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

controlled behavior that characterizes most erotic acts of dominance and
submission very often creates a ritual in and of itself.
These pre-existing elements, familiar to most non-magicians who
have undergone this sexual experience, are what makes the application of
magical purpose to these operations so effective. We have noticed that the
qualities of discipline and concentration that typify the dominant/submissive
exchange can quite easily be applied to sorcerous and initiatory purposes
even by individuals relatively unlearned in magical theory. For many
beginning sex magicians just trying to get the hang of magical principles, the
dominant/submissive rite may often be the best introduction to sex magic,
assuming of course that they are psychosexually suited to such work.
What could be more natural, then, but for the left-hand path magician
to combine these two events, harnessing the intense erotic potential of sexual
pain for magical objectives? It is not surprising that many long-time S&M
devotees have noticed the spiritual aspects of the sadomasochistic ritual.
However, the rather more conservative magical community has been
significantly slower in realizing – or admitting to – the similarities it shares
with the praxis of a sexual subculture currently afforded roughly the same
degree of suspicious but begrudging tolerance magicians currently enjoy in
the slightly more tolerant attitude of this era.
Although many left-hand path magicians like to think that their
metaphysical concerns have placed them on a higher plane in society's eyes
than the strictly sexual pursuits of the S&M aficionado, the plain fact is that
both subcultures are generally viewed in the same light by society at large: as
possibly harmless but potentially dangerous maniacs pursuing interests of no
value to any sane citizen. As we have seen, spiritual deviance and sexual
deviance are often closely allied, although it would be a generalization to say
that this is always the case.
Even in the non-magical world of profane S&M, one finds striking
parallels with the traditional left-hand path practice of Tantra. Consider that
the erotic subculture of dominance and submission is heavily populated by
men – often those established in outwardly powerful roles in society – who
delight in being abused and degraded by prostitute-dominatrixes dwelling at
what conventional moralists would consider the lowest rung of the social
ladder. Here we have a ritualized inversion of the normative balance of things
very much in keeping with the left-hand path practice of opposite-doing. The
exaggerated female domination of the male that forms the basis of so many
S&M experiences can be viewed as a secular manifestation of Shakti, in her
darkest, most wrathful form.
Like the left-hand path Tantrika's transformation of man into
woman, and night into day, the submissive's replacement of pleasure with
pain, and awareness of the thin line between the two sensations, is a powerful
example of reversing apparent opposites that we have already seen is so
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important to the left-hand path. For most humans drawn to such erotic
experiences, this if of course entirely unconscious. However, the sinister
current sex magician will see how the ritualized tension of diametrical forces
and inversions of social roles inherent to S&M can consciously be applied to
erotic initiation.
The Magical Roots Of S&M Literature
Dominique Aury, the French author whose masterpiece of willing sexual
slavery, The Story Of 0, was written under the nom de plume Pauline Réage,
perfectly captures the ritualistic and numinous aspect of the S&M experience.
She also wrote perceptively of the hidden theurgic and sacerdotal elements of
the master/slave bond in her introduction to Jean de Berg's potent novel The
Image:
"... the all powerful slave, dragging herself along the ground at her master's
heels, is now really the god. The man is only her priest, living in fear and