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The Dervishes had to walk  in  a well-determined manner. If any of the  semazens had difficulty in following the others correctly, this imperfection was  noticed  immediately. The dervish  first took a right  step, then remained  motionless (for a moment) leaning on the toes of his left foot. Afterward, he took a left step  and leaned  this time over the toes of his right foot. This was  how three rounds were completed.

We don't have a  clear idea for the  meaning of these three tours  around the hall. This was called Devr-i Veled  or the tour of  Sultan  Veled, the founder of the order. Some people suggested that it  represented  the three degrees of rapprochemen towards the Divine Reality: "the recognition, the discovery and the existence"

          At the end  of these three rounds, the sheyh stopped in front of the sheep skin and  saluted the community. All the members of the community returned  his salute, and at that point music changed  to the  rhythm  of the ayin. First, the dervishes took off their  cloaks with their  right hands.   After  kissing their cloaks, they folded  and deposed them  on the floor (with hems touching  the floor) so  that the  dervishes  could pick them up easily after the sema. The sheyh and the semazenbasi remained  totally dressed. When  the sheyh  advanced towards the sheepskin, the semazenbasi placed himself  just in  front of him. They   saluted each  other. Then, the first semazen advanced  with  hands  on his shoulders and  kissed sheyh's hand  who in return kissed  the dervish's sikke . In this way, the dervish  took permission to perform the sema,  and after having taken  three steps,  he  started whirling. The rest of the dervishes followed him.  Most of the spectators didn't even  notice  semazenbasi who  indicated, by the simple movement of his foot, the place where  the semazens should  whirl. If he put his foot little  backward, the "semazen" had to whirl  in the middle of the hall, a privilege granted especially to  "semazen" whose sema was admired. When he put his foot little  ahead, the semazen remained on the edges of the platform. After the passage of the last dervish, the 'semazenbasi'  saluted the sheyh and started to control the rhythm of the sema. When he noticed that  one of the dervishes  moved  slowly comparing to others, he approached him. Upon  having seen  his shadow, the semazen  tried to keep up with the right rhythm. To prevent the contact of   tennures, semazenbasi  often placed himself between two dervishes. He never walked on the invisible line, or he never led sema outside the circle traced by the dervishes. During the  sema, the  semazen turned around his own axis, namely on his left leg. He accomplished the turn  by pushing himself with his right foot, by pronouncing  the syllables Al and lah, just completing the name of God at every turn.

At the same time, he also kept his arms wide open, while the palm of his right hand opened towards the sky,  the palm  of his left hand faced  towards the earth. According to Mevlevis, that was how the  divine grace was spread to the world.
      We can't continue without indicating a contradiction that surprises us. Although the  "semazen" fell into an  ecstasy and felt the Divine Being in him during the sema, he also followed the orders of the semazenbasi and heard semazenbasi's footfall accomplished  with the tip of his shoe. Mevlevis had perhaps the right to say that the  semazen saw with his foot. At the end of approximately 15 minutes, the first part ended with a salute. The dervishes stopped suddenly, put their hands on their  shoulders and  sealed  feet. Soon, they  sought  for another dervish  on their side to lean and to  keep their  balance. They also turned their gaze upwards and closed their eyes to faciliate this even more. At this moment, one could see groups of two, three or four  dervishes. After a short break, the music continued  at  slower rhythm. For the second session, the sheyh advanced towards  the  sheepskin and everything unrolled just like beginning  of sema. However, this time neither the dervishes  nor the sheyh exchanged traditional kisses.

Sema Ritual
Sema 2
Sema  3

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