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

e most useful for encouraging an initiate to go beyond the limits he or she is
comfortable with, but the danger of being taken advantage of exists and must
be cautiously observed and avoided. This is simply one of the possible
dangers of the left-hand path that one must come to terms with. It is a quest
of liberation that takes place in the real world, necessitating the always
potentially risky and disillusioning contact with the unstable and unreliable
chaos of humanity. If you desire absolute safety, the way of ascetic solitude
and retreat – the way of the monk – is probably better suited for you than the
left-hand path.
You may also, for a time, encounter an authentic school of initiation
that will provide you with the friction and opportunity for comparison one
needs to develop. But as already mentioned, the inbuilt conflict between
essentially control-dominated human group dynamics and the radical
liberatory objectives of the sinister current often limits the value of such
group alliances.
Finally, there is an archetypal tradition in almost every culture and
mythology, that as soon as the initiate takes the first step towards his or her
liberation, or approaches a new breakthrough in the Great Work, an obstacle,
disguised as a blessing, reveals itself as a test. Not infrequently, this
manifests as a sexually desirable man or woman. Victor Neuburg, Crowley's
much abused student, wrote poetically of this ordeal in his The New Diana,
in 1912: "There is one who all but fell into the abyss, through the Wiles of a
Syren; for she by her seductions closed against him the way of Initiation ...
even to the brink of Hell was lured that Disciple; the White Breasts and dark
eyes of Lilith stood even between him and the Great Gods, wherefore the
gods smote him heavily for his Perfidy to Them and his Master. And this
Syren was the Projection of the Disciple himself upon the Screen of the
visible Universe, even as Lilith was a projection of the god Adonia."
Neuburg was referring to a young woman with whom he fell in love
at a crucial juncture in his training. Since the poet envisioned himself as a
walker of the right-hand path, he naturally interpreted the wiles of the "Syren
... Lilith" as a lure from his course. The adept of the left-hand path, would be
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more likely to interpret the appearance of such a "Syren" – whether male or
female – as the manifestation of the opposite-sex sex-magical consort with
whom the unio mystica of the left-hand path can be realized. Neuburg's
metaphor of "the Screen of the visible Universe" as a "Projection of the
Disciple" aptly describes the left-hand path idea that the magician is partially
responsible for the creation of his or her consort, through the workings of
maya; the infinitely desirable Shakti is created in her adoring Shiva's mind.
But developing sufficient discernment to judge the difference between those
manifestations of Shakti-maya that lead one to gnosis and those that are
delusive mirages is the work of many years of testing one's self against the
complexities of the shifting phenomena of the wide world. Thus, the blind
optimist who selectively prefers to see only "the good side" of all human
beings is as hopelessly crippled by self-created maya as the bitter cynic who
can only see the worst aspects of humanity. The adept observes the spectacle
of humanity with both eyes, and from as many possible viewpoints as
possible.
From considering our own lives, and the actual experiences of longtime
sex magicians, it seems to us that the true teachers of sex magic will
appear in the course of your initiation when you least anticipate them and not
necessarily as intentional teachers. For the most part, the initiator or initiatrix
that guides you into sex-magical breakthroughs of authentic meaning is far
more likely to manifest spontaneously as part of your everyday life, rather
than in the formal guise of guru. Until that teacher, school or sex-magical
alter ego does appear, the following exercises and experiments will prepare
you for the journey ahead.