The winged heart is a symbol of the Sufi movement, a mystic branch of Islam. The symbol is a heart with wings, symbolizing ascension; the five pointed star represents divine light, the moon responsiveness to this light. the symbol was chosen by the founder of the Sufi Order, Hazrat Inayat Khan. Here is his description of the symbol, from the Gatha:
The symbol of the Order is a heart with wings. It explains that the heart is between soul and body, a medium between spirit and matter. When the soul is covered by its love for matter it is naturally attracted to matter. This is the law of gravitation in abstract form, as it is said in the Bible, ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’ When man treasures the things of the earth his heart is drawn to the earth. But the heart is subject not only to gravitation, but also to attraction from on high, and as in the Egyptian symbology, wings are considered as the symbol of spiritual progress, the heart with wings expresses that the heart reaches upward towards heaven.
Then the crescent in the heart suggests the responsiveness of the heart. The crescent represents the responsiveness of the crescent to the light of the sun, for naturally it receives the light, which develops it until it becomes the full moon. The principal teaching of Sufism is that of learning to become a pupil. For it is the pupil who has a chance of becoming a teacher. Once a person considers that he is a teacher his responsiveness is gone. The greatest teachers of the world have been the greatest pupils. And it is this principle which is represented by the crescent. The crescent in the heart represents that the heart, responsive to the light of God, is illuminated.
The explanation of the five-pointed star is that it represents the divine light. For when the light comes, it has five points. When it returns, it has four: one form suggesting the creation, the other annihilation. The five-pointed star also represents the natural figure of man, whereas that with four points represents all forms of the world. But the form with five points is development of the four-pointed form. For instance if a man is standing with his legs joined and arms extended he makes a four-pointed form, but when man shows activity – dancing, jumping – or he moves one leg, he forms a five-pointed star, which represents the beginning of activity, in other words, a beginning of life.
It is the divine light, which is represented by the five-pointed star, and the star is reflected in the heart, which is responsive to the divine light. And the heart, which has by its response received the light of God is liberated, as the wings show. Therefore, this sentence will explain, in short, the meaning of the symbol: the heart, responsive to the light of God is liberated.
For more information about Spiritual Chivalry, Prophetology and other current topcs seewww.sevenpillarshouse.org.
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Oikos, the Greek root of the word "ecology," means "home." To the extent we are at home with our souls, hearts and minds, we are naturally at home and intimate with the natural world. In such a condition, we naturally uphold the freshness, beauty and sacredness of all life. The result is that we see life differently. We recognize, as Thomas Merton described, that all of life is "pure affirmation" - an Emerald Earth. By this shift in vision a door opens in our life, and we find ourselves participating in an uplifted and resurrecting world, a life filled with possibility and satisfaction.
Ziraat was inaugurated in 1926 by Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan of India, who taught in the United States and Europe in the early 1920's. Inayat Khan introduced the inner life to many westerners, and spoke of spiritual liberty and the underlying unity of all the world's spiritual traditions.
Ziraat uses the symbols and dynamic processes of agriculture as ways of describing the inner life, and as ways of finding a bridge between the spiritual and material worlds.
Ziraat is an initiatic school, open to all who feel a commitment to spiritual awakening and to the protection of this sacred world. It is an activity of the Sufi Order International, but one need not be a member of the Sufi Order to join. Initiation in Ziraat confirms a pledge to affirm and cultivate the divine seed within our being, and thereby to help in the preservation and restoration of our world.
The work of Ziraat is deeply rooted in the esoteric teachings of the Sufi Order. As the last Activity which Hazrat Inayat Khan inaugurated, Ziraat draws from and extends the work of each of the other Activities: healing of the individual soul and of the planet; kinship in our mutual interdependence with the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity; and realizing life itself as a universal worship celebration, honoring the unity and truth at the core of all the great spiritual traditions and prophetic teachings.
The meaning of Ziraat is profound and mysterious, ever-revealing of deeper and deeper levels. Its symbology derives from agriculture, from plowing and cultivation of the land, from planting and caring for the seed until it becomes a fully blossoming plant. At one most basic level, Ziraat serves to remind us of our sacred relationship with the Creator and with nature, and the crucial need at this time to restore the fragile balance necessary to sustain life on this planet.
At another level, Ziraat informs us that the first place for the work of protecting the life around us is inside of us. Here, the farm symbolizes the mind, and Ziraat focuses on the purification of the mind and the restoration of our natural and true self. Here, the “work” of Ziraat consists of allowing all the old roots and stems of past harvests to be uprooted, in order that new life may emerge from the fertile earth of our souls. Here also, we come to recognize, by the action of the Divine in our lives, an intimate love relationship and alchemy.
But what is Ziraat's unique purpose? We can gain a clue of Hazrat Inayat Khan's motivation from his words.
"Although in essence, even after touching the deepest depths of the earth, the soul is divine, in order to realize for itself that Divine Element it has a task waiting even after being human. It is the manner in which that task is accomplished, and the object gained which is called Ziraat".... Hazrat Inayat Khan.
Ziraat has to do with the completion and fulfillment of the journey of spiritual awakening. It is a journey of purification, of plowing, of digging to uncover the seed of the divine in the human heart, and of bringing this seed to fruition. It teaches how we make a bridge between heaven and earth in our lives, each in our most unique way. And Ziraat has to do with how we harmonize our human will to the Divine Will, how we unite with our divine essence and how we bring the light and spirit of our beings most fully into life.
Zebunissa is a long time student of the Sufi and Buddhist meditative traditions, and of the sacred teachings called Ziraat given by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Ziraat teachings emphasize the cultivation of the heart and the soul, and the relationship between this cultivation and our deepest intimacy, kinship and service to life. (For more information on Ziraat, see www.ziraat.org).
