Rating: 
Summary: A true unedited spiritual path.........
Review: A true spiritual path is never easy and is never what we expect. Everyone's process is different because people are different. Irina's experience is true and unedited and what she experienced was for her and her only. But a lot of what she experienced is common to others that are on a mystical/spiritual path. Being on a very similar path myself, I would like to be bold enough to validate her book and experiences and how neccessary that they are. To achieve high spirituality is NOT an easy path, but VERY worth it. The highs and the lows of it are all relative to each other. This book is a perfect example for someone that would like a TRUE idea of what that type of path is all about. I keep this book handy all of the time. The more I read it over and over, the more I learn. I recomend it highly. But you need to stick with it and get through it..... just as with anything else.
Rating:
Summary: Spiritual autobiography
Review: Daughter of Fire,an incredible account of spiritual experiences.Step by step and day by day the progression in acquiring spiritual powers is described in detail.After what has been written in poetic Persian literature this is the first time in English literature the spiritual experiences of sufism have been revealed.Sufism has been described to be the religion of humanity without distinctions and boundaries.As the sufi master of Mrs Tweedie 'Bhai Sahib' relates "The roads to God are as many as human beings" .It is about ultimately merging with "The Creator" no matter which religion we belong to.
Rating: 
Summary: This is spiritual abuse
Review: Having a healthy respect for the tenets of Sufism (i. e., God as "the Friend," the importance of direct experience of the divine, etc.), and also having an interest in women's spiritual quests, I had high hopes for this book. I read it until I couldn't stand it anymore. It made me feel sick to see how poorly the author was treated by her spiritual teacher, and how blind she was to it. Irina Tweedie is an extremely sincere seeker. She, like many of us, is willing to do anything to reach God. She sees her teacher as a holy man -- not the self-absorbed, prideful egomaniac his actions reveal him to be. (I will say that I knew nothing of her teacher before reading this book - my opinions are based solely on Tweedie's descriptions of him.) Because she thinks this teacher speaks for God, she never questions the fact that he treats her like dirt -- all the way through the book! Maybe she thought she WAS like dirt, and so this guy's appraisal of her fit her world-view/self-view. Still, it makes me cringe to think of all the time she wasted following that guy, when she could have chosen to see herself as worthy of love & respect. The teacher exerted power over Irina Tweedie because she believed she needed him to get to God. BALONEY! -- Everyone has God-given inner wisdom. The teacher didn't want to reveal to Tweedie that she *already had* what she was seeking, because he needed the ego boost of having a follower like her. He fed off the devotion she gave to him, so it was in his best interest to keep her around, in a state of feeling spiritually inadequate. And he did this masterfully. I urge sincere seekers out there - and especially women who have been trained in the "virtue of submission," to PLEASE be careful in selecting spiritual teachers. Remember the admonition about wolves in sheep's clothing, and to "be wise as serpents but gentle as doves." True Sufism is a much more noble path than Irina's teacher displays. There are MUCH better books on Sufism out there than this one. My advice is to pass this one up, unless you are doing a research project on spiritual abuse.
Rating:
Summary: Not a path for the average joe
Review: Having a healthy respect for the tenets of Sufism (i. e., God as "the Friend," the importance of direct experience of the divine, etc.), and also having an interest in women's spiritual quests, I had high hopes for this book. I read it until I couldn't stand it anymore. It made me feel sick to see how poorly the author was treated by her spiritual teacher, and how blind she was to it. Irina Tweedie is an extremely sincere seeker. She, like many of us, is willing to do anything to reach God. She sees her teacher as a holy man -- not the self-absorbed, prideful egomaniac his actions reveal him to be. (I will say that I knew nothing of her teacher before reading this book - my opinions are based solely on Tweedie's descriptions of him.) Because she thinks this teacher speaks for God, she never questions the fact that he treats her like dirt -- all the way through the book! Maybe she thought she WAS like dirt, and so this guy's appraisal of her fit her world-view/self-view. Still, it makes me cringe to think of all the time she wasted following that guy, when she could have chosen to see herself as worthy of love & respect. The teacher exerted power over Irina Tweedie because she believed she needed him to get to God. BALONEY! -- Everyone has God-given inner wisdom. The teacher didn't want to reveal to Tweedie that she *already had* what she was seeking, because he needed the ego boost of having a follower like her. He fed off the devotion she gave to him, so it was in his best interest to keep her around, in a state of feeling spiritually inadequate. And he did this masterfully. I urge sincere seekers out there - and especially women who have been trained in the "virtue of submission," to PLEASE be careful in selecting spiritual teachers. Remember the admonition about wolves in sheep's clothing, and to "be wise as serpents but gentle as doves." True Sufism is a much more noble path than Irina's teacher displays. There are MUCH better books on Sufism out there than this one. My advice is to pass this one up, unless you are doing a research project on spiritual abuse.
Rating:
Summary: TRUTH CAN BE PAINFUL
Review: I strongly disagree with the reviewer that says this is spiritual abuse. What a small price Irina paid for her enlightenment. Her Guru's ignoring Irina and a few times appearing sharp with her are a small price to pay. If I could find a Shaikh like this who would help me, I would be overjoyed (eternally). This is a book I will read for the rest of my life. Thank you Irina
Rating:
Summary: In response to "a little misleading"...
Review: If you go to the International Sufi Movement website, the overall impression given is that mystic Sufism can be "non-denominational"; that the main idea is to subdue the ego and learn to come from the heart. See www.sufimovement.org. It indicates the website is set up with those goals in mind...originating from teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan.
Rating:
Summary: Daughter of Fire
Review: If you're weary of channeling, ET's, and other new-age fluff, and seek an honest, authentic account of what is required of the initiate for the transformation of human consciousness to one that is merged in the Divine Will, merged in Love, you've got it here. Like nothing I've read--at least nothing published for general consumption--DOF gets straight to the nuts and bolts of the spiritual path, pulling no punches, sparing no details, however personal. The Sufi path, it's goals and it's teaching techniques are revealed in as explicit a fashion as you are going to find. If there is one point of Ms. Tweedie's that stands out as most important to the serious seeker, it the importance--the absolute necessity--of the teacher. One can go only so far on their own. At 820 pages of first-person, journal-entry style writing, Daughter is occasionally tedious and repetitive, but it's a roller-coaster ride that's worth the effort. And what else could it be? After all--that is the spirititual path.
Rating:
Summary: An ancient mystical System of training
Review: Most people associate Sufism with Islamic mysticism, but the path, the teachings laid out in this book, the System, was ancient before the days of Buddha. The book is the day-by-day journal of one woman's guidance to Absolute Truth, with her experiences, thoughts, fears, anger and discoveries laid out with rare transparency. As Rumi has noted however, "this is not a path for easily broken, glass-bottle people." Ms. Tweedie discovered the truth in the Persian couplet: "The self does not go with kind words and gentle caresses; it must be chased with sorrows and drowned in tears." While reading this book, my lower self wept at the cruelty, injustice and severity of the training. But at the same time, my higher Self wept in joy at finally finding a System that works and that can take one Home. Ms. Tweedie herself later became a renowned Teacher of this same System. If you heart aches with a longing that you cannot define, this maybe is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: An ancient mystical System of training
Review: Most people associate Sufism with Islamic mysticism, but the path, the teachings laid out in this book, the System, was ancient before the days of Buddha. The book is the day-by-day journal of one woman's guidance to Absolute Truth, with her experiences, thoughts, fears, anger and discoveries laid out with rare transparency. As Rumi has noted however, "this is not a path for easily broken, glass-bottle people." Ms. Tweedie discovered the truth in the Persian couplet: "The self does not go with kind words and gentle caresses; it must be chased with sorrows and drowned in tears." While reading this book, my lower self wept at the cruelty, injustice and severity of the training. But at the same time, my higher Self wept in joy at finally finding a System that works and that can take one Home. Ms. Tweedie herself later became a renowned Teacher of this same System. If you heart aches with a longing that you cannot define, this maybe is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Review Interview
Review: The original version of the book was shortened by the publisher as it was considered too long. This is why there are two books: the shorter, first published The Chasm of Fire (1979), and this one, more complete Daughter of Fire (1986).
Irina Tweedie's story takes the mystery out of a Sufi master and pupil situation and tells what love is like in practice.
Reijo: How was it possible for Irina Tweedie to go to India and stay about one and a half years with a teacher, who totally rejected her and whose family also showed her their rejection?
Agnes: Love is not simply being lovely! I am not talking about love in personal relationships. The love of Guruji towards Irina Tweedie was impersonal, what you (as a Gurdjieffian) would call "Conscious Love". Impersonal is not the right word in the sense that this love comes to you through a person and his/her personal expressions. It leads to the source of love in yourself.
Reshad Feild: "Do not look for love - look for the source of love!" A teacher leads the pupil to the source and that is what Irina Tweedie experienced.
Reijo: How about Irina then? She was 52, totally rejected, gave away all she had - how could she go on?
Agnes: A teacher holds the pupil and nourishes the intention. Irina's intention was to find the truth. This clear intention was the hook where she was hanging. This would not have been possible without a total commitment, unconditional and demanded by the teacher. For her there was no way to go back.
Her story reminds me of Odysseus, who let himself be tied to the mast of a ship and in full senses went through the temptations. To quote Reshad again: "Come with both hands, not one hand behind your back."
Reijo: What you are saying is that Guruji was totally in control of the situation?
Agnes: No, what was happening to Irina was not in his control. He was connected to a place in himself and through that he received an impulse of what to do in the various situations. To be conscious does not mean that we have life under control.
Reijo: In other words, because he was "present" he could influence the situation.
Agnes: Not only that. He was, and a teacher is, connected with the creation that takes place every moment new. He could get the fresh impulse that is needed out of the present moment and DO what is necessary.
Reijo: Yet there was to my disappointment no final exchange between Irina Tweedie and Guruji about the method. He never told clearly what he was doing with her.
Agnes: In my view what he said could not have been stated in a clearer way! He gave her the essence of the teaching; everything else came to Irina through her experiences and through her understanding of them. She was prepared to find her own method, which was needed in London and not in India, in her time, in her place in Europe.
The essence of the teaching can only be understood through experience. The method can be copied, but the ability can only grow in oneself.
A real teacher lets the ability to grow and does not allow the pupil to become a copy.
Reijo: In any spiritual way there are three main stages: identity, direction and commitment. Irina found her identity to be nothing, her direction was her intention towards the truth and her commitment was without any conditions. It sound hard!
Agnes: But she had an insurance: a spider's thread coming out of the blue sky to which she could hang on to!
Her book is about the way to the source of love. On my way I experienced the pure love of a teacher clearest and strongest when Reshad Feild was shouting to me in front of a group of 80 people. I don't know what he shouted about, but I remember the strong, pure love. Nobody understood why I kept coming back to him and looked him up as he only immediately started to shout again.
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