Anting Anting in Warrior Arts
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
I’m in foggy San Francisco this weekend to participate in the Anting Anting Project hosted by Kularts. If you’re in the area, it's going to be so good, hope you come and check it out!
Anting antings have a long history in Filipino Martial Arts. Escrimadors or practitioners of the martial arts in the Philippines would often carry an amulet or talisman with them for protection. Anting antings are mystical objects of power. They could be anything from a crocodile tooth, medallion worn around the neck, or oraccion (prayer) tattooed on the body. There are many stories of escrimadors who claimed their anting anting made them invinsible. These magical tokens would be passed down through the family or from teacher to student. Essentially, it’s something that can focus your will, or something you can draw emotional or spiritual spiritual strength from.
An anting anting can be anything. Since the power of the anting anting is not in the object itself, but in the power that we give it. Objects handed down through generations or that have been the focus of people’s prayer and intention most definitely can store and hold that energy from others over time.
In our most recent CKC training session last week, we asked one another, what would your anting anting be? Our answers ranged from a piece of jewelry pass downed from a relative to an object from the ocean to a meaningful tattoo.
I think that an anting anting can be anything that you focus your intention on – an idea or a belief – and the magic that is created are the actions that you take towards living out that belief. So for me, my anting anting right now is the CKC logo, a reminder of my belief that the warrior path is both an inner and outer one, a healthy flow and expression of yin and yang energies, a channeling of ancestral knowledge and wisdom as a mirror to our own, and a practice of embodied decolonization... so we can be the magic we want to see in the world.
