Ritual

currents around the Sushumna, the central subtle nerve, and their
contraction and expansion when the Kundalim awakes, are
depicted in spiral form. The spiral symbolically projected in the
inward odyssey is a microcosmic reflection of cosmic rhythms.
At a cursory glance, most symbolic forms in tantra seem
hypothetically based images, but it would not be surprising if these
spontaneous and authentic signs afford clues to the nature of the
universe. Jung cites the striking example of the 19th-century
chemist Kekule who owed his scientific discoveries to the sudden
pictorial revelation of an age-old symbol of a snake with its tail in
its mouth (symbol of the sleeping Kundalini energy) and
interpreted it to mean that the structure of benzene was a closed
carbon ring, which it is.
The stone forms of the ovoid Brahmandas, or Siva-lingas, and
spheroid Salagramas symbolize the totality in which the male and
female principles are eternally united. In the vast expansiveness
captured in a single curve in an oval or a circle, matter is made to
yield its intrinsic nature so that the inert becomes alive. There is no
flamboyance or associative corruption. Its broad universality of
impersonal form and content, and close relation to nature,
guarantee to it mass recognition and general acceptance.
Tantric imagery reaches its highest level of abstraction in the
expression of Pure Consciousness pervading the nuomenal
universe. These paintings depict the absolute by a total absence of
form, whose spiritual presence is indicated by a saturated coloured
field which induces a resonance of the infinite. The 'a-logical
immensity' of colour is Sakti's power-field in its pure existence
when the cosmic process has reverted to entropy. All forms,
shapes, structures have dissolved; only the primordial essence of
the exhilarating presence of energy as a reference of the absolute
remains. Such paintings also embody the highest ideal of
meditative soliloquy and therefore signify the last stage of spiritual
realization, often accompanied by an intense perception of the
experience of light.
Cosmograms
Scattered through the annals of tantra are descriptions of the origin
of the universe; its various characteristic features have been
illustrated on a scale from miniatures to murals. Especially
interesting are cosmological and astrological charts, astronomical
computations and observations of natural phenomena. These
representations are philosophical constructs of a world image and
Five-hooded serpent-power
enclosing Brahmanda. South India,
c. 19th century. Brass and stone.
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