by JWang on Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:02 pm
I emailed Mark Rasmus a few weeks ago to inquire about his hermetics, and he recommended Peacedog as one of 2 locals in the DC/MD/VA region who is familiar with his practice. Spent the past 2 weekends training with Peacedog, here are some impressions so far:
Peacedog showed a series of fascia stretching exercises for opening things up, and some of it was reminiscent of my previous experience in wing chun, yiquan, and xingyi zhanzhuang. The new ideas, namely the "magnetic" stretches, really seemed to tackle some weaknesses that I sense in my structure. We also started some meditation work, which was clearly instructed and easy to learn.
The overall experience has been very positive because the hermetics doesn't conflict at all with my existing IMA background, but gives me tools & ideas to deepen my existing practices. The hermetics paradigm has some new terminology for familiar themes (like yin/yang), and appears to be quite systematic and precise in its approach. There were quite a few "aha" moments where I understood conceptually what was shown to me years ago that I failed to grasp at the time. Maybe it's language, presentation, etc., but for whatever reason the approach resulted in a few lightbulbs going on during our sessions.
In summary, I see the value of the material so far as not just some novel exercises, but one of a conceptual framework that appears quite deep, direct and clear in its approach. Peacedog is a clear and open instructor who wants you to get it, so I'd definitely recommend talking to him if you're curious about hermetics or meditative work in general.