by Arjuna
‘Towards the one, united with all!’
Murshid SAM used to say quite often ‘One of the purposes of the Sufi Message is to restore not the “ancient” but the eternal mysteries.’ Perhaps one aspect of the Ziraat work will be to resurrect the Nature mysteries of Pan, the Green Man, the Great Mother, and others.
Moinneddin Jablonski (1997)
The five Alchemical elements that take us back to the mysteries of Ancient Egypt and the Hermetic Tradition are a great example of the eternal mysteries that Murshid SAM is referring to in this quote. Inspired by my Ziraat experience in Aotearoa with Aunty Eila, Wendy, Abraham and Halima, I decided to propose a similar experience for our annual Aboriginal Spring Renewal Retreat with Uncle Noel and Aunty Trish. The idea was well received by Karen and Nicola, who were co-organisers of the retreat. The overall theme of the retreat this year was healing. The elements provided practices of elemental healing that could be experienced through the elemental breaths, elemental dances and associated creative activities. This theme was inspired by a number of sources:- the Ruhaniat Ziraat Manual; by a book on Aboriginal Healing called Secrets of Aboriginal Healing, by Gary Holz, which I read earlier this year; as well as the The Cry of the Earth, Spiritual Ecology, edited by Llewelyn Vaughn-Lee, which had led to a series of workshops I co-led with Nicola a few years ago now on Spiritual Ecology and Integral Consciousness.
It was the 5th time we were dancing on Budawang Land and it was for me one of the best retreats we’ve had so far. This year we had a bigger group, with over 15 adults and 7 kids, from 2 to 14, that was such a blessing. Hamida brought along her daughter Christa and her children and their friends and another family, Karuna, Grace and Moana. Fatima from Perth came with Peter, her partner, and their sons Alex and Lewis, which was a teaching in itself for the whole community.
We focused on the elements as a Ziraat practice for the first day and then on the second day we had Uncle Noel sharing his Aboriginal teachings, which this year were focused on the theme of Healing.
Each morning we began with Chi Gung, led by Andria by the dam and then I led the Element breaths and the dance, that came out of the retreat last year, in gratitude to Great Spirit, Grandfather Sun and the Elements. The words of the dance are:-
Oh, Great Spirit, Earth, Sun, Sky and Sea – you are inside and all around me/
Thank you for the Sun light, thank you for this day/ Help now to guide us, as we walk your way.
This dance I knew as a Circle Dance from Findhorn. I’d also experienced Uncle Max’s morning greeting to Grandfather Sun at a previous retreat at Jamanee Gunya, when we were each invited to express our gratitude for all we receive from Grandfather Sun each morning. Uncle Max is a well-known Yuin Aboriginal elder and a cousin of Uncle Noel’s. These influences all came together in this dance which we did each morning after the Chi Gung and the Sufi Element Breath practice, in a form given by Pir Zia.
In the morning of the first day, we began with the dance inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s words May I Take Peaceful Steps upon the Earth. We were then invited to request permission to be on the land and to tune into the elements around us. After that process we danced a dance to each of the Elements. We began with We Circle Around for Earth, followed by Wishita for Water, Om Nama Shivaya for Fire, Ruach for Air, and finally the Celtic Blessing for Ether. As we were dancing outside on the Earth and surrounded by the trees and the beautiful birdcalls and occasionally visited by a kangaroo, there was a strong connection to Nature, both within the dance and in the space around us. By the time we blessed each other with the Deep Peace of each of the Elements, it felt like we had entered into a very peaceful and harmonious place as a community.
While we had to modify the program we originally planned (see below), because of different arrival times for some people and other unforeseen circumstances, we did manage to do the next part of the process. This was to form groups, each of whom would focus on one of the elements and then co-create an altar around that theme. By this stage, people had had a chance to tune into the elements in a number of different ways – through the breath, the dances, their experience of the elements on the Land. Each group was given a cloth in the colour of their elements, as well as a candle and other things they could use to create their artwork. People really got into the creative process.
After our co-created lunch, we went out and set up our element altars and shared our understanding and experience of the element as well as a dance or a song or a poem to express that.
The Earth group were the first to present. They had used the Uncle Noel’s inspiring sculpture of the Turtle Dreaming and created an artwork of a tree on a yellow cloth.
They made special reference to the roots of the tree going deep into the Earth. Given that the area we were in was surrounded by trees as if held in an Earth womb of trees, it felt very resonant and grounded in the place we were in. We danced the Earth is Our Mother for Earth.
The next element was the water, which was naturally presented by the dam. The colour of Water in our Sufi tradition is green, while the Earth is yellow. This is because it comes from a Desert Wisdom tradition where the Earth is sand, which is yellow, and the green are the plants around the oasis. The location by the dam was very resonant with the element as was the fluid presentation by the Water group. We danced Ocean Refuses No River for water.
The next element presentation was that of fire, whose colour is red. This was a very passionate, playful and active presentation as is appropriate to that element. It was located at a fire pit that Uncle Noel uses for his smoking ceremonies, which we did the following day. As well as a story about the element and its qualities, there was a fluid sculpture presented by the group. This is a form inspired by Playback Theatre, in which some of us had been involved over the years.
The fourth element presentation was that of Air, which was the group in which the children were involved. This brought out the very playful and free-spirited nature of this element, whose colour is blue. It was a real inspiration to see the way the children participated and felt really included in this element presentation. Fire and air were completely improvised movements as is appropriate to the quality of freedom of those elements. 
The final presentation was that of the quintessential element of Ether. This is the ‘all- pervading life in space’ in the healing prayer, Nayaz, by Hazrat Inayat Khan (HIK). The colour of this element is sometimes described as an iridescent mother of pearl and this element integrates all the others. We chose a white cloth and candle for this element, which the Tibetan tradition uses in their prayer flag’s colour for Ether. Here we danced the Blessing Dance from the words of HIK.
This completed the day’s activities and after a co-created dinner we sat around the fire with music and stories and sharing. Some of the stories were about the elements directly, especially about the contrast between the arid dry Earth of Western NSW near the Darling River, which Jenny Templin had been to, just before the retreat, and the beautiful green landscape we were in now. There were stories about snakes and other animal encounters which are part of ‘all our relations’ as the Native Americans say.
The second day was devoted to Uncle Noel’s teaching and we began by preparing for a fire and a smoking healing ritual. First, we broke up into men and women’s groups as is customary in the Aboriginal way. In both groups we were painted with stripes of white clay so the Ancestor spirits would recognise us. We then went and gathered appropriate leaves to smoke – some from the tall gum trees and others from the smaller acacias.
The teenage boys felt very involved in this part of the process. We then made fire in the traditional Aboriginal way. The women were invited to hold either end of the stationary stick and the men took it in turn to spin the upright moving stick until we had smoke and a flame. And then with the leaves we gathered, the smoking ritual could begin, with a greeting to the winds of the four directions by Uncle Noel. We were all smoked in turn, which is a traditional form of Aboriginal healing and purification ritual. 
The day also involved other teachings by Uncle Noel about connecting to Country and other Aboriginal issues. There’s always such a sense of community both with the people and the birds and the trees and the plants when we sit in a circle together and are blessed with these deep teachings and there is time to ask questions and to share.
In the afternoon we went to the local Burrill Lake and collected bimbolas, which are cockles, as well as other edible plants by the lakeside, like Warrigal greens. All this we took back and cooked on the fire. This gave us further opportunities for yarning around the fire and more understanding of Aboriginal traditional foods.
In the late afternoon Uncle Noel took us on a tour of the various plants that are growing on his Land. As a horticulturist and Aboriginal educator he is very knowledgeable about the plant life, their uses and their names in English, Latin and Dhurga, the language of his Budawang people.
For dinner we had the bimbolas and oysters as well as the Warrigal greens and other Bush foods we had gathered.
On the 3rd day we focused on healing dances. We began with the Aboriginal Dance that we were gifted from Uncle Noel’s family and then did the Beauty Way dance, An Na El Na and the Sufi Healing dance – Ya Shafee Ya Kafee, which allowed us to send healing out to the people and places in the world, after all the people present had a chance to experience the healing in the centre. By this time, it was time for our closing circle which proved a very profound sharing by the community.
After the sharing and before lunch we sang Te Aroha to close the formal activities of the weekend. Given that this song is part of the Maori ending ritual on the marae, it felt very appropriate.
There was a real sense of connecting to Country, to the community, to the practices, as well as to Great Spirit. The presence of Aboriginal teachings and the healing ritual with the smoking ceremony and collecting shellfish from the local lake and then cooking them on the fire, really brought home how the elements are so fundamental to indigenous culture. The presence of the children and the families and Alex, all deepened our experience of life in so many manifestations, both human and more than human. This weekend proved a wonderful example of reading the sacred manuscript of nature, as well as connecting to the eternal mysteries, as Moinneddin suggests we can do through Ziraat at the beginning of the this paper.
Footnotes:
1. Quoted in the Ruhaniat Ziraat Reader, p. 42. (see References and Further Reading at the end of this piece)
2. See this article for more details https://www.learnreligions.com/elemental-symbols-4122788
For a visual presentation of the weekend retreat please
see Jennyma’s wonderful photos and story on our website:
http://dancesofuniversalpeaceaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/SPRING-RETREAT-October-2019.pdf
Some participant comments:
The retreat was borderless and boundary less. There was a culture of care, flow, harmony, beauty. It felt timeless. There was a dissolving of the personalities. It allowed an experience of the elements rather than just mental constructs. The community felt safe and welcoming. Drawing together, painting together – everything was welcomed. There was a healing from the sense of separation – from the Land, from community, from people with different abilities. There was a sense of living life, dancing life, connecting to the indigenous ways …(N)
There was a relaxed feeling – spaciousness and a flow - there was room to move. Everyone was working together. The activities were an integral part of the process not an add-on. There was flexibility in the program. There was time for enjoyment and integration… (K)
… it was a case of create the environment and transformation will occur. I could observe day after day within myself and around me the shedding of our noffity baggage. Flowing into our mother to be transformed into her beautiful creations… (M)
This time around I was able to tune it more deeply which made me notice subtleties around the land, trees, kangaroos, wallabies, and specially not being attacked by ticks or leeches...that made me feel very happy and accepted by the land, gently held.
Also I enjoyed a lot listening to uncle Noel garden tour such abundant country... when he shared about his racism experiences that made me so sad and angry wondering how to create a positive change.
I loved having young children around and the ONE tribe feeling we create… (C)
References and Further Reading:
Spiritual Ecology, the Cry of the Earth, edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, 2016, Pub. Golden Sufi Centre, California
Dark Emu, Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident, by Bruce Pascoe, 2016, Pub. Magabala Books, Broome
Secrets of Aboriginal Healing: A Physicist's Journey with a Remote Australian Tribe,
by Gary Holz & Robbie Holz. See https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17334311-secrets-of-aboriginal-healing
Ziraat Reader
See http://www.ruhaniat.org/pdf/ziraat/Ziraat-Reader-low-res-part-1.pdf
Also for our trip with Allaudin to the Red Centre last year, see http://www.ruhaniat.org/index.php/ecospirituality/2776-desert-caravan-in-the-heart
The Five Element Symbols of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Spirit,
see https://www.learnreligions.com/elemental-symbols-4122788
Jamanee Gunya’s Uncle Noel and Trish’s website:
http://nuragunyu.com.au/Home/Aboutnuragunyu.aspx
My People’s Dreaming, by Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, 2009, Pub. Finch, Blue Mountains