Warriors' Path
this is written by Kym Lambert and yes, it IS copyrighted and you cannot use it on your site, email list or other fora...stop copying my pages!!! See notice at bottom.
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As there seem to be more definitions given to "warrior," by both those who use it for themselves and those who do not, than the word "witch" (and there are plenty there, of course) I figured I'd discuss what this means to us. I have already described my personal experiences in starting on this path in the article Championing Ourselves, although some of that is a little outdated now. Here I'll try to be more specific about how we define the term and a bit about the training we do. I also write, on occasion, about our training in my blog also called Championing Ourselves (yeah, well, I like the name). First I should note that we feel there is a difference between being "on the warriors path" and being a warrior. Being on the warrior path is about a continued effort to prepare oneself to defend her/his people and any being, entity or concept which could fall victim in a physical or a non-physical context. We are talking on the level of self-defense and preparedness, including on a very physical level not just on a spiritual or philosophical level. It may mean some political activism but only very active types and can not stop there, real-life physical preparedness is necessary if one is on the warrior path, we are not "peaceful warriors." Magic may be a part of the "arsenal" for some, but this is not about "magical warfare" or "inner battles." If person cannot fight, cannot defend her/himself or another from physical threat, then s/he is not on the path. And yes, it does mean being willing to die for something. A warrior is someone who is on the warrior path who has been initiated in a physical fight. This means a stand up fight in which life is truly at risk at the hands of an enemy, not long distance bombing, not a battle of wills, not a psychic battle. Someone not on the path might defend themselves and might surely be a hero/a, but they would not be a warrior. Someone who practices martial arts but refuses to fight when there is a need is not a warrior. The title requires both walking the path and being initiated by combat. And there is no such thing as "a peaceful warrior." (for an excellent essay on this, see Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon, "No Peaceful Warriors!," Gnosis #21, Fall 1991, republished in Rick Fields, ed. The Awakened Warrior: Living with Courage, Compassion & Discipline, New York: Putnam Book 1994) Many equate warrior with soldier,
some also include law enforcement officers and others and many see
those in these fields as For us,
walking the warrior path means
walking with honor, a simplification of the core would be
"Don't harm innocents, don't let innocents be harmed if it is at all in
your power to prevent it and do not take out of greed or if another
needs it more." However, not all on the warrior path will share the
same ethics and there are those who may define honor much differently.
It cannot be said that warrior=good, because there are certainly people
who have the right to the word "warrior" who are not. Still "warrior" is not an excuse to lash out in unbridled anger and act like bullies, especially for those wishing to work with us. While anger is natural and many on this path might have fiery tempers, warrior training actually involves learning to control and channel that anger, to use when needed but not be the reason for acting. Using physical violence to harm a weaker person or being is the most dishonorable thing a warrior can do no matter the other details of ones personal code. There are different types of warrior found in the Irish matter. One is the tribal warrior, sometimes (like by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt in Celtic Gods and Heroes) said to be exemplified by Cú Chullainn but perhaps better so by those he had to fill in for in the Táin Bó Cúalnge, for he was actually rather an outsider himself. The other is the Outlaw, the Outsider, the Fénnidi of the Fianna, as exemplified by Fionn Mac Cumhaill in the literature. The original information was a bit darker than that, but we follow the ways of Fionn, here, as much as possible today, as our path is of the wilderness.
Training We both work to maintain our training, although factors in our lives do not always allow us to do so on the levels we might wish. We currently are not in Martial Arts classes, due to finances and distance. Aaron had started studying Isshin Ryu, I have studied both Isshin Ryu and a very Americanized Shotokan-based Karate. We're hoping to find a way to get to classes, which will be some distance away, again someday. Meanwhile we are playing with Krav Maga tapes, but question how much one can learn from tapes...much of it is, however, refresher for the self-defense stuff we have learned already. We believe that you must be trained in a
practical hand-to-hand form, that can be used in self-defense
situations today. The stronger the focus on street fighting Of course, knowing how to fight means
nothing if your body can't do it. Both of us also work to keep fit:
lifting weights, hiking, snowshoeing, walking with our hounds, biking,
running. I am working on building a personal training business
after having been out of the industry We also study survival, wilderness mostly now due to where we live, but we keep a bit of urban knowledge fresh as well. You just never know where you'll end up or what will happen and you re not prepared if you're not prepared for everything. While we do not buy into the nonsense that Pagan warriors are "peaceful spiritual warriors" or "magical warriors" only, we do know that not all threats are from This World so I have trained also in battle magic and "Otherworldly politics," and various forms of psychic and magical defense are a part of the training. This is where the "warrior witch" part comes in for me On the other hand, Aaron is not as interested in this aspect.. It can also within the warrior's realm to deal with Otherworldly beings that may wish to cause problems either through malice or neglect. Therefore we must know ways to counter such problems. While doing ritual and devotion by ourselves lessens the chance of needing these skills, we do keep ourselves prepared to act as warriors during ritual, whether the treat is Otherworldly or from This World. In group ritual, we're also the ones that tend to watch for the basic needs of others in the ritual, keeping our feet in all Worlds at all times. And there are ecstatic practices involved
in our form of warrior path, which I may discuss here eventually. I do
occasionally discuss my training on my blog Championing Ourselves along
with other warrior path stuff. It's a difficult part for me to discuss, however, but I am working on opening up more.
copyright © 2001-11 Kym Lambert, all
rights reserved, do not use without written permission from the author.
That means YOU.
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and
self-defense, as opposed t
o point-sparring and forms, the better. We
were lucky with this in our Isshin Ryu school and believe Krav Maga to
be one of the best training systems for this and both hope to have a
chance to study someday (closest school is over 5 hours away, but they
are spreading so...). We do,
after all, live in the modern world. We hope to be able to have time to
learn Highland Sword or another form of traditional Western Martial
Art, as a cultural connection, but this is of lower priority at this
time, as it is not as practical for us today.