20th Quarterly Newsletter from the Ziraat Council

FANA-FI-GAIA

Lammas, August 1, 2026

20th Quarterly from the Ziraat Council

Notes from the Council

Fariha Fer

Attuning to Lammas: Between the Harvest and the Hidden Seed

Dear Sangha, beloved family,

As we approach August 1st and the celebration of Lammas, the first grain harvest in the Northern Hemisphere, I write to you from the winter landscapes of Chile. Here, the fields are not golden with abundance, but resting beneath the cold and heavy rains of the season.

This contrast feels like an invitation to contemplate how every cycle carries its own wisdom. Through Ziraat, we are invited to listen to these rhythms and recognize the Earth as a living manuscript, continuously revealing the mysteries of growth, transformation, and renewal.

Mother Earth, Madre Tierra, reminds us that manifestation and dormancy are not opposites; they belong to the same movement of life. While our friends in the Northern Hemisphere gather the abundance of the harvest, here in the Southern Hemisphere we receive the gift of the cold and the silence of the soil, where the future seeds are resting and preparing for their emergence… a dance between manifestation and possibility.

Observing the changing rhythms of the seasons reminds us of our intimate relationship with the Earth. I believe that in these challenging times, when common sense at times seems to have left the conversation, we are invited to become even more attentive stewards of the living world, noticing how our ways of living and our relationship with ourselves, our communities, and Earth's natural resources shape the ecosystems and social weaving we are part of. Perhaps seeing this celebration from the perspective of another season allows us to honor not only what has come to fruition, but also what is quietly developing beneath the surface

Am I open to listening to what this season is revealing?

With love,

Fariha Fer, on behalf of the Ziraat Council.

Excerpts from the Ziraat Reader

“Man’s need for oneness with nature is not fulfilled simply by hiking or camping in nature, but by penetrating into the consciousness of the trees and the flowers, of the planet and the atoms, experiencing what it would be like to be that flower or tree and getting into the spirit of the wind on a landscape or of a musical note: in fact, switching to a totally different focus of consciousness, tuning into a transfigured world which, as the Sufis say, ‘transpires through that which appears.’”

Introduction by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan to the Nature Meditations

Also see Page 54 of Ziraat Reader, “The Meaning of Ziraat” by Pir Vilayat for those who want to go deeper.

Ziraati in Action

The experience of building community in

Santa Helena, Colombia

“We are connected to nature through the sacred ritual of breath; in this giving and receiving, we perceive our interconnectedness and aspire to care for life in balance. We dance for unity, for peace, for Mother Earth. We know that the ecological impact of our passage through life is inevitable, yet we hold the potential to act in service of care, activating the necessary changes to contribute to the protection of animals and our common home."

My name is Caro Os, from Colombia. Our project is called Helios. We see that the sun's energy offers itself to all beings to provide light and nourishment. We observe how plants gather this solar energy to become a concentrated source of medicine and food, translating into well-being for our bodies. As a project, we co-create gatherings that seek to awaken the consciousness of care, both for our inner and outer nature. Through community events dedicated to environmental awareness, reflection, and animal advocacy, we explore art and the ways of weaving community.

"If we eat, dance, and pray together, the world will know peace."

We have walked this guidance from Murshid SAM by placing our hands back into the earth, in community gardens, in our homes, in community kitchens, and by experiencing the power of music and the Dances of Universal Peace as a way to strengthen the spirit of the community. We trust in art as a tool for social transformation, and in a spirituality that questions the narratives and systems of violence we have sustained toward other sentient beings.

Different spiritual traditions have transmitted the message of compassion toward other forms of life. Animals are sentient beings with the capacity to experience pain, joy, fear, and love. Expanding our circle of empathy to include other species means opening the wings of our heart, broadening our ethical considerations, and unlearning anthropocentric logics to live a deep ecology. This allows us to think beyond human benefit, granting us the opportunity to contemplate the individuality of each animal and their right to be respected and protected.

Animal exploitation is one of the leading causes of the food and environmental crisis. Because of this, one of the most concrete revolutions for the care of ecosystems and biodiversity lies within our food choices. Peace begins on our plate, in meditating upon and ethically evaluating the consequences of our consumption on the lives of other sentient beings, on communities, on the waters, and on planetary balance.

As a project and community, we continue eating, sowing, dancing, and praying with active hope, so that each gathering brings us a little closer to el buen vivir (the good living) and el buen amarnos (the good loving of one another).”

Want to connect with Caro and her project?

Check out Proyecto Helios and Caro’s Instagram

Recommended videos from Caro (in Spanish, you can use youtube subtitles):

Documentary Recommendation: The Impact of Conventional Food Systems

A recommended documentary to learn about the profound ecological and social impacts of conventional food systems and modern agriculture.

Community Mobilization and Sacred Dance in Medellín

A video showcasing community building and mobilization through the Dances of Universal Peace, Oasis Game, and practical ecology tools. A glimpse of what we do here in Antioquia, Colombia.

Keeping Up

Interesting conversations:

● How to See a Future Worth Living In with Rob Hopkins

An inspiring episode of The Great Simplification exploring how imagination, creativity, and building local, lower-energy communities can help us plant the seeds for a resilient future.

● A conversation about the implications about eating animals in our consciousness

A deep dialogue on The Jesus Way Podcast discussing the spiritual and ecological implications of our food choices, and how honoring animal life connects to the sacred feminine and earth collective healing.

Practice

From Knowing to Cultivating:

Lammas reminds us that a harvest is not the end of the story.

Grain becomes bread only when it is mixed with other ingredients, transformed, and shared. Fruit carries within it the seeds of another season. Every harvest is the result of participation: sunlight, water, soil, countless living beings, time, hands, sweat, and care.

Perhaps this is also true of our own lives.

Many of us already know that our choices matter. We know that the food we eat, the way we consume, the relationships we nurture, and the communities we belong to all shape the living world. We know our consumption shapes the

Earth's ecosystems, that loneliness can weaken us, and that biodiversity and unity matter.

Knowledge is no longer the difficult part. Practice is.

What keeps us from living what we already know? What habits, fears, comforts, or stories prevent us from embodying the values we hold?

As a Practice

Before reflecting, take a few moments to attune through the Purification Breaths. As you reconnect with Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether, notice that you are not standing outside of nature, but participating in it.

From this place of presence, rather than searching for perfect answers, simply notice one place where your daily life and your deepest values are already aligned…Then, notice one place where they are not.

Do this without judgment—only with curiosity.

Maybe, the Earth does not ask us to be her hero. She has been renewing herself for millions of years. Maybe our task is simply to become worthy participants in the community of life. To remember, again and again, that we belong to this living web, and that every choice either deepens or weakens that relationship.

What if, as an act of regeneration, we learned to participate with humility, care, gratitude, and a willingness to learn from what has always been alive?

As a way to reflect with the teachings of this season, perhaps we can ask ourselves:

How can my life become an offering?

And what if the answer begins with one small act of care? A shared meal, a saved seed, a moment of deep listening, a hand in the garden, a moment of shared presence… Perhaps this week we can each choose one small action that brings our values into practice.

May our harvest become nourishment. May our practice become our shared rhythm.

An Invitation

Dear Friends of the Earth,

We are thoroughly enjoying creating these newsletters, but our sense is to move on now to something else. Our next newsletter on Samhain, will be our last one. Now we want your ideas and suggestions! What new ways can the Ziraat Council support you in your Ziraat practice? What would you like to see next?

Please send your responses to Darvesha: victoriadarvesha@gmail.com

Also, there is a new instagram account that you can follow. Created with the intention of expanding the practice and for those who want to share their experience with Ziraat or look for collective inspiration.

You can follow @Ziraat.Ruhaniat