Hoopers generally have a preferred direction in which they like to turn, mine is anti-clockwise although I definitely encourage you to hoop in both directions! However, when I began to spin, I wasn't looking for a mystical experience - it was just a new way of moving with my hoops.
I found that spinning came easily to me, I learned to unfocus my gaze I didn't try "spotting" as ballet dancers do. I realised the more I relaxed my focus and my breath, the less dizzy and nauseous I became and also the more still my mind became.
After spinning for 6 minutes or so I have felt completely exhilarated but not giddy, perhaps I could use the word ecstatic. Perhaps it's a feeling of connection to our spinning planet - I always spin barefoot and best of all is spinning barefoot on the earth. Spinning is an experience and once you have built up your practice, I can only think of it as being a positive and uplifitng addition to your hoop journey.
How To Spin. Begin slowly! Turning preferably anti-clockwise, building up the time you spin from 10 seconds to a minute and then beyond. You can focus your gaze on your hoop but I have found this less comfortable than completely letting go. Don't worry if you wobble, just slow down and either continue slowly or stop by focusing your eyes onto the ground. The whirling dervish ceremony, or sema, which blurs the lines between dance, prayer, meditation and trance, is as synonymous with Turkey as the mosque-studded skyline of Istanbul.
But what are the dervishes practising this ancient ritual, inspired by the teachings of a 13th-century poet and religious leader from present-day Konya Turkey , trying to achieve? During the elegantly simple performance, rotating with skirts swirling in a choreographed constellation of dancers, the dervishes are believed to become a conduit for divine blessings. Their voices echo as they repeatedly call out to Allah, spinning faster and faster.
Egos and personal identities abandoned, they attain a spiritual perfection known as fenafillah. Suffice to say, it takes months of dedication for devout initiates to learn the Rumi ropes — as well as a wooden board and a bag of salt.
Using the salt to prevent slipping and blisters, the trainee spins with his left big toe and second toe around a nail in the middle of the square training board, while holding his right foot perpendicular to his left and his arms crossed with palms to shoulders. He must turn his foot and his whole body to the right without raising his heel from the board, and he later progresses to whirling without the nail, opening his arms and wearing the all-important white tennure robe.
A man's very existence depends on this movement -- revolution in the atoms, structural stones of his body, movement of his blood etc. However, all of these are natural, unconscious revolutions. The Whirling Dervish actively causes the mind to participate in the revolution of all other beings. Akin Cakmut, who has been practicing the dance for many years since he first started at the age of 13, told CNN, "Everything turns in the universe.
The world turns, the sun turns, your blood under your skin turns, and also the Dervish turns. It's all part of the experience. The white robes represent shrouds their ego's shrouds and the black hats tombstones their ego's tombstones. The dance goes through different phases. Akin explains, "The meaning of the first part is who are you?
You are thinking who am I? The second part the Dervish understands, ok, I am human, I am living. In the third part the Dervish understands there is a force, and the dervish gives his heart to God. In the fourth part, your soul comes back to your body, and you understand that, yes, I am human I am a person. In the s the Dervishes were banned from Turkey out of fear that their religious roots would lead them to revolt against the new secular government.
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