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

eceived an erotic sacrament, equivalent to the sexual transmission of shakti
operant in the left-hand path maithuna. The transcendent function of
sexuality as a medium of divine communion occurring within the timeless
locus of the temple, rather than as an alleviation of temporally bound
physiological tensions, is the lost secret of sacred prostitution.
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A clear demarcation must be made between two types of sacred
prostitution. There were the holy whores who were formally dedicated as
slaves of a temple's presiding divinity and there were the profane women
compelled to follow the common custom of temporarily offering themselves
to strangers at the temple as a one-time self-sacrifice to the Goddess before
marriage. This latter example of a widespread, obligatory, pre-nuptial
religious observance did not partake of the same magical function engaged
in by the permanent prostitute priestesses.
In Egypt, sacred courtesans were the priestesses of Bastet and
Hathor, goddesses of sexual love. Even after the decline of Egypt, the city of
Naucratis was famed throughout the antique world for the beauty and
seductive powers of its temple prostitutes. In Greece, the hetairae of
Aphrodite Porne – Aphrodite the Whore – were especially honored. We
have already discussed the devadasis of India, perhaps the longest-lasting
cult of holy harlotry. But even in ancient times, the sacred whores of
Babylon were accorded an unique dignity This reputation endures to this day
in the image of Babylon as the height of lascivious idolatry – even the name
has become a synonym for erotic excess taken to religious extremes.
The Great Whore
In the thrice mysterious hall where men have never entered, we
have feted you, Astarte of the Night. Mother of the World, Well-
Spring of the life of all the Gods! I shall reveal a portion of the
rite, but no more of it than is permissible.
About a crowned phallos, a hundred-twenty women swayed and
cried.
The initiates were dressed as men, the others in the split tunic.
The fumes of perfume and the smoke of torches
floated fog-like in and out among us all
I wept my scorching tears.
All, at the feet of Berbeia, we threw ourselves, extended on our hacks.
Then, when the religious Act was consummated,
and when in the Holy Triangle the purpled phallos had been
plunged anew, the mysteries began; but I shall say no more.
– Pierre Louys, The Songs Of Bilitis
The essential left-hand mysterium of self-deification flowing from initiated
female to male is described in one of the earliest extant texts of world
literature. In the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, dating from 7000 B.C.E, we
read of an act of sexual initiation occurring between Samhat, a herem, or
whore of the temple, and the primordial wild man Enkidu. The herein
"opened wide her garments, exposing her charms, yielded herself to his
embraces, and for six days and seven nights gratified his desire, until he was
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won from his wild life."
Enkidu is transformed from a beast to a hero via this erotic induction
carried out during the magically significant seven nights. In this marathon
bout of sexual initiation we can recognize an ancient Near Eastern version of
Vama Marga methodology. Enkidu, an animal bound entirely to nature, is a
pashu; he becomes heroic – a potentially divine vira – only through
prolonged contact with the sacred feminine force of the temple prostitute, the
intermediary of the Great Goddess on earth. As in the Vama Marga rite
celebrated with the initiated mudra, sex with this prostitute-priestess is an
operation of theurgic sex magic that profoundly alters the consciousness of