--- title: "Martial Arts, Energy Work & Practical Alchemy: An Interview with Marissa Newell" url: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/post/martial-arts-energy-work-practical-alchemy-an-interview-with-marisa-newell/ date: 2025-03-30 modified: 2026-07-03 lang: en author: "Perseus Arcane Academy" description: "Introduction In this interview, we get to learn from a seasoned practitioner, Marisa Newell who’s been on a long, hands-on journey through martial arts, energy work, and practical magic. We..." categories: - "Evocation" - "Franz Bardon" - "Internal Martial Arts" - "Interviews" tags: - "Evocation" - "Franz Bardon" - "Magic" - "Sifu Mark Rasmus" image: https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/b6a433_b0eca01b824a41b88ebd2c5c6969bbf9mv2-819x1024.jpg word_count: 3385 --- # Martial Arts, Energy Work & Practical Alchemy: An Interview with Marissa Newell ## Introduction In this interview, we get to learn from a seasoned practitioner, Marisa Newell who’s been on a long, hands-on journey through martial arts, energy work, and practical magic. We cover various disciplines—from the early days of learning Tai Chi in Thailand and working with teachers like Sifu Rod Savvides, to deep dives into inner alchemy and evocation with Sifu Mark Rasmus, Sifu Ludovic Pernot, and Sifu Michael Lamb. I hope you enjoy. If you would like to learn more about Marisa's work please visit her website [here](https://www.innertempleqigong.com/). --- ## Background **● Please tell us about your background and how you came to be on the path** **● Can you discuss any teachers or guides who helped you on the path and what they shared with you? From your website it looks like you have a great deal of experience with many varied teachers.** ## Kung Fu **● Could you share a little about your martial training? The different teachers and systems?** **● Sifu Rod Savvides** Thanks for this opportunity, James – I appreciate the work you’re doing and the support for practitioners. The start of my journey began by relocating from Australia to Thailand in 2004, and subsequently meeting the Russian psychic Diana Manilova in Chiang Mai. Diana suggested that I learn tai chi – which I knew nothing about at the time (2007) – and also astrology and crystal singing bowls. The following week I saw a flyer at a local cafe for tai chi chuan training with Sifu Rod Savvides at his Body and Mind Healing school … and that’s how I came to be on this path. The astrology and crystal singing bowls never eventuated. Under Sifu Rod, I trained Wudang Practical Tai Chi Chuan of Sifu Dan Docherty lineage which involved hand and weapons forms and applications, pushing hands, Baduanjin chi kung, zhan zhuang, and nei gong over the span of nine years. The majority of the training was purely physical with a focus on learning forms and how the forms are used in self-defence applications, along with some listening and sensitivity exercises like reeling silk. The Wudang Practical Tai Chi Chuan short and long hand forms are initially taught in a ‘square’ style – with each physical posture and movement separate from the other – before being taught ‘round’ with the postures flowing into each other in movement. It was a long learning process and certainly taught me about discipline and patience. While I enjoyed the training, over time I felt a huge lack of internal energy understanding and that the system was missing aspects to support inner development. So, seeking a practice beyond physical movement naturally led me to new teachers. Having had the opportunity to train with some great teachers and get a taste for different systems, I can attest that the teachers who have had the most impact upon my studies and path, and where I find the most resonance, are Sifu Mark Rasmus and Sifu Ludovic Pernod. ## Sifu Mark Rasmus **● Can you share about your first experience with Sifu Mark?** **● What made you decide to pursue in depth study with Sifu Mark** My first day of training with Sifu Mark Rasmus was exciting, intimidating and humbling. When I walked through the door he said, “I know you – you’re that warrior woman. You’re scary, throwing your spear around in the park.” He also likened me to Fudo Myoo, which I wasn’t sure how to take at the time.  I honestly didn’t feel much or understand a lot of Sifu Mark’s teachings in the beginning because I was so closed, despite being a sensitive type of person. The energy inside the training hall and the exercises – just at a vital level – touched a lot of my resistances, so my initial experience was quite difficult and chaotic. I knew how to show up and train regardless, so that’s what I did until I finally got things. It was a slow process for me and, thankfully, Sifu Mark was very welcoming and kind. This initial training period primarily revolved around building vital energy and training my physical body through building the ball, power stretches, eight powers, throwing exercises, and tree qigong. Another important area of focus was getting my astral body in equanimity. I would practice at Wat Umong temple every day and build the four elements into my astral body, and strengthen my connection to Akasha and Non-Dual White Light for self-healing. After about a month of this – just this practice alone – there were noticeable energy shifts or changes and this was massively encouraging and empowering. I had never worked with energy previously in such a way to affect real change as I did with Sifu Mark’s teachings. I took, and still do take, a very practical approach with my own training because I learn best through doing. I’m firmly convinced that we can only affect change through action. Understanding how energy works comes through experiencing it ourselves. A teacher can provide the theory and energy transmission, but you’ve got to be able to feel and reproduce the energy on your own with your own effort in order to take ownership of the teachings and transmissions. Over the years of training with Sifu Mark my interest in tai chi chuan and martial aspects in general gradually faded (although I still enjoy the rebounding force component of Sifu Mark’s system) and my focus shifted towards spiritual, ascension aspects of qigong and Hermetics.  I’m extremely grateful to Sifu Mark for sharing his knowledge so openly – it’s like standing on the shoulders of a giant – and I aim to live up to his ability, kindness and generosity as a teacher.  ##### Learn from Sifu Mark Rasmus on Perseus Arcane Academy ## Sifu Ludovic I can’t write about Sifu Mark Rasmus without mentioning one of his senior students, Sifu Ludovic Pernot. Sifu Ludovic is a powerhouse healer and teacher. With a military and martial arts background, he emphasises training the quantitative aspects of power and willpower through building proper vital energy foundations, and this is demonstrated by his powerful ability to bring energy into form. In 1995, at the age of 25, Sifu Ludovic met Taoist healer Sifu Liu in France and followed him to China in order to study with him until 2017. The lineage of Sifu Liu translates as ‘the people from Penguin Mountain’. Sifu Liu is not a master you’ll find on YouTube, but from the footage shared with me of his Taoist singing/chanting, tai chi / qigong forms and administering energy healing he was certainly special and you can sense that influence of energy in Sifu Ludovic’s field. Sifu Liu passed away on 23rd February 2025. On my first day of training with Sifu Mark, I met Sifu Ludovic and we subsequently trained together in the mornings before class. In classic military style I was expected to be at the park for training exactly on time – no excuses – and I thrived inside of that discipline which fueled my willpower to practice. I remember getting up early, riding on my bicycle in the dark to the park or the temple, very little talking and a lot of quality practice – standing and also seated meditation on uncomfortable benches while being swarmed by mosquitoes, bugs and insects, but with my spirit feeling completely invigorated. Sifu Ludovic is one of the hardest teachers I’ve ever had, but I’ve also had some of the best experiences and breakthroughs training with him. The countless hours of training together and friendship on the path has had a huge impact on my development and I’m fortunate to have Sifu Ludovic as a teacher. ## Hermetics and Kabbalah with Sifu Michael Lamb Michael is a wonderful character, can you share what it was like working with him? Despite him and Sifu Mark sharing the same teacher in William Cook I imagine both have their own expression. Sifu Michael Lamb is certainly quite the character! And yes, he and Sifu Mark have their own individual approach, personality and expression of the Hermetic teachings from their teacher, William Cook Edwards.  I met Sifu Michael in 2023 during the lead-up to Sifu Mark’s annual trainings in Chiang Mai. Sifu Michael had scheduled his Kabbalah and the Tree of Life workshop to follow soon afterwards.  Senior students were generously given the opportunity to practice and learn energy meditations with Sifu Micheal in the evenings and that was a lot of fun. One evening Sifu Michael took us on a mental wandering exercise up Doi Suthep mountain (which backs on to the training hall), mentally moving from the training room, up the mountain, feeling the vegetation and coolness, and then slowly settling on the top of the mountain. As we settled there and became one with the mountain, I felt the entire mountain move – serpent and circular-like – and all of a sudden, I felt a power rising up and the head of a giant naga (Asian serpentine dragon) appeared in front of me – blazing and golden – and I was face-to-face with it for some minutes. It was an incredible and unforgettable experience and I see that mountain with different eyes now.  Sifu Michael is a wealth of knowledge and he led us through wonderful meditations with our chakras, the elements and the Kabbalah letters during his workshop. We also worked with constellations, which was new for me, and I had some very memorable and interesting experiences, particularly with the stars Arcturus and Sirius. The training is excellent for developing psychic senses and he runs this course online with his partner, Manuela Elphame, through their M&M Hermetic Mastery programs. **● How do you apply the teachings you received to your own programs? Internal Alchemy & Qigong Level 1** **● Please tell us about this program, would this be something similar to the work of Franz Bardons first book?** My training programs are based upon the teachings of Sifu Mark and Sifu Ludovic, with Franz Bardon having obviously influenced their teachings. Training is centered around developing the feeling sense perception of energy – clairsentience – and, through that, students are better able to navigate and understand energy and states of consciousness.  I tend to attract people who are seeking healing and spirituality. My students are a mix of beginners wanting to heal and find more meaning in life and established healers, therapists and teachers who have been practicing in their fields for a long time but feel they’re missing the energetic aspects. My Inner Temple program is inspired by evocation work with four elemental beings Pyrhum, Parahim, Amasol, and Mentiful, and the Earth sphere being Aschmunadai. In *Foundations of the Inner Temple: Internal Alchemy & Qigong Intensive (Level 1)* we focus on the vital, astral and mental energy layers with an emphasis on the four elements to build a framework primarily for inner work, self-healing and raising our consciousness. We incorporate basic mental training to develop the observer mind; astral training to investigate our astral personality and how the elements express in our black and white mirror, and how to alchemise our emotions; and vital training with the use of a chi brush and vital breathing each day to build energy for energy transformation work.  My approach is extremely practical. The majority of the internal alchemy and qigong exercises are done in seated meditation, with corresponding partner work to increase awareness of how energy affects not only themselves but other people. I find that people learn and understand much more through partner work. The basic starting point for partner work is learning how to feel our training partner’s feet through the tension line of their body and to open and float them with vital energy and, from that, increasing the complexity of partner exercises primarily for healing. **● How long does it usually take for students to get accustomed to the elements and develop their clairsentience?** By the end of Level 1 – 40 hours over ten days of training – students will have developed clairsentience with the ability to feel the vibrational scale of energy and feel stronger with the harmony of the four elements in their vital, astral and mental bodies.  Occasionally some students find it difficult to feel energy, but because the training resonates with them and they see other students having experiences they continue training – often working harder than the students who are more sensitive and intuitive.  Towards the end of the Level 1 training I introduce Akasha and Non-Dual White Light. I find that this transmission connects people to a higher state that they haven’t touched before, or may have touched before but haven’t had the mechanism or way to get back to that experience, and it can be a profound experience that inspires them on their path. By the end of this training students have a lot of information, practices and a clear framework to take home and support their inner work, healing and growth. I also have an online Telegram group to support the students and so that everyone can stay connected. **● Leading on from the elements, what needs to occur for students to move onto the akasha and non dual light?** I simply offer Akasha and Non-Dual White Light teachings for those who want to learn after completing Level 1. Some do and others don’t. By the end of Level 1 students know if they are ready to do that work or need time to integrate what they have already learned before continuing further study.  In *Building the Inner Temple: Internal Alchemy & Qigong Intensive (Level 2)* – also 40 hours over ten days – the program focuses on Akasha and Non-Dual White Light exercises. We continue to build vital energy each day and also the elements in the three bodies, and learn how to invoke the elements from Akasha.  We go into deeper aspects of self-healing and also healing techniques with our training partners using the elements, Akasha and Non-Dual White Light. We connect to our spiritual guides and I introduce the Buddhist deity Akashagarbha and we learn how to work with Akasagarbha and our spiritual guides inside of our healing work, and on a path of service. Students usually have memorable peak experiences inside of Akasha and Non-Dual White Light, and for long-time practitioners a lot of what that they have previously learned and experienced makes greater sense inside of those frequencies. > In meditation we have our own interaction with the spirit/deity/intelligence and afterwards journal and share our experiences within the group. > > Marissa Newell **● How long would students need to work with this material before looking towards Evocation?** For students who have completed Levels 1 and 2, I offer guidance in evocation. Again, students usually know whether they’re ready for learning these techniques or instead need more time to integrate what they’ve learned in the first two levels. My evocation groups tend to be smaller, more intimate. *Expanding the Inner Temple: Practical Magical Evocation Workshop (Level 3)* consists of three hours per day of meditation with different spirits/deities/intelligences over nine days. We refine the mechanics of transforming energy, releasing our bodies, raising up into Light, opening a circle, and with invocation each day. Approaching this work on a path of service, evolution and ascension, we start with invocation of the elemental spirits and Aschmunadai to build a stable and quiet Inner Temple space for practice, and then progressively work with intelligences from the Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Sun planetary spheres.  In meditation we have our own interaction with the spirit/deity/intelligence and afterwards journal and share our experiences within the group. Student experiences will range from deep healing to profound insights, information to evolve their current life interests, and clair-senses awakening and developing. It’s a lot of fun. This workshop provides a simple and powerful way to connect and work with spirits/deities/intelligences utlising the framework learned from Levels 1 and 2, with a practical energy and feeling perception-based approach.   I’ve evolved the trainings over time, drawing upon feedback from students, trying to better understand what people seek in trainings, and taking into consideration potential availability and the realistic time commitments that students face. I’m sure that what I offer and my development as a teacher will continue to evolve into the future. ![](https://staging13.perseusarcaneacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/b6a433_eba7c8ef7f934eaa875a2d770228b36fmv2.jpg) ## Evocation **● This is very personal experience but if you are able can you share about any notable experiences? Whether that be due to the entity in question or as a result of the practice.** **● What can you tell us about your work with Evocation? Does it strictly follow the course that Bardon lays out?** **● I notice you work with Buddhist and Taoist deities, how did you go about contact these initially? Via Mental Wandering?** Evocation is what I enjoy the most and I follow the method as taught by Sifu Mark Rasmus which utilises Franz Bardon’s *The Practice of Magical Evocation* as a guide to the intelligences. I use the same method for working with Buddhist and Taoist deities too. The platform for connecting to spirits/deities/intelligences is through Akasha and Non-Dual White Light. The deity is invoked through the crown and into the mental body, working with our feeling sense gate. We feel the deity enter the mental body and then there is a process of releasing the mind, sense of self, mental body and facial muscles to come into resonance with the deity. Feeling the energetic signature of the deity over your face provides a marker for staying connected or in contact with the deity. Interacting with the deity inside of Light and our mental body, the energy translates into information and insight on our path. Healing can also take place as Light filters down into our astral and physical bodies. I’ve had a lot of profound experiences in evocation.  My entry point was practicing deity yoga with Buddhist deity Fudo Myoo, breathing to and from a printed image of Fudo Myoo and connecting with it energetically – vital, astral, mental, Akasha, and Non-Dual White Light – sensing the effects upon the three bodies. In vital one immediately feels the power of the vital energy from Fudo Myoo. Moving into the astral one gets a sense for how the heart centre opens through his love and compassion for all beings. In the mental body an understanding of the immovable nature of his mind – to be concentrated and still. After establishing a connection to Fudo Myoo in this way for some time, I then practiced evocation and the energy and experiences began to amplify. Most notably when I first experienced fire rising from the ground into the space/room and through the three bodies as a type of purification and how Fudo Myoo regulates energy for healing. Sifu Ludovic introduced me to the Taoist deity, Ancestor Pengzu, from his time with Sifu Liu in China. Ancestor Pengzu is the father of qigong who emits a light of longevity, and there is a specific five organs practice (Yang Sheng) which has an incredible effect on the physical body – particularly, for women, regulating the menstrual cycle. Over one particular period of time, I was working with Ancestor Pengzu each day, inviting the deity into the space and doing the five organs practice. Amidst different energy experiences, I began having clairvoyant experiences. Ancestor Pengzu appeared along with other Taoist deities, most notably a female deity named Xi Wang Mu, also known as the Queen Mother of the West. Over that month I was given information on different herbs to eat and drink that were all associated with longevity and health. I experienced past lives as a Taoist monk, was shown specific qigong forms for longevity, and also encountered dragons. I always feel very good when I work with the energy of Ancestor Pengzu, particularly at a vital-physical level and I return to the five organs practice time and time again. Working from Franz Bardon’s book, the Sun sphere intelligences have had the greatest impact upon me and I would say that most students who train with Sifu Mark sense the connection and alignment to the Sun sphere through his teachings. I feel that the personal and spiritual evolution inside of my own practice and development as a teacher is supported by the beings of Sun.  --- ##### Learn with Marissa --- ---