URS: April 7, 2002
Murshida Vera Corda [1913-2002] had successful careers in ballet, graphic arts design, nursing, and teaching before beginning her pioneering work in early childhood education and family development. As an artist, she illustrated children’s books with watercolors, designed and silk-screened the original Vera scarf designs, and studied dance with Ruth St. Denis. She devoted her later years to her work as an educator and spiritual counselor. One of her greatest contributions was as a spiritual guide to parents and children. Beginning her training in the care and education of young children at the age of ten at the innovative Canon Kip Nursery School in the south-of-Market area of San Francisco, she went on to receive an Associate degree in the field of graphic arts at the age of sixteen. She later received a Bachelor of Arts degree in education and completed a Master of Arts degree in the Education of Exceptional Children at the University of California at San Francisco. While receiving additional training at Columbia University in New York, she studied with the leading pediatric specialist, Arnold Gesell. She was a Joel Katz Memorial Scholar at Columbia Pacific University, where she earned a Ph.D. degree in guidance and counseling.
Vera Corda taught in the public schools for fifteen years and held a lifetime teaching credential in California. Early in her career she worked at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center and at Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, where she employed art therapy techniques with at-risk young people. She was also a registered nurse and practiced psychiatric nursing at DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn, California. In addition she was also a practicing healer in the Sufi Order, the Sufi Islamia Ruhaniat Society, and the Order of St. Luke.
Murshida Vera Corda was a Sufi disciple for over fifty years and was given the title of Murshida, or spiritual teacher, when she began guiding other disciples in the Sufi tradition. During the early seventies she founded the New Age Seed Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, based on the teachings of the Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan. She developed a complete curriculum from infancy through elementary school and trained teachers and parents in the spiritual, intellectual, social, physical, and moral development of children. After retiring from full-time teaching, Murshida Vera Corda tutored children with special learning needs at her home in the Salinas Valley. She continued to travel and teach until she left the body on April 7, 2002. Her work lives on in those whose lives she touched.
Murshia Vera touched my life in so many wonderful ways. Although she guided my wife, not me, her powerful guidance and teachings frequently overflowed directly to me. She and I loved one another so deeply that we could yell at each other and laugh internally at the same moment! She visited us annually for a number of years, and I miss her frequently and her physical presence. What a blessing to have known and loved Murshida Vera!
Ya Fatah,
Grandfather Subhan Jim Burton
Murshida Vera was an extra ordinary teacher who was also a life long learner. I remember the days of her newsletters from the Seed Center to parents and friends of the school…she would publish articles about things she experienced, learned and received through constant practices. She worked tirelessly and those of us who taught at the Seed Center had to be up early just to “catch up with her” for morning practices before we started working with the children. She stretched our bodies with the walks and work, our hearts and souls with ways to teach and learn from children, and our understanding with practices morning noon and night. After everyone in the teaching household retired for a few hours of much needed sleep, she would call me into her bedroom to take dictation, write letters, or listen to ideas that were percolating for the future. Those were cherished special times that I continue to treasure as I reach my 70s. I’m still working with young children and carry the seeds of that era into my work in the present.
When Murshida visited the south and our home she was always interested in everything in the environment and we spent hours in nature as she named the herbs and explained their uses. We did concentrations with flowers, leaves and color from nature. We collected jewels, gems, and colored glass for constant experiments. We worked with different metals to get the sense of their mysteries and we worked in waters of natural springs whenever possible, or rivers. We learned to watch the changes of nature in which she could point out the growth of critters and plants to their next stages of development. All these practices which seemed so grounded were the ones that helped us move toward understanding ourselves and people around us.
There was never a dull moment or lack of richness with Murshida. There were always challenges and rewards of self-discovery. She took the most personal interest in her mureeds and remembered us with special gifts and tokens of her love and care.
For the birth of each of our children, she created special blankets with her artwork, pillows with beautiful paintings and artistic creations relative to the saint or prophet we were studying at the time.
Special treats in San Rafael occurred when all the teachers gathered with Murshida in the garden to do walks and wazifa, and in contrast, we gathered in San Francisco in oriental restaurants to share meals, and have our tea leaves read by Murshida.
These random memories don’t even begin to belie the incredible importance of her fulfillment of her purpose and the guiding of us mureeds to see and create our own. With Murshida Vera, it was always “Toward the One”!
Many of my memories of Murshida are very similar to those so beautifully expressed by Hayya Burton. I feel as though I could write volumes about Murshida, but for now would like to share just this:
Murshida Vera
My teacher, guide, spiritual counselor, special friend
looked into my soul and named me
and later promised when I’d become what she named me
she’d give me a different name.
Twenty-seven years passed, filled with
minutiae and memorable moments,
tests, tribulations, and epiphanies,
serving and practicing faithfully, devotedly,
appreciating the beauty, serenity, and strength accruing,
loving her more each year
as heart capacity grew through grace and practice.
Then watching her decline and pass to the other side.
Taking her ashes to her hard-won resting place
anticipating sweet release of grief
but finding only peace that passed understanding.
And now discovering my heart opening at the thought of her,
surrounded by memorabilia, still serving with gratitude
the magnificence and wonder of who she is,
still becoming what she named me,
no longer expecting or wanting a different name.
My dear Murshida Vera, you are in my thoughts and prayers often as I remember the difference you made in my life. You are my teacher, and were my earthly friend and our children’s “Fairy Godmother”. You always remembered them on each occasion and made them their tooth fairy pillows, baby blankets and initiated them both as young girls. You stood by Baiss and I throughout the ups and downs of a long marriage and we still depend on you for your guidance on the inner planes! You are one of our team and I see you flying high with your vera scarves and painting the heavens with your brushes. I will never forget the times you stayed in our home and painted with our daughter, Rabia, when she was a young girl becoming a young woman. You inspired us all with your humor, your talent and your down to earth attitude! You are so missed.