Category Archives: Martial arts

Inspired by recent discoveries and realizations, and catalyzed by last week’s conversation with Mark Hatmaker, the mettle maker takes a different form for the second week in a row.  Rather than a list of dos and don’ts, prescriptions, and so forth, this week I’m going to simply give you a grab bag of material that I hope you will find inspiring, enlightening, and fun — something that will get you out from behind the laptop and out into the world to breathe, train, live, and find your own innovations and realizations.

Which format do you prefer?  The experimental, or the traditional?

Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow: Mettle Maker #256

Which one of these pictures depicts the tool or behavior most likely to preserve your safety and prevent personal harm? Answer at bottom.

How many birds can you identify in your neighborhood?  If you don’t know your neighbors, who do you know?

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will.  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” ~Matthew 10:29-31

A recent observation using BirdNET — a free app that lets you record, ID, save and map observations so that you can learn birds and their songs. 

“The monthly attribute associated with the Hourglass is justice…The lower half of the Hourglass mirrors the upper.  Only if we are able to sincerely mirror the Divine Will can we have any hope of bringing justice into the world…Justice is almost always personified as a lovely woman wearing a blindfold and holding a set of scales — blind to her own passions and the winds of fashion and public sentiment, she weighs the facts with maturity and judges fairly.” [from the forthcoming Cabal Fang: Complete Martial Arts Study Course from Querent to Elder, 2nd Edition]

“Do resolutely what is just: defend the poor, the widows, the orphans and the churches.” ~Rule #47 of the Latin Rule (the code of the Knights Templar)

If you don’t know what these exercises are, you probably should buy the associated programs — available at https://www.mitch.store/?category=Dice

Answer: The oil change.  Breaking down by the side of the road is one of the most dangerous situations you can find yourself in, and it’s a hundred times more likely than being attacked.  Service your vehicle and don’t operate it with less than 1/4 tank of gas, just in case you get lost or you get stuck in your vehicle during cold weather.

TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!

Listen to modern culture and the message you get is that we are free to do, wear, say, choose and pursue whatever we want virtually without consequence, that there are infinite viable paths to a life of fulfillment, that all perspectives, philosophies and approaches are equal, and that being care-free is the way to happiness.

But that’s a lie.

Some things work and others don’t.  It turns out that…

• two or three meals a day is an evolutionary adaptation to the needs of the body
• ritual and religion evolved as practical methods for managing personal and communal resources — psychological, social, and physical
• regular exercise and time spent outdoors are essential to health
• reading really is fundamental
• writing with your hand on paper is still the best way to journal and take notes

and so on. Toward that end, what sort of choices are you making?

What does your typical day look like?

A Day in the Life: Mettle Maker #254

• • Rise and shine. Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes.  Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope or footwork (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
  • Do your Chores.  Get out your sledge, a sandbag (I used #55), a sturdy stand at least waist high (I used on inverted heavy duty trash can), and your dull training weapons.  Set timer for 5 mins.  Do 1 Shovel vs. the sandbag. Put down the sledge, load and unload the sandbag onto the stand, then shoulder it and walk 25 yards.  Put the sand bag down and strike your heavy bag 5 times using fists, feet, or training weapon of choice.  Then do 2 Shovels, 2 Loads, a 25-yard Shoulder Carry, and 10 strikes.  Next round, 3 Shovels, 3 Loads, a 25-yard Shoulder Carry, and 15 strikes.  Switch striking tool as often as you like.  Keep climbing as fast as you can until the timer beeps.  When it does, finish the set you’re on then descend the pyramid back to beginning.  Created using Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble Fitness Dice ©.  Get some.
  • Take your constitutional.  What’s a constitutional? constitutional \’kän(t)-stə-‘t(y)ü-shən-ªl\ n 1. Belonging to, or inherent in, the constitution or structure of one’s body or mind.  a constitutional infirmity, constitutional ardour or dullness 2. For the benefit of one’s constitution or health. a constitutional walk.  Complete this month’s constitutional as follows: Sprints (25), Mtn. Climbers (25 full), Shrimps (25), Back Bridges (50), Ploughs (25), Sit-out Push-ups (25), Squats (100).  If desired, add a heavy bag or other weight to the Back Bridges and cut the reps.  Advanced players sub neck bridges.
  • Cook your supper.  This right here is Curly Dock, a.k.a., Rumex Crispus, which I came across on my property the other day.  In a survival situation, cook young leaves in several changes of water.  In summer the plant dries to a dark brown color and looks scorched, at which time the seed pods can be harvested and ground into a buckwheat-like meal and fried into cakes or boiled into gruel. Note: Curly Dock leaves contain oxalic acid which isn’t good for people who suffer from kidney stones, gout, or related illnesses.
    

    

    
  • Sit down with a book. “Read with diligence, and do not rest satisfied with light and superficial common knowledge.”  ~Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.  Since our spiritual symbol of the month is the Hourglass, let’s turn to the Emerald Tablet, an obscure but profound ancient writing which speaks to the concepts inherent in the hourglass symbol. Below is an excerpt from The Emerald Table, an article by Robert Steele and Dorothea Waley Singer that appeared in The Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, Vol. 21, Issue 3, 1928.

“The Emerald Table itself is a brief summary of the principles of change in Nature, the foundation of alchemical doctrine, which purports to have been found on a plaque of emerald in the hands of the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus. There are several forms of it in Arabic, and their divergence is wide enough to make it probable that its ultimate origin must be sought, before the Islamic invasion, in Alexandrian philosophy, when Egypt was still Christian, though with a Pagan element. Kircher, a learned Jesuit of the seventeenth century, suggested that it was compounded of extracts from the Poimander and AEsculapius, Jamblichus and Proclus. But the oldest forms of the text we possess are all in Arabic, and Latin versions come early in the history of the transmission of science, one in the tract of Apollonius de principalibus rerum causis, another the central portion of the text here published, still another embedded in the Secretum Secretorum, while other forms are found in various later works. We give an English version, somewhat expanded:

THE EMERALD TABLET

True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true. That which is above is like to that
which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above, to accomplish the
miracles of one thing.
And as all things were by contemplation of one, so all things arose from this one thing by
a single act of adaptation.
The father thereof is the Sun, the mother the Moon.
The wind carried it in its womb, the earth is the nurse thereof.
It is the father of all works of wonder throughout the whole world.
The power thereof is perfect.
If it be cast on to earth, it will separate the element of earth from that of fire, the subtle
from the gross.
With great sagacity it doth ascend gently from earth to heaven.
Again it doth descend to earth, and uniteth in itself the force from things superior and
things inferior.
Thus thou wilt possess the glory of the brightness of the whole world, and all obscurity
will fly far from thee.
This thing is the strong fortitude of all strength, for it overcometh every subtle thing and
doth penetrate every solid substance.
Thus was this world created.
Hence will there be marvellous adaptations achieved, of which the manner is this.
For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus, because I hold three parts of the
wisdom of the whole world.
That which I had to say about the operation of Sol is completed.

TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!