Taekwondo Poomsae: The Fighting Scrolls by Kingsley Umoh

Author:Kingsley Umoh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co.

Taebaek poomsae may be performed with light and nimble steps, as if one has taken the form of the white crane. It may mimic the dance of Dangun, the shaman king and founder of the Korean people, and the set of movements in Steps 9 through 13 bear resemblance to the ritual trance-like steps a Korean shaman performed when exorcising bad spirits from a tormented individual.

The medicine man is on the summit of Mount Paektu, clad in thick robes sewn from animal fur, and he stalks over the cold, rocky ground with the nimble sure steps of the white crane bird. The early morning mist has just drifted away, allowing the first light of the morning sun to bathe the mountain top. Every few seconds he pauses suddenly before darting off in a new direction with a spin and finally approaches the middle-aged female member of his tribe who is kneeling on the frost-covered ground. She has been suffering from regular nose bleeds and severe headaches, forcing her to go berserk and attack her children sometimes. In his hands are small bronze bells clutched firmly, making a rattling noise that would either call the heaven spirits to earth or banish the malevolent spirits from his domain. He is careful to avoid letting the bells fall out of his hands by twisting his wrists smoothly from side to side as he spins and dances to the beat of the small drum held by his assistant. He sings his songs and continues his self-purification exercise of washing off bad spirits from his body, starting from the upper body and ending at his feet.

As he sings, he calls the name of the bad spirit which has been dwelling within the poor suffering woman. He describes it as taking the form of a grasshopper with the hair of a woman and tiger’s teeth. It has an impenetrable breast plate of bronze and its tail has stingers like a scorpion’s, which it uses to torment the woman. This malevolent spirit rises within its victim, beating its wings like the sound of horses running to battle. He can see its form inside the victim’s wild eyes.

The medicine man stops abruptly in his steps and retrieves his other tools from his assistant—a bronze shaman’s mirror with a perfectly polished surface and a knob handle on its opposite side, and a sacred mandolin dagger. He promptly hides them within his robes and begins to dance more slowly with the same precise body motions. He drops his hands, spreading them apart in a circular motion that appears as if he is freeing his wrists from the clutches of the spirit he is battling.

He turns his body away from the anguished woman, concealing his hands at his waist, and pulls out the sacred dagger and knobbed mirror out of her sight. His face is grim as he readies to finally face the powerful spirit.

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