Becoming Honey
Welcome Home,
where the heart naturally extends and the breath softens.
Welcome,
to where honey awaits you… ancient, velvety and eternal.
Our ears and our hearts
from the beginning
are tuned to listen.. because we are searching, reaching, longing.
Can you hear the faint buzz…
the soft hum,
calling you to step away from the surface clamor
and sink into the deep, quiet knowing of your being?
Can you feel the tugging of the voice who lives below….
who flows inside… the one who is nourished by the eloquence of our beauty-drenched speech and the gifts of our hands.
Join me on a journey
where we begin the tender work of Becoming Honey—where we soften what has hardened, sweeten what feels bitter, and tend to the holy ache within.
Through the timeless and transportive language of story, the elemental power of song, and through the diligent work of the hands wrestling with ensouled matter,
we uncover the golden thread of the Divine that binds us all to the sacred and to one another, spinning and tuning our hearts to the hum of the Holy and awakening the nectar of our being.
Welcome!
This is the Path of Becoming—flower to hive, hive to honey.
Individual Sessions
Work with Me
Jahanara as a Spiritual Teacher and Guide has brought great guidance to my understanding of my personal path. She offers information and insight. She holds beautiful space through prayer, music, teaching and meditation. And very joyfully, she witnesses us in our states of growth, or awareness, grief, resistance. Through all this beautiful calming can occur. Jahanara is like a person drawing back the curtain to the circus of the spiritual world, watching your face beautifully as she sees your wonder.
Work with Me
Private Sessions
Through one-on-one journey sessions and spiritual guidance I can support your personal journey into Sacred Creativity and Spiritual Becoming. Please say more here.
Work with Me
Beginning Ngoni
For new musicians or anyone who feels they have “failed” music in the past or have ‘missed the boat’ and really want to learn to make beautiful sound, this is for you! Together we will explore the fundamentals in a non-traditional way using our creativity and sensitivity to the inner guidance that shows up when “2 or more are gathered.” Uniquely tailored to your needs, I offer exercises, melodies, and playful ways to explore and deepen into your own relationship to the instrument, your unique voice, and to music Herself.
Offerings
Classes & Events
I really have enjoyed being a part of your classes. When I started with you, I had lost my way home. The light in the light house on the stormy Ocean of my ancestral grief, you are a beacon of light, life, and sisterhood… a shade tree rooted in the divine essence of life giving sap. My tool box has become grand because of your teaching. I’m able and confident to access my magical tools to help guide me on my way home – songs in my heart and on my tongue, guided by your grace and gentle encouragement. Sometimes I see you on a magical carpet or a captain on a ship, elegantly navigating a way that life sprouts from your path. Thanks for inspiring us!
Classes
Daughters of the Ground
Through song, story, and hands-on learning (including spinning, sewing, felt-making, plant dyeing, metal smithing and more), Jahanara teaches from a place deeply rooted in a love affair with holy matter, beloved tools (including our magnificent hands) and the sacred origins of all.
What is necessary to join?
- A deep curiosity and a love of story, handwork and magic.
- Commitment to a 6-session in-person (live) class (with a free introduction meeting.)
- A willingness to show-up by responding to riddle (not to get it ‘right,’ but out of love and respect for the story and our own souls), engaging in ancestral exploration, wrestling with hand work – even when it is uncomfortable and we feel like we are failing
Classes
The Hail Mary Prayer in Aramaic
Learn to speak and sing this timeless and potent prayer to Our Lady, “The Lady of Deep Waters” in its original mother tongue: Aramaic. There is something totally ennobling and grand about tasting and hearing the sounds, images, and feelings of these ancient words and letters. When spoken with deep devotion, curiosity, and the natural courtesy that bees have for the flowers of the field, we open ourselves up to the deeper layers and unique gifts of the prayer and of sacred language.
Events
Winter StoryTime
During the dark time of year we gather for story and music to uplift the spirits and gently guide the soul as we all journey between the worlds, through powerful nighttime dreaming, and within the subterranean oceans within the sacred geologies of our past. We offer the de-light of our “being together” as a kind of delicious food and liquid joy to the God of the Hearth. May His Light be strong!
Events
Hail Mary Zoom Ritual
Working with the Aramaic Hail Mary Prayer as our guide and enriched by Jahanara’s moving melodies, we journey into the waters of deep healing. The mysticism of the prayer works on mind, body and spirit as a multi-dimensional ritual and vehicle for intimacy with Mariam/Mary.
Through attunement to sound and sensation, through practices based on ancient tradition, and through the nurturing of silence we are transported into a group experience that feels both timeless and fresh. The intimacy itself whispers to the essence of our being. No previous experience is needed.
Ngoni Ma Instruments
I am now the happy owner of half a dozen of Jahanara’s instruments, and counting ! … These instruments have allowed me to tap into an ancient form of music that is meditative, transcendental, and also vitally contemporary. Not only are these Ngoni beautiful works of art to be out on display throughout my home, but each instrument is completely unique.
Ngoni Ma
Hand-Made Ngoni Ma Instruments
My journey into making these instruments has been filled with magic and the growing of capacity to wield simple tools beautifully, while also re-membering forgotten methods of bringing sound to life.
The aspiration is to work with the elements as they direct me, as their natures allow, striving for beauty and the appropriate dimensions, without becoming overly detail and perfection-oriented that the spirit itself gets crushed in the process.
As such, each instrument is totally unique.
Publications
Recordings & Books
I experienced my soul flying freely in a timeless rapture. Jahanara’s music is breath beneath my wings.
Recording
The guiding stars for this musical journey are the words, spoken in Aramaic, of the mystic, teacher, and prophet Jesus. When we chant the divinely inspired words of a mystic, a being who speaks from another level of awareness, we have the opportunity to place ourselves and our hearts, inside of their shem (atmosphere, vibration, and energy.)
Recording
Becoming Honey is a prayer, a pilgrimage, a journey for the soul. Recorded in a devotional style familiar to Sufi Zikr, Hindu Kirtan, and other ancient chanting traditions from around the world, the music serves to teach, transport, and inspire revelation leading practitioners deep into the landscape their own hearts and souls.
Book
Coming Soon
There is not a moment of the day or night that the Hail Mary Prayer is not being spoken or sung into life somewhere on this planet. Despite its profound popularity as one of the most well known and beloved of prayers, few people know its origin and the depth of meaning and wisdom that it contains. This understanding is what makes Becoming Honey: A Sufi’s Journey into the Grace and Mysticism of the Aramaic Hail unique.
Find Out More
Let’s Talk
Send me a note, and we’ll schedule a time to talk about your journey, your longing, and how I can best support you in your journey home.