Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

South Wind
The White World: Air

Galina: I work mostly with Kari and the South Wind. Her gift is actually not one I’ve spoken about before. I must first touch on a few caveats. In order to utilize her gift, you must have some measure of the warrior’s gift. You must understand warrior work, and you must walk, at least part of the time, the path of the warrior. This isn’t about having physical skills (though that is often an outward manifestation of it); rather, warriorship is a quality of spirit, heart, mind, and nature, and it’s a rare thing today. It is a fundamental starting point; otherwise this particular gift will remain closed to you. It’s a killing gift, a warrior’s weapon. The South Wind, who runs with wildfire, urging it onward, who delights in the destruction of her foes, graces her allies with weapons and the skill to use them. She will not hand such a weapon to someone who lacks the stomach to use it, because doing so would be like handing a small child a ticking bomb or a hand grenade. For those gifted in working with animal spirits, she often allies with Cougar.

Raven: I don’t walk the warrior’s path, so as much as I admire her fierceness from a distance, the South Wind is not one of my allies. I have seen her, though, as a tall young woman with sleek muscles, carrying a spear through autumn leaves. In the winter she is a war leader; in the spring, a war captain; and in the summer, a wrinkled, aged battle teacher who scorches her students with her sarcasm and the earth with her hot regard.

The South Wind is the warrior’s wind. She is fierce and hot, melting ice and drying the summer grasses. In the cold regions she is welcomed with open arms, but she can wreak havoc on hotter areas. She is often seen as a black-haired woman with browned skin, sometimes armored like a warrior and sometimes dressed in skins or leather. She is an archer, but mostly seems to prefer staves and spears as weapons.

So far, we’ve gone through the different sounds gifted by the winds—speech, song, music—but the South Wind’s gift is one that is rarely used by most people, which is why we are putting it last. It is the gift of the war cry, the scream that Asian martial artists call the kiai. It is not just a focusing sound or a way to rev oneself up for battle. It is the cry that reverberates through the brick wall and makes it unstable, through the length of the steel blade and makes it sharper, through the body of the enemy and brings down his shields. It is the killing cry, the destabilizing vibration, the voice as thrown weapon.

Science has shown us that the human body and neural patterns are vulnerable to sound and vibration. This gift takes full advantage of that. The power is solidified through the will and the voice into what amounts to a very keenly focused but crushing blow. This “scream” does not emanate from a place of fear but from a place of absolute control and focused force.

In many respects it may be considered a kind of supergaldr. It’s punishingly effective. Done well against an attacker, it scrambles his synapses; in the hands of a master it can stop his heart. Its applications are predominantly in combat. Learning to use the kiai correctly, consistently, and effectively is, in many respects, a martial art in and of itself. If you use this skill, you’re usually using it to take down an opponent. There are no half measures (though if one is being kind, it can be used to stun long enough to get in a knockout blow).

There is a milder form of the kiai that is somewhat more accessible: the Voice of Command. This involves using the voice and a bit of focused projective empathy to bind and control a person. Your will is channeled through the voice, which acts as a binding and controlling mechanism. It is actually quite useful in dealing with clients who become mentally unstable or physically violent. It can be used to control them until the situation can be defused.

Exercise: South Wind’s Cry

To call the South Wind, bring out a staff or spear and tie ribbons in fiery colors—red, orange, yellow—to its top. Stand out on a windy day and breathe in. Ground yourself thoroughly. Call upon the South Wind, the Warrior’s Wind. Ask for her guidance. Breathe deeply and feel your center. Feel the power of this wind flowing and rushing and dancing around you. Begin moving with the staff. Move and strike in front of you (and strike as though you mean it). Feel the momentum of the staff moving through the air, cutting through it. Visualize that force spread out from the staff as you bring it down, striking the air or striking the Earth. Visualize it moving into an opponent, shattering his bones, and destroying his ground. Visualize yourself as a whirlwind. Where you move, the wind lashes out like a whip. Where you strike, the Earth splits. Your cry, when you utter it, can bring down mountains. This is the place of mind, heart, and will that you must enter. You must be absolutely centered, absolutely cold, without feeling, without mercy, a creature only of focus and Intent. Warriors were the protectors of their people. We are here today because we had ancestors willing to take up blade and bow, staff and gun to protect their people. It is an honorable path, a necessary path. (If you aren’t comfortable with warrior craft, don’t approach this wind. Just don’t.)

Now, once you are in the proper head space, feel the force of the wind, the force of the land, the momentum and power moving into you and gathering in your throat. You are part of that force, and it can be channeled and propelled by sound and will alone. Strike again, and as you strike, also scream and focus on allowing that power to move with your staff as a weapon. See or imagine the energy exiting through the scream and striking down with the staff exactly as though it were another weapon. There’s no easy way to describe this. It takes practice, probably years of practice. This is a very kinetic thing. The exhalation of sound is the end result, but the energy process involves the whole body. The staff work can help you focus, but in the end, it’s about the voice and being graced with the knowledge of how to use it as a weapon.

When you have finished practicing, make an offering to the South Wind with thanks. Galina recommends studying kendo, if you’re really interested in mastering this skill. While kendo is far from what the South Wind will teach you, in this martial art one does cry out upon making a strike, and it can be good preparation for entering into study with this wind. In fact, studying any martial art can’t hurt. It’s a good way to learn something of kinetic sense, how to move the body’s energy, and the South Wind will likely appreciate the respect for warrior craft that it shows.