I haven't been mailing very much in the past month because I have been ill. Bad case of pleurisy in fact which pretty much laid me up for February. I would like to be able to say that practising Stav seriously makes you impervious to illness, but sadly this isn't the case. There were a few days when I wasn't able to do the stances at all and about 3 weeks when any training was pretty much out of the question. When I could get out of bed then walking to the bottom of the garden if the weather was fine was about my limit.

This message is specifically about the course in West London in March. However if you can't make that one I will be in the USA at the beginning of May, there are the summer camps or you might like to organise a course in your location for me to teach, so please read it anyway.

This year I made a decision not or organise any day courses myself. Instead I have chosen to concentrate on writing and developing the two summer camps in June and July. However, I am willing and available to teach if someone else is prepared to do the basic organisation. Two of my long-standing friends and associates in Stav have so far done this. John Lindley organised a most successful event near Salisbury in February. In March, for the first time in at least a decade, you have the chance to attend a course in London. My good friend and associate Snake has been kind enough to organise a course in Denham on Saturday the 19th of March when I can teach and you can learn Stav for a day.

The basis of all Stav training is learning to work with the lines of the web. This applies to everything. If craft skills then working with the lines of the grain in wood or making a construction in accordance to the web. In rune counselling it is about connecting the lines between past and present and into a probable future.

When training in Stav as a martial art we are not learning how to use any particular weapon or technique, simply how to recognise the web lines and work with them. This may make it sound rather theoretical rather than a practical system but it is actually a very effective system. Weapons are used to train with and they are very helpful for learning to work with the lines.

If you check out www.iceandfire.org.uk/video.html you will find embedded a video clip on You tube showing the five principles demonstrated in self defence applications. They are also used in the axe demonstration. The self-defence one is a little out of date and I don't teach it quite that way any more but it still makes the point. I do need to get some more clips up there, I have the footage, will have to see what I can do next week.

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