Shamanism And Kung Fu

[Hermes3X]

So, ever since the days in high school when I was a huge Doors fan, I have had a raging fascination with Shamanism of all sorts, but especially asian shamanism - ranging from Siberian shamans to Aleutian and Yunnanese shamans. For a long time in my kung fu practice, I was always fascinated by how forms came to be, and especially how forms came to be amongst internal martial artists. One possible solution I came up with was that village soldiers watched their local shaman (get tv joke here?) when he danced. I also considered that the shamans themselves evolved into martial artists and that early figures in Taoist martial arts such as Zhang San Feng were probably shamans and that all the Taoist martial arts have some shamanistic roots. This later possibility is what I have settled on.
Since then three things have come to my attention some of these I have Spoken about here

1. In the Aleutian Islands, the peoples there developed a qi-based medicine and a combat system based on qi pressure points, seemingly Independently of outside influence. (See the Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age by Rudgley)

2. A dutch gentleman I wrote to on the internet, a Stephen Vertlll something (I need to check my notes - I'll post this correction soon) said that he had witnessed Yunnanese and Thai shamanistic dances that looked exactly like tai chi and hung gar forms

3. I recently read A book called the Shamanic Way of the Bee by a Simon Buxton who discusses his inititiation into a European bee Cultus. In the Book he discusses several of the rituals, most interestingly the use of bee stings on meridian sites to help in healing, a practice he says the Chinese developed into acupuncture

Can anyone help me with this martial arts/shamanism connection?

[Mr Punch]

But I think it's interesting...

I know that some folk who practise Okinawan karate say that there is a distinct historical link between the movements of the dances to the fishing gods. For example Goju Ryu with its short almost triangular posture and its gedan barai which supposedly resembles the dance moves representing standing on two gunwhales between two boats and gaffing a fish. To what extent the dance is supposed to represent the karate is supposed to represent the actual fishing action, I do not know. I think I first read about this in Draeger but I can't remember, and I've spoken about it with an Okinawan Shorinji Kenpo and Goju Ryu practitioner of some rank.

You may want to look into the five element theory some more, as there are supposedly some interesting relationships between particular elemental stances and ritual use in some parts of China. Plus there's that book 'Confessions of the Tao' I think it was about a later golden gloves boxer's training in Taoist kungfu ritual. Largely a load of guff I think, but interesting anyway.

In the western tradition, don't be forgetting Celtic sword dances, which some people have said originated in rituals to cross into the fairy world, or Morris dancing, which is certainly shamanistic in origin despite the influx of characters later (the Green Man and the Hobby Horse are probably the oldest places to start) and almost certainly martial too (they use big sticks and lots of jumping clashing low-kicking movements).

Sorry, don't know much, but there's some stuff you could look into.

[GeneChing]

I'm working on a piece now that looks at shamanic themes in martial arts, albeit peripherally. I've always thought there is a great shamanic tradition in animal styles. I don't want to give too much away for this article (it's not even done yet) but it's an almost Jungian piece of synchronicity that you bring this up now for me and encourages me to finish the piece.:cool:

[Hermes3X]

weird. I actually backed into the idea about a year ago, talking to a pentjak silat boxer who as telling me about how his teacher's teacher was a little nuts from doing animal forms too much. It was Like he had ridden the spirit horse one too many times

also, Gene, was it you that mentioned that the split between taoist and buddhist forms is a modern development?