Alef, like Alpha, is the first of all letters and the sign of the One. My pen began to move as Mercan Dede’s “Alef” 🎧 whirled through my room like a sema; as the melody turned, so did my pen, and so did my thoughts. And I realized that everything turns back to that first letter. These lines are the trace of that turning; a trace left by the melody, an echo left by the breath. And so I began to write…
From the smallest to the greatest of all existence;
Everything is in a state of turning, transformation, and motion.
In Rumi’s sema, it is not the body that turns, but the soul awakening to truth; each turn becomes the name of passing beyond the self and arriving at Oneness.
In the Semah, each turn is a step taken with the longing to become one with the Divine, souls uniting in the circle of Universal Love to bow before the Truth.
The ascension and return of Jesus Christ is the mortal body that died on the cross being drawn into divine light, arriving at its eternal source to breathe love and hope into the world once more, in a timeless cycle.
As the seasons shed their leaves and turn again,
Nature reminds us that transformation is not death, but renewal.
Time is not a straight line, but a circle curving back upon itself;
with every step we take, the past turns into the future, the beginning turns into its end.
Water evaporates and rises to the sky,
then returns to the earth as rain.
As the Earth turns on its axis,
it also turns around the Sun.
Electrons turn around the nucleus,
and galaxies turn around one another.
And so, humans are no exception to this order,
Blood turns through their veins,
The eye turns in its socket,
Within, the breath turns, coming and going.
Turning is also a state of overthinking.🖤
~Özgür