Fairfax, CA Website
"We come whirling out of nothingness. The stars make a circle and in the center we dance." Rumi
Mariam Baker, spiritual midwife, energy weaver, mother of five children, grandmother of one precious lion-baby, is a dedicated student of embodied spirituality. She is a treasure hunter for practical tools for personal and planetary growth and healing - a way of mysticism that is interwoven with everyday life.
Initiated in the Inayati Chistia lineage of Sufism through Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan and Hazrat Murshid Samuel Lewis, she is student and friend of the late Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Moineddin Jablonski.
She received Hazrat Moineddin's transmission to continue SoulWork, a marriage of psychological and spiritual tools that opens pathways to the integration of being.
WHEN YOUR DEEP FEAR HAS FOUND YOU
A yellow sunflower will grow
beside you on the dunghill
You will be astonished
as it turns to face you.
It will marvel as fire
comes to eat from
your hand.
- Hazrat Moineddin Jablonski
Mariam is a senior teacher and an active member of Sufi Ruhaniat International and has served as a specialist in women's and religious studies, presenting lectures and workshops in the United States and Canada. She is a leader of the Dances of Universal Peace since 1974, and has taught throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, Europe, and Australia.
She is the former director of Theater of Healing and author of Woman as Divine, Tales of the Goddess, a book illuminating the divine feminine, and of Sacred Voices: Stories from the Caravan of Women, published in 2018. She also functions as a senior teacher and center leader of the Mevlevi Order of America, facilitating classes in the work of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, including the great whirling dance. She is a passionate gardener.
For Mariam's teaching schedule and more about SoulWork, visit www.mariambaker.org
Haiku, Maui, Hawaii
Leilah was born in Southern California in December of 1950. As a child, she preferred to spend time a fair amount of time alone, especially time in nature. At 19 she made some changes her life, becoming a vegetarian, beginning a yoga practice. She began exploring sacred teachings and spiritual teachers with inclusive religious perspectives. These were highlighted by Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Satchitananda.
In 1975, she was introduced, through the book entitled, Toward the One, to the teachings of Pir O Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, whose message contained the Unity of Religious Ideals, and was an inclusive path of the heart. In the same book, she saw a photograph of Inayat Khan and had a strong experience of Darshan.
Three years later, she met Sufi Sheikh Yakzan Valdez, an initiate of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. She was deeply inspired by Yakzan’s living example of grace, kindness and majesty. At this point, she felt her path and purpose being revealed. Then in 1985, a very strong vision of and inner direction from Murshid Samuel Lewis guided her to receive Bayat with one of his direct disciples, Pir Moineddin Jablonski. She then experienced the blessing stream of the lineage more fully opening to her.
Leilah began leading the Dances of Universal Peace and the practice of Zikr (Remembrance of God) in the early 80’s. She has composed many beautiful circle dances and Zikrs, danced the world over, and is appreciated for her depth of devotion. She lives on the Island of Maui with her husband, Bodhi. They are the parents of five grown children and one grandchild. Leilah and Bodhi live a rural home life with gardens and an orchard and serve the local community as counselors, cherags/ministers, and also help educate and serve in the field of death and dying. They also travel widely, sharing the fruits of their practice in retreats worldwide.