Cairo, the 22nd June, 2009
“Il Zaar” – baladi homemade rave parties to kiss demons and frustrations good buy…”
*** These days, I´ve been taking what most would consider the “wild side” of egyptian society and yet I confirm, as usual, that this is not – in fact – the wild side of the country, only the misunderstood and despised side of it.
*** Crammed in an old taxi with broken windows handlers (sauna effect at its best!), me and my friends headed to a distant part of Cairo where, for the last 90 years, a famous house practices the “zar” ritual open to friends, neighbours and even strangers who are invited to watch and participate in the session.
*** I have read and listened about the “zaar” and the whole mystic surrounding it but nothing could have prepared me for its simplicity and genuine feeling. Theory and reality do not faithfully mirror each other, specially in tricky subjects such as this one. So much talk and fears about something that is truly simple and uplifting.
Not yet recovered from the “moulid” night, I took the chance to join a “zaar” session and watch as woman after woman arrived with her children by the hand to release their personal demons and feats they couldn´t confess not even to the walls. They came silent and polite, sweet and composed. Then they would cover their faces with a black veil and dance away their dark corners getting into trance with the music.
*** What I loved most about the experience:
1. Musicians.
The musicians were amazing. The instruments were very limited – nay, drums and voice by an incredible female singer proudly presenting a mouth full of gold teeth – and the style of music, language and rhythmic patterns very basic and afro-influenced.
Despite the limitations of the trance music, I enjoyed the way they played and sang, building up tension in the music in order to guide the women into an explosion of emotions and stress release. They would start slowly and smoothly and then adding tension, feeling and heat to the music somehow manipulating the dancer´s brain into a huge release that seemed like a great orgasm to me.
Despite the efforts of every religion to asexualize human beings, I observe that there is a sexual component in all true spiritual practice. Reaching a strong orgasm being similar to religious fervour and the spirit´s ultimate release. In both situations, we get out from ourselves – if only for a few seconds! – and neglect our egos in order to connect with God living, silently, inside us. We can do it through a lover´s embrace and also through different several practices and that´s why it never appeared strange to me that sex and orgasm is considered sacred by hindus (they know that they´re talking about!).
2. The Women.
Old, young, childless and fertile with three or five children by their hands. They all arrived to the “zaar” session with candour and left feeling reborn and clean, once again. I could read it in their eyes as they put an end to their own session and prepared to return home. This is an alternative “therapy session”, visit to the psychologist so common in the West or “baladi rave party” ( as my student Jackie puts it). They all search for the same, in the end. Release all that is weighing on your shoulders, all the past pains and present frustrations, all the imaginary and real demons, all that hurts and doesn´t seem to leave, no matter how much effort we put into forgetting it.
Each woman had a personal style of dancing and an ability to release themselves.
I was invited to participate – as well as another fellow dancer, Virginia, who was with us – and so we did. Being used to visit the “other side” of apparent reality, it was not something new or original for me but it still felt great and joyful. I guess I have dealt with my own demons well enough to turn them into my friends.
3. The atmosphere of the place.
Well…this one is tricky to explain but I´ll give it a try!
The place was charged. This is an expression I use when I feel a space or a person which are not totally positive. There´s light and darkness there, good and evil. This was a charged place where I could clearly touch dancing spirits and an air so thick that I thought I could mould it into a ceramic jar.
The Universe is composed of negative and positive energies, that we all know. What surprised me the most was noticing how the limbo zone or frontier between light and darkness seemed to disappear when these women were dancing their demons away. I still felt good and evil but they were so entangled and mutually understanding of each other that you could not differentiate them anymore.
They´re both different sides of the same coin and humans, in their fear of the unknown and with their heads filled with religious propaganda, seem to run away from the dark side of themselves and reality, trying to deny its existence and convince themselves they´re only goodness and light.
In fact, we´re MOON and SUN. One cannot exist without the other.
*** To choose between feeding evil or kindness lies on our conscious and our heart´s hands. Accepting our complexity and facing our “dark holes” where fear, ignorance and sadness take charge, is one of the bravest acts we can take in life and these simple women in the “zaar” reminded me of that.
4. Knowing reality instead of the myth
Everyone - egyptians and arabs, not foreigners - who knew about my enterprise in the “zaar” session was appalled and called me crazy right ahead. For them, the “zaar” is like a scene from the movie “The Exorcist” where a possessed person is tortured by demons and, finally, released from those through a priest who gets offended, beaten and terrified by the victim. There must be blood, yelling and lots of obscenities. Oh, how great and distorting can our imagination be!
I could see for myself that these pre-made ideas are far away from the truth.
“Il Zaar” – baladi homemade rave parties to kiss demons and frustrations good buy…”
*** These days, I´ve been taking what most would consider the “wild side” of egyptian society and yet I confirm, as usual, that this is not – in fact – the wild side of the country, only the misunderstood and despised side of it.
*** Crammed in an old taxi with broken windows handlers (sauna effect at its best!), me and my friends headed to a distant part of Cairo where, for the last 90 years, a famous house practices the “zar” ritual open to friends, neighbours and even strangers who are invited to watch and participate in the session.
*** I have read and listened about the “zaar” and the whole mystic surrounding it but nothing could have prepared me for its simplicity and genuine feeling. Theory and reality do not faithfully mirror each other, specially in tricky subjects such as this one. So much talk and fears about something that is truly simple and uplifting.
Not yet recovered from the “moulid” night, I took the chance to join a “zaar” session and watch as woman after woman arrived with her children by the hand to release their personal demons and feats they couldn´t confess not even to the walls. They came silent and polite, sweet and composed. Then they would cover their faces with a black veil and dance away their dark corners getting into trance with the music.
*** What I loved most about the experience:
1. Musicians.
The musicians were amazing. The instruments were very limited – nay, drums and voice by an incredible female singer proudly presenting a mouth full of gold teeth – and the style of music, language and rhythmic patterns very basic and afro-influenced.
Despite the limitations of the trance music, I enjoyed the way they played and sang, building up tension in the music in order to guide the women into an explosion of emotions and stress release. They would start slowly and smoothly and then adding tension, feeling and heat to the music somehow manipulating the dancer´s brain into a huge release that seemed like a great orgasm to me.
Despite the efforts of every religion to asexualize human beings, I observe that there is a sexual component in all true spiritual practice. Reaching a strong orgasm being similar to religious fervour and the spirit´s ultimate release. In both situations, we get out from ourselves – if only for a few seconds! – and neglect our egos in order to connect with God living, silently, inside us. We can do it through a lover´s embrace and also through different several practices and that´s why it never appeared strange to me that sex and orgasm is considered sacred by hindus (they know that they´re talking about!).
2. The Women.
Old, young, childless and fertile with three or five children by their hands. They all arrived to the “zaar” session with candour and left feeling reborn and clean, once again. I could read it in their eyes as they put an end to their own session and prepared to return home. This is an alternative “therapy session”, visit to the psychologist so common in the West or “baladi rave party” ( as my student Jackie puts it). They all search for the same, in the end. Release all that is weighing on your shoulders, all the past pains and present frustrations, all the imaginary and real demons, all that hurts and doesn´t seem to leave, no matter how much effort we put into forgetting it.
Each woman had a personal style of dancing and an ability to release themselves.
I was invited to participate – as well as another fellow dancer, Virginia, who was with us – and so we did. Being used to visit the “other side” of apparent reality, it was not something new or original for me but it still felt great and joyful. I guess I have dealt with my own demons well enough to turn them into my friends.
3. The atmosphere of the place.
Well…this one is tricky to explain but I´ll give it a try!
The place was charged. This is an expression I use when I feel a space or a person which are not totally positive. There´s light and darkness there, good and evil. This was a charged place where I could clearly touch dancing spirits and an air so thick that I thought I could mould it into a ceramic jar.
The Universe is composed of negative and positive energies, that we all know. What surprised me the most was noticing how the limbo zone or frontier between light and darkness seemed to disappear when these women were dancing their demons away. I still felt good and evil but they were so entangled and mutually understanding of each other that you could not differentiate them anymore.
They´re both different sides of the same coin and humans, in their fear of the unknown and with their heads filled with religious propaganda, seem to run away from the dark side of themselves and reality, trying to deny its existence and convince themselves they´re only goodness and light.
In fact, we´re MOON and SUN. One cannot exist without the other.
*** To choose between feeding evil or kindness lies on our conscious and our heart´s hands. Accepting our complexity and facing our “dark holes” where fear, ignorance and sadness take charge, is one of the bravest acts we can take in life and these simple women in the “zaar” reminded me of that.
4. Knowing reality instead of the myth
Everyone - egyptians and arabs, not foreigners - who knew about my enterprise in the “zaar” session was appalled and called me crazy right ahead. For them, the “zaar” is like a scene from the movie “The Exorcist” where a possessed person is tortured by demons and, finally, released from those through a priest who gets offended, beaten and terrified by the victim. There must be blood, yelling and lots of obscenities. Oh, how great and distorting can our imagination be!
I could see for myself that these pre-made ideas are far away from the truth.
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