Remember, the word “occult” simply means “hidden.” It does NOT mean evil or satanic and never has. Scientists and astronomers use the word occult any time one body hides or obscures another.
Please read the following article, then complete these lessons based on it: Lesson Index A thru U | Back to 2nd Deg. Study Hall
OCCULT SWORDPLAY
by Fenwick Rysen
In a field lit only by moonlight and the distant glow of the city beyond the horizon, Michael stood and faced his opponent, a master who calmly regarded him as a hunter might regard his prey. The eyes in that face were the same piercing color as the sword he bore at his side, an unforgiving steel grey that pierced by gaze alone. Steel grey. Live steel. A real sword, not the shinai or the bokken, the bamboo and wooden practice swords he had trained with. A real sword. A real battle. His first battle. The master gave a slight bow, which Michael returned. The drawing of blades was silent as silk upon silk, marked only by the reflection of moonlight from twin blades as the battle was enjoined.
The topic of occult swordplay is one that seems to fill our myths, legends,and fantasies so much so that it has even given rise to the cliche of “sword and sorcery” yet somehow has remained, for the most part, a region unexplored by modern occultism. I have maintained a practice in swordplay almost as long as I have in magick, and have spent years exploring it and learning it through a combination of reasoned thought, informed guesses, developed intuition, and plain old blind luck. I was lucky enough for one year to study under a teacher of occult swordplay, though such teachers are exceedingly rare and often unwilling to teach. More often I have sparred with others who shared my curiosity and we have uncovered new ground together. Never have I come across a single written source of factual occult swordplay, even though nearly one in two occultists I have met have said that they would be immensely interested in the art if it existed. Most of them conclude that the lack of literature means that there is no viable tradition that combines the techniques of western magick with the art of the sword. Yet this is not so.
My own training, coming as it does from many sources, is typical of the occult swordsmen I have met in my journeys. Just as magick is a highly personal path, so too is that of occult swordplay. The techniques can be taught and the principles shown, but ultimately you must make it a part of yourself as a personal expression of the art. No amount of book knowledge will ever substitute for the innovation and insight of true practice. It has been my goal for some time to write a primer for many of the techniques of occult swordplay that I have been taught or uncovered, yet I never wrote because I could not perfect them. One day I realized that they can never be perfected;I will always be learning, there will always be more to do. I have successfully taught them to others, so I must be doing something right. And so I now write down my thoughts so that others might play with what I have learned and uncover more for themselves. I will assume that that student of occult swordplay has invested the time to master both arts independently and instead devote my time to writing of occult swordplay itself. Those who have not gained skill in magick should take up any form of that art that interests them,and those who have not used a sword should either find a medieval historical re-enactment group through a Renaissance Fair guild or the Society for Creative Anachronism, or join a respected dojo that teaches Japanese Kendo and Iaido.The techniques of occult swordplay are wonderful practice while learningboth arts, but cannot be mastered until you have achieved reasonable levelsof skill in each art independently.
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ENJOINING THE BATTLE
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Those steel grey eyes. The eyes of his teacher, his mentor, his opponent.It seemed impossible that he could have learned enough to defeat this man who had taught him everything he knew. Yet that wasn’t so; he had been taught,yes, but taught to find his own path, his own techniques, his own form of the art. He drew in the power of Mars and of Water simultaneously, seemingly dissimilar forces that together in Michael evoked the fiercest yet most fluid action. The invocation filled his being, shaping his body in a deep-seated crab stance with his sword above his head, edge up with point down and toward his opponent’s knees, a stance which the master had never seen, never taught.His own path. His own innovation. With wide steps he circled to the right seeking an opening in which to strike, yet something felt odd—his deeper intuition spoke as impressions as he realized the master drew in a force he had not felt before, pressing it by will alone into the blade until his intuition sensed that sword not as steel, but as a glowing and crackling column of force. Grounding out sudden panic in a single breath, Michael pulled back to parry as the swift attacks descended, each one blocked perfectly,wide swift steps carrying him backwards as he retreated under the onslaught of the glowing blade. The echo of steel on steel filled the shallow valley of the silent field.
The fiction of occult swordplay is as far removed from reality as fictional magick is from true occult tradition. Both are very rarely flashy or impressive,and if you didn’t know better you’d say nothing had happened at all. Yet after studying it for some time, you begin to see where many of the stories,myths, and legends draw their roots. The stories of intelligent swords that show their owners how to use them from the tradition of awakened blades,of swords that glow with force from the auras that a blade can cast for many reasons, of swords that give vitality to their wielders or take it away from a variety of vampiric enchantments, of men possessed by gods when wielding a weapon from moving invocations. Most of the “sword and sorcery” fiction that you read draws from the exaggeration of a true skill, or can be stripped of its flash to hint at the possibility of a feasible new technique. Likewise,many of the warnings you see in fiction are only exaggerations of the true dangers to the art. With a little bit of common sense, respect for the blade,and a touch of honor, all of the perils can be avoided.
When you start practicing occult swordplay, it’s usually a good idea to let your practice opponents know. Some people want an “honest fight” of physical skill against physical skill, which is a valid desire. While most of the techniques of occult swordplay are internal to the self or the sword, some of them are based on the manipulation of the opponent through magick. Many people have moral and philosophical objections to such acts, and it’s wiser to let someone know about it early instead of them figuring it out later and get upset at you. Some people are also incapable of defending themselves magickally against some of the invasive techniques, and unless you have copious amounts of experience you can easily cause damage to other person that they are not capable of fixing. For example, ordering a summoned demon against the opponent while you press the attack works wonderfully against a true foe, but might not be the brightest thing to do to a sparring partner who lacks the skill to repair or repulse any damage that might be done. Even if they do have the skill, they may not want to get themselves into the situation where they have to use that skill. Using the more invasive, offensive, and vicious techniques of occult swordplay does give you an edge in combat, but it’s also the quickest way to ensure that potential sparring partners refuse to fight you at all. If you want to practice those types of tricks, find other magicians who are also curious and practice using them on each other.Remember that the primary purpose of occult swordplay is the swordplay; the occult aspects are simply tools to give you an advantage in combat, they aren’t the be all and end all of the art. A sword will dispatch or defend you more readily than magick will—your swordplay will direct how you use your magick, not vice versa.
Most magick takes time. Even the simplest sigil-casting techniques of magick require the time to create a sigil and empower it. With practice this can be done in under a minute, but the speed of a combat situation will not allow you the luxury of taking your time to create a magickal effect. You must instead learn to speed up your magick, to make it nearly instantaneous. In order to do this, you must already be intimately familiar with how to create a magickal effect using the “slow” traditional means; you must know in great detail exactly how it feels to cause a magickal effect, because it is this feel that you will latch onto, discarding all of the props, and using the effect by itself. The most useful way to speed up these magickal effects is to learn to do them in a single breath. Because most occult swordplay techniques used in combat deal with the moving of energy, you can simplify most effects to a pushing away of energy that you combine with an outward breath, and a drawing in of energy that you combine with an inward breath.Other methods can be used (and will be discussed later), but the action of breathing seems to be a quick, reliable, easily taught, and simple to use anchor for implementing nearly any magickal effect in combat. Meditate on this.
THE BASICS OF OCCULT SWORDPLAY
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And then he felt it—blade met flesh, and he was left with the slightest of cuts on the thigh he had failed to defend. The control of the master was exact; he could have taken an entire leg had the goal of the battle been to kill. Almost no blood at all came from the wound, but already he felt the energy the master had left behind by the strike; it worked into the muscle,the feel of fatigue, bruise, and stiffness coming on already. With a single breath he banished the energy, yet some remained, an anchor the master could use for further magickal attacks. The master had retreated to observe him,the goal of the first attack met.
Anyone with minor skill in both magick and swordplay can learn the simplest techniques to this art. These are the most common techniques, the most practical,as well as the most unimpressive. They tend to be subtle, simple techniques whose sole purpose is to provide you with a slight edge in a swordfight and to prevent others from using similar techniques against you. They’re non-invasive, usually affecting just yourself and not your opponent, and,because of this it’s often very hard to tell when someone is using them at all. You can watch an entire bout and not have any clue that the victor won through the subtle use of applied magick; oftentimes even the opponent will have been unaware of the use of magick unless it was specifically turned against him. This camouflage is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of true occult swordplay. Those of insecure nature tend to go around advertising the fact that they know how to use magick with their sword, thus putting their opponents on guard. The best occult swordsmen have learned the value of the fourth line of the hermetic maxim, “to remain silent”, and keep their bag of tricks guarded so as to surprise the opponent in combat. Learn as many of these as you can, master those you find most useful, and always keep the other person guessing as to what you’re capable of.
GROUND & CENTER
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This is the simplest of all techniques of occult swordplay, and gives you such an edge over those that cannot master it that it has become an integral part of most sword arts even if they are devoid of any other magick. In thesword arts it is seen as the inner peace, calm, and poise that a swordsmanstrives towards in combat. From that peaceful place, he is able to controlfear, anger, worry, and all other emotions that might otherwise erode hisskill in a fight. Magicians often seek this same place through the techniquesof grounding and centering, bringing their minds to a calm position in thepresent that feels fear, anger, worry, and other emotions as impressionsthat do not alter his thoughts or his actions unless he chooses them to.The occult arts and sword arts alike both familiarize the student with thisstate through meditation. You should already know the exact mental stateof which I speak; if you don’t, then you need to work on your magick somemore or you’ll never have any hope of learning occult swordplay.
It’s wise to ground and center before combat, though you may not always havemuch time. It should be quick and instantaneous—banishing rituals and otherrubric used by magicians to achieve the state must be discarded. Banishingrituals, meditation, and deep-breathing exercises will show you the statetowards which to strive, but you must be able to instantly enter it oncefamiliar with it; it should become reflex. If you find yourself panickedor disoriented or wildly emotional in combat, you should be able to immediatelyre-enter that state with a single thought and regain your composure. If youhave trouble in grounding and centering, simple breathing exercises can help.As you breath, use your breath to push your energy into the ground, lettingany unwanted thoughts and emotions ground out with the act. Once you cansuccessfully do this with a single breath, or better yet with a single thought,you will have mastered this technique. Even though it’s simple, and evenif you’re a good magician, don’t be surprised if it takes a while to masterthis one. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to practice.
THE ELEMENTS
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The style of occult swordplay I was taught drew heavily from the structureof ceremonial magick, and thus placed a great emphasis on the four elements:Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Each of the elements represents a differentstyle of combat, and though the forces used are the same, their manifestationswithin each individual is different. You can get a good feel for the styleof each element by standing in a neutral position, ready for combat, andinvoking the element you wish, letting it control your posture. As you invokeit, where do your hands feel like they should be? How should you hold thesword? How do you stand? How deep is your stance? How much to you turn towardsor away from your opponent? How do you place your hips and shoulders? Whereare your arms? Once you have this posture, try practice strikes against imaginaryfoes and see how that element feels. Block or evade imaginary attacks; geta true feel for the motion of the element expressing itself through yourswordplay.
Once you have a feel for each element, combine them as primary and secondary.If you like the feel of Fire, try invoking Air of Fire, Earth of Fire, Waterof Fire, and lastly Fire of Fire. These combinations create a total of sixteendifferent styles of combat that work excellently for those who have a fondnessfor elemental work. If you aren’t as fond of elemental magick this may notwork for you but still remains an interesting exercise to undertake. Invocationin combat is not quite the same as it is in a temple space—once again,it is quick, instantaneous, reflexive. You should practice elemental magickuntil you are familiar enough with these states to instantly enter them ina swordfight. You should also remain flexible enough to change between theminstantly. When pressing a violent series of attacks as Fire of Fire, itmight be useful when the tide turns to switch to a more defensive Water ofFire or perhaps Water of Earth.
If you watch anyone fighting (whether they are an occult swordsman or not),you can easily classify the style of fighting they are using into one ofthese sixteen forms, which can be useful information in deciding a form touse to counter it. Fire tends to be quick, agile, and aggressive with severalrapid strikes coming in a flurry. It can change direction at a moment’s notice,and very rarely remains still. Fire is unpredictable, rash, and violent.Air is more graceful, the strokes of the sword often seeming to drift fromone stroke to the next in fluid arcs. It can blow forward or back with equalease, and tends to either parry blows as you retreat or simply not be therewhen the opponent’s sword strikes. The footwork is almost like a dance. Airis thoughtful, intellectual, and observant. Water can only be described as fluid. It is heavy, flowing as it strikes, yet it does not flow as lightly as Air, being heavier and more firm in its blows, like the crashing of waves.It is pensive, calm, and compassionate. Earth is simply solid. It makes useof force over finesse, often overpowering an opponent or meeting them withequal force. It rarely retreats, but it also rarely advances, being firm-rootedand heavily defensive. When it moves, it is with firm and calculated steps.Most traditional sword-art schools (especially those of the West) teach “earthy”techniques first. Earth is firm, defensive, and forceful. All of thesecan be combined, so that while taking the heavily defensive position of Earthyou use Fire of Earth to deliver rapid, pummeling attacks to keep the opponentat bay as opposed to the slower, stronger strokes that Earth of Earth woulduse. Earth of Fire, on the other hand, tends to press an attack relentlesslywith strong, forceful blows that seek to overwhelm and overpower the opponent.Fire of Air (my personal favorite) tends to dance away from the opponentas he attacks, then presses inward without warning to deliver several rapidattacks before retreating again. Water of Air and Air of Water look almostlike kata as the practitioner flows from motion to motion without effort.All sixteen combinations are viable, and well worth exploring. Elementalismin occult swordplay isn’t so much an actual occult technique as it is anoccult mechanism that allows you to teach yourself a diverse repertoire ofoffensive and defensive strategies, especially if you can successfully invokethe forces to see how they work through you. You will probably find thatyou tend to favor a handful of them, but familiarity with the others willserve you well under changing battle conditions.
THE BLADE AS BODILY EXTENSION
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If you have progressed enough in your occult skills to at least sense ifnot actually see auras, you may notice something odd when a person bearsa sword in their hands that they intend to use—the aura of that person actually begins to extend up the blade. This is not as pronounced in those who do not intend to or know how to use a sword, is more pronounced if the person is bearing their own blade (regardless of whether it’s just a bamboo shinai or live steel), and is always stronger if the person is exceedingly well-skilled in his occult or sword skills to a point approaching mastery. This phenomenon gives rise to some interesting mechanics in occult swordplay,for with the aura of the blade involved, the combat may take place not onlyon a physical level but on an aethyric one as well. The aura of a blade in the hands of a skilled magician forms the basis for most techniques of occult swordplay; when your blade strikes the opponent’s sword or the opponent himself,that contact point can be used to initiate dozens of different magickal techniques. The blade becomes an extension of the body and the cunning magicianwill realize that he can utilize it as he would any other part of his body.Through breathing exercises, force of will, and other occult techniques energyof any sort can be run into a sword, drawn out of it, circulated throughit, transmitted from it, or forced into it.
Oftentimes in occult ritual, bodily contact with the person to be affected can help the magician to be more effective in the achievement of his goals;for example, a healing ritual consisting of “channeling energy” through themselves and into another person, or of passing an invocation to another person by having them breathe in the air that you breathe out. Everyone has a different explanation for the mechanism that makes such contact useful in magick, suffice it to say that it often does. This contact is often extended in magick through the use of a ritual wand or staff, or other occult tools.There is absolutely no reason why the sword cannot be used in the same manner during combat.
This dynamic in occult swordplay forms the core around which most of thebasic techniques actually work. Careful thought on this will yield many possible applications, the most practical of which is the ability to impress energy into an opponent’s aura when you strike him.
IMPRESSING AND REMOVING A STRIKE
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When you are struck with a sword, the strike occurs not only on a physical level, but on an aethyric level as well. Because the sword is an extension of your opponents body and of his will, a successful strike will transfer energy from the sword into the wound. This foreign energy can cause greater bruising, muscle fatigue, and other effects. This occurs even with people who are untrained and unaware of the occult arts. The magician can amplify this effect, “impressing” energy into his opponent with the strike to causegreater pain, fatigue, bruising, etc. He may also remove this energy whenstruck himself to prevent these effects.
Different occult arts teach different methods of manipulating or moving”energies”, so you should use whatever method you are familiar with to assistin this technique. Once again, swordplay will not allow you the luxury oftime to prepare elaborate visualizations or power words, so combining the intent with your breathing is one of the simplest and most effective methods of both impressing and removing a strike. Whenever you strike with the sword,it should be with an outward breath. With practice, you can use this outward breath to push energy down your sword and into your opponent’s aura. If you have ever witnessed master martial artist use a Chi strike that seemed to have little physical effect but left a person in great pain with massive bruising and muscle damage, you have witnessed a similar effect to what we are aiming to achieve with the sword. Once you are good enough, you can evenuse the energy left behind as a sympathetic link to create further magickal effects, though exactly what effects those are will be best left to your own skill level and ingenuity.
The ability to remove a strike is the logical counterpart to the abilityto impress a strike—there’s no point in knowing how to use a techniqueunless you know how to reverse it. The magickal axiom of “Don’t call up whatyou can’t put down” can be readily applied to this situation. Because you’llprobably be practicing with others and learning as you go, it would be niceto remove a strike from yourself and from your friends so as to prevent thefull effect of an impressed strike, which can last for days or weeks whenexecuted properly. In combat, this can be done by pushing the energy awayfrom you or grounding it out with an exhale. Push your own energy back intothe place where the strike occurred, thus forcing the other energy out ofthe wound. If combat has ended and you suffered any particularly hard blows,I have been rather fond of energetic bodywork techniques to remove leftoverenergy. The simplest of these is to sweep over the wound with your hand,”scooping up” or “sweeping away” or “pulling out” the foreign energy as youinhale—transfer the foreign energy from the wound to your hand—and witha violent exhale, shake the energy off of your hand and away from you, asif you were trying to flick off water. Repeat this as many times as you feelnecessary.
You will find that even doing this to wounds that weren’t purposely impressedwill cut down on the amount of bruising, muscle fatigue, and pain you receivefrom blows with practice swords. If you have been unfortunate enough to receivea blow with a real sword, it can speed the time it takes the wound to heal.
PAIN CONTROL
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This technique is not so much an actual magickal skill as it is a trainedphysical one, but the techniques of occult training can help in developingit. Pain is an unavoidable aspect of swordplay, for no matter how good youare, sooner or later you’re going to get hit. Even if it’s just with bamboopractice swords, a solid hit to the knuckles or an accidental jab to theneck really hurts.
Pain comes in two types—the initial sharp pain that lets you know you havebeen hurt, and then the dull pain that continues to remind you that you arehurt. It takes a great deal of practice to learn to overcome sharp pain,but since it lasts only a moment the beginning occult swordsman can acceptit for now and move on towards overcoming the dull secondary pain, whichis his true enemy. A great majority of people have a hypochondriacal reactionto pain, clutching the wounded area and making a bigger deal out of it thanit really is. Usually this is because of a trained psychological dysfunctionthat acting wounded will gain attention from those around you, the degreeto which it is acted out depending upon the individual. Another reactionone often sees is that when hurt someone will draw inward, shunning contactfrom others. Neither of these reactions are appropriate during swordplay—givingin to pain will give your opponent an advantage you don’t need to give him.Your reaction to pain needs to become one of acknowledgment and self-confidence:admit to yourself that you have been hurt, but remind yourself that you arestrong enough to go on. There’s not really that much you can do to stop thepain at the moment anyway—there will be time to lick your wounds later,when combat is over.
This can play to your advantage as psychological warfare during combat. Anopponent that strikes you and sees you react to great pain will gain confidenceand use any advantage he sees in your diminished reaction. However, if hestrikes you hard only to find that he apparently hasn’t hurt you, he maylose confidence and realize that he is fighting an opponent that will bedifficult to defeat. And truth be told, once you can develop this reactionto pain, you *will* be harder to defeat.
Meditation on the nature of pain and taking careful note of your reactionto it are the best ways to develop the proper metal attitude. As to actuallycontrolling pain itself, breathing is once again a very useful technique.Using slow, firm, deep breaths will often cause pain to subside, even withoutusing occult techniques. By using the skills you are learning to move energythrough your body and sword, you can either breath the pain out or groundit out. With more practice and greater skill, you can actually transmit thatpain to your opponent through contact between swords, through a successfulattack, through the use of servitors, or through force of will alone—butwe’ll get to all of that soon enough.
GROUNDING THE OPPONENT’S SWORD
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This is one of those tricks that is so subtle that most people don’t realizethat it’s being used, yet can be so efficient that used alone it can be thedeciding factor in the outcome of a battle. It does, however, require slightlymore skill on the part of the swordsman, as it is not a thing that you simplydo and then forget about it, but a task that must be continually concentratedupon throughout the course of battle.
Remember when we mentioned that most people will project their aura up theblade of a sword, and that this can be used as the basis of several techniques?Most of those techniques involve transmitting energy through the blade, thoughlogically you should be able to do the opposite as well—enter the abilityto ground out your opponent’s sword. Instead of projecting energy into yoursword, you draw energy into it from the contact point you have with youropponent’s blade. This will only work if your opponent fights at a rangeand with a style that either allows constant or frequent contact betweenswords. This might make it a little more difficult, because you will needto be concentrating upon this technique at the same time that you are rapidlyattacking and parrying.
Most opponents will continue to send energy into their blade when it is beingdrained off. If they continue to let this happen (and perhaps 75% of thepeople you fight will) it will become tiresome after a while, and they willslow down, losing reaction time, strength, and agility. His mind sometimesbegins to slow as well, and he makes more mistakes. This won’t work on allpeople—some people, either through intuition, high willpower, or magickaltraining, seem to sense that their blade is being drained, and will not continueto invest their energy in the blade. It also usually won’t work if the opponentknows you’re trying to do it, even if they have no magickal training. Thistechnique works best when your opponent doesn’t know your doing anythingat all.
When you do this, some people get the bright idea that they can become apsychic vampire and use that energy for themselves. While I have seen thisdone by a few skilled individuals, most people are so unskilled in psychicvampirism that all they do is get a headache. I’ve also seen people unableto process that energy after drawing it in pick up the mannerisms, speechpatterns, and habits of the person they drew from. Leave psychic vampirismto those who’ve dedicated the time to it that it takes to master it—afterall, with this technique we’re talking about drawing off the better portionof your opponent’s energy, not simply a small light psychic snack. It isusually easier to just take the energy from the opponent and ground it out,as this requires no real skill in energy manipulation on your part, letsyou ground out massive amounts of energy at little expenditure, and you neverhave to worry about the earth becoming satiated and refusing to take theenergy because it has a full stomach.
Some people may object to the morals of this technique, and I leave it upto the individual to decide any such ethics for themself. I certainly don’tthink you should drain an unsuspecting practice partner dry, but that’s partlybecause drained sparring partners aren’t much fun to practice with afteryou’ve successfully completed this technique. I highly recommend learningthe techniques from the “Licking your Wounds” section (not yet completed)so that you can patch up any damage to friends or self in practice with thisone.
PROJECTING INTO THE OPPONENT’S SWORD
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Not only can you ground out the opponent’s sword, you can also project energyinto it. This is a bit riskier, as you are giving the opponent energy ofyour own, and may end up draining yourself unless you have a source to drawfrom (walking invocations discussed later on work excellently for this).By projecting your own energy into the opponent’s sword, you can do severalthings. The easiest of these to do is to cause your opponent to tense up,which is often the first thing that will happen when you successfully areable to project energy into his sword. because his aura interacts with hissword, the energy you project into the sword almost always begins to interactwith his own aura. This foreign energy will often cause an opponent to tenseup, and a person who fights when tensed instead of relaxed tends to makemore mistakes, thus creating more openings in which you can successfullystrike him.
If you can continue to project massive amounts of energy into him, it willsometimes confuse his senses. Practice opponents on which I have tried thishave reported a buzzing in the ears, a slight blurring of vision, distortionin their hearing, slight disorientation, and an unpleasant tingling of theskin. To achieve effects of this level, though, you must both be able toget past any magickal defenses the person may have erected, and to projectfar more energy that you yourself can muster—which means using it in concertwith energetic bodywork or walking invocations discussed elsewhere.
I have also witnessed a few people who have been able to project energy intoan opponent’s sword in an attempt to control his sword through binding itto their own. I am still uncertain as to the true effectiveness of thistechnique, and as to how it works, but have witnessed its effectiveness inthose who have taken the time to practice it. Usually it’s just enough ofa control over the other sword to slow it so that you can parry in time,or to move it just the fraction of an inch needed to create an opening. Thistechnique seems to give sporadic results, depending on many factors includingthe mental state and magickal skill of the two combatants, any magickal defensesthe opponent may have, whether or not the swords being used are awakenedswords (discussed later), the skill of the combatants both with the swordand with magick, and plain old blind luck. Feel free to practice this one,but I don’t recommend that you rely on it.
MAGICKAL SHIELDING
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The savvy occult swordsman will have realized at this point that though mostopponents will not be skilled in occult arts, it can still be useful to defendoneself magickally. The masters of traditional swordplay will exhibit magickaleffects without consciously thinking of them, and even the skilled neophyteof traditional sword arts can surprise you with his magickal skill when hesuccessfully executes an unconscious magickal attack of his own. The importanceof magickally shielding against other occult swordsmen need not even bediscussed.
How you choose to “shield” yourself will depend upon your personal preferenceand the techniques of the tradition(s) of magick that you have chosen tostudy. Most of these techniques are quite satisfactory, but when appliedto occult swordplay there are a few things that must be kept in mind.
Firstly, we must consider the goals of our magickal defense. Not only dowe wish to protect our physical and spiritual bodies, we must also giveconsideration to our mental state, for many magickal attacks aim solely toconfuse the opponent’s faculties. Therefore we will be defending ourselveson three levels. Of the physical level, it is best to simply rely on yoursword, and on the ability to remove energy from a successful strike.
The spiritual level is the closest to the standard magickal shielding thatyou will be familiar with: simply seek to protect yourself from harm by psychicattack, malicious spirits, and similar nasties you’ve probably heard warningsabout when you were taught your occult skills. The only alteration that wemay wish to make is in what we define as the border of our shielding. Mostpeople in western cultures define or picture the “borders” of their magickalshield as being anywhere between one to three feet out from their skin, typicallyan egg or cocoon shape. Because swordplay requires this distance to be crossedconstantly, you may wish to retrain yourself to see, picture, or projectyour shields much closer to the skin, like a tight-fitting suit of armor.You can also use this to your advantage when you fight an opponent whosemagickal shield is extended from his body—use your sword as an extension,and with it inside your opponent’s shield you can bypass his magickal defenseto launch myriad magickal attacks.
Lastly, you must give consideration to your mental defenses. Because manymagickal attacks in occult swordplay are meant to confuse you, you may wishto also erect a separate magickal shield around your mind alone, whose solepurpose is to defend against things that would otherwise confuse, dull, orslow your senses and thus your reaction time. Place this shield around thepart of your body you consider the seat of your mental faculties, which,for most people of western culture, will be the brain. Your best practicewill be allow a sparring partner to execute a magickal attack both when youhave your shield “down” and then when you have them “up”. This will giveyou the advantage of knowing whether or not your shields are effective atall, and if so to what level they help you. If you find them unsatisfactory,try a different magickal technique and see if it works better. If they stillfall short, put more practice in—likely you have had little use for magickalshielding, and simply need practice at it. You’ll get plenty of practicein occult swordplay.
MOVING INVOCATIONS
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The ability to invoke the force of your choice while swordfighting is oneof the most useful, effective, and devastating abilities that the occultswordsman can learn to utilize. As with all other magickal skills appliedto swordplay, you must spend enough time practicing invocation for it tobecome habitual, something that you can execute in a single moment with asingle breath. This takes much practice, but once you can accomplish itconsistently and effectively, an entirely new world of possibilities opensup before you. By using invocation, the occult swordsman is able to supplementhis skills and powers where they are lacking.
Those trained in ceremonial magick may find great use for the planetary forces:I cannot count the number of Mars invocations I have witnessed, closely followedby Solar, Lunar, Mercurial, and Saturnine invocations. Gods can be quiteuseful, as they represent a philosophy of life as well as certain coursesof action. These invocations can act as a source of courage when defeat seemsimminent, a source of inspiration in the creation of new techniques, andas a familiar ally in times of strife. Developing a relationship with thegod or gods of your choice in your everyday life often means a stronger andmore useful invocation during battle, hence the tendency of many occult swordsmento adopt some sort of patron deity such as Aries, Thor, Cernunnos, Marduk,or something similarly martial that represents the philosophies andcourses-of-action that the swordsman holds dear.
One of its greatest uses of this skill is the invocation of a “raw force”that you see as the source of power in the universe: Chaos, Order, Eternity,Void, Lifeforce, etc. This can be a source of power to fuel magickal effectsthat are normally beyond your ken. Your body can only provide so much energyby itself; for certain magicks, you must open yourself as a conduit for theseenergies, allowing them to flow through you as you shape them.
This skill will be most effective to you if you can learn to invoke multipleforces simultaneously. We saw this earlier with the elemental model whereyou invoke two elements with one more dominant with the other, and dualinvocation is not so great a step from this. In this way, you can have thebenefit of the power of an element, the courage (or other attribute) of agod, the approach of a planet, and the sheer power of a raw force availableto you simultaneously. It also allows you to temper an invocation in a certaindirection. Invoking Water and Mars, for example, will yield a much less violentbut equally aggressive force as invoking Fire and Mars. Experiment to findthe best combinations for yourself.
BANISHING
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Banishing is so basic to magickal practice that not much need be said ofit. Its use in occult swordplay is the same as it is in magick: to cast awayunwanted influences in your environment. In occult swordplay, its most prominentuse is as an active defense against malicious entities sent your direction.It can also be used to dissolve other magickal attacks whose aim is to penetrateyour magickal defenses in order to affect you.
Because very few occult swordsmen possess the skill to utilize such attacksat a skill level that will threaten your normal defenses, banishing is oftenjust a supplementary skill that you will rarely need to use in combat. Itsmain use often comes in after the fight has been finished: if there wereany magickal attacks that were triggered during combat, they may still bewaiting for an opening, and when you relax your magickal defenses after thefight they often find the opening they needed. Just as with most magickalpractices, it’s often a wise idea to habitually execute a simple banishingafter a fight.
In order to utilize banishing during actual combat, you must learn to adaptit to combat situations as you have other magickal skills. Any good magicianshould have progressed far enough and be familiar enough with the feel ofa banishing to be able to discard the ritual trappings of and simply willit to happen with a thought or a breath. If you haven’t progressed that farin your magick, now is the time to learn how. Chances are you won’t needto banish during combat often, but when you do need it, you’ll be very gladthat you took the time to practice.
MAGIC SWORD +1
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His body tiring, having made no successful attacks, and small cuts on hisarms and legs where the master had struck him, Michael turned to the rawforce he called the Primal Chaos and his master called the Lifeforce, itsenergy spilling into him. His sword began to sing, dedicated to the PrimalChaos from the day he had stood over the forge with hammer and anvil, breathinglife into its steely being. “Slake your thirst upon the force of Chaos,”he whispered to it, and the sword aided his invocation, making it easierto draw in that force and let it flow through him and into the hungry sword.To his magickally attuned eyes, the runes he had etched into the blade glowedred—blood red, the same scarlet brilliance with which he had empoweredthem. The red glow spread to consume the blade, lanced through with the blacksand whites and greys of the primal chaos. The master, skilled against therelative fumblings of his student, suddenly found himself retreating beforethe onslaught of the sword as it took over, its aura spreading through Michael’sbody, filling him with newfound strength, controlling his strikes and parrieswith almost inhuman skill.
From the vorpal sword that dispatched the Jaberwock with a snicker snak tothe legendary powers of the other-worldly Excalibur, our myths and legendsare filled with stories about magic swords and their wondrous abilities.So much so has the concept of a magic sword enamored us that it penetratesour entire fantasy genre from books to games to movies to children’s actionfigures. These swords make their wielders larger than life, able to fightagainst incredible odds, the sword granting them powers beyond human reckoning.
Such stories are often dismissed as pure fancy, but behind them lies a certainamount of truth. Most aspiring occult swordsmen will be able to cast minormagicks upon their swords to aid them in combat, but rare is the magicianwho can empower a sword to possess its wielder or to drain its foe of hislifeforce. Magick swords are powerful because they grant powers normallyreserved for the most skilled and dedicated magician to anyone who can pickup a sword and swing it around, much as a powerful talisman can cause magickaleffects for those who wear them, even if they do not understand or have thecapacity to create that talisman themselves. A magic sword is little morethat an elaborately constructed and meticulously enchanted talisman of combat.
Some of these techniques are more difficult to create than others, and allof them possess an upper limit defined only by the ability of the magicianenchanting the blade. Creating a magick sword often requires copious amountsof patience, skill, and luck. Not all magicians will be able to create apowerful magickal artifact like Excalibur, but even the lowliest magicianwill find that he is able to enhance a weapon to no small benefit.
As with any new magickal skill you aim to add to your repertoire, you willget better at it with the more practice you have. Because swords can beexpensive, the aspiring enchanter of swords can practice with shinai or bokken.While they are not quite as enamoring to work with, they do have the benefitof being both readily available, and relatively cheap.
The powers and possibilities of enchanted swords truly push the limits ofwhat most people accept as achievable through magick, which means that whilesome of the topics can be discussed in detail, their possible limits andapplications far exceed what most people would expect. Keep an open mind,and dedicate much thought to those aspects of magick swords that you believeto be impossible. You may surprise yourself.
PERMANENT ENCHANTMENTS
This is one of the simplest techniques that a magician can use to createa magick sword, and yields the widest variety of results, depending on thegoal of the magician. Essentially, a permanent enchantment is nothing morethan empowering the sword as you would a talisman or a magickal tool foruse in a specific task. Enchantments can be combined, adding them to thesword as time goes on. Old enchantments can be renewed, granting them morestrength over time. Anything that can be done to a talisman can also be doneto a sword. Your own magickal training and your own experiences in creatingtalismans or other magickal objects will determine your tastes, preferences,and limits in this arena.
AWAKENED BLADES
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Perhaps the most common stories of magic swords are those of a blade thatpossesses an intelligence and cognizance of its own. Like a spirit boundto a talisman, the magician can create an intelligence bound to his blade.This intelligence can be a created spirit, a spirit that the magician capturesand binds to the sword, or in a more animistic vein the magician can simplytalk to his sword, imbuing it with the power to become intelligent, and “awaken”it that way. Regardless of the method chosen, an awakened blade has manybenefits over a mundane sword.
It’s hard to say exactly what any specific awakened blade will do. As youawaken it or create it, you have full control over how smart it will be,how it will communicate, what skills it has, and how it will influence itswielder. An awakened blade will have an aura like any magickally chargedobject, and the contact the magician has with the aura, especially duringcombat as the two auras mingle, allows the sword to influence the magicianas much as the magician influences the sword. It’s a two-way street.
Until you have worked with several awakened blades, it is hard to describejust what benefits the sword will give you. The wielder of an awakened bladetypically seems to move faster and with greater skill than he does with aregular sword. An awakened blade can also learn, and also seems to be ableto impart some of its “knowledge” of fighting to the person who uses it overtime. Perhaps most significantly, the most advanced awakened blades act asa powerful spirit bound to the sword, capable of carrying out very complicatedmagickal tasks at your command, or acting as a guardian spirit that warnsyou of danger.
Your own views about spirits, aethyric intelligences, enchanted objects,and your personal view of what an awakened blade “should” or “shouldn’t”be will all shape how you create and interact with one. The only way to trulylearn the benefits of awakened blades is to create one—and after you do,you will probably never want to use a regular sword again.
Be warned here—if you practice solely with an enchanted blade (awakenedor not) you may begin to rely too much on it, and in that critical combatsituation when you lose your sword and must take up another blade that isn’tenchanted, you’ll be in real trouble. By all means, practice with enchantedblades, but don’t make a habit of it. Reserve them for those situations whereyou truly need them.
Always practice creating enchanted blades with your bokken or shinai. Theyare relatively cheap and just as easy to awaken as a steel blade, allowingyou to practice at different techniques and ideas to see what does and doesn’twork before you attempt to awaken a blade you value. While the process ofawakening a blade can be reversed, it is neither easy nor fun. Sentientcreatures, physical or aethyric, will put up an incredible fight when theirlife is threatened—that peaceful little bunny rabbit you thought wouldbe so easy to put down suddenly reveals that it, too, has a mean bite andrather nasty claws.
POWER SYMBOLS
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What each magician considers to be a “power symbol” will vary from personto person. They can be all-encompassing symbols such as the pentagram orvery specific symbols such as the planetary glyphs. Magickal alphabets areanother great source of power symbols, as are sigils of various sorts. Justas a magician would oftentimes use power symbols on a talisman that he hascreated, so too can he use them to impart desired forces to his sword.
Historically, it was not uncommon for Vikings to have the entirety of therunic alphabet engraved upon their blade, their belief being that a swordthus marked was imbued with the powers of every rune, the totality of whichrepresented every force in the universe.
Marking a shinai is as simple as sanding off the slight varnish, markingthe bamboo with a felt-tip marker, and then pouring some varnish on a cottonrag and wiping this over the sanded area once the symbol has dried. Topermanently mark a sword will require that you etch the metal with acid;anyone so inclined would be well advised to read up on metal arts beforehand,or to seek the advice of someone knowledgeable in such skills.
What symbols you choose (if you choose any at all) and how you utilize themare personal choices that will reflect your individual magickal path. Howthey work and what they do is left as a choice to the skilled magician whoenchants the blade.
BLOOD MAGICK
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That swords are tied to blood should be no surprise. This makes them a wonderfulitem to use if you are fond of blood magick. How you choose to combine bloodmagick with your swordplay or enchantments is, once again, only a choicethat you can make.
It is not uncommon to blood a newly forged blade (indeed, some stories tellof powerful swords made by their final quenching being made not in water,but by running them through the chest of a hapless slave.) It is also commonto blood a freshly enchanted blade, running the blood over the blade itself,or over any new engravings or features.
Some blades supposedly react to contact with their enemies’ blood, drawingpower from it to transfer to their wielder (see the next section on VampiricBlades).
While you can draw blood to enchant shinai or other blunt practice instrumentsor weapons, it is probably best when enchanting a real sword to use the edgeof that blade itself.
Let your mind be the limit. There is much in the concept of blood magickto explore and apply.
VAMPIRIC BLADES
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A sword can also be enchanted so that it acts in a vampiric manner to drawoff energy from its victim. With the completion of a successful attack, theblade, either through the use of its intelligence (if it has been awakened)or through the use of permanent enchantments, can be made to use that woundas a magickal link from which it draws power. Another type of vampiricenchantment simply relies on contact with the aura of the victim (often usingthe aura of the enemy blade as a contact point) to draw off energy, muchas do human psychic vampires.
What the sword then does with the energy leaves much choice. The energy canbe used to empower other magickal effects, to fuel power symbols or permanentenchantments, and can even be used to give power to the wielder—thoughunless the wielder knows how to process the incoming energy, it can causedisorientation, nausea, and other sundry symptoms that will probably costyou the fight, and may continue to haunt you for some time to come. Repairingsuch damage to yourself is often harder than repairing the damage you’vejust caused to the victim.
While the morals of this technique are debatable, it is definitely unwiseto use this for extended periods of time on friends and sparring partnersthat you value, as like any other form of psychic vampirism it can causepermanent or lengthy damage that manifests as depression, apathy, lack ofwill, and a loss of strength.
Unless you have extended experience with the skills of psychic vampirism,or are blessed to be the student of a teacher who can guide you through thoseskills, it is best to leave psychic vampirism and vampiric blades alone.There is a reason that the legends and myths of such swords are usually tragicstories. A vampiric blade imbued with an exceptional intelligence and denied”food” for some amount of time can become as dangerous to their wielder asto their foe. Be careful.
LIVING STEEL
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Perhapsthe most effective way of creating a magickal sword is to forge it yourself.This is a very lengthy and complicated affair that will require that youhave access to the proper equipment.
Modern technology gives us the ability to take a piece of steel bar andessentially carve out the shape we want, allowing much more flexibility onthe part of the swordsmith—these methods are faster, more accurate, and(most important to the budding occult swordsmith) easier to learn. However…
It has been my experience that swords forged in the old style have an infiniteadvantage over modern blades in many areas including strength, flexibility,reliability, and even in their inherent magickal power. There may be a biologicalreason for this, in that while steel is normally possesses a microscopiccrystalline structure, the act of pounding on it with the hammer and anvilduring forging realigns these smaller crystals into larger crystals. Thisprocess of realigning the crystals makes the steel stronger and harder, becausethe borders between the crystals that act as weak points are lessened asthe crystals get larger. Blades that have been forged properly begin to approachthe level of being a single crystal of steel, and anyone who has ever heldsuch a blade can tell you that there is something special about them. Eventhose who are not gifted at magick can feel a sort of power humming throughsuch a blade. The metal of such a blade is called “living steel”. Many havetheorized that the feeling of power they engender is caused by the humanbiolelectrical system interacting with the single crystal of steel.
I know of only one forge in the world that produces swords of living steel,and the price tag often exceeds that of a small economy car. They are verylabor intensive to make, requiring about a month over the forge. The onlyfeasible way that most occult swordsmen will ever possess one is to makeit themselves. But before you go to that much trouble, take full advantageof modern methods to practice. You’ll learn a lot about what magicks youcan work into a blade as you shape it from raw steel.
Advice for those who would make a living steel sword: Sulfur in the fuelof your forge, in any amount, is your worst enemy, with even the most microscopicamounts rapidly contributing to the brittleness of your steel; if you canafford to use pharmaceutical grade charcoal, this will guarantee you thebest result. When heating the metal, use the carbon-rich portion of the flame;over the entire process of forging, this will ensure a soft and flexiblesteel at the center (so that the sword will not break) and a hard carbonsteel on the outside, which ensures a true edge. There are many other benefitsto hand-forged swords, but these two alone are enough to make it worth theeffort for the serious swordsman.
HAPPINESS IS TWIN ENCHANTED BLADES
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Another common concept of magick swords are those of twin blades, of twoswords somehow bound to each other. Whether this is because of theirsimilarities, or because they are diametrically opposed to each other, orsimply because the enchanting magician saw fit to work on two blades at oncedoesn’t matter. You can find many uses both in your enchantments as wellas in actual combat for twin swords.
I have found it quite useful to keep a pair of training shinai on hand forthe purposes of teaching basic swordplay to new students. One of the swordsimparts to its user the ability to observe, comprehend, and integrate thedefensive techniques he is taught, and its twin for the offensive techniques.If the student needs more work with his defense, I have him practice withthe proper sword; if he begins to excel in it and needs more work on hisoffense, I switch his sword. The student almost never realizes the bladeis enchanted, and seems to learn faster than with an identical shinai thathas not been enchanted.
Another advantage to twin blades is that by separating dualistic principles,one can build up a charge, so to speak, between the two blades. This is wherethe “good sword, evil sword” stories come into play. If I’m trying to makea “good” sword, you will only be able to go so far as your limits and skillsallow you—but many magicians find that by creating a diametrically opposedblade (in this example, and “evil” sword), they can push those limits, creatinga sword that is more “good” than they could have otherwise created. Of course,one need not limit himself to good and evil; any binary force can be used,such as the defensive/offensive training shinai that I use. Paired swordsare often stronger than counterparts made individually.
Another interesting technique I have experimented with is a Jacob’s Laddereffect when fighting with two swords. A real Jacob’s Ladder is an electricaldevice consisting of two metal rods across which an electrical current willarc, traveling upward until it ends at the top and a new one forms at thebottom. If you’ve watched any old mad scientist movies, you’ve seen thembefore. The same effect can be achieved when fighting with two swords, usingthem as rods between which you project an arc of energy. The usefulness ofthis particular technique depends greatly upon your skill in magick. Theapplications of it are best left to the imagination of the individual magician.
POSSESSION IS A TWO-WAY STREET
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Perhaps the last thing that should be mentioned are blades that possess theirowners. In your own practice, you will probably witness it to at least asmall and benign degree with awakened swords that impart abilities to theirwielders. It is not too great a step further for the skilled magician tobind an intelligence to a blade whose purpose is to possess the owner, muchas a magician might conjure up a spirit and send it to possess his foe.
It has been my experience that most people, on the topic of possession, arequick to judge it as bad, evil, or destructive, yet I have found possessionto be a two-way street. Just as you can imagine a possessing sword causingits wielder to enter a blood rage where he attacks everything in sight, sotoo can a sword possess its wielder and create a chivalrous paladin out ofhim. An infinite array of factors enter into the act of sword-possession,not the least of which include the skill and power of the magician who enchantedthe blade, the intelligence of the blade, the personality of the blade, thecharacter and willpower of the wielder, and the situation in which the swordis employed. Often these factors mean that the possession is only partial;it is very rare for anyone to become completely possessed by a blade.
The wise magician will realize the benefits that possession by a sword canoffer. The cunning magician will disguise possession in such a subtle waythat neither friend nor foe will suspect the sword responsible for certainactions.
Those magicians who can make reliable blades of this sort are rare indeed.Such swords are inevitably the greatest find in the occult swordsman’scareer—or his worst curse.
Occult Swordplay Lessons: Intro, A, B, C,D, E, F,G, H, J,K, L, M,N, O, P,Q, R, S,T, U
INTRODUCTION
Questions
Send answers with subject line: Occult Swordplay Intro from ________ your Templar name.
1. T/F Techniques can be taught and the principles shown, but ultimatelyyou must make it a part of yourself as a personal expression of art.
2. T/F Book knowledge substitutes very well against true practice.
3. Fill in the blanks: The techniques of occult _________ arewonderful practice while learning both arts, but cannot be ___________ untilyou have achieved reasonable levels of skill in each art ________________.
4. What cliché does the author say, that the topic of occultswordplay given rise to?
5. EXERCISE: Try this simple exercise. Read the first paragraghof the introduction, the authors visionary scene. Imagine yourself in thescenario, by replacing Michael with yourself and your weapon(s) of choice.Write a brief summary of your experience.
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A. ENJOINING THE BATTLE
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part A from ____________ .
1. The author states that fiction of occult swordplay is as far removedfrom reality as fictional magick is from the true occult tradition. Do youagree or disagree with this statement, and explain your answer. (No realright or wrong answer here)
2. Do some research (library, internet, etc.) name atleast three”intelligent Swords” that help(ed) their owner wield great power.
3. Fill in the blanks: With a little bit of common sense, respect forthe ______ , and a touch of ________, all of the ______ can be avoided.
4. Do some research: Name a Templar order of Rule that speaks of respect.
5. T/F: As Templars we arm ourselves spiritually before goinginto battle.
6. T/F: Some people want an honest fight of physical skill againstphysical skill.
7. What is the primary purpose of occult swordplay?
8. Fill in the blanks: Speed of a _________ ___________ will not allow you the luxury of taking your time to create a _________effect, therefore you must speed up your magic to make it ____________ .
9. Fill in the blanks: The most useful way to _________ ___ these magickal effects is to learn to do them in a __________ _________ .
10. EXERCISE: In the 1st degree you practiced our Templar swordstances. At home try the occult swordplay breathing technique, firstthrough mediation, then add this to your real sword stances. After you havepracticed these excersies at home, write a short summary of your experience.And send to the Mystery Schoolwith your other answers.
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B. BASICS OF OCCULT SWORDPLAY
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part B from ____________ .
1. What was the goal of the master in the first attack against Michael?
2. EXERCISE: Do some research into the hermetic maxim.
3. T/F: The best occult swordsman have learned to “remain silent”,and keep their bags of tricks guarded.
4. T/F: Never keep your opponent guessing as to what your capable of.
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C. GROUND & CENTER
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part C from ____________
1. In the sword arts ground and center is seen as what?
2. Fill in the blanks: From this __________ __________, he/she is able to control fear, _______ , ______ , and all other emotionsthat might otherwise _______ his/her skill in battle.
3. T/F: Magicians or shamans also practice this technique of groundingand centering, bringing their minds to a calm position.
4. T/F: This type of art is known as meditation.
5. It is wise to ground and center before battle, but what about during battle? And how might one accomplish this during a battle?
6. EXERCISE: You have already practiced this breathing technique, now try another exercise at home. This time, place yourself in a room of distraction and use your breathing technique to center your mind on a peaceful thought or thoughts. (example: Go into a room, and put on a favorite or some really annoying music, then try your breathing technique.) Send in your results with this set of answers.
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D. THE ELEMENTS
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part D from ____________
1. Name the four elements to ceremonial magick occult swordplay.
2. Each of these elements represents a different style of combat. Explain each.
3. T/F: Most traditional sword-art schools teach “fire” techniques.
4. If you watch someone fighting you can easily classify the style of fighting they are using. How many forms does the author say can be used?
5. What is elementalism in occult swordplay?
6. EXERCISE: Try at least four elemental stances, first visualize through meditation then play them out physically with use of your sword. Send in your results.
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E. THE BLADE AS BODILY EXTENSION
Send answers with subject line: Occult Swordplay Part E from ____________
1. Complete the sentence: “You may notice something odd when a person bears a sword in their hands that they intend to use—“
2. T/F: A person bearing their own blade is not always as pronounced as one who does not bear their own blade.
3. Fill in the blanks: For with the ______ of the blade involved,the combat may take place not only on the _________ level but on an _________one as well.
4. What is the contact point used to initiate magikal techniques?
5. Explain how the blade/sword becomes an extension of your body through energy.
6. Name at least three other tools that a shaman, mystic, or knight might use to demonstrate the use of bodily extension in the occult mysteries.
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F. IMPRESSING & REMOVING A STRIKE
Send answers with subject line: Occult Swordplay Part F from ____________
1. What will a successful strike transfer thru the sword to the wound?
2. How does the magician amplify this effect into his/her opponent?
3. What is the simplest and most effective methods of both impressingand removing a strike?
4. T/F: Using the energetic bodywork techniques can cut downon your healing time.
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G. PAIN CONTROL
Send answers with subject line: Occult Swordplay Part G from ____________
1. Fill in the blanks: This technique is not so much an actual ________skill as it is a trained __________ one.
2. T/F: Pain is avoidable in swordplay if properly mastered.
3. Pain comes in two types: Name them.
4. Which pain is the true enemy of the swordsman? Answer: the dullpain
5. Which reaction to pain is correct for the swordsman?
a). Clutching the wounded area and screaming in pain.
b). Run around screaming in rage “you struck me”.
c). Think to yourself “okay, I may be hurt, but this isn’t over by a long shot.”
6. T/F: Once you develop the correct reaction to pain you willbe harder to defeat.
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H. GROUNDING THE OPPONET’S SWORD
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part H. from ____________
1. T/F: Ground the opponent’s sword is one of those tricks thatis so subtle that most people don’t realize that it’s being used and so effectivethat it can be a deciding factor in the outcome of battle.
2. How does one draw energy from an opponent’s sword?
3. What happens when a person continuously sends energy through theirsword?
4. What is psychic vampirism?
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J. PROJECTING INTO THE OPPONENT’S SWORD
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part J from ____________
*Note there is no part “I” because it looks too much like a “1”
1. Name three things you can do by projecting your own energy into youropponent’s sword.
2. Now explain how these three things affect your opponent.
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K. MAGIKAL SHIELDING
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part K from ____________
1. T/F: The master of traditional swordplay will exhibit magickal effects without consciously thinking of them.
2. How does one choose to shield themselves?
3. Name at least one shielding rite used by our Mystery School.
4. Multiple choice: What are the goals for our magickal defense?
a. To protect our physical bodies.
b. To protect our physical and spiritual bodies
c. To protect out mental state for the sole aimof confusing our opponent.
d. All of the above.
5. T/F: The spiritual level is the farthest to standard magickalshielding.
6. Explain what a typical western culture person defines as their shieldor “border”.
7. Fill in blanks: You may wish to erect a separate ___________ _________ around your mind alone, whose sole purpose is to defend against things that would otherwise __________ , dull, or slow your sensesand thus your ____________ ________ .
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L. MOVING INVOCATIONS
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part L from ____________
1. T/F: The ability to invoke the force of your choice while sword fighting is one of the most useful, effective and devasting to utilize.
2. T/F: by using invocation, the occult swordsman is able to supplement his/her skill and powers where they are lacking.
3. Do some research: List at least three known historical figures who practiced the use of invocation, and list your sources for reference. Answer: Answers here will vary.
4. List three sources of power used to fuel magickal effects.
5. What other sources of power can be invoked?
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M. BANISHING
Send answers with subject line: Occult Swordplay Part M from ____________
1. What is banishing?
2. How is banishing used in occult swordplay?
3. T/F: Banishing is a supplementary skill that you will needto perfect as it is always needed and used.
4. T/F: It is only necessary to perform a banishing ritual beforea battle.
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N. MAGIC SWORD & PERMANENT ENCHANTMENTS
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part N from ____________
1. Fill in the blanks: Magick _________ are powerful becausethey grant ________ normally reserved for the most skilled and dedicated magician to anyone who can _______ ____ a sword and _______ it around.
2. T/F: A Magic sword is little more than an elaborately constructed talisman.
3. Do some more research: (internet, library, etc.) Find at least one ritual used to empower a sword.
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O. AWAKENED BLADES
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part O from ____________
1. What sort of intelligence can a magician create to be bound to his/herblade?
2. T/F: An awakened blade will have an aura like any magickally charged object, mixed with the magicians aura.
3. What are the benefits of using an awakened blade?
4. `T/F: The only way to truly learn the benefits of an awakened blade is to create one.
5. Fill in the blanks: if you practice _______ with an enchanted blade you may begin to ______ too much on it.
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P. POWER SYMBOLS
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part P from ____________
1. Describe what a power symbol is.
2. Do some research to find a sword that is powered by magickal symbols.
3. Exercise: Choose your own power symbols to empower your own sword,and explain why you chose them. Describe in detail when you report to theSchool.
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Q. BLOOD MAGICK
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part Q from ____________
1. T/F: Since swords are obviously tied with blood, you have no choice but to use blood magick.
2. T/F: Blades only react to contact of its own wielder’s blood.
3. Explain how you feel about using blood magick, are you for or against?
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R. VAMPIRIC BLADES
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part R from ____________
1. As learned earlier vampiric blades draw out power from its victim.Explain where the energy is or where it can be applied for use.
2. T/F: The wielder must understand how to harness and process vampiric energy or they may lose the battle or be haunted by the enemy’senergy.
3. Multiple choice: Like any other form of psychic vampirism it can cause permanent or lengthy damage such as –
a). Apathy
b). Loss of strength
c). Oppression
d). Only A & B
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S. LIVING STEEL
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part S from ____________
1. What is the most effective way to create a magickal sword?
2. Why are handmade blades called “living steel”?
3. Do some research: What is the name of the forge that still produces”living steel”?
4. What two benefits does the author believe are the best used whenforging you own sword?
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T. HAPPINESS IS TWIN ENCHANTED BLADES
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part T from ____________
1. What two advantages does one have for using twin blades?
2. What is a “good sword and an evil sword”?
3. Explain the Jacob’s Ladder effect.
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U. POSSESSION IS A TWO-WAY STREET
Send answers with subject line:OccultSwordplay Part T from ____________
1. T/F: Blades cannot posses their owners.
2. Fill in the Blanks: A __________ sword causing its wielderto enter a blood ________ where he attacks everything in sight, so too can a sword possess its wielder and create a chivalrous ________ out of him.
3. Name the factors that enter into the act of sword possession.
4. Fill in the blanks: Such swords are inevitably the __________ ________ in the occult swordsman’s career—or his _______ ______ .