I have over 45 years experience in various martial arts (including weapons ) I could write about it all day .... but I thought this thread was going to be about martial arts
and magick? I see a bit of talk about 'meditation' and Ninjas .
Here is some food for thought , I won't go into it unless someone is interested :
'' the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach." Al1 :37.
Some correlations ;
Wand - short staff / stick .
Sword - sword.
Disc - shield.
Dagger - dagger.
Cup ... the 'water element' is harder to associate with a weapon , I associate it more with a range of 'drawing in ' .... 'accepting' techniques .
The 4 'states' of 'holding ki' are related to the four elements as well .
In a fight or spar , a whole lot of 'mental magick' is going on ... a whole lot of psychic stuff - one needs to manage that ( for example I was an orderly in a public hospital for 10 years , many a time I was required to 'bring order' to the violent , aggressive , drug crazed , confused , etc . Sometimes 'prescience' overrules or stops further development of chaos - suppression / diffusion in various ways, one has to gauge the other to find what suits .
Mental projections and 'mental broadcasting ' ( dont just feint a move ... believe you are goijng to do that move with your whole being - convince yourself even you are going to that move ... I have found this works well with some ; '' Where did that left hook come wrom? I was SURE you were doing a front kick ! )
- play a big part .
I see above someone has an issue with aikido
I think I know why . Aikido class can be a fun ritual ( martial arts training - of a type ) combined with family ancestral worship cult ( see that picture of Grandpa on the wall , with the traditional altar and elemental; set up ? part of your annual dues and fees will STILL go to his family and descendants , even though they mighty have nothing to do with martial arts .
So you might not be practicing magick but you will be practicing a 'martial religion' . But here is the thing ... vary competent aikido can exist , one just has to mix it up with other techniques and use when appropriate ..... like ALL techniques . In a free for all without the overly restrictive rules of an aikido session , I could best most of the teachers ... including with weapons ... they are too 'in the box' not enough outside experience ...... However ; an example .
I was training with a club for a while, Okinawan karate and kobudu .... unfortunately the teacher was a real dick , but he knew somethings I wanted to learn . We trained on the weekend at a park by the river in town . Nearby were some Aikido guys ( knew their instructor and had done some training with him. The karate instructor, although being outwardly friendly was always criticizing them ; '' Look at that, look at what they are doing , thats hopeless, that wouldn't do anything ,,, that would not work ... they should train with us .... ''
Part of what I did was to analyse street fights and violent attacks . here the machete is one of the most common weapons used (as well as knives , but they are very similar ) so I would train with and against them . A few weapons I learnt, they were double weapons, one in each hand ( sai, kamma, etc ) so I used to do a double machete 'form' . Training friends got nervous so I got a friend to make me a set out of wood , did a good job , looked pretty good .
So, 'instructor' decides this weekend we will go out the coast and train at a picnic park near the beach and have a lunch afterwards . Busy park so a lot of people were watching us . We took a break.. that means training and martial arts had stopped .... time out , bow out . Guys were chatting, drinking water and dick 'instructor' has picked up one of my wooden machetes, looked at it, balanced it ... looked at me and ...
Outside of training - taking a break , not a pre-arranged drill, no warning , nothing he just rushes in with downward stike to the top of my head or shoulder . What I did , every other time the person has rolled away to the right as I threw them ... for some reason he tried to 'sit down ' (or something , the guy done NO groundwork, rolls, breakfalls ever ! - and supposedly a 6th dan
) to the left ... totally against the arm'lock/throw .... snap ! I felt it thought my hand . he ended up a pile of mess on the ground and out his mouth came ''You did it wrong ! ''
- which caused the other guys and some onlookers to laugh ... stupid thing to say when you been smashed ! The other guys insisted to him I was moving slow and looked even gentle , I was not even being rough with him ( they asked later, what was that move ... Aikido, I told them )
His wife came over looked down at him and said ''Good ! Well done ! '' ( she never liked it when he hurt others ) and helped him back to the car and they left . he was out of action (no training ) for a few weeks after that .
There are a lot of moves in aikido that can be used in a fight or bout ... you just have to know hopw to use them and how to fight . Just doing the 'aikido ritual dance ' (only ) in a class might not have any value in a fight . Even so there are elements of movement, timing, distance , etc that can give benefit from aikido training .
And most thorough martial arts have a variety of 'aikido like' ... or at least 'jutsu' ; grips, locks, takedowns etc . many of the old kata forms include that ( I did old style karate * ) that got changed in more modern times to 'blocking and striking' techniques .
* ie, used to be a deadly no rules fighting system but changed into a kids PE primary school curriculum . . . The current form evolved from that . However a few schools have adopted some old things or from cross-training , to get it back to a more self-defense / fighting aspect .
