The ceremony is read symbolically at every point, and the readings are the order's own rather than an outside interpretation. The black cloak the dervish wears on entering stands for the tomb and is cast off to reveal the white gown, which stands for the shroud; the tall camel hair hat is the tombstone. Removing the cloak is therefore a death, and what turns afterward has already died to itself. The dervish crosses his arms over his chest at the start, standing for the unity of God, and opens them as the turn begins.
The arms then hold the position the ceremony is best known for: the right palm turned upward to receive from God, the left turned down toward the earth to pass on what has been received, so that the turning body is a conduit and keeps nothing. The head is inclined toward the right shoulder, and the turn is anticlockwise on the left foot, the right foot pushing. The ceremony runs through a naat in praise of the Prophet, a drum stroke, an improvised reed flute taksim, a circling procession, and then four salutes, the selams, each with its own character, before a recitation from the Quran closes it. The whole runs about an hour. Sufi orders have argued about the permissibility of music and movement in worship since the earliest centuries, and the Mevlevi position is one answer among several rather than the settled view of Islam.