Regular followers know that my son and I did the Rugged Maniac on May 5th and collected money for the Cabal Fang Temple Fund. Here are some pics from the event.
Thanks to everyone for buying t-shirts, contributing to my Patreon account, sponsoring the Rugged Maniac event, sharing links, commenting on my posts, liking my videos and generally being supportive. Every little bit helps.
Basically everything goes into the Temple Fund so that we can save up enough money to buy a building. We really want some permanent digs so that Cabal Fang can expand its seminar and class offerings and endure into perpetuity.¹
Thanks to you, the Cabal Fang Temple Fund stands at a whopping $1,333.78.
Here’s a screen shot of the new bank account I set up for the temple fund — we’ve got thirteen hundred bucks — woot-woot!
But enough about boring financial stuff — time for the T.I. of the week!
One Trick Pony: Training Involution #105
Our focuses this month are Wrestling and The Hourglass.
- Bad Karma calisthenics session. Set timer for 12 minutes. Finish as many sets as you can in 12 minutes of 8 each: Back Neck Bridges, Get-ups, Squats, and Sit-out Push-ups (a.k.a. “Barrel Roll Push-ups”). Like this workout? You’ll love my book The Calisthenics Codex (5 stars on Goodreads and in the Top 10 calisthenics books at Barnes & Noble).
- One trick pony a weak spot. What’s the weakest part of your Wrestling game? Is your Sit-out washed up? Is your Shrimp dead in the water? Is your scrambling game hard-boiled, or is it not what it’s cracked up to be? Whatever your weakest move is, set a timer for 10 to 20 minutes and do nothing but that one move for the entire duration. Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
- Start memorizing the Emerald Tablet. The Emerald Tablet just may be the world’s first piece of interfaith literature — revered by the wise and educated of every nation across the ancient world from its first appearance in 8th century Persia to the desk of Isaac Newton all the way down to today. Do yourself a favor and memorize it (it’s required of all Cabal Fang distance learning students by the way). Full text below. If you memorize this bit of wisdom literature I promise you that it will pay dividends as long as you live.
The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus
True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true. That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like 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, its 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 marvelous 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.
(Steele and Singer translation, 1927)
¹ Full disclosure: I don’t take a salary from Cabal Fang Temple, Inc. and I rarely pay myself back for the stuff I buy for the organization. And since I never have enough deductions to itemize my taxes, I never get the charitable deduction either. That needs to change though, so going forward I’m going to start categorizing those expenses as loans so that when and if Cabal Fang Temple Inc. starts bringing in any money I can repay myself. Patreon support goes go into my pocket of course, but it never offsets what I spend on Cabal Fang.
Robert Mitchell Jr. 