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

Feminine Daemonic that characterizes the left-hand path; in fact, although
many women were charmed by him, he was often described as the epitome
of the overbearing macho patriarch. His ebullient promiscuity alone, despite
certain suggestions of erotic-esoteric energy transfer, certainly doesn't
qualify him as a left-hand path adept. However, there are enough indications
of a Tibetan Tantric influence in his life and thought to cause us to wonder if
he did not view his many female consorts as Songyums, or "secret mothers",
in keeping with the covert practice of sexual initiation within left-handed
Buddhism. Gurdjieff, ever the Sly Man, left only hints; whatever the motive
force of his teaching was, it was largely communicated privately and in
terms that suited each individual student.
Rasputin And The Holiness Of Sin
In considering the existence of a Slavic left-hand path, as suggested by such
figures as Naglowska and Gurdjieff, the almost legendary sex-mystical
exploits of Grigori Yefimovich (1862—1916) are worthy of a brief
contemplation. For all of his notoriety, Yefimovich, far better known by his
nickname of Rasputin (derived from the Russian word for "dissolute" or
"lewd") has had surprisingly little influence on the sex magical tradition of
the West. But the heretical Christian and heathen synthesis of erotic
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illumination engaged in by Rasputin and his female followers makes for an
excellent example of the universality of left-hand path principles.
A great deal of foolishness has previously been written concerning
Rasputin, who has been caricaturized as a Satanic mad monk. The "Satanic"
charge has not the least basis in fact, and is simply based on his sinister
reputation. Far from mad, Rasputin appears to have been a canny if
uneducated observer of human nature, whose disreputable religious practices
were in striking contrast to an otherwise calm and serious demeanor. And he
was never a monk by any means; he spent all of three months on a spiritual
retreat at a monastery, but never sought or claimed holy orders. Rather, he
was considered by his admirers to he a starets, a wandering "holy man", due
to his reputation for possessing mysterious powers of healing and second
sight, which can he described as magical in nature. Rasputin's possession of
magical siddhi was sincerely attested to by the adoring women in his circle,
one of whom was the Tsarina Alexandra, Empress of all the Russias, for
whom all types of occultism had long been an abiding interest. The strange
circumstances of Rasputin's death have only contributed to the enduring
legend of his uncanny powers.
Rasputin's crude if energetic methods of sexual initiation were not
his invention; they were adapted fairly faithfully from his contact with a
Russian pseudo-Gnostic sect popularly known as the Khlysti, or
"flagellators." Although the Khlysti never attained anything like the complex
philosophical and esoteric body of wisdom known to Tantra, there are many
similarities between their rites and those of the Vama Marga. Both
techniques utilize copulation as a process of self-deification. The moment of
supreme sexual ecstasy enjoyed by the Khlysti couple leads not to identity
with Shiva/Shakti but to the male's mutation of his mortal consciousness into
the Christ, while the female is transformed into the Virgin Mary. This act of
spiritual incest between deified humans also recalls the agape practiced by
libertine Gnostics, in which the male is mystically transformed into Christ,
and his consort becomes the Sophia. As with the libertine Gnostics, the
Khlysti interpret the mystery of sexual illumination as the spiritual descent of
the holy ghost into the physical body.
Initiates of the Khlysti, usually located in rural Russia, feigned
devotion to the Russian Orthodox Church during the day, waiting until their
clandestine nocturnal gatherings had commenced to practice their true
religion. Just as the sexual evocation of Shakti in India's secret rite is
traditionally carried out in an abandoned place at midnight, the witching hour