2018 Classes & Teachers

THE BEAUTY OF THE HEART
Special Guest Teacher: Leilah Be

Offering a love infused atmosphere where one may look within to clear the jeweled heart and quiet the busy mind.
Enter through the portal of curiosity and sincere reflection.
Enjoy enhanced awareness of breath, embodied movement, and sound bathing.

Leilah Be

The Inner School
Wali Ali Meyer

In this class with Wali Ali we will dig into esoteric practices of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, and take time to realize them. We will attune to the heart of this path of self-effacement and realization of the One and Only Being. Sufism is based on direct experience and not on conceptual premises. That is a goal. We will also draw on lessons drawn from Murshid Samuel Lewis’ life experience. There will be Walks and Dances, and we will emphasize meditative and contemplative sitting.

Wali Ali Meyer

We Were Born for This
Khadija Goforth & Gayatri Kira Kull

With Zikr, sacred songs, movement, and vignettes from our spiritual journeys, participants will co-create a half-hour theatre piece for the camp  by tapping into our individual and collective stories. Prerequisites: Courage, introspection, compassion (for self and others) and a sense of humor. Everyone is invited; no previous theatre experience is necessary.

Khadija Goforth

EMBODIED PRAYER
Khalil Elliott & Kalama Reuter

Zikr Allah – The Remembrance of Perfection, the Perfection of Remembrance. With sacred phrase, breath, rhythm, melody, movement, and group attunement, Zikr gives us the opportunity for remembrance of our true nature, which is eternal and divine, filled with joy and love. Dive into the Mevlevi Turn practice with Kalama and sing Zikr with Khalil. Rumi says “Someone fills the cup in front of us: We taste only sacredness”. Come, fill your cup.

Khalil Elliott

Claiming Fertile Darkness: Seeds of Light, Flowers of Action
Arifa Byron & Amira Sara Pelfrey

Join us for an experiential and explorative class to delve into the fertile darkness. We will use practices, songs, and stories to cultivate and claim the richness that exists within the discomfort.  As we uncover this richness, we will work together to germinate seeds of light and imagine how they can blossom into flowers of action. These actions uplift the Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, thereby serving the whole of humanity by increasing our capacity to be conduits of Light, bringing transformation to the inner and outer worlds through our hearts and deeds.

Amira Sara Pelfrey & Arifa Byron

Death as Companion, Teacher, Friend and Adversary
Bodhi Be

Utilizing silence, breath, Sufi practices and group exploration and study, we will find our way into the preciousness and fragility of the moment, and look to how we can best show up in these times as warriors of the heart and protectors of the sacred.

Bodhi Be

God-fractals: releasing to the all aware, ever renewing, unknowable, eternal,  and ordinary present
Tara Andrea & Maboud Swierkosz

Through Maboud and Tara’s original wazifah dances, participants are invited to ‘feel into’  the living essence of the divine attributes.  We hope that our time together will  enable us to release our bodies and being to the particular facets and qualities of the Divine Qualities where the healing light of unity may spread like fractals of nature to inform and nurture us. Through the pathways of dancing and singing the wazaif as well as through silence, intonation and embodiment practices we endeavor to be more porous and receptive to the wonder and mystery of the Present.  Our intent is to cultivate an atmosphere that invites us to release into a felt relationship of intimacy with the Beautiful Names.

Tara Andrea & Maboud Swierkosz

THE ALCHEMY OF HAPPINESS
Quan Yin Williams & Nur Ali Ried

Based on  the teachings of Al-Ghazzali and of Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, with more from our contemporary teachers Murshid SAM and Atum O’Kane and Pir Moineddin, through his Soul Work. On our precious Sufi path we have direction to change our state in many ways (themes of Alchemy guide these state changes). Our psychospiritual lives can be changed elementally, completely, and instantaneously. We don’t have to stay stuck in old stories, dramas, fears, nightmares, hauntings.

Quan Yin Williams

THE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP
Asha Lela & Nurah Abigail Prout

Through exploring the five main patterns in nature, the critical keys of leadership are revealed:  Attunement, Creating Resonance, and Daring to Share.  This class is designed to bring your spiritual attunement into action.  You have a role to play in the unfolding of consciousness.
Explore. Claim. Express

Nurah Abigail Prout & Asha Lela

Dissolving Separation: Resonant Wazaif and Fana-fi-Gaia
Tawwaba Bloch

Seated, intoning pairs of wazifahs, we resonate our bodies like tuning forks. Walking, our steps and our breath entrain to the rhythm. Settling on the belly of the Mother, beloved Gaia, an opportunity to drop the illusion of separate observer, our vibration interpenetrating all that surrounds us.
We will likely work with pairs that are danced in Maboud and Tara Andrea’s class. In this complete combination we can become deeply infused with the divine qualities.

Tawwaba Bloch

Remembering of the Innocence
Saladin Pelfrey & Munir Peter Reynolds

Murshid Sam said in an interview, “Most of us are afraid of the unknown. A lot of us don’t want to have anything to do with it. It’s very simple: A concept of spirituality doesn’t have anything to do with spirituality, it has to do with concepts. Everything is due to our being caught in our concepts out of nowhere. Jesus said, ‘Unless you become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ No one wants to be simple.” Join Munir and Saladin as we journey in the Unknown to the discovery and remembering of the innocence, which is our true nature. Through inquiry, contemplation, meditation and movement (dances and walks) we will traverse the unknown country of the soul to our true nature.

Saladin Pelfrey & Munir Peter Reynolds

Awakening to the Divine Within
Louise Jacobus

At camp, it seems easier to experience our natural inner radiance. How do we sustain that clarity after camp, when we return to the pressures and busyness of everyday life?
This class will share practices from some of the world’s Wisdom Traditions for examining, clearing, and healing the patterns that sometimes cover up our inner light. We will experience practices from the Buddhist tradition, Sufi practices, and attunements to the Aramaic Jesus. There will be Dances of Universal Peace, walks, and song to help us embody these practices and bring our realization home.

Louise Jacobus

Musicians