THE WAY OF THE SWORD
A way of moving through the world with grace and function
A way of living superbly is uncomplicated by worry and unruffled by fear. Training in a martial art is a way of living that opens us to awareness. Learning to respect differences and to heed the lore of ancestors is part of that way. When the wisdom of our elders and ancient parents has been killed off, by invasion and dogma, ideology and the ravage of centuries, we must ask those whose pearls are still strung. Ask them to teach what we have lost. We are a species amongst countless others, in the company of all that is earth, every standing stone we pass, navigating an oral imramma, guiding us home, every breath we take and give, every river, lake, rainstorm, wolf trail, seed opening and star pattern from whom we learn: the hunt and our place in a kaleidoscopic living world. To plant, clean, pay attention, dance for and sing to owls and fresh-turned soil. To be healthy so that we are rich food for cousin critters when our aliveness changes.
And, for an iaidoka, one of the ways is also learning to protect against that which threatens.
The way of the sword is this one way of knowing. It is that of the warrior who guards their village from those who would harm; would take by force. Life is mutual. Reciprocal. When our existence becomes one-sided and greedy, helpless and lacking sensuality and wisdom, existence becomes ‘Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance‘. That is happening. What do we do but become empty and calm? To replace the fruit by guarding her seed within the secret deep?
Yasei-no-shika means wild deer.
Many of us are Celts. Saxons, Norse, Hebridean. Brehon, druid, bard, reindeer herders, storytellers, mountain climbers, cave descenders, peat cutters, or those who run with wolves. Our crafts, holistically, our languages, our cultures and our connection with earth, sky and water, and kindred species, has been severed by inntrenger. We learn where, and from whom, we can, while seeking our own heritage in order to give back… as forests grow back from the point of extinction… us.
This site is dedicated to Liath Luachra, of the Fennian Cycle, and her sister, the druid named Bodhmall.