The Alchemical Night

There are awakenings that happen quietly throughout our lives.

Moments when something we thought we knew falls away, when an old way of being can no longer hold us, and we are invited to meet ourselves — and life — more deeply.

In the Sufi path, transformation is not simply about becoming a better version of ourselves. It is a process of remembering.

Remembering what lies beneath fear, conditioning and the identities we have gathered around ourselves.

Remembering our connection to one another.

Remembering the Beloved.

Shabi-e Arus — the Wedding Night — marks the passing of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and his reunion with the Divine. It is not remembered simply as a death, but as a return: the lover returning to the Beloved.

The Alchemical Night gathers in the spirit of that return.

Through breath, movement, whirling, music, vision, witness, shared food and circle, we journey together through the night — moving between the ecstatic and the contemplative, expression and surrender, sound and silence.

Whirling sits at the heart of this journey: turning around a still centre, loosening our attachment to the familiar and allowing ourselves, for a moment, to be carried by something larger.

These practices have travelled through cultures, lineages and generations as ways of remembrance, connection and transformation. They remind us that wisdom does not live only in the mind. It is carried in the breath, in rhythm, in the body, in relationship and in our capacity to surrender.

it is the reminder that awakening is not about becoming someone new.

it is about shedding enough to remember what was always there.

On this Shab-e Arus night, we gather for a night of whirling remembrance and celebration.

Throughout the night we will journey through:

• Sufi Breathwork

Embodiment practices

Sufi Whirling
Creative Reflection
•Guided visualization

Time for silence rest and integration

Held throughout the night, this experience allows participants to step more fully beyond the pace of everyday life. Through extended practices of movement, whirling, meditation, and ceremony, space is created for deeper reflection, presence, insight, and connection with the self, with practices such as Sufi whirling offering the potential to enter deeper meditative and trance-like states of awareness.

The event is 6pm-6am.

During The Alchemical Night, all of our guided practices, whirling and shared experiences will take place in the centre of the main space.

The edges of the room will be kept as a place for you to leave your belongings and create a little resting space for yourself. As we will be journeying together throughout the night, you are very welcome to bring a sleeping bag, blanket or anything else that will help you feel warm and comfortable during quieter moments.

Food and refreshments will be served upstairs, allowing the main space to remain dedicated to our practices, movement and rest throughout the night.

WHIRLING AT THE ALCHEMICAL NIGHT

Whirling will form a central part of our Shab-e Arus night, with two extended periods of turning accompanied by live daf, ney, bağlama, voice and throat singing.

Through breath, grounding and movement, we will prepare the body gradually, working with balance, rhythm, orientation and awareness. From there, participants will be introduced to the foundations of whirling before moving into a longer, more open experience of the practice.

As repetition develops, something begins to shift. The thinking mind can become quieter, our usual sense of time changes, and attention moves increasingly towards sensation, rhythm and the immediate experience of the body.

There can be stillness within this, but also intensity, pleasure and ecstasy.

The relationship between live music and the turning is an important part of the practice. The pulse of the daf, the breath of the ney, the strings of the bağlama and the resonance of the voice create a changing landscape for the body to respond to. At times rhythmic and powerful, at others spacious and contemplative.

The whirling is facilitated by Anna Ayyildiz, founder of Somatic Whirling Dance. Her approach has developed through professional dance training, somatic practice, her Kurdish Alevi heritage, and eight years living within a spiritual community in India under an Aghori and Sufi teacher.

Aghora is rooted in Shaivite and Tantric traditions, where the body and lived experience can themselves become part of spiritual enquiry. These influences, alongside Sufi practices of remembrance and sacred listening, inform Anna’s sapproach to the turn.

For Shab-e Arus, we will explore whirling in the spirit of remembrance, longing and union associated with Rumi’s Night of Union — while allowing each person to have their own experience of what arises through the practice.

There is no expectation to whirl continuously. You can turn, pause, lie down, listen, witness and return when your body is ready.

No previous experience of whirling is necessary.

The invitation is simply to enter the practice with curiosity and see where the turn takes you.

Info: Guests arrive into live music and a softly held space. Rather than begin immediately with instructions, there is time to arrive, sit, drink tea, meet one another and allow the pace of the outside world to fall away. We then gather in a circle to formally open the night.

Info: Grounding and embodied movement. The emphasis is not yet on whirling technique, but on listening, weight, breath, rhythm, sensation and the intelligence of the body. Gradually the movement becomes more expansive and rhythmic, preparing the body for turning.

Info: The first extended whirling journey begins. Technique and preparation lead into approximately two hours of whirling accompanied by live musicians. The first turning is about remembrance - allowing repetition, rhythm and circular movement to soften the everyday self and bring us towards presence.

Info: This is deliberately part of the ceremony rather than simply an interval. We come back to earth through food, conversation and community- sharing a meal together in the middle of the night.

Info: After eating, the energy turns inward. A guided visualisation leads into a quiet reflective practice- through writing, drawing contemplation

Info: The lover moving towards the Beloved.

Info: Eventually the music falls away. Bodies come to the earth. There is rest, silence and integration.

Info: Different musical threads of the night. Closing poem.

Event venue & nearby stays

Masjid Ramadan, 9-15 Shacklewell Lance, London, United Kingdom

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

Get the app →

Discover more events by tag