Welcome to Shaman-Warrior

Welcome to my new blog. 

Firstly this blog has nothing to do with the manhwa (Korean comic books) series "Shaman Warrior" by Park Joong-Ki.

My name is Paul Andrews and I am the author of this blog. 

Why "Shaman Warrior" you may ask?

Well I am a long time practitioner of martial arts, the warrior arts of old, and I have also researched and practiced shamanic technique for many years.  In some ways my martial practice is also a form of shamanic technique, and shamanic methods have I believe enhanced my martial arts. It has got to a point where, for me, my martial practice and shamanic practice can't really be separated. 

My natural curiosity has always driven me towards investigating nature, and I have always had a fondness for physical experience. Despite not being the biggest kid I always joined in with sports, particularly basketball and rugby. I began martial arts training in my late teens when I tried karate and then wing chun.  Since then I discovered and have specialised in the rare northern Chinese martial art of Xing Yi Quan (I run my own school with online classes - www.xingyiacademy.com/onlinelearning).  I've also visited China and trained in Yi Quan (a martial art derived from Xing Yi Quan) and Shuai Jiao (Chinese Wrestling) as well as visiting numerous Xing Yi masters to see the variations in the art.  As well as Xing Yi, I have also had experience in cross-training many other martial arts, with experience of traditional Japanese Kempo (Mishima Kempo / Kaido Miwa Ryu), Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan (Tai Ji Quan), Ba ji Quan, Choy Lee Fut, Baguazhang, Mei hua zhang, and more.  I've also got quite a bit of experience in weapons and swordplay, but we will probably come to that in future posts.

To put it simply I've trained martial arts for over 20 years, met a lot of people from different styles, tried out lots of stuff, some more than others, and I've held on to Xing Yi Quan as my core practice since 2004. 

My main teacher or guide in both the martial arts and shamanic training has been Damon Smith.  Damon is co-host of the Woven Energy Podcast on Real Practical Shamanism, aided by Josef Sykora.  Josef is one of my closest friends and for a long time was my student of martial arts and fellow explorer of shamanic technique.

As well as Damon, I have trained martial arts with Sifu John Agar (Wing Chun), Sensei Phil Marsh (Kaido Miwa Ryu), Tai Chi and Choy Lee Fut with the Yongquan Association (mostly with Sifu Donald Kerr), and Chinese Swordplay with Scott M Rodell.  I've also spent some limited, but intensive time, studying Yi Quan with Yao Chengrong, and Shuai Jiao with Wang Tongqing (both in Beijing).  

In shamanic tradition, I was also blessed to have known the late Sensei Kato Eiichi and late Sensei Kato Kaoruko who were involved with the tradition of Japanese shamaness Nakayama Miki. 

Shamanism is a much misunderstood area of practice, and martial arts is an arena which is vast in range and scope.  There will be lots to get into and I have a lot of experience to call upon for examples and anecdotes.

A lot of what I will post here and present in my upcoming podcast (unsurprisingly this will also be called Shaman Warrior) will likely overlap with things which are discussed on the Woven Energy podcast.  The main difference will be that I will be presenting more from the viewpoint of my own training experiences and understandings, with a focus on physical training and conditioning and application within the context of martial arts.  

I hope to involve a number of good friends, acquaintances and hopefully other interested parties, including some of my past training partners and my current students.  Hopefully, I will be able to pass on some knowledge to those who might be interested in shamanism, martial arts, or both.