Announcements

KHANKAH OF THE HEART
THE WINGED HEART

A residential retreat at Wistaston Hall Oblate Retreat Centre, Crewe

22th – 25th January 2026 From supper on Thursday to after lunch on Sunday.

“Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings” – Rumi

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Jilani and Shamsia have a vision of a Sufi community, a Khankah, based not in a building of bricks and mortar, but in the relationships between the deep and loving hearts of its members. All fervent seekers are welcome to join, whether you are new to this or have been walking the path for many years.

In this retreat we are inspired by the Sufi winged heart: the symbol of spiritual liberty, expressing that the heart reaches upward towards heaven. In those paired wings we see the balance of known and unknown, impermanence and what survives, dancing on the threshold, the edge between the worlds, where we fly free, with the breath of God beneath our wings.

Shamsia Sandra Sunfire lives, Dances and Walks in Wales and has done for nearly 30 years. She follows the Path of the Heart, the Path of Love. Shamsia is a leader and mentor of Dances of Universal Peace. She loves the retreat process that draws on the rich tapestry of wisdom teachings and practices, the rhythms of nature which empower us to be more of who we truly are. She both leads and attends retreats. Shamsia is a conductor in the Dervish Healing Order and is dedicated to service on the healing path.

Jilani Cordelia Prescott is a guide in the Sufi Ruhaniat International, Cherag, SoulWork practitioner and leader of the Dances of Universal Peace as well as a mentor of other dance leaders. She has over thirty years’ professional experience as a teacher and musician. Her relaxed and patient teaching style means people easily learn the practices, and can be free to enter the powerful and healing depths of the experience. Jilani lives in the misty Pennine hills of northern England, and brings her love for the Earth to everything she does.

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Cost: £520 – £475 – £435 including all meals (generous/standard/cost prices: self selecting sliding scale based on need). £80 deposit (non-refundable) reserves your place. Please get in touch with us if these prices are beyond your means. We want to be inclusive and we hope to have bursaries. Single/shared accommodation available.

Shamsia and Jilani will have musical support from Halim Geoff Carter and Robert Salik Orange

We are very grateful to have received a grant from the Oneness Project to support an ongoing bursary fund to enable us in turn to support those encountering financial difficulties so that they can join us.  We have previously been supported by Dances of Universal Peace International. This bursary fund will be available to all including those who will in future serve and support our communities, the young people.  We recognise that these are challenging times and that financial challenges are becoming more widespread and that a bursary fund will help our community to be more supportive and inclusive. If you are experiencing abundance and feel inspired to support our bursary fund, please contact us.

We are committed to exploring sustainable ways to continue to gather as a Sufi Community, financially and based on caring for the Earth’s limited resources.  This venture has been unfolding in our hearts and our lives each and every time we meet, we nurture and pray for its past, present and future.

Please don’t be shy about approaching us to discuss bursaries or paying by instalments, which can make it very affordable.

Contact us now for more information or to book: email  Jilani on jilanicordelia@gmail.com, or Shamsia on sandrasunfire@gmail.com.

In the Footsteps of Yeshua and the Great I Am: Exploring the “I Am”, the secret teachings of the Aramaic Jesus.

le Chant du Loup – 2045 Chemin de Chapias 26150 Die, France

Inana: Simple Presence, the I inside the I, connecting one to One, is the food that energises all life.The “I Am” feeds all being with understanding and energy…

Simple Chants and Body Prayers, led by Jilani Cordelia Prescott, with live guitar support from Jilani.

All welcome! Everything will be taught as we go along – no prior knowledge or experience necessary. In French and English.

‘Who danceth not, knows not what is being done.’ (Hymn of Jesus)

Cost: €150 Retreat Fee

Food and Lodging extra, by Donation

Gite, dormitory and camping all possible.

For bookings or further information, contact Manoelle:

Phone/WhatsApp +33 699 44 01 42

Come and immerse yourself in the beautiful Welsh countryside and ‘the Sacred Manuscript of Nature, the only book which can enlighten the reader’ (in the words of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Sufi mystic). For these days we will live together close to the land and deepen our connection to Mother Earth through many different practices.

There will be opportunities for training for dance leaders, including circles where new or more experienced dancers, dance leaders and musicians can explore the dance leading journey, with guidance and supporting practices held by Jilani, who is a very experienced mentor and trainer of dance leaders.

This event is offered in association with Khankah of the Heart, a UK Sufi community based not in bricks and mortar, but in the loving hearts of everyone who feels part of it. Through Khankah of the Heart we may be able to offer some bursaries for those who would otherwise be prevented from attending this camp by the cost. Please ask!

Rissa of Yew Tree Camps has this to say about the site:

‘Meadow Ground overlooks the gorgeous Welsh Valleys and enjoys dramatic views and spectacular skies from its position on the hillside. The Stone Circle is a formation of English and Welsh stones, which came together serendipitously to create a deep and mystical place for the dances. We are immersed in nature amongst the hedgehogs, owls, buzzards, bluebells, orchids and new and old trees.

The land has been lovingly tended to and developed to create the beautiful and magical setting for these camps. We are blessed by the full range of weather that Wales provides; beautiful sunny days, misty rainy days and everything in between – it is therefore good to pack for all seasons!

We have various sheltered spaces for workshops, lovely compost loos (including a new accessible compost toilet) and a mains water supply for drinking, hand washing, cooking, and basic off-grid showering and bathing. We will maintain an open fire which marks the centre of our camping circle. 

Please ask us about alternative accommodation and any other access needs you may require. Our field may not be suitable for everyone as the ground is uneven in places, but we would love to accommodate you as much as we can. We have options available to help you attend more comfortably if you aren’t able to camp or don’t wish to. If you need to travel light, we can help with some basic supplies like tents or bedding, however these are limited. 

We have three cats who love the freedom of the field. Therefore we are not able to accommodate other peoples pets on the field.’

This exciting new event is designed to be affordable, and please do enquire if you need further help to be able to attend. Conversely, if you find the price is reasonable or cheap for the value which is being offered, please consider offering a donation to subsidise those who are less well off.

Bring your own plate/bowl/mug and cutlery, plus anything you need to be comfortable, including special food. You might also like to bring teas/coffees and delicious snacks to share. Our meals will be suitable for vegetarians with vegan and gluten free options, and are included in the price you pay. We will all offer our karma yoga or Seva services in turn to chop wood and vegetables, wash up and clear away.

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment! Contact Jilani with any questions prior to booking

We are delighted to say that Sue Goodwin will be leading a dream workshop and daily dream weaving sessions at camp.

The old ones knew that life is a dream, that we are both the dreamer and the dreamt. Now more than ever the world needs dreamers. We need to see further than we have seen before, using our creative visioning powers to see all possibilities. Dreaming is an ancient art and practice that is now being reclaimed in the modern world as one of the ways we can shape shift our old realities and become more awake to what we are experiencing, perceiving and co-creating.

Honouring our dreams can offer us glimpses of the subtle direction of our soul’s longing, and open us up to new levels of healing and understanding. Attuning to the mystery of dream worlds can inspire us to show up more fully, and be more aware of how we are co-creating our lives.

In this workshop we will open up the vast territory that is our dreaming intelligence, and how it can support and be an integral part of our spiritual practice. We will touch into the role of dream work in some different traditions and cultures. I will share some of what I have been learning about different types of dreams, the language of dreams, dream interpretation and ways we can enhance our dream recall. There will be a short dream sharing practice with a partner, to help open up our dreaming consciousness.

During the week, we will have the precious opportunity to listen to each other’s dreams as part of our morning practice.

Bio: Sue is a dreamer, a grandmother, retired herbalist, plant spirit healer, ceremonialist and teacher. Her life’s passion has been the reclaiming of ancient wisdom and ways of healing body, mind, heart and soul. In her life walk, Sue has had the blessing and honour to learn from a medicine wheel tradition from the Americas and a number of other spiritual wisdom traditions, and is now happily alchemising what she has gathered in her own ‘Medicine Bundle’. She has been running women’s winter dreaming courses for the last five years, in person and online.

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Amazing international gathering of dancers, leaders and musicians from all over Europe! Follow the link for more information and to book: https://dansesdelapaixuniverselle.fr/european-gathering-2025/

at the beautiful eco-lodge retreat centre ‘La Maison Anglaise’ in Taroudant

February 26 – March 5 2025

Plus the option to travel there overland through France, Spain and Morocco in a Caravan of the Dances!

There are still a few places available for the week in Morocco, at La Maison Anglaise in Taroudant, and it can be booked right away, from this website:

Br250226 – Holidays with Heart

My intention is to travel there and back overland through France and Spain, and you are welcome to join me. We will stop in various places en route to meet with local people and share the Dances of Universal Peace together. There will also be opportunities to do a little sight-seeing and to enjoy local food. 

Our accommodation will be partly in AirBnBs or hostels, and sometimes may be in local homestays. There will be the option to arrange your own accommodation if you prefer something more luxurious. Some of us will travel together by train, others will drive and car-share. In the south of Spain we will visit places where there are no trains, so we will all share cars for that part of the journey. There should be enough locals with cars to accommodate those of us who arrive by train.

We have stops confirmed in Angers in France, in Barcelona, Alicante, Granada and Malaga in Spain, and in Tangiers in northern Morocco. I am still working on a possible stop in the South of France, but the journey is viable without it. The outward journey will take around 10-14 days, depending on whether we stop again in France or not.

The return journey will be more direct, but we plan an overnight stay in Tangiers and Madrid, and a weekend retreat near Plum Village in southern France. The whole return journey to the UK should be just under a week.

It’s perfectly possible to join for just a part of the caravan, or just for the week in Morocco, or any combination. We can’t book the trains yet as they haven’t been released. I recommend buying an interrail pass which makes it much more affordable. I’ll give clear details when the stops have been finalised. Or of course you can drive yourself, or request a car share place.

Things are still coming into focus but plans are well underway. Do let me know if you have any specific questions, and let’s keep in touch. If you want to be part of the week in Taroudant I recommend that you book that as soon as possible as there are only a few places left.