Sidrat Al Muntaha: Lotus of the Limit

A painting and excerpts from a poem by the same name
Sidrat-al-Muntaha: Lotus of The Limit
by Aïda Touré

Everywhere I look
it circles and circles!
My heart curves

to the calligraphy
of your Love.
.....
Each page, an immaculate cloak
around the gentle soul
who whirls to the tone

of the Return.
...


Sufi poet, author, and artist Aïda Touré lives and works in New York.  She was born in Gabon, to a Malian Muslim father and to a Gabonese mother.  The Sidrat al-Muntaha is a sacred lote tree which marks the end of the seventh heaven beyond which no creature can pass.  It was here at this tree where Muhammed, accompanied by the angel Gabriel was given the 5 daily prayers for all Muslims.  Touré shows this as a moment of delight and opening.  Her work and the full text of her poem here: http://visualsufipoetry.com/sidrat-al-muntaha-lotus-of-the-limit/

***

Another painting and excerpts of a poem by Aïda Touré - both titled "Prelude to Majesty":

Al ikhlas, spherically ambient,

the heart leans on immanence,

look, we shed our selves,

souls dancing and whirling

in prelude to majesty, turn by turn,

we pick up the gems the prophets

scattered on the grounds for us;

in each one, a luminescence

infinitely undefined,

there are many paths in one

lo! in Hu’s pleasure,

lovers are refined.

Do you see the veil lifting?

Love speaks with no mouth,

we are interwoven with the signs

laid around us like sublime kisses.

Our all, lost in this splendid beauty,

we rejoice for the Garden is near,

Rubies dangle from the healing tree ...

Full text:  http://visualsufipoetry.com/prelude-to-majesty/

Thank you, Aida, for sharing your Sacred Trees!

Ancient Assyrian Tree of Life

This image of the Assyrian Sacred Tree (circa 870 BCE) comes to us courtesy Barnaby Thieme from his thoughtful, wide-ranging blog Mesocosm.  Barnaby in his unique scholarly voice calls for interfaith and cross-cultural dialog in his own post titled More Fitting to be Friends - about possible influences of the Islamic Sufis on the European Arthurian legend and more.  Click on the image to see this one better.

Silk Mandalas by Mary Ann Holley

Mary Ann Holley paints mandalas on silk – often with tree imagery referencing spiritual ideas from the different traditions.  Shown respectively are "Tree of Enlightenment” and “Tree of Light”.  Her work originates in personal meditation, and she does her art consciously as an act of healing & world peace.   She works as a spiritual teacher in the New Thought movement.   http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeavenOnEarthSilks

Hi folks, I'll open up this discussion with a sacred tree sculpture project I'm working on right now.  These are illustrations for a 9-foot wide interfaith sculpture I hope to install in the chapel of Advocate Lutheran General Hospital (Chicago area) later this year.  The arc is made from very heavy steel plate in layers and offsets as shown.  The tree is carved in wood and gold plated in a traditional manner.  It appears to be growing down into the steel exposing some root.  On a separate panel in papyrus and ink or paint is a universal prayer that reads vertically "The Sacred Tree of life grows into the openness of our prayer and into the place of our infirmity."  The hospital is deeply committed to a chapel that welcomes all faiths and I have worked closely with the chaplains to meet that goal.  I wanted to create a work that was not primarily a political statement about being inclusive (though certainly that is implied), but more a direct, contemplative invitation.

David Orth

Orth Furniture & Sculpture

www.OrthFurniture.com