Edinburgh Mevlevi Tekke

David Dede shared this wonderful article recently on the power of cooking to bring refugees together for healing and celebration of life. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/sep/20/i-miss-my-hometown-friend-and-mums-delicious-food-the-cookbook-made-by-refugees

Dearest Friends, This coming Wednesday is the Urs, or commemoration of the passing of Süleyman Hayati Dede into the presence of the Beloved in 1985. You are welcome to join me in the evening here in Edinburgh if you are near, for a simple remembrance of one who devoted his life to bringing Mevlana and the fragrance of the rose to so many. If we unable to come together, please keep him in your hearts and prayers . With thanks, Eyvallah Hu, Hakk Dost. RSVP D. Bellak (Derviş Davut Dede) Fukir-ul Mevlevi Edinburgh ("Dağ dağ kavuşmaz İnsan insan kavuşur) (a mountain cannot meet a mountain, (however) a human being can meet a another"

There is no cave into which I can withdraw - my cave is where I am at the moment. That inner voice brings the message. I cannot hide. There is only here. David Bellak, Journal entry Konya 1976

  February 12th is the Urs of Muzaffer Ozak, late Shaikh of the Helveti-Jerrahi Sufi Order in Istanbul. David Bellak visited Shaikh Muzaffer many times during the 1970s, sitting patiently in his bookshop in the old market of Istanbul and joining zikr ceremonies in the Jerrahi tekke, or sufi lodge. Shaikh David was initiated by Muzaffer Effendi into the Helveti-Jerrahi Order, and sometimes a sense of this comes through in David Dede's own teaching and leading of zikr. Suleyman Hayati Dede was welcomed to the Jerrahi tekke, as seen in the photo below, and Jerrahis and other branches of the Helveti often include a semazen in their ceremonies. Shaikh Muzaffer was a person of great depth and spiritual authority, and also one filled with joy and energy and song. He wrote many poems and hymns under his pen-name "Ashki", which means something like "filled with divine love and yearning". The Eye of Love Since I gave my heart to beauty, I can't tell right from left, S...

  Suleyman Hayati Dede in his house in Konya in the 1970s, presenting David Bellak with a Destar - the  tall, camel coloured ceremonial headpiece  wound around the base with green silk ribbon, signifying the role of 'Postneshin Shaikh' - permitted to sit on the red sheepskin 'post' during the traditional Mevlevi whirling ceremony. The red sheepskin symbolises both the place of Hazreti Mevlana Rumi himself, and also the "place of burning". as Rumi said - "I was raw, I was cooked, I was burned!"

Tues 19th January was the annual memorial for the passing of Shaikh Suleyman 'Hayati' Loras of Konya. To honour him in this time of Covid isolation, we invited people who can play an instrument or sing, however imperfectly, to choose a piece of music or a song which touches their heart and to play it on the evening of the Urs for Suleyman Dede. We received the lovely photo above from Karim Payton in Hawaii, of Suleyman Dede arriving in Honolulu International Airport in 1976. To the right below Dede is the late Yaksan Valdez, who was Dede's representative in Hawaii and who started a Mevlevi community there which has continued to the present. Come to the Circle of Mevlana. And see the joy which is there. See that there, is the remedy To a thousand kinds of dark sufferings. You won’t find there, The tale of slander and hypocrisy, But there, will be sound of drum, ney, and kanun. If you are a seeker, Fall down upon the ground in prostration. That you may see What kind of mood t...

Dear Friends, Many blessings to you and season's greetings. This Thursday 17th December is the annual commemoration of the passing of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi to the realm of “Union with the Beloved”, known as Shebi Aruzi, or "Wedding Night". I invite you to join us in participating together to honour the Master Rumi, and the beauty experienced through him. This year owing to the Covid 19 pandemic, it isn't possible to join together physically as is customary, to share in a meal, and in the sacred dance and remembrance of the Divine names. However this need not be an obstacle. In the Mevlevi tradition the preparation of food plays a significant role in ‘conscious action’ to remind us of the need and benefit of taking deliberate and conscious action to help us in the development of our ‘real’ selves, to awaken from the sleep of ordinary life, turning to the heart which guides us to the Divine Presence. To this end I invite you to join with me in a simple exercise: Prepa...