the esteemed Curandera Espiritu Grandmother Flordemayo, a beloved Godmother of our community. We were also graced by an entrancing visit from the founders of the Church of St. John Coltrane, Archbishop Franzo Wayne King and Mother Marina King, accompanied by Mother Marina’s sister and the founders’ daughter Rev. Wanika Stephens. This past weekend, Inayatiyya Music hosted a scintillating online conversation with these new friends and John Coltrane’s biographer Dr. Cuthbert Simpkins.

Many of us are currently participating in the Kinship 21-Day Challenge organized by Kinship North America and Oceania. Each day we explore salient writings and recordings on issues of equity and justice. For me, an inspiring personal example of centering the stories of marginalized people is work that my daughter Rasulan is doing in New York City. She works for an organization focused on bail and prosecutorial reform. It’s harrowing to hear how often people – usually people of color – end up in jail for months or years, in deplorable conditions, without access to counsel and with only the distant prospect of a hearing. The right to be regarded as innocent until proven guilty all too frequently turns out to be the exclusive prerogative of just one segment of the population. By contrast, when the justice system treats people fairly, the result is not more crime but in fact lower levels of recidivism. I am moved by the work that Rasulan and others are doing to bring greater fairness to the system.

Another series of messages you may be following – I certainly am – are the daily messages from our dear colleague Gulrukh reflecting on the COP27 Climate Change Conference in Egypt. Gulrukh is cogently utilizing the paradigm of the Sophic Whorl to illuminate the ways in which we can all engage in the effort to honestly reckon with the consequences of decades of one-sided industrial development and seek a new understanding between ourselves and the Earth. If you haven’t yet seen Gulrukh’s valuable messages, you will find them here.

I hear from our Suluk Administrator Isa Sophia that the upcoming Suluk Global Online class, beginning in March, is steadily filling up. I have been in touch with some of those who have been applying, and I am greatly looking forward to working with the new cadre. For me, studying Murshid’s essential teachings and practices never feels repetitive; there is always much more to discover. And every discovery is a glint in the eye of the Beloved.

Yours ever,
Pir Zia

The Journey of the Soul, Berkeley, California, November 5 & 6, 2022. Photo: Shams al Haqq.

The Journey of the Soul w/ Pir Zia Inayat Khan
Paris, France, December 3rd – 4th, 2022

Remember! That is the injunction of the prophets. Remember where you came from and you will know where you are going. Hazrat Inayat Khan’s The Soul, Whence and Whither offers a panoramic unveiling of the soul’s journey. Guided in this contemplative retreat by Hazrat’s grandson and lineage-bearer, we will recall our descent through the spiritual and imaginative worlds we knew before our birth. Then, looking toward the horizon, we will anticipate the interdimensional itinerary that still lies ahead. Situating ourselves, in this way, within a vaster map, we will be brought to a clearer understanding of what is needed here and now.

Register Paris

Traveling Light: A Sufi Retreat
w/Amida Cary, Yaqin Aubert & Jacob Miraj Ellenberg
December 9th – 11th, 2022

In this retreat we will explore the Sufi perspective of light, the light within, and being a “being of light.” Clouds of limitation, such as confusion, uncertainty, and distress, obscure the natural light within. Heaviness of heart weighs us down. But when heaviness and limitation are removed, joy comes, and we feel light. How might “being light” unburden our bodies, minds, hearts and souls, and more so, inspire us, with the support of clear minds and loving hearts, to build a more beautiful world of beautiful people?

As we journey through the stages of retreat we will draw from our rich heritage of light practices to reconnoiter how light purifies, opens, reveals, inspires and creates. How does “being light” affect our sense of identity? Inform our relationships? Color our individual and collective understanding of and participation in the world? Imagine what it would be like to travel lightly through life!

Register Today

The Sufi Tarot w/ Ayeda Husain
December 11th, 3:00 pm EST / 9:00 pm CET

Please join us for this special book launch with our dear friend Ayeda Husain (aka Nizam un Nisa) for her newly released “The Sufi Tarot”. Mark Twain once wrote, “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.” By bringing together the East and West through a shared history of tarot—Egyptian origins and Italian adaptations—The Sufi Tarot aims to do exactly the opposite.

Register Today

Suluk Global Online Course
March 2023 – December 2024
Applications due by November 18th, 2022

We are happy to announce the launch of a new Suluk Global Online class beginning March 2023. If you are interested in potentially becoming a student of Suluk, please email suluk@inayatiyya.org.

The first Suluk Academy Global Online Class graduated successfully in June 2022 with 142 students from Turkey, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Norway, Scotland, Denmark and The Netherlands. Suluk is designed for initiates, called murids, within the Inayatiyya’s Inner School. Over the course of two years, students deeply explore the fundamentals of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s school of Sufism under the rubric of Concentration, Contemplation, Meditation and Realization.

More Details & Application

The Inayatiyya’s Call of the Earth Initiative, galvanized by the climate needs of our collective moment, unites us all in spirit and action through the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. This month we hear from Shams Kairys of the Kinship Council: “The swinging of the branches in the forest, the rising and falling of the waves, all has its music…“ Read more

Inayatiyya Fall Appeal 2022

We are in the midst of our Inayatiyya Fall Appeal 2022! Please support the monthly creation of The Zephyr newsletter, as well as hundreds of other digital, programmatic, and community projects organized and held by the Astana each year, in collaboration with our network of teachers, guides, musicians, gatherers, healers, clergy, naturalists, heralds, knights, and other friends far and wide. To give today, please visit inayatiyya.org/donate.

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 for Fall 2022.