Hunting and fighting have been part of being a man ever since man has been man. From the first day what we call man stepped onto earth he has been both a hunter and a fighter. Every healthy coming of age ceremony has addressed these aspects of manhood. Every boy who has ever become a man in a healthy society has developed both the fighter and hunter aspects of himself and his nature and knows that he’ll likely always feel that something is missing if he does not.
In the corrupted modern world man has been told to abandon these parts of himself, that they are irrelevant to the modern male or even worse that they are bad things. Things to be hated, looked down upon, and reviled. However this is foolish, short sighted, and doesn’t line up with the primal-cosmic order, meaning reality. Fighting and hunting are two fundamental aspects of man, of the warrior poet. Without them you’ll never feel complete and you’ll miss out on something pure and primal that connects you to your ancestors.
There is a purity to these things that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the corrupted modern world. The modern world where everything is controlled by lust, greed, wrath, and the baser natures of man. The modern world where corruption and mammon rules the day and honor and goodness are rare sights. Hunting and fighting is a way to reconnect with something deeper and more timeless than the modern world. The deep roots that are not reached by the frost as Tolkien would say.
The Primal Worlds Of Fighting & Hunting
We are numbed in the modern world by many different things, simple existence in the modern world very often numbs and distances us from who we are as men, from our souls, our masculinity, our inner fires. Combine this with all the other glittering traps and poisons of the modern world and we often end up completely disconnected from our primal and higher natures. We end parodies of what man is to be, what man was supposed to be. We end up halfway broken robots or insects, making a mockery of both.
Because man was not meant to be this way. One thing I recommend that every man do is spend more time in nature. There is a healing, calming, and strengthening power to nature that the city and modern “human” life will sap right out of you. It transposes you into a healthier and more natural world. It transposes you to an old vein that you can draw strength and power from. Where you can relight your inner fire and reinvigorate old withered pathways within you.
Fighting and hunting are different worlds, they transpose you to something primal, healthy, and good in the primal/cosmic sense. They reconnect you with something primal and vital. There’s something pure about them that you’ll not find other places. And the only way to truly understand what I’m talking about is to take time to experience and do both. To go out there and step into the woods or ring/mat/cage and figure out what I’m talking about for yourself.
The Purity Of Combat
There is a purity in the ring/cage that you’ll not find other places. When you step in there, you have an adversary, and adversary that is going to try to best you and you are going to try to best him. You must use your strength, your wits, and your craft to overcome him. You must mitigate weaknesses you may have and utilize your strengths to the best of your ability. You must out strategize, outfight, and outwork your opponent for victory. Your adversary comes forth with clear intentions and you go forth with clear intentions as well.
Then at the end you embrace and smile, knowing you both were tested and became stronger. There is a simpleness, a directness, again a purity to combat that is absent from most male’s lives. In the modern world where everything is deception and a lie it is nice to stand honestly with another and lock horns with the goal of victory and becoming stronger and better. There is something refreshing about someone coming for you and you for them and then embracing afterwards.
You’ll be both humbled and gain confidence at the same time. You’ll learn wisdom and strength side by side. You’ll gain courage and tact at the same time. You’ll learn to express yourself honestly and truly. There is something refreshing and invigorating to combat that you won’t find in other endeavors. A primal energy that other sports and athletic endeavors do not posses. Go try it yourself and experience the purity of combat.
The Purity Of Hunting
The damp smell of early morning soil, the stench of an animal’s trail, the excitement when you see the fleck of brown among the green. You can’t do much better for a primal connection than hunting. Not to mention it is a great way to provide healthy and plentiful meat to your family. When you step out into the woods or settle down in a tree stand and its just you and nature there is a deep meditative quality to it that I think most who don’t hunt will never truly understand. There is a connection there to nature that you’re hard pressed to find other places.
The purity. It’s you and game out there. There is an animal that doesn’t want to be caught and you want to catch him. You must use wits and whatever advantage you can to bring home a clean kill. If you use bow or spear you must use skill and make use of intelligence to bring down the game. You are taking life, you are taking life so that you may give life. You are spilling blood and you are realizing the spilling of blood is not evil, but is to be respected.
You are taking part in the primal cycle, the cycle of earth. The ancient cycle that was here long before the corrupted modern world and will be here when the corrupted modern world finally crumbles away. Again it’s something you have to get out there and experience to truly understand. And it likely might not click for you until after you get your first kill. So find a place to hunt, learn how to do it properly, and get whatever legal things that you need to do. And I’d recommend using a bow over a gun, the less bells and whistles on it the better. Could also try a spear but that’ll take more time, but might be something to work towards.
Renew Your Spirit With These Primal Activities
When I say these things have a purity I mean more than they’re nice things, I mean they have a renewing effect on your spirit, on your masculinity. These two things truly are unique and if you’ve never experienced or at least tried them as men then you’re missing out. I’m not saying you have to be a competitive fighter or hunt every weekend, not at all. I’m simply saying try both these things out and have them as part of your life in some capacity. Drop whatever negative stereotypes you might have about either activity and try it for yourself.
Be your own judge and you’ll be richly rewarded by these two primal activities. The pureness of them and the challenge of them is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Use them, gain from them, understand them, and be rewarded by participating in them. Men were created, were meant to be both hunters and warriors and if they neglect these parts of themselves they’ll never be complete. Try them both and see what you discover.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
