Bagua Zhang · the Circle as
Shamanic Martial Art

Bagua Zhang means literally "Eight-Trigram Palm". The name points directly into Daoist space: the eight trigrams are the basic signs of the Yijing, the Book of Changes, China's oldest oracle text. To practise Bagua is not to drill a fighting technique that happens to be named after trigrams. It is to drill a body method in which the cosmic order of the Yijing is built into every step.

This article is a spoke to the hub "The spiritual warrior in shamanism". It describes Bagua Zhang as it is understood in the Daoist-shamanic lineage — as practice that places the human at the centre of a cosmic geometry and teaches him from there how to move in the world. A personal note · Mark Hosak has practised Bagua Zhang for over two decades, so this is insider work rather than scholarly distance.

The legend of the Daoist mountain dwellers

The historically traceable figure behind Bagua Zhang is Dong Haichuan (1797–1882), a master of the late Qing era. He himself traced his art back to Daoist monks he had met in the mountains — mountain dwellers who walked in circles to cultivate their own body-meditations. That matters: the martial art is not the root but the application. The root is Daoist, shamanically shaped body practice.

In Daoism, walking in circles has a very old tradition. The Yubu, the "Step of Yu", goes back to the mythic figure of the Great Yu, regarded as archetype of the shamanic water-binder. Whoever walks the Yubu follows a ritual pattern that connects the practitioner with the stars. Bagua Zhang carries this trace in its DNA.

The circle as cosmic geometry

The Bagua practitioner walks around an imagined centre. The centre is the practitioner — simultaneously inside and outside. The circle has eight positions corresponding to the eight trigrams. Each position carries an energetic signature.

• Qian (Heaven) · creative, reaching out
• Kun (Earth) · receiving, supporting
• Zhen (Thunder) · breaking out, shaking
• Xun (Wind) · penetrating, gentle
• Kan (Water) · deep, flowing, dangerous
• Li (Fire) · clear, radiant, consuming
• Gen (Mountain) · still, holding, unmoved
• Dui (Lake) · open, joyful, receptive

These qualities are not just symbolism. In the trained Bagua body they become palpable as different movement qualities and inner states. Whoever walks the water-step feels different from whoever walks the fire-step. Over months and years the practitioner learns to dive on request into each of the eight qualities.

In Bagua the opponent is no problem to be solved. The opponent is the eighth point of a geometry one already knows. One knows where one stands. That is enough.

Bagua as shamanic practice

In shamanically read Daoism, Bagua is a technique of rapture. The long rhythmic circle-walking leads after some time into an altered state of consciousness — comparable to what drumming or certain breathing techniques bring about. The head becomes still, perception widens, the body moves as if by itself.

In this state the Bagua practitioner is no longer simply a human who practises. He has become a centre — a place through which something flows. That is the proper shamanic function of this practice. The fighting techniques that derive from Bagua are the application of this wakefulness in encounter with a counterpart.

The three levels of Bagua practice

Physical level

The body learns to turn in the circle without losing its axis. The hip stays aligned while the shoulders turn. The hands draw patterns in the air corresponding to the eight trigrams. That alone is a training programme that takes months to be in the body.

Energetic level

During the practice Qi gathers in the Dantian, the lower energy centre, and circulates through the meridians. The experienced practitioner steers this circulation consciously. The different trigram qualities act on different organ systems.

Mental level

The mind gradually steps out of everyday preoccupation. After some time a state can be reached in which no inner commentary runs — only the walking, the breathing, attention to the circle. In this state the practice can pass into a shamanic working.

Bagua in the Shamanic-Worlds practice

At Shamanic Worlds, Bagua is one of the pillars of the Daoist-shamanic strand. It is not taught as an independent martial art — there are dōjōs and schools with that specialisation. With us Bagua stands in the context of shamanic practice: as body work that leads the practitioner into a specific consciousness- and energy-field, from which other shamanic works become possible.

That fits our general access: the martial art is never an end in itself. It is a tool to bring the human into a depth from which they live more alive — and decide more clearly what they do.