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Join us for A Retreat with Traditional Elders and Indigenous Wisdom Keepers
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Take a look and see the details for Ancient Wisdom Rising 2012!
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3,500 Years of Musical Healing
Sufi master musician Ustad Nizami heals with melody
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(Excerpted from an interview with Zan Jarvis featured in Sacred Fire magazine.)
Master Sufi musician Ustad Nizami calls on 600 years of musical history when he plays and sings the classical music of India on sitar, tablas, harmonium and other instruments. He is the 17th generation of a musical family line that started with a court musician who played for Moghul Emperor Akbar the Great. Nizami has played for presidents, kings and queens, but says his music is for all human beings to share in the spirit of healing, love and peace.
How did you learn to play healing music?
I have seen it all my life. My father would play, my grandfather would play and people would be healed. Some people who are arrogant would give a challenge from their ego, but when the music would start, they would be healed completely, tears in their eyes. Or sometimes it would be a child. I would see my grandfather make ablutions, tune his instrument. He would say, "Close your eyes and just feel while I play this music." Then five minutes, thirty or forty minutes after that I saw they were completely cured. Then they started teaching me the scales for healing. Now I have 44 years of my music life, my experiment. First my heart connects with my music and I feel cured. Then my audience feels cured.
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Drumming and dancing
Joshua Tree 2009
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How do you select music for your concerts?
Before I do anything else, I make an ablution for me and my instruments. And I pray to my teacher and back through his teacher to the teacher before that and all the way back to God. Then my heart feels pure and everything's connecting and everybody's connected to God.
I know and practice lots of different kinds of music every day. So when I get up in front of an audience, I will read their faces like a book and see what kind of people they are, what their sicknesses are.So I will play a particular scale. But it is based on the time of day also. If I play a morning scale in the evening, people will not be happy or may even feel sick. And there are other things. What is the weather? What are the circumstances? The majority of these people, what kind of thinking do they have? What are their personalities? When I look at all that, I can decide the compositions to play. Then I will play and all the audience's heart will sing with me at that time and it will make a difference for them and for me and the other musicians. This music is for humans, but it is a message from the Divine. I am a tiny artist and my Lord, My God puts something there.
What does it mean to you to play for God, to speak for God?
If I am talking without greediness, if I am talking pure and with knowledge to everyone equally, I'm talking a God-given message that you make your peace in the world. You don't kill. You don't make enemies between humans. This is the main message of all religions. I don't know of any religion in the world that doesn't have that thought. You make peace and love and provide hospitality to poor people without food and medicine. If you are rich with knowledge, you provide knowledge. If you are rich with money, you provide money for other people. If you are rich in food, you eat a little and provide food for other people. You know music? So you play good and nice music for humans.
Come experience Ustad Nizami's "healing music" at Ancient Wisdom Rising 2012, November 9-11 at the Lodge at Simpsonwood, along the Chattahoochee River in Norcross. Ustad will be joined by elders from the Aleut (Alaskan), Bon (Tibetan Buddhist), Cherokee, Dine' (Navajo), Muscogee (Creek), and West African (Dagara) traditions. For more information on Ustad Nizami visit ustadnizami.com.
Plan now to attend this three-day retreat, where you'll experience ritual space and learn from highly respected traditional elders in a unique, intimate setting. Space is limited, so register early.
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Work Study Opportunities
Ancient Wisdom Rising still has a few Work Study Opportunities available for people who are willing to offer service in exchange for a reduced attendance fee. Please view available positions online: WORKSTUDY
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Don't miss this retreat.
Reserve your spot with a $100 deposit!
 
It's simple. Using your Credit Card or PayPal::
- Click here, or go to ancientwisdomrising.com and select "register"
- Select "Full 3-Day Retreat with Meals - Paying Deposit".
- Complete your full registration.
- When you get to the checkout page, you'll find the "Partial Payment"
option. Enter $100.
- Make sure to remember your account name and password, because
you'll return to this site to pay the balance of your amount due.
- That's all there is to it. (To pay with a deposit by check, contact
awrreg@gmail.com)
A few things to note:
- Your reservation will not be final until all amounts are paid in full. Use the Register link on the AWR site to return and complete your payment.
- Accounts paid using the deposit and partial payment method will incur a service fee of approximately $5 with each payment made.
- Payment must be received in full by October 10, 2012 in order to guarantee your room reservation. Room reservations not fully paid by that date may be cancelled.
- Payments made with the deposit and partial payment method are subject to our cancellation and refund policy. After Sept. 7, your deposit is non refundable and other charges may apply.
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Please Donate to Support Our Work 
This gathering exists because people like you support our work. Please help us keep the ancient fires of tradition burning in today's world.
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Click on photo to viewUstad Nizami is of the Senia Gharana tradition and is a descendant of Mian Tan Sen, court musician of 16th century Moghal Emperor Akbar the Great. Join Ustad for Ancient Wisdom Rising 2012.
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Trip to Stone Mtn
Only A Few Seats Remain 
Deepen your experience in preparation for AWR 2012 with a pre-retreat trip to Stone Mountain, GA. Sherry Boatright, Weather Worker and ceremonialist initiated by the late Nahua elder Don Lucio Campos De Elizade, will lead the trip which we are offering to the FIRST 15 PEOPLE who register for the complete retreat (3 days, plus lodging) and pay in full by August 20, 2012. Your early registration helps fund retreat preparations. Thank You. More info
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Words of the Elders
"I found joy in sharing my traditional teachings with those gathered and was humbled by the genuine response that they shared.
To be in the midst of such eloquent elders of various nations was very honoring."
-Raina Ferris, Maori Elder
"It was very eye, and mind-opening to engage with people who did not presume to know most of the answers. I sincerely wish that the bit I was able to share had at least as much of an influence on them as they had on me."
-Káawan Sangaa, Haida Elder
(Woodrow F. Morrison Jr.)
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Experience wisdom teachings. Restore life's balance. Return bearing gifts.
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Ancient Wisdom Rising is presented by
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