"Matsubadojo" – March 1, 2005

The Books of Fae

2005-3-1 – "Matsubadojo"

"… Balancing out the deeply feminine practices of listening and divination within the Academy, I am led to continue my devotion to the arts of motion, finding my way to the aikido style of martial arts. It’s meaningful to me, for I had left behind the martial arts earlier on the Quest, striving to find another way of approaching the world. Of being in a place of exalted movement, beyond the fight…"

The Pine Needle

Balancing out the deeply feminine practices of listening and divination within the Academy, I am led to continue my devotion to the arts of motion, finding my way to the aikido style of martial arts. It's meaningful to me, for I had left behind the martial arts earlier on the Quest, striving to find another way of approaching the world. Of being in a place of exalted movement, beyond the fight.

It was a philosophy that i'd picked up years ago when taking a workshop with a master of motion by the name of Peter Ralston …

There in the Kings Beach, I find something more appropriate to my desire for clear relationship with the Muse of Dance and the depths of my relationship with her magics. It takes the form of Sensei Jason House, the lead instructor of the Matsubadojo school for aikido.

The journey into aikido was a transformative one for me on many levels, part of which revolved around my movement from the intention to hurt those who I felt had hurt me into something softer. Given my rage and ire at what i'd considered the endless assault of people's vibration, I sought to find a way to express my excellence in movement that did not operate from the principle of breaking and snapping, or even looking at others as opponents.

Here, I will face the fears of overwhelm from the human condition, training myself to confront the energies head-on in wielding with the energy of the Divine Masculine.

I am deeply appreciative of the energies that come through Sensei House, occurring for me as an eternal warrior in the underplanes of the Mythica living out the current version of his myth.

A vision came to me as I looked at him. That of a warrior of many, many lifetimes and bodies. One who had achieved the excellence of his craft time and again, and who had reincarnate into this place and time as a master upon the mountain.

There was a quality I could sense beyond the surface of his form, one that played out beyond the postures and katas of the fighting arts. A purified geometry that his soul recognized, that defined the simplicity and devotion he had to his craft.

While I was a white belt in aikido, I had come from an extensive history of movement across many disciplines, one intinately tied to my devotion to Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance.

Circles & Triangles

I liked this. The quality of digging into one’s heels and simply facing it. Facing the onslaught. And I felt the resonance of circles. Within it, I could feel the tones of Lady Dance, Terpsichore, whom I had held devotion to for so many years.

There is truth in movement. In the geometries of our relationship with life. In the martial arts one confronts the timbre of that movement through the territories of conflict and resolution, finding one's way in direct confrontation of challenge within and without. For me, the ways of movement spoke our language of life in a way that was transcendent of the genres and timbres of dance. How we dance is, after all, how we move through life.

The triangle was a piercing thing. A point of focus like an arrow. Yet the circle spoke of something different. It did not speak of penetration but of continuance …

This spoke volumes to me, about every level of my life. I felt I had to embody the triangle to face what felt like a constant attack from the vibrations in the field, to be the warrior and face reality with strength.

I admit, there was a part of me that liked the geometry I perceived in it. The precision. The lethal clarity of a well-pointed strike.

The Misogi Meditation

Over the years, what I learned about from the misogi meditation would serve me deeply, clarifying the approach of what would be called 'deva yoga', 'gaian yoga' and eventually 'akasha yoga'.

The shrine of the kami appears in the space