Web of Wyrd May 2003

Letter from Germany

"Germania est omnis divisa in partes tres" - to rape Julius Caesars'

famous "Gallic War" a bit - is the best description for the state of STAV in Germany, perhaps Germany itself.

First, there are the old federal states of Western Germany, where Hamburg as a city-state is one of. Second, there is the southern part of Germany, Bavaria especially, part of Western Germany somehow, where Kaiserslautern is situated. Third, there are the new federal states, where Schwerin is part of, for example. Somehow the peaceful version of Northern Ireland, Scotland and the UK to give an very bad comparison. History showed though that the Germans only then were successful, -when they had a strong warriorlord and only then, in war. The rest of the time, people are doing their own stuff and don't seem to be interested in their neighbours fate or presence, also in times of the internet- one reason perhaps why the railwayprices are this ridiculous here. The first STAV Seminar was held in Berlin, the capitol of cold war, spies and Checkpoint Charley, about two years ago. Due to the human assembling, no one despite me really was interested in proceeding with STAV here.

So I took the challenge and asked a few friends of mine in Hamburg, where I live- all more interested in magick than in martial arts (I was the only one with a martial background)- and instantly, there was a hard core of about 5 people interested in STAV - all couch potatoes to be formed through fire and steel, or at least the staff, which happened :)

First half year, including winter time, we trained in parks, at windy, rainy or snowy weather under bushes and trees. The obvious gaps in knowledge could be filled quite good with my Bojitsu - stuff and especially the Hanbo no kata from Ninjitsu.

For we're all students it was quite hard organizing the first seminars and without the benignantly help of Graham it wouldn't have take place at all. So, from recent spring onwards, we organized every three months a Seminar with Graham, thus increasing our knowledge and insights more and more, until our last event, Ivar in Hamburg, the momentary peak of our development in Germany. I received the green tab, the others from Hamburg and Wolfgang from Schwerin the black tab. Interesting to see how the hard core slowly but surely disappeared and new people replaced them. As my recent sensei Brian Mc Carthy once said: "It's a martial art - it destroys friendships and it builds up new!" This is what happened all through Germany. The strongest group developed in Schwerin, where under the due guidance of Wolfgang about 10 people are training on a regular basis. I go over there every month to teach them, for they grew in only one year to their working size they do have now. They train twice a week, as we do in Hamburg. Somehow they remained stronger and seem to be more enthusiastic. It's because of the different attitude still present in the new federal states- if they do something, they really do so. Further, the infrastructure there is this weak, that they're grateful for every opportunity they do have there. Lüneburg group disappeared into nothing. In the old federal states, there's too much - decadence, perhaps. So every martial art and every art itself is on a very insecure ground. Only the real "brethren" and "believers" remain, but those "adepts" are working on an extremeprofessional level.

The rest is happy with the women's magazine horoscope stuff- who ever read "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" from Richard Bach knows what I mean- the old struggle consume versus loftiness; a struggle on the cost of quality. A very good example is STAV in Düsseldorf. It never came to the foundation of a serious working STAV group there, but there is now an immense exchange with Wing Chun, Systema (Russian Martial Art), Kenpo ans Escrima guys. An exchange this strong that I founded with the Kenpo and Systema guys a branch of management consulting connection Martial Arts, my Psychology knowledge (which I am studying) and their management capabilities (many managers or consultants there)- the first seminars are to come and seem to be prosper. The Wing Chun guys were this much impressed that they did organize a seminar with me after Graham was there. They took very much for their own training and know all of the basics. So if someone is interested in STAV, he can go there to be taught the basics and immediately start working. Last but not least we do have Bavaria and southern Germany. It's catholic and on the mountainside, close to Italy, a good place to live... Kaiserslautern is there and, no wonder, Ramstein, the greatest military base of the US Americans in Europe. Martin is doing his very own runeteaching and learned the basics for STAV application. Especially the mystical side and the magickal application. Björn trains the martial aspects of it, but it remains- as everything there - "mystical" but very nice and friendly. we'll see how it develops- no idea.

At least one advantage in Germany- people know what I speak about when I say runes. De facto, there is a vast runic and pagan movement burst forth the recent decade. Formerly everything with runes was connected with the Nazis, but that's nothing to speak about anymore, Mr Gulberg. We just throw out those very few wanting to train STAV for racial reasons and that was it. Speaking about runes Axel from Hamburg developed on the structure of the STAV teaching his very own teachings- Mirkrunar, the dark side of the runes. Dealing with runic magic for almost twenty years, he really knows what to do. So people being educated in the "German Headquarters" are to be brainfucked from him and then beaten up by me... anyone to come and join? We're all nice fellows here :)

Take Care, Pete

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The Real Middle Earth by Brian Bates

The Real Middle Earth, by Brian Bates, Publisher Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-283-07353-5

This one caught my attention in a book shop while I was buying Christmas presents, partly because of its title and striking cover and partly because I read the same author's very good novel The Web of Wyrd, many years ago. It seemed like a good choice on which to spend some of my Christmas book tokens.

Brian Bates is a professor at the University of Brighton. His speciality being deep imagination in tribal cultures and the performing arts. Apparently he also directs a research programme and teaches a course in Shamanic consciousness. Certainly there is no doubting the extent of Professor Bates research or his skills as a story teller. Both these come through clearly in the book and make it an enjoyable and, mainly, informative read. The problem with this work is that firstly, it smacks a little of being put together to cash in on the current fascination with the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and large parts of it work a little too hard to stress the 'real' basis of Tolkien's fiction. Tolkien's use of Anglo-Saxon and Norse sources is well known, but it still is a work of fiction written in the mid 20th century rather than a rediscovered mythology as Professor Bates often tries to suggest.

He also makes assumptions from his own projections onto dark ages ways of thinking rather than drawing on more practical ideas.

A good example of this is his suggestion that the Anglo-Saxons who took over from the Romans from the 6th century onwards didn't occupy the roman villas, and other buildings which were still standing at the time, because they might have believed that they were occupied by 'evil spirits'. In fact some Roman structures, such as the forts along Hadrian's Wall were occupied as homes until the 17th century. As one with practical experience in building maintenance I would suggest that the Anglo-Saxon immigrants who followed the Romans did not occupy the villas simply because they didn't have the technical skills and access to the appropriate materials to maintain them. So they built the kind of wooden houses their skills and tools, and the available raw materials, could cope with. If future generations find themselves deprived of electricity for any reason they won't be occupying our high-rise buildings, not because they believe them to be haunted, but simply because the lifts won't work.

Having said that Professor Bates does deal very well with ideas such as the concept of the web of life and its central part in Dark ages thought. Like many writers of this kind of book he laments the loss of any direct transmission of the traditions of our ancestors. This is a little frustrating to those of us who have been practising Stav for several years now, but it also shows up the importance of making the Stav tradition better known.

Graham Butcher

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Barbarians by Richard Rudgely

Barbarians by Richard Rudgely, Published by Channel 4 Books ISBN 0-7522-6198-3

This book broadly covers the same area as the one written by Professor Bates. It is also a study of the dark ages and attempts a re-assessment of the people who lived during that period and what they achieved. It was written as a companion to the Channel 4 TV series shown last year. I didn't actually see any of it but it was generally well reviewed.

In contrast to Professor Bates' work Richard actually went out and found the evidence that still exists and talked to the people most likely to know what the dark ages were really like. I was particularly interested in the very complex relationships between the Roman empire and the so-called barbarians. Although we now tend to have a picture in our minds of civilised, if sometimes cruel and decadent Italian roman soldiers taking on brave if primitive barbarians , as depicted in Asterix.

The reality was much more complex. For example the Ostrogoths under Theoderic took over Ravena at the end of the 5th century. They built in stone and were Arian Christians and managed to create a relatively harmonious and prosperous society. This lasted until the Eastern Emperor Justin began a persecution of the Arians. From then on Theoderic was branded in history as a 'barbarian', not because of what we would think of as a 'primitive' lifestyle, rather a simple religious conflict which his side happened to lose in the long run. This is the kind of depth of research and analysis which Richard gets down to throughout the book.

It is also filled with fascinating encounters with people who have convincingly recreated the past or carried on traditions. There is a memorable account of a meeting with a present day Horse Archer from Southern Hungary, another of a voyage on an Anglo-Saxon ship and much else. Richard does not impose his theories from an ivory tower, rather takes us with him on his journey to uncover the past.

Graham Butcher

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Bruce Lee, Fighting Spirit

Bruce Lee - Fighting Spirit by Bruce Thomas Published by Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-2830-7357-8

Some one just loaned me this one and despite the title I think it justified a mention here. I was 14 when Bruce Lee died, just about the time that I began to take a serious interest in Martial Arts. Until the beginning of the 70's there were Judo and some Karate clubs around and Asian fighting styles sometimes featured in films such as the Bond series and early Elvis vehicles. As I entered my teens Way of, and Enter the, Dragon films were released and the Kung Fu series (originally Bruce Lee's brainchild) was aired on British TV.

Suddenly Kung Fu was everywhere. Karate instructors who had been teaching quietly for years renamed their styles Kung Fu and trebled the number of students over night. It is hard for anyone under 40 to appreciate the cultural shift this brought about, but if you watch for example West Side Story, beautifully choreographed though it is, and compare it to any episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you get some idea ofhow completely our idea of fighting changed.

The influence of Bruce Lee has been both a boon and a liability for anyone trying to study and teach martial arts during the past 3 decades that I have been involved with this area. The boon is obvious in that Bruce Lee, more than anyone else made martial arts popular. The liability is that the films and TV representations of Martial Arts seem to put all the emphasis on the violence and athletic conditioning rather than on the disciplined self development which, those of us who have trained and studied seriously, have found to be the real purpose of martial training. Bruce Thomas' book seeks to redress the balance by showing Bruce Lee as a dedicated martial artist who developed his innovative style, which he named Jeet-Kune-Do from a solid foundation of classical training in Wing-Chun.

He was also an accomplished actor who had worked in the Hong Kong Film industry since the age of 6 and had made a useful contribution to improving the standard of fight choreography in Hollywood films though in association with actors such as James Coburn and script writer Stirling Silliphant. He was determined to breakinto films in order to combine his expertise in Martial arts and talent for acting. After years of struggle and disappointment this came together quite suddenly at the beginning of the 1970's with the success of the Dragon films.

Then Bruce Lee died, the book suggests this was as a result of a combination of over training, stress from overwork and a reaction to Cannabis which he was in the habit of eating baked into cookies.

The combination of the films and his dramatic death caused a huge interest which continues to this day. It also means that his teachings, which were very much work in progress, became fixed as an ideal approach to martial arts. The main problem with this was that a great many people picked up on Lee's statements about the limitations of being confined in the 'classical mess'. This lead to the widespread idea that all that matters is what works, rather than building on a classical foundation that one day may be transcended if the student progresses far enough.

Bruce Thomas' book is both an informative and well written biography and a valuable corrective to much of the nonsense and misunderstanding which has followed Bruce Lee's untimely death. Anyone wanting to discover how martial arts achieved their present popularity in the West and gain some understanding of the reality behind the hype about Bruce Lee would benefit from reading this book

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Porridge

Now, in a feature familiar to anyone who has ever been on a Stáv course over a week or a weekend, Graham gives some attention to Breakfast.

Sometimes it is asked if Stav expects its students to follow a special diet. There is no requirement to abstain from particular foods as the Mormons do from stimulants or the Jews from pork. However, certain patterns of eating are suggested as being beneficial to health. A major recommendation is that a substantial portion of staple food is eaten each day, preferably as a major component of the first meal of the day.

Different cultures have different staples, the South America it is Maize, in the orient often rice and in Northern Europe Oats. The staple food is very important to the well being of the body in that it provides the body with a consistent source of energy to maintain blood sugar levels. It will also provide bulk fibre to give the digestive tract something to work on and absorb toxins from the system.

As well as providing energy and bulk, Oats are a potent tonic for the heart and the blood. Research carried out at the University of Kentucky of Medicine by DrJames Anderson showed that eating Oats could reduce cholesterol levels by between 12 and 23 percent. I can also state from personal experience that eating oats has a very beneficial effect on my own health and well being. However, few people seem to know how to make porridge correctly so here is my recommended method.

Buy organic rolled oats if you can. It may cost a little more than the cheapest oats available but it makes a much more satisfying breakfast. If possible avoid aluminium pans and use a stainless steel or iron one. Mix one part oats with two and a half parts water with a small quantity of salt, about a quarter tea spoon. I find that half a cup of oats is about the right amount for one person. Bring to the boil and stir for three minutes. Then leave to stand for five to ten minutes. I find that the time it takes to do the stances between cooking and eating is about right. Eat with dried fruit or molasses, refined sugar should be avoided when possible.

To clean the pan just fill it with cold water for half an hour and the remains will just peel off.

Graham Butcher

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Why Stav?

Graham Butcher talks a little about the benefits he has seen through Stáv, and the way he approaches training.

It is now 12 years since I first met Ivar Hafskjold and began the study and practise of Stav. Why have I made it an integral part of my life since that time? As Julian Barnes said about writing, Most people don't do it and they don't seem to come to any particular harm. Likewise most people don't do Stav and probably never will. Those of us who practise Stav think they are missing something, but no doubt a football fanatic cannot understand how anyone's life could be complete without following a football team. Does the practice of Stav make you happier, more successful or more attractive? There are no guarantees that it will, if anything it is simply going to make you less concerned with these things as goals for their own sake. The same goes for ambitions to be more powerful, have more knowledge or healthier.

Stav is simply a route to awareness of how things really are, a way of seeing the web of life itself and discovering our place in that web. The term Orlog means primal law, the way of the universe, to which we are all subject and Stav is a path which follows this way. Like all paths to a true understanding of reality it is a difficult path which can only be walked in our own strength and with as few encumbrances as possible. A very few people can genuinely guide us on this path, having travelled that way themselves. Many will call us to other paths, seemingly easier to travel with more apparently attractive destinations but in fact leading nowhere.

I sometimes get asked if Stav teaches magic. I suppose it does if you believe that magic is simply seeing a deeper level of reality than most people do and being able to act accordingly. When teaching the martial aspect of Stav new students are often puzzled as to how an experienced practitioner can manipulate a less knowledgeable student without them seeing how it is done. But anyone can eventually learn to see if they train long enough. More important than magic is an ethical approach, with knowledge, and whatever power that may bring, comes responsibility. Knowledge and power may bring temporary advantage over others, but if the motives are selfish and ego driven, then eventually a price will be demanded in return. Without compassion and humility we become a danger, perhaps initially to others, but in the long run to ourselves. Does the practice of Stav make us better people? Better than what or who? If we hope that the practice of Stav will impress others into thinking we are something special then we are chasing a false goal. Who is qualified to judge us as better or worse than anyone else? If we are hoping that we can show ourselves better than someone else then are we not just trying to feed our own ego? There will always be someone stronger, faster, cleverer or better looking than us, so why try and compete with others? Besides, age will rob all of strength and speed, no one is clever enough to understand everything and beauty is subject to the vagaries of fashion.

The only goal worth seeking through a spiritual practice such as Stav, is the one of becoming fully ourselves. Each of us is unique with a special destiny spun for us before we are even born. Whether you take literally the idea of the Norns spinning the thread of life, or recognise that each person's DNA is unique, it makes us realise that we are special. It is always a temptation to look outside of ourselves for something to give our lives meaning. Often we hope that someone will put out a hand and lead us along the path of life so we don't have to take the risk of trusting our own vision. his is the easy way and it avoids us having to take responsibility for finding and following the threads of our own web. But your own web is the one only you can follow, and in following it you can reach a real understanding of who you are.

Graham Butcher

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