Since you mentioned in the PM that you will be starting Taekwondo soon and your Taekwondo school is part of the World Taekwondo Federation I will say that as your learn your Taeguek poomse you can easily use them for generating energy for magick. In TKD for those who do not know we have 8 Taeguek forms and 8 Palgwe forms that are taught at different belt levels. (Not all WTF schools the Palgwe forms as the are not recognized by the Kukkiwan as part of what is nessessary for 1st degree black belt and up testing.
Taeguek/Palgwe
Il Jang represents Heaven
EE Jang represents Joy
Sam Jang represents Fire
Sa Jang representes Thunder
O Jang represents Water
Yuk Jang represents Air
Chil Jang representes Mountain
Pal Jang represents Earth
At the TKD school I train at we use both Taeguek and Palgwe poomse or forms/katas. I mix my TKD poomse as ways of generating elemental energy as well as casting the circle and for "dancing" as used in Dragon Magick by DJ Conway.
A quick story. I went up to my wifes branch for a class and on the way to class it started raining and was indeed setting up for a strong storm. By the time we made it to class we noticed that we were 2 of 7 total people who braved the storm to go to class. The instructor decided that we would have a light informal practice session more then a "offical" class. We started working through our poomse and by the time we got to sa jang I spoke up by saying it may be wise to skip this one since it represented Thunder IE stroms. The instructor did not take my warning and as soon as we finished Taeguek Sa Jang the gym made a annoncement over the speaker system that said everyone in the building had to hit the locker rooms because the storm was picking up and we had tornado warnings. The instructor looked over at me and all I could do was smile and say "I tried to warn you". When we got out of the locker rooms I was told that next time I had a warning make sure I share it as soon as possible.
So in short you can use your poomse to build up energy when you are weak as you learn them, and you can use the energy of the forms for "magick" such as spells, rituals and even healing.
As for as the rest of your post I personally see a controdiction between the christian church and the practice of magick. In the New Testament Jesus, Paul and John all spoke against the practice of magick or witchcraft as it is of evil energy, however that is something you will need to deal with. I personally do not put much stock in christian mythology, but I do not understand how there are group of people who claim to be christian as well as practice magick and again thankfully since I do not follow that line of mythology I do not need to worry about it.
I practice Qi Gong, which isn't really a martial art (no defense moves or butt-kicking); it's more like Tai Chi, a meditative practice. I've always wanted to practice a martial art as I feel that it teaches discipline over not just the body but the mind. These sort of practices help us to control our energies and use them to accomplish tasks, which I believe can be seen as a type of magick.
I don't think you're onto anything new. Many of the cultures from which these martial arts originate are full of mysticism and magick and the use of the body/spirit combined. But it was very nice of you to bring this to our attention, and I hope more people consider learning a martial art. I may join kendo soon, though I'd like to learn a martial art that doesn't involve a weapon. I'll have to see what my school offers.
Thankyou very much TKDDragon for the insight of the Taekwondo Poomse and the story.
"As for as the rest of your post I personally see a controdiction between the christian church and the practice of magick. In the New Testament Jesus, Paul and John all spoke against the practice of magick or witchcraft as it is of evil energy, however that is something you will need to deal with."
Personally I think most Christians practice magick without realizing it. All (or at least most) christians pray because it's a part of their religion. But many times prayer is a method that christians attempt to please their God or seek favors from God. I.e. they might promise something in exchange for getting something they desire (which can also be viewed as a form of magick). I am not really a christian in the sense that I don't believe the same things most christians believe in. My church (which can be viewed as having used magick all the time if you really look at it) is kind of an off-shoot of christianity but I still say I'm christian because it's easier.
Internal martial arts were not intended to just be a form of meditation and exercise like how it is practiced today. The internal training was a method of developing power (through chi development and body mechanics). But not very many people practice Tai Chi like that anymore today. One thing you have to do when practicing forms is look deeper than the initial application. It was once said that in traditional forms/kata/poomse oftentimes a movement would have infinite applications. I don't think this is always true but the idea is that for a movement that may just look like a twirling of the arms and movement of the base could actually be used for a throw, a disarm, or a choke .etc. The imagination is the only limit.
I found the representations of the poomse very fascinating and I'll definetly try to develop myself when I learn them.
Ok let me see if I have this right the chi is that personal energy that is found within oneself and if trained in the proper use of this energy, one should be able to direct this energy to harm or heal. This is the same energy that wiccans bring up for the use of spell casting or christians use to help heal people. If that is the case then calling on the quarters or casting a circle for the preparation of casting a spell is useless.
It would be like a martial artist in a tournament fight getting ready to throw a punch or a kick and using the chi behind it but then all of a sudden he says wait a minute I have to draw a circle and call the quarters before I can use my chi. If he or she did that they would have their butts handed to them. The martial artist needs to access this energy instantly so don't you think the same thing should be-able to be applied when it comes to casting spells and such in the craft without having to cast a circle, call the quarters, lighting candles an such?
From what I've heard you do not necessarily need to cast a circle for every spell. I suppose different people use it for different things but I've heard of people using the circle as a purifying circle when casting powerful spells. The candles and calling on the quarters are supposed to help the spells in strength but you don't need to do it unless it's in the spell instructions. Personally all of the wiccan spells I've cast were pretty low-level and I've never needed to use a circle and I've only had to rely on the moon phase for one of them.
You need to look a bit more into magickal practices and so forth.
In rituals wiccans and other magick sects caste a circle and call the quarters and so forth, however full rituals are normally only done at the sabbats and perhaps moon esbats. On extremely important magick weaving issues and when doing things such as wiccining, hand fasting and so forth this would be optional.
It is also worth knowing that martial artist do not draw up chi as fast as you seen in the mortal kombat games.
Tai chi and Tai Chi Chun are actually funny. Normally these are both used together by common people, however they are certainly not the same. Tai Chi is the energy healing system that takes after Qigong its grand father, but Tai Chi Chun is a martial art system.
As it pertains to "chirtian healing" that is a bit of a controdiction in terms. In Reiki and other energy healing systems healers draw upon energy for healing themselves/others however the christians need to pray to their universal life source but unlike wiccan healing systems they are not as specific which is why their "prayers" are not answered they way they would like. That however is still a longer conversation.
I find this interesting as well because I have never had to use a circle or any other thing to cast spells I have just drawn the energy from myself for the casting and then replenished it from the earth, or the universal energy, so I have never gotten tired after casting a spell or drained as some people have explained to me that happens to them when casting spells. That was the main reason why I asked that the way I did.
I do Shaolin kungfu and am Chinese. For me, magic is chi/chakra/qi/ki. I think that all magic is the same, and all the different theories are different methods to achieve different results. A lot of Eastern magic, for example, is infused with an object/person, or used to attract other forms of energy like spirits. I'm not really religious so I wouldn't be able to say much about deities. I know eastern magic is generally more of healing with chi, body enhancement, infusing herbs with healing power, communing with spirits, excorcism, etc. Western magic, on the other hand, generally relies on channeling magic from deities or controlling the elements. I feel like western magic is a lot more physical than eastern??? Maybe just me. It's interesting how people can heal themselves with qi though. I would like to follow the path of a qi manipulator in magic, though I'm just starting out. What are some things you do in you martial arts that improve your magic, or vice versa? Also, if you have a shifu, do they know that you also practice magic? I know a lot of Eastern martial arts have some form of qi intertwined with the art.
