The Archive of Steven Smith
Dreaming Circles Workshop
Explore inner realms and celebrate transformation using Baguazhang palm changing, poetry, and dream cycling. This Baguazhang Dreaming Circles Workshop coincides closely with several holidays worldwide—Imbloc, Brigid’s Day, Candlemas, American Ground-Hog Day, Setsubun, and Lichun—suggesting that this poetic time of year means returning of warmth and wisdom increasing light inner growth new beginnings Using a fusion [...]
8: Deadly Serious Reasons To Laugh
Baguazhang, solemn sister of Tai Chi Chuan, is well-known among internal artists. While she’s whispered about by Tai Chi practitioners and envied by Xingyi-ists, the diversity of her changing palms wraps a serious face around practitioners. We take our practice seriously, almost religiously, certainly ceremoniously, circling deliberately the center of something. We walk around trees. [...]
Bagua Flavor
A exciting and humorous taste of what you might expect from Baguazhang…
Air Avatars Know Nothing About Mud Stepping
Many Baguazhang Styles Avoid Mud-stepping—It’s Difficult Mud-stepping is a peculiar method of gaining….[doh! the why and what-for of mud-stepping is for a different article]. How-To-Mud-Step seems simple— Slide your weightless front-foot forward, Quickly step onto it, Swishing the old back-foot past the new back foot, Never pick up your back-heel before your back-toes. It’s not [...]
Click here to see: Air Avatars Know Nothing About Mud Stepping
Tags: Laugh, Mud-Stepping
Baguazhang History — Dong Haichuan
Baguazhang emerges from circles of mysterious fog. The reputed founder, Dong Hai-Chuan appears in the foundation of many (most or all) Eight Trigram Palm Schools. Behind him, he leaves mists of wonder—histories devoid of clarity, brimming with speculation, mixed with semblances of truth. Dong Hai-Chuan deliberately cultivated the shroud, and, as a result mastered the [...]
Click here to see: Baguazhang History — Dong Haichuan
Tags: Dong Hai Chuan, Yi Jing
Hello Baguazhang World!
This article forms the foundation of this website. Let me know what you think or what you’d like to know about Baguazhang in the following comments section. The Bagua and Baguazhang Bagua refers to eight trigrams representing basic concepts: Sky, Earth, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Water, Mountain, and Cloud. Interpretations vary, more commonly Sky is referred [...]
Click here to see: Hello Baguazhang World!
Tags: First Posture, Revolutions