This is a brief description of local Sufi Order leaders.
Contact the leaders if you want to discuss any of their events or
to obtain information about the initiatic path.
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Amida Cary
is a Senior Teacher and Retreat Guide in the Sufi Order International.
She is an educator dedicated to advancing consciousness and conscience
who has developed programs, created curricula, guided retreats, taught
students, and trained teachers through various organizations including
Amnesty International, Key School, Sufi Order International, Universel.net,
T'horah He / Ruhi Hiya Safi Retreat Center, Suluk Academy and Sufi Alchemy.
She offers retreats at private facilities in beautiful natural settings
including the Santa Cruz and Shenandoah Mountains.
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| Contact:
info@sufialchemy.com
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Michael Gest
has
been a mureed in the Sufi Order International since 1969.
He is a Center leader in Sebastopol, a traveling teacher,
and director of the
Hazrati Gardens where
he guides private alchemical retreats. He has also been
a member of the Sufi Ruhaniat International since 1969. A
self-described iconoclast, ecologist, and philologist,
his spiritual sources and teachers include Hazrat Inayat
Khan, Pir Vilayat and Ibn l'Arabi. Other life activities
include real estate, business, and investments. He
is manager of The Abode of Blessings Investment
fund.
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| Contact: 707-292-8086, 707-829-9036 or
michaelgest@aol.com
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Mahdiah Esther Jacobs Kahn
is a Senior Teacher and a Retreat
Guide in the Sufi Order International. She is also
a Senior Teacher (Shafiyat) in the Sufi Healing Order.
Mahdiah leads a Sufi Order Center in Mill Valley and
conducts trainings and workshops throughout the United
States. She is also a Cheraga (ordained minister) and
a Farmer in Ziraat. She is a long-time student of Pir
Vilayat Inayat Khan.
Mahdiah is also a Senior Teacher in the Diamond Logos
work and maintains a practice in that work and in transpersonal
therapy in Mill Valley. She has been a student of Faisal
Muqaddam for many years. She teaches the Diamond Logos
work in the United States and Europe and assists Faisal
in the training of teachers. She is a licensed therapist
who was graduated from the New York University School
of Social Work in 1966. |
| Contact: 415-383-3548 or
mahdiah@comcast.net
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Shams Kairys
is a Coordinator of the Kinship activity of the Sufi Order
International. He has worked with innovative organizations
and projects dedicated to helping heal the world, including
Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, Meeting of the Ways,
Creating Our Future, Seva Foundation, Reaching Out Project,
EarthSave International, Youth for Environmental Sanity
(YES!) and Berkeley EcoHouse. He is currently focused
on awakening the consciousness and conscience of humanity
to the profound challenges of our global environmental
predicament. |
| Contact:
shams@writingway.com
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Mary Risala Laird has been teaching
as a center leader in the Sufi Order International (SOI)
for over twenty years. She and her husband John host
the Peralta Avenue Sufi Center located in Berkeley. They
have 8 children and 11 grandchildren between them! She
is a cheraga (ordained minister) in the SOI and a healing
conductor in the Sufi Healing Order. Her passion includes
leading (and taking) alchemical retreats, as taught by
Pir Vilayat, Aziza Scott, and Shahabuddin Less. Her love
for alchemy spills over into her art work and letterpress
books where she is aka Quelquefois Press. |
| Contact: 510-525-8905 or
shihablaird@hotmail.com
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Ashara Laszewski
was
formally initiated on the Sufi path in 1973, receiving
training from Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Murshida Vera
Corda. She assisted in the establishment of the New Age
Sufi Schools in Marin County where she served as director
for seven years. The Schools have programs at the infant
toddler, pre-school, and primary school levels that provide
an education based on the teachings of Hazrat Inayat
Khan. As a senior teacher in the Sufi Order International,
she regularly leads message classes and women's light
classes, and teaches workshops in spiritual art. She
is a cheraga (ordained minister). A marriage and family
therapist, she has been trained and continues private
practice as an art therapist and sand play therapist.
She lives with her husband in Larkspur, California. |
| Contact: 415-924-4047 or
asharal@earthlink.net
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Zahira Rabinowitz
was
initiated into the Sufi path in 1975 by Murshida Vera
Corda. Zahira trained in and taught at the
San Francisco Seed Center, a school inspired by Msh.
Vera’s vision of holistic, integrated education.
She managed Msh. Vera’s retreats for 15 years,
edited her book, Cradle of Heaven, and is currently
president of Holistic Human Development, Inc., a trust
for Murshida Vera’s work. As Petaluma Center representative
in the Sufi Order International, she taught classes in
Petaluma for 10 years. She lives with her family
in Petaluma, CA , participates in Sufi Retreats and new
moon light work, studies with Taj Inayat, does private
tutoring, writes poetry, gardens, and takes part in her
aged mother’s (born 1909) well-being. Her doorway
to practice and presence is through breath and the open
heart. |
| Contact: 707-763-6078 or
mzahira@comcast.net
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Hadi Paul Reinhertz
and
his wife Shakina, convene classes and meetings in Vallejo,
California. Hadi began his training with the Sufi
Order International in 1981. In addition to his
Sufi Studies he has been a student of Chinese Martial
Arts and related fields since 1969.
As his path unfolded, Hadi has held a number of administrative
positions in service to the Order, such as West Coast
Camp coordinator and administrator for The Abode of the Message in
New York. During part of the Nineties he was the San
Francisco Representative for SOI, and held classes and
meetings in that city. |
| Contact: 707-648-6065 or
sufiworks@comcast.net
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Shakina Reinhertz
author of "Women Called to the Path of Rumi", is a Representative and Retreat Guide in the Sufi Order International as well as a teacher in the Mevlevi Order of America. She has been a student of Sufism for twenty-nine years. Her professional experience includes over twenty years of teaching and social service work with an emphasis on women's issues. For the past eleven years, she has been a guest presenter on Sufism at Colgate University in Hamilton New York, City College of San Francisco, Rochester University in New York State, Wisdom University (formerly Creation Spirituality) in Oakland and California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. The heart of her practice is Sacred Dance, having studied with teachers such as T.Y. Pang, Chitresh Das, Ann Halprin, and Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras of the Mevlevi Order. She is currently co-leading the Vallejo Center with her husband Hadi.
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| Contact:
sufisecret@comcast.net
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