Juggling as Hermetic Yoga?

[Anibis]

I becan to juggle almost 8 years ago. Part of the reason for this is due to all the metaphorical references in the magical literature to the 'Juggler' figure. To be honest I actually treat the Juggler as being a little different than the Magus: sort of between the Magician and the Fool, so to speak. He is, I think their 'third'. So in this thread, lets look at Juggling, it's History, it's practice, it's practitioners, its symbolism, it's math, and it's health effects. Okay.

I'll start with some links, and then we can talk about, should we care to.


The History of Juggling
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_juggling) article
Arthur Lewbell's key (http://www.juggling.org/papers/history-1/) article on the subject


Juggling notation systems
General Info about notation systems (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggling_Notation)
As above, but better. (http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/geek/notation/) Ladder notation shows us sacred knotworks!
Siteswap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siteswap) (Holy Number Alchemy, batman!)

Juggling and Mysticism
Tarot and Juggling (http://www.juggling.org/jw/90/1/tarot.html)
Juggling and Judaism (http://www.juggler.co.il/jews/Raphael.htm)

Health Benefits of Juggling
Increases brain size! (http://www.purdueexponent.org/interface/bebop/showstory.php?date=2004/02/20&section=campus)

General Resources
The Juggling Database (http://www.jugglingdb.com/) This one is the best place on the web...


Okay, well, I'll probably update these links as I find more stuff. There is a ton of it out there.

-Ibisis

[Anibis]

Okay, so there are some sources. Admittedly, I have not read all that material, but just writing this makes me feel like looking closer. I'll tell you what I know about juggling, in my own words then. First, some smatterings of its History.

I know the earliest records of it are in Egypt, on the walls of the Beni Hassan Tomb complex. It is not 'known' definitively whether it was a sacred or a secular art form. Yeah, whatever. I have a hard time imagining the ancient Egyptians juggling, and NOT cluing into its magickal properties. Interestingly enough, Egyptian tombs also have the earliest depictions of fool/jesters, and conjurers (The cup and ball effect).

It was present in China, too, notably employed by warriors in battle. They would, it seems, juggle at one another in order to resolve the battle before it began. Perhaps it is a 'mercurial art' in contrast to 'martial arts'?

In France in the middle ages, there were itinerant performers called Jongleurs, they combined jests with magic, with juggling. They were masters of sleight of hand, and from what I have been told, also practiced a technique called 'the theatre of memory' or some such, which was basically that they, like the celtic bards, had nmemonic techniques that enabled them to memorize stories, news and the like, so that their role as performers was supplemented by their role as information carriers from town to town. Later they became the companions to the Troubadours. Juggling, and Magic, as modern performance arts trace their roots to this occupation.

There are many religious references to jugglers, as well. Besides the Tarot, there are various woodcuts, and stories which relate the to jugglers. From what I understand in the Americas, there were aboriginal shamans who would juggle during exstatic rites, and in Tonga, juggling was widespread among girls. The feminine connection is pretty strong in juggling, even though most jugglers are men. The Beni Hassan jugglers were women, and the fact that juggling is related to weavings, suggest that it has something to do with the 'Matrix', the feminine element of the social fabric. The 'Flying Karamazov Brothers' are perportedly Sufi mystics.

I will leave it be for now, and return with another post, where I will talk about notation systems, which suggest that juggling has a strong connection to math, music, and alchemy.

-Ibisis-

[m1thr0s]

Kewl thread Ibisis...if I haven't said anything yet it doesn't mean I am not following it.

m1thr0s

[Amur]

In the beginning/end anything can be used as hermetic yoga if one knows how to rewire the brain into it. Certainly it evolves around adjusting or fine-tuning the movements of the body into ones spiritual aspect, like two instruments being tuned into synchronicity. Not sure if I can get this out in a clear picture but...

Juggling has alot of neat feats, as one certainly gets accustomed to the force of gravity, which is quite the connection to the planet itself. Another fun thing is that one gets very accustomed to the shape of the object one is juggling with. Another aspect of juggling is something like 'gravity ball' (not sure about the name), where one uses a ball or two or more and moves it around ones body, making it dance with ones body/the force of gravity.

A key point for me is to let go of the mental control of the body and surrender it to the unconscious and more percise part, whereas everything comes without effort and automatically to a much higher percision. It gets quite natural when having the spine tuned up to it's full potential.

[Anibis]

They call that 'contact juggling', but 'gravity ball' works...
-Ibisis-

[Anibis]

Okay, so notation systems. Ths where juggling gets quite cool, and where the Hermeticist can have a heyday. So far, from what I can tell, Nobody has touched this one from a Magickians point of view, but it is basically open terrain. I myself only know some rudimentary facts about it, though I plan to learn more.

Basically, juggling notation systems have been designed in order to record patterns, and transmit them to other jugglers. However, this function is not the only one which notation has. As far as I can tell, each system has it's strengths and weaknesses. All systems can record certain aspects of a juggling patters but leave others out. In some systems, new patterns can actually be devised before they are even ever juggled. In fact, it is possible to devise and give number values to patterns that nobody will ever be able to juggle. There are folks out there who spend their time analyzing large numbers in order to determine whether those numbers are 'juggleable', sometimes coming up with patterns which include hundreds of objects (the world record stands at 14). Okay, so what is a 'juggleable number?' I'll get to that. First, I'd like to lay out the two notation systems that I have familiarity with.

The first is called 'ladder notation'. you can see some of these here (http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/geek/notation/invention.html), in an article on the origin of juggling notation. The cool thing about ladder notation is that it can be used to convert the pattern into a knotwork. Further, these knotworks, which differ with every pattern, don't just represent the pattern, they depict it! SO. in short, if you were to attach a ribbon to each of the balls in a given pattern, and juggled them, they actually would make a braid which would have the same structure as the ladder diagram. So! sacred patterns in a physical art? Sounds like Yoga to me...

Okay next edit, I'll add Siteswap.

-Ibisis-

[Anibis]

In the beginning/end anything can be used as hermetic yoga if one knows how to rewire the brain into it. Certainly it evolves around adjusting or fine-tuning the movements of the body into ones spiritual aspect, like two instruments being tuned into synchronicity. Not sure if I can get this out in a clear picture but...

Amur, I like what you are saying in this post, by the way. A yoga being essentially the attunement of the mind and the body. As for juggling though, and I hope it will come out, there is a whole underlying mathematics to it, so you're not just synchronizing two systems, you are affectively patterning them with a third. Anyhow, it's taking me some time to get this all out, since making lengthy posts is a bit taxing, but I'll get to it. What sort of juggling do you practice? Have you ever done Poi?
-Ibisis-

[Amur]

Amur, I like what you are saying in this post, by the way. A yoga being essentially the attunement of the mind and the body. As for juggling though, and I hope it will come out, there is a whole underlying mathematics to it, so you're not just synchronizing two systems, you are affectively patterning them with a third. Anyhow, it's taking me some time to get this all out, since making lengthy posts is a bit taxing, but I'll get to it. What sort of juggling do you practice? Have you ever done Poi?
-Ibisis-


Haven't heard about Poi. Could you describe more about it?

Got on to contact ball or gravity ball during the first awakening process. Though took 3 years for me to really pick it physically up. Now I'm mostly interested in making smooth maneuvers which feels 'correct' along with the gravitational pull. Got alot of inspiration from Tai Chi sort of circular movements.

[Anibis]

I can relate to that desire. I don't do contact so much, but I do Tai Chi, and dance alot and my juggling style is based on fluidities (as well as abrubt breaks, but that's another story). I also Unicycle which is wonderful for developing your Hara. As for Poi, it is a Mauri technique which the warriors used to practice that involves balls (or wicks) on the end of chains. You can dance with them, and weave them around your body in various sorts of orbit. Many people light them on fire, which is quite cool. My poi is rudimentary, but from the way you discussed juggling and movement, I think you'd find it cool. Here (http://www.homeofpoi.com/) is a link. Juggling was also one of the practices which came along with my early awakenings, though before that I was a conjurer working largely with sleight of hand(also related to juggling). Anyways, the way you talk about gravity, you may like Poi. Also, contact staff, if you have heard of it: basically manipulating a staff (fire or otherwise) without actually grasping it. You roll it around your body: your arms, your neck, and so on. I have seen it but not practiced it. I'm mostly a club and ball juggler.
-Ibisis-
P.S. Are you familiar with Michael Moschen (http://www.michaelmoschen.com/)? He invented Contact Juggling and was the 'hands' for David Bowie in Labyrinth during the contact scene.Have a look at his videos if you are interested.

[Amur]

Hadn't heard of Moschen before. Must say that the videos were beautiful to watch. Poi would probably do great for my back ;) Seen some event with a group called "Firedancers" in finnish. It was quite neat when the sun had set. They've actually become quite the underground celebrity here.

It is definately inspiring to see videos of a field one is working at. Gives alot of new ideas

edit note: Apparently juggling 3 balls is great for yoga and letting go into just observing the unconsciousness working. Thank you for that idea :)