I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

eaches his highest level of initiation through the power of a female consort,
his duti or messenger between the physical body and the divine force of the
Feminine Daemonic in its many forms. We have already mentioned that a
common feature of the myth of the magus in almost every culture is his
association with just such an initiatrix. Leaving aside the complex issue of
whether the magician Jesus Christ (not a personal name but Greek for
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"Annointed Saviour") actually existed as one single historical personage, we
can easily identify the woman in his myth who was the esoteric source of his
power.
Mary of Magdalene, according to Church tradition, is the
embodiment of the fallen woman, the woman of sin. She is the archetypal
whore, portrayed in centuries of religious art, many Hollywood-kitsch Bible
epics, and at least one popular musical as a beautiful prostitute who leaves
her debased life behind to follow the abstentious teachings of her Master. In
this popular image, the all-suffering virtue she demonstrates as one of the
first Christians stands in stark polarity to her previous existence as the most
lascivious of creatures. We are to understand that the Magdalene's calling to
harlotry was not dictated by financial need alone but was the result of her
unquenchable desire. In this respect, she served to illustrate the commonly
asserted Christian view that all women were driven by a consuming
nymphomaniacal frenzy, an infernal temptation perpetually drawing men
away from purity. William Caxton's The Golden Legend or The Lives Of The
Saints is fairly typical of writings about Mary Magdalene, telling us that
"she shone in beauty greatly, and in riches, so much the more she submitted
her body to delight, and therefore she lost her right name, and was called
customarily a sinner."
But from a left-hand path perspective, the Magdalene can also be
understood as an incarnation of that formidable avatar of shakti power, the
sacred courtesan, she whose erotic energy is so highly prized by the adept of
the Vama Marga.
The Bible itself, characteristically, offers only a few sparse details
about Mary. These vague mentions have been embellished by Catholic
theologians into a full-blown narrative, just as other famous Bible characters,
including Satan, have been granted stories in later Church tradition that are
far more extensive than anything actually located in the scriptural texts
themselves. But the Church legend woven around Mary Magdalene is quite
interesting, not least since it grants this mysterious feminine figure such an
important role in the drama of Jesus' initiation.
She is commonly understood to be the nameless woman who washes
Christ's feet with holy oil, thus making Mary Magdalene the anointer of
Jesus," [who] has anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with
her hair." Through this ritual anointing, the magician's self-deified status is
actualized by the Feminine Daemonic, as personified in human form by a
disreputable prostitute, a living symbol of sexual energy without bounds.
Within the Hellenic magical tradition of Christ's time, there was a longstanding
practice of the magician anointing himself with oils as a phase in his
transformation from human to divine consciousness. The "woman of the city,
a sinner" who Jesus defends from a stone-throwing mob, in heretical
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contradiction to tribal law, is also commonly identified as Mary Magdalene.
The Bible also refers to "Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven evil
spirits had gone out."
Just as Mary Magdalene's anointing of Jesus indicates that she is the
first to accept that he truly is "the son of [a] god" (a common claim made by
the magi of the time), she is also granted a pivotal place in all of the
important phases of the magician Christ's ascension from man to deity. Her
presence at the turning points in the myth of Jesus support the theory that she