THE WAY OF THE HEART
by contemplativeinquiry
Sufism is often referred to as the Way of the Heart. Hazrat Inayat Khan was a Sufi teacher and musician from Gujarat, India, who took his teaching to the West in the early 20th century. His combination of spiritual teaching, philosophy and music was normal in this culture and tradition. In his own life and work, Hazrat Inayat Khan created a Universal Sufi movement independent of its Islamic origins, though always inspired by them. Practitioners from his movement created the Dances for Universal Peace.
The image above is the Ace of Cups from Ayeda Husain’s The Sufi Tarot (1). Ayeda Hussain is a teacher in the Ineyatiyya, a global organisation dedicated to Universal Sufism as taught by Hazrat Inayat Khan. She sees Sufism and Tarot as two systems of healing and transformation that can be valuably brought together. She treats Tarot as a vehicle for spiritual teaching, going so far as to include contemplations and affirmations for each card.
Referring to her Ace of Cups, she says: ‘In Sufi poetry, the cup is the heart that must be emptied before the beloved can pour the Divine nectar into it. Just as a cup that is filled cannot be poured into, neither can a heart filled with limiting impressions. The work of the mystic then, is to clear impressions that clutter and cloud the heart, so that it may be able to receive. As the heart opens, we become aware of new offers and opportunities in both love and spiritual growth’.
I came to The Sufi Tarot by an indirect route. When I began working with my Ceile De (2) beads, I didn’t at first expect to use them for mantra meditation and I looked at a collection of fuinn (sacred chants) as an option for working with the beads. Fuinn tend to be brief and I thought that a single fonn might work for me. They are in Scottish Gaelic and frequently use heart language, as in:
Gun tigeadh, solas nan solas
(Goon tee-guch, sol-us nan sol-us)
Air mo chridhe
(Air mo chree)
This translates into English as Come light of lights, to my heart.
I found this fonn beautiful though somehow not right for my purpose. But the phrase air mo chridhe would not leave me. As soon as I heard it, in the old language, it needed no translation, and I felt I had known it forever.
What I did in my own practice, having decided on the Soham mantra for the beads, was to create a version of the modern Druid peace prayer as a love prayer.
Deep within my innermost being, may I find love.
Silently in the stillness of this space, may I nurture love.
Heartfully, in the wider web of life, my I live in love.
Now using this prayer, I felt the desire for friendly guidance in this work of the heart. I felt prompted to search for ‘Sufi Tarot’, and was surprised when came up immediately. When I received the pack, I was quickly reassured that I had had been given what I asked for. I look forward to this new thread within my contemplative inquiry.
(1) Ayeda Husain The Sufi Tarot Carlsbad, CA; New York, NY; London; Sydney; New Delhi: Hay House, 2022. Art team Nazish Abbas, Hassaan Aftab, Momina Khan
(2) https://contemplativeinquiry.blog/2025/01/14
Contemplative Inquiry 
Tarot is a huge element of my personal Spiritual Practice (and DFA research)- currently I am exploring Mindful Tarot in community with Lisa Frienkel Tishman PhD a Buddhist and Academic (English language) who has developed this concept and book of same name. It totally resonates with where I am on my Spiritual path influenced no doubt by my Buddhist husband aka Anam Cara John. I now will resist the temptation to investigate another Tarot deck and concept… I have too many decks as it is!
Many thanks for this comment. The Tarot has had a major role for me too – beginning many years ago with R.J. Stewart’s idiosyncratic Merlin and Dreampower Tarots. I may or may not resist buying The Mindful Tarot at some point in the future!
Thank you. I have long struggled with the idea of having to empty the heart, but ‘clear impressions that clutter and cloud the heart’ makes far more sense to me and feels far more expansive. I can be a bit literal sometimes and empty’ is such a large and absolute word that I have tended to recoil from it as an idea.
I agree with this, and my experience that some practitioners in, for example, Buddhism are pretty literal too. I like the way in which Sufis have developed forms of poetry/song/music (often all in one, and performed) and also dance on an understanding that beauty and harmony take us closer to the divine. Prayer and meditation can themselves be ecstatic. They fill the empty, or relatively empty, cup. In its pure form that might not be my path but I feel inspired by it all the same.
Thank you for that insight.