The manuscript includes seige engines and techniques for combat with a variety of weapons, including unarmed and dagger work.

 The show includes reproductions of some surprisingly advanced technologies (including a medieval frogman suit), and re-enactments of a couple of different fighting techniques. I think the highlight for me was seeing ARMA director John Clements demonstrate half-swording techniques against an armoured opponent in free sparring.

Highly recommended. Watch it while it’s still available.

I feel wonder in the gaze of the civilized mortals around me. They know that I am not one of them.

For five months I’ve been living sober and eating clean. I run, I lift, I box, I wrestle and I fence. Each day that goes by I feel myself growing harder, stronger, closer to the earth.

We each must find our own way to relate to the gods. This is mine.

2010 has been a rough one. Personally, professionally and spiritually, 2010 has tested me.  I’m proud to say I’m ending the year stronger than I began it; clean, fit, sober and back in the martial arts where I belong.

This is a real time of new beginnings for me. My son is turning one this month, I’m finally walking away from a job that had been grinding me down and starting a business that has spent more than five years in the planning daydreaming phase.

The question of how best to relate to the spiritual weighs heavily this year. Public perception is important, a family man has responsibilities and, for much of the year, it seems there is little time for the contemplation of anything but the most practical of matters. As October approaches and deepens, however, I find myself more and more the subject of meaningful glances from crows.

It seems that finally, for me, the practical has become the spiritual and the spiritual has become the practical.  My way of worship is my way of life, a path of dedication to healthy living, the pursuit of excellence and the study of vital combat.

Odin seems, more than ever, an appropriate symbol for these goals.

As an important part of my business and my spiritual advancement, I’ve made a commitment to begin writing more regularly for at least the next year. Six days per week I will be posting my thoughts on fitness, nutrition and martial arts at my new personal/professional blog Confessions of a Would Be Superman. Once per week I will be posting here on topics more directly relevant to Heathenism, magick and spirituality.

Be forewarned that my new personal site is still fairly primitive. I’ve managed to post fairly regularly for almost a month and some of the content is almost up to a standard I would consider “good” but as far as customization of the basic WordPress format goes…I still have a very long way to go.

This is a time for new beginnings, though. Perfection be damned, this is a time for action.

If you’re interested in health and fitness, martial arts or just want to watch a computer illiterate personal trainer struggle to covert himself into an international cyber-guru, come on over to Confessions of a Would Be Superman and check me out. For everybody else, see you here next week.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Some readers may have wondered if I’d dropped off the face of the earth. Well…that’s actually pretty near to being an accurate explanation, but there’s a simpler explanation for why it’s taken me so long to get back to writing. Before I could comfortably preach my new philosophy, there were certain elements that needed to be put more rigorously into practice.

That said, let’s take a look at the first elements of a life…

Health

It should be pretty obvious that if you haven’t got your health it’s going to be pretty difficult to get your life together in other ways.  It should be obvious, yet we so often ignore common sense preventative maintenance until it’s too late.

When you’re sick or out of shape your productivity declines, making it that much harder to make a living. To make matters worse, poor health decreases your your sexual and romantic attractiveness. It’s going to be that much harder to find true love when you’re fat, sick and tired looking. Finally, physical illness can lead to depression and other psychological disorders. Your brain is a part of your body, after all.

Letting your health slide is usually the first step in a vicious cycle. Stop taking care of yourself now, and you may soon find that you no longer have the energy, resources or support you’d need to stop the downward spiral.

To begin on the path to building a life, you must first come to understand your body as your vehicle and your temple. If fact, it is often best if you stop thinking of your body as “your body” and start thinking of simply as “yourself”. I am my body and there is no sense in which it is possible to conceive of “my body” as spearate from “me”.

While it’s obviously not necessary, possible or desirable for every adult human being to go to medical school, there are a number of basic skills that are necessary for self maintenance. A preliminary (i.e. incomplete) list for your consideration would be…

A working knowledge of basic hygiene.

A working knowledge of nutrition.

A working knowledge of cooking, in order to make good nutrition pleasant and palatable.

A working knowledge of exercise science.

A favored sport or physical activity, in order to make exercise fun, purposeful and meaningful.

A basic understanding of medical principles, in order distinguish good medical advice from bad.

A working knowledge of natural home treatment options.

and

A working knowledge of First Aid.

This last item on the list brings us to my next point, the other side of the first element…

Safety

Make no mistake, the primary causes of death for educated people living in civilized countries are the completely preventable, self inflicted “diseases of civilization”. There are few things more ironic than the sight of a sick, out of shape “martial arts expert”. (Except perhaps a sick, out of shape doctor, fitness trainer or nutritionist.) That said, there are other threats to your long term health and physical integrity that need to be adressed if you plan on functioning in the real world.

Just as it would make no sense to spend your life in paranoid fear of criminal attack, only to end up dying of heart disease, it makes equally no sense to cultivate a perfect healthly body only to end up stabbed, shot or smashed up in a car accident.

With that in mind, there are a few additional skillsets you need to master…

A working knowledge of practical self defense (note, I did not say “martial arts”).

A working knowledge of the most common weapons in your area (should be included under the heading of “practical self defense” but people tend to skip over this part).

A working knowledge of First Aid (yes, I included First Aid twice).

A high level of competence in Defensive Driving (car accident is a much more common cause of death than violent assault).

Again, note I did not include Martial Arts anywhere on my list essential skills. Now I happen to love martial arts (or rather, I love real martial arts) but formal training in martial arts is not necessary for most people.

As I believe I may have mentioned before, not everybody can (or should) be a warrior. Every free man and woman should , however, take responsibilty for their own health and safety. What we’re talking about here is the development of basic, practical skills, stripped of any  ritual or tradition. On the other hand, basic practical skills are where it’s at when you’re talking about real martial art, anyway. It is precisely the process of taking responsibility for yourself and developing these practical skills that leads to the catharsis that warrior training is so famous for.

Now the above may sound like a lot to learn, but remember that these are essential life skills we’re talking about. This is stuff you need to know to keep yourself fully functioning, healthy and in one piece.

These are also, ironically, topics that have been among the most terribly abused by confidence artists great and small. There is a huge amount of disinformation out there about health and safety. Learning to see through the bullshit may well be the first and most important step on the path to becoming a true Occult Philosopher, as well as a healthy, happy, free human being.

Think about it.

It didn’t take long before we were piling out of their car and heading into what I had always considered one of the mellowest pool halls I’d ever been in. (You can get an idea of what I was used to if I considered a pool hall mellow.) In short order we had a table and a pitcher and had settled down to the sort of trivial chatter that seemed so deep at the time. I’d noticed a couple of crusty types a few tables over who were giving me the hairy eyeball, but since they were about 10 years older than me I shrugged them off. All in all we were having a good, relaxed time.

I was leaning over to take a diagonal cross table shot and had paused in position to exchange banter with the girls. Returning my attention to the table, I was purposely ignoring one of their snide (but accurate) summations of my skills as a pool player when I heard her break off mid sentence. I looked back over my shoulder to see one of the crusties had walked up right next to me without me n oticing.

“What kind of knife is that?” he asked flatly, referring to the dagger on my belt.

“A Holden dagger,” I replied, starting to straighten up. A lot of people mistook it for a Nazi dagger, but it had been around a long time before (as in Viking times long time before) the Goose Stepping Brigade had stuck a backward swastika on it. My time in college was still a few years down the line, but even then I had a thing for history. Still, I’d jammed with a few folks over the knife who thought it meant I was a Nazi despite my dark hair and skin.

Without warning he whipped his right arm and I heard the snap of a buck knife opening. I saw the flash of stainless steel reflect wickedly over the green felt top of the pool table, and I knew I had better do something fucking quick.

Before he could bring his hand back from his overly wide and dramatic opening, I dropped the pool cue and lunged forward, my left hand grabbing his wrist and my right dropping down somewhere around his belt buckle.

With a loud “DON’T,” I heaved him up and slammed him down onto the pool table. Now don’t ask me how I managed the next few dribbles, as I really don’t have any idea except that it’s incredible what your adrenal glands can talk you into when someone pulls out a knife. I distinctly remember bouncing the guy three more times. He dropped the knife on bounce number three, but I must have thrown one or two more in there just to make sure. When he came to a rest, his arm was outstretched over his head and the knife was way down near his chest, so something must have happened that I don’t remember or I just didn’t notice. Anyway, he wasn’t going anywhere quick.

I whirled around to face his buddy, who had already decided that they had made a serious mistake and was backpedaling with wide eyes and hands held out in front of him. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye as the bartender came barreling into view holding something down near his leg that I really didn’t want to know about…

The bartender looked at me and said, “You didn’t start it. You can stay.”

I thanked him, but told him I’d be leaving as soon as I hit the head. You don’t hang around places like that after a fight in case the suckers backed up on you with some serious firepower. I swaggered to the bathroom and locked the door. About a second later I was bent over the toilet barfing my guts out from adrenaline and fear. Once I’d washed up, we scurried out the back door to the car and got the hell out of there.

From A Professional’s Guide to Ending Violence Quickly by Marc “Animal” MacYoung

The Cop

Consider also Officer Stacy Lim from the Los Angeles Police Department, whose story is legendary among professional police warriors. It began when she pulled into her driveway after an enjoyable evening of softball practice. When Lim got out of her personal car, she was immediately confronted by a group of gangbangers who had followed her with the intent of carjacking her vehicle.

Her first response was to call out that she was a police officer. They responded by firing a .357 magnum round into her chest, which penetrated her heart and blew a tennis ball-size exit wound out her back. Stacy Lim stayed in the fight. She not only returned fire, but she also became the aggressor as she pursued the man, shooting him repeatedly. The remaining gangbangers suddenly remembered previous, pressing engagements and very wisely fled for their lives.

After she dealt with her attackers she turned around and headed up her driveway toward her house to call for help. She does not recall doing it, but as she was losing consciousness, she stripped the magazine from her pistol and threw it 20 feet away where it was found the next day. She did this because in the academy she had been taught, “Don’t let them use your weapon against you.”

Her attacker died and Stacy Lim died twice on the operating table. She required 101 pints of blood, but she survived, returning to duty eight months later. Today, she still works uniform patrol on the streets of Los Angeles, and her training philosophy is, “You need to prepare your mind for where your body may have to go.” Do they make them like that anymore?

From On Combat, The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman with Loren W. Christensen

The Berserkers

They prepared and equipped their boats, with twenty men on each. Kveldulf commanded one, and Skallagrim the other. They rowed of in search of the ship, and when they reached the place where it was moored, they put in to shore.

Hallvard and his men had covered the ship with awnings and gone to sleep, but when Kveldulf and his men reached them, the watchmen who had been sitting by the gangway at the prow lept up and called out to the ship, telling the crew to get up because they were about to be attacked. Hallvard and his men rushed for their weapons.

When Kveldulf and his men came to the gangway, they went up it to the stern of the ship, while Skallagrim headed for the prow. Kveldulf had a gigantic, double-bladed axe in his hand. Once he was on board, he told his men to go along the gunwale and cut the awnings from the pegs, while he stormed off back to the aftergaurd, where he is said to have become frenzied like a wild animal. Some other of his men went into a frenzy too, killing everyone they came across, and so did Skallagrim when he ran around the ship. Kveldulf and his son did not stop until the ship had been completely cleared. When Kveldulf went back to the aftergaurd, he wielded his axe and struck Hallvard right through his helmet and head, sinking the weapon in right up to the shaft. Then he tugged it back with such force that he swung Hallvard up into the air and over the side. Skallagrim swept the prow clean and killed Sigtrygg. Many of the crew threw themselves into the water, but Skallagrim’s men took the boat they had come on and rowed over to them, killing everyone in the water.

More than fifty of Hallvard’s men were killed there, and Skallagrim took the ship which had sailed there and all the riches on it.

They captured two or three of the most paltry men, spared their lives and asked them who had been on the ship and what their mission had been. When they found out the truth, they examined the carnage on the ship and had the impression that more of the crew had jumped over the side and lost their lives there than had died on board…

It is said that the people who could take on the character of animals, or went berserk, became so strong in this state that no one was a match for them, but also that just after it wore off they were left weaker than usual. Kveldulf was the same, so that when his frenzy wore off he felt completely exhausted by the effort he had made, and was rendered completely powerless and had to lie down and rest.

From Egil’s Saga, translated by Bernard Scudder

Fight or Flight

According to Lt. Col. Grossman, when confronted with the threat of violence we are limited to four potential options. Fight, flee, posture or submit.

The nature of the human animal is such, however, that we are not very capable when it comes to making these decisions in the heat of the moment. Once the adrenaline starts pumping, your rational cognitive ability drops sharply, so you need to make your decisions about how you would like behave in the face of violence before it happens.

People who have lived in denial about violence, or are unwilling to become violent themselves, are the most likely to simply freeze, submit, become victims and suffer the consequences.

But most people most of the time are not so willing to be pushed around. They’ll attempt to posture and bluff their way out, even if it means some yelling, screaming, pushing and shoving to get there. They typically are still not willing to really hurt anybody, and so if the situation does escalate to an actual fight they’ll resort to non-decisive tactics, designed to cause pain in the hope of scaring their opponent away. Often, a punch to the face is just another bluff in the game of escalato. Against a committed attacker, the pseudo tough-guy will be forced to fold or switch to a more effective option.

The street-smart survivor focuses his strategies primarily on avoidance and escape. He’ll fight like hell to get out of tight corner, but only until he gets enough distance to make a run for it. A true survivor will do absolutely whatever it takes to stay alive.

The warrior is a different breed, because he has chosen to stand and fight when others would fold or flee. The berserker, more than any other warrior, is committed to the principle that offence is the best defense. The berserker attacks without pause, without mercy and with little to no though for his own safety. The berserker is not a “cold blooded killing machine” like your favorite action movie star, but a raving lunatic, a mad dog entirely focused on the destruction of the target in front of him. Ironically, it is his extreme aggression that saves him. Opposing warriors are forced onto the defensive and ordinary mortals trip over each other in the scramble to escape his fury.

Berserkergangr is your natural, primal combat mode. It is a phenomenon that has occurred throughout history and across cultures. Berserkergangr is not therianthropy, though the two appear to be related, and it is not what eastern style martial artists call “no-mind” either. Berserkergangr does not require the use of any drugs or specialized training, though training will certainly help. The capacity to go berserk is something that is within you already.

Adrenaline

The physiological effects of adrenaline and the “fight or flight response” have been scientifically documented. The heart rate becomes elevated in response to stress, and progressive more elevated as the situation becomes ore stressful. Other symptoms of mild to extreme stress may include the loss of fine and complex motor control, diminished cognitive function and loss of higher reasoning, tunnel vision and auditory exclusion. The redirection of all energy resources to the vital organs and large muscle mass can lead to vomiting and loss of bowel and bladder control.

On the up side, brute strength and gross motor function are enhanced. The pain threshold is raised and vasoconstriction decreases blood lost from injuries. A berserker can run faster, jump higher, hit harder and tolerate more damage than anyone could under normal circumstances. Time may appear to speed up, or may go by very slowly. I personally have had several “out of body experiences” while fighting and have once had my conscious mind black out completely while my body went into full-bore attack mode.

In the oriental martial arts, heavy emphasis is usually place on learning to control and minimize the effects of adrenaline through deep breathing techniques. Deep, slow abdominal breathing helps you to calm, ground and center yourself. And this can be effective even in a hard contact sparring match or a low risk physical confrontation. I personally find it hard to believe, though, that anyone can remain calm, grounded and centered while facing down single, knife-wielding crackhead, much less a trained medieval army.

It seems to me that the correct strategy for the berserker warrior is not to fight against his own nature, but rather to embrace the madness. Accept the adrenaline rush. Take it and run with it. Plan your tactics to exploit the strengths of the battle-rage, and avoid the weaknesses. Take on the rage and run with it. Charge headlong into immortality.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

Select an appropriately large, powerful, wild animal. Track and kill it.

Smear your cheeks with the blood.

Bleed and butcher your own fresh kill. Roast and eat the heart. Drink of the blood. Take into yourself all of the strength and spirit of the beast.

Hail Chaos! Viva Loki! Aum Wotan!

BASIC FITNESS ASSESSMENT – The candidates are put through a series of pre-determined physical fitness tests based on military standards: Chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and running are included.

SUPPER – After showering and changing, the candidates are given supper, but no mead or ale. They eat with together, but sit apart from the more experienced warriors.

UTISETTA – The candidates assume their individual posts for the night. Each one will stand guard at a designated point, alone and without shelter, until dawn. Needless to say, any candidate caught sleeping will have automatically failed the test.

DAWN – The candidates assemble in ranks at a time chosen to coincide with the rising of the sun. They are again run through a bout of physical fitness testing, this time of a nature not to be disclosed prior to the event.

TRIAL BY COMBAT – Immediately following the mystery fitness challenge, the candidates are paired up to fight. They will compete for the right to call themselves warriors in three rounds of wrestling, followed by three rounds of boxing, followed by three rounds of stick-fighting.

In these tests, the judges favor valor over skill.

BREAKFAST – After a chance to shower and change, the candidates are treated to a breakfast of ham, eggs, mead and cool water. This time they eat with the warriors. After breakfast, the candidates are permitted to retire to their beds.

EVENING – After the candidates have rested and the warriors have had a chance to confer, all assemble. The candidates are critiqued on their performance, praised for their accomplishments and informed of their success or failure in the test. Then, they are reunited with the tribe for a grand feast and sumbel at which each new warrior is sprinkled with ale, awarded the symbols of their new rank and welcomed wholeheartedly into the warrior pack.

As pointless as the above may sound, psychologically it did actually serve its purpose. Recruit training is intended to be a life-changing experience. The uniforms and haircuts helped get us all in the right frame of mind.

Since then, shaving my head has become a valuable personal ritual for whenever I want to get serious about something. A shaved head represents a turning point, a declaration of intent, a commitment to do whatever it takes. For me, the experience is powerful and moving. I can achieve a fraction of the same experience by tying on a pair of boots, but nothing tops a shaved head as a reminder that I’ve got a job to do.

Now, in the Eddas and Sagas the magical use of a haircut seems to actually work the other way around. A man taking an oath might commit not to cut or comb his hair until his mission is completed. In a well groomed society like that of the Norsemen, I’m sure that could be very effective magic, too. I’m going to stick with my head-shaving because that’s what works for me and, at this point, the associations are too deeply ingrained. You’ll need to find out for yourself, what works for you. But believe me in this, a haircut can be a life-changing experience and a bold New Year is just a few weeks away.

Clint

I have always been involved on some sort of self defence art, whether it was boxing, Muay Thai kick boxing, or another form of martial art, mixed with a lot of weight pushing.

The biggest issue I had was when I did get into a situation where these practices could be used was that I would just black out, and when I came to the other person was not in any hurry to move. (I am not trying to blow my own trumpet here I am just making a ground point of how I first started this Journey).

One example of this really scared the crap out of me.

I was out with a friend and he had a scuffle with someone, anyway when we were leaving the guy ran up from behind and hooked my mate in the face with knuckle dusters, spreading his nose all over his face.

Then the guy ran at me. I don’t know what happened next I seem to have lost a few minutes which to this day I still can’t recall. The next thing I know there is the head light of a car about 30 cm from my head I am sitting on the guy’s chest beating his face in.

There was blood pouring out of this guy’s face, the guy was out cold and not moving, all the security were screaming at me to stop but they wouldn’t touch me.I ran off up the road I stopped about 50 metres away and the guy still hadn’t moved.

The next day I was freaking out what if I had killed this guy what was I to do. I even watched the news to see if they had said anything.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened though definitely the most serious so I started looking for a reason this was happening.

I happened to stumble across a site called Uppsala online; after reading the segment on Berserkergangr it all started to make sense. The berserker had always been of interest to me.

I read over this site repeatedly for a few months then I notice the link to something called somafera.

After reading through this site I could not stop thinking about what I had read, it really tripped something within me. Please read through the somafera site for a full understanding and description of what is involved.

The only thing that was missing to make this a full spiritual / physical training system was there was no set martial art to use.

I started asking around and the system I found to fit with the somafera training is a style of kung-fu called YANG MIAN where as you use internal pressure to create power.

You raise the pressure in your body by doing repetitive exercises while keeping your mind, breathing and muscles relaxed similar to raising the wode (check out their site it has some great videos on it).

Lucky for me a good friend of mine has been given permission by his Master (Master Yang) to start his own school. I have been training with him over the last couple of months to get my body conditioned and am now ready to tie Somafera and Yang Mian together in a experiment to see what can be achieved.

I will be keeping a monthly journal of my experiences on this page, it will be quite a journey.

If there’s one thing all us Heathens have in common, it’s our love of history. A little while ago, I expressed my opinion that “Martial Arts training is the ideal form of Yoga for Heathenism.” Now let me take that thought one step further…

Historical Western Martial Arts are the most natural choice for a Heathen Combat Discipline.

The first thing anyone should do in the Martial Arts is go out and learn some basic, no-frills Self Defence. You should not even consider the “art” side until you’ve learned how to stay out of trouble…and what to do when trouble comes looking for you.

The second step anyone should take, in my opinion, is to go learn the basics of whatever full-contact combat sports are common in their geographical area. This sets the bar high. I look at the combat sports as a barrier test for the serious martial artist. This is not something you need to devote your entire life to, but if you want to become an “expert fighter” you’ll at some point need to step up and do some actual full-contact fighting.

But, strictly speaking, once you’ve gotten past the first step of learning basic self defence…after that your time is your own. There’s no reason why we can’t have a little fun in the gym. A little bit of wrasslin’ and some sword/cudgel/dagger play sounds like my idea of a good time. If it sounds like yours, you may just be a Heathen Martial Artist.

And who knows? Researching the ways of our ancestors…we may actually learn something.

Clint.

If you don’t understand the distinction between Martial Arts, Combat Sports and Self-Defence, you need to read this article: http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/four_focuses.html

Now for the fun stuff!!!

The Society for Creative Anachronism

The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts

Some great articles…

A Filipino knife instructor with some nice things to say about Western Fencing.
(I wouldn’t mind taking some lessons from him, either.)