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

Mantra – A Form Of Sonic Magic
Traditional left-hand path magic in both its Indian and Tibetan branches is
intrinsically bound up with the mantric science, and each phase of the lefthand
path sexual rite is accompanied by the vocalization of appropriate
mantras. The word mantra has been translated as "thinking tool", which
provides an apt technical definition of these sounds or words, provided by
guru to student as an aid to consciousness alteration.
It is believed by both left-hand path and right-hand path Tantrikas
that specific sound vibrations spoken (struck sound) or merely thought
(unstruck sound) can transform internal and external reality – a concept not
dissimilar to the Western magician's incantations. Indeed, the mantras known
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as dharanis are often thought of as "spells". Tantra teaches that the fabric of
this entire material universe is formed from the utterance of certain
primordial vibrations or tones.
Our emphasis throughout this book on the importance to the lefthand
path magician of understanding exact word meanings can then be
understood as a fundamentally Tantric concept; the precise manipulation of
sounds and words is a magical tool that controls the seen and the subtle
dimensions. So important is mantra to Tantricism that the Buddhist variation
of Tantra is often known simply as mantrayama.
As the sexual rite unfolds, the Vama Marga yogi or yogini
traditionally intones specific mantras suitable to each juncture of the
operation, either speaking them aloud or thinking them internally. Many of
these mantras convey coded sex-magical symbolism. For instance, the
Tibetan Om Mani Padmi Hum, probably the Tantric Buddhist mantra best
known throughout the West, translates as "the jewel is in the lotus". The
jewel symbolizes the penis or lingam and the lotus symbolizes the vagina or
yoni; their union in coitus represents the divine intercourse of the masculine
and feminine principle so important to sinister current initiation. Another
mantra of special importance to the Indian left-hand path is the vocal
vibration Klim, which embodies the hidden power unleashed through sexual
coupling. The repetitive Ajapa mantra is uttered by simply inhaling and
exhaling, a process which is said to vibrate "hung-sah, hung-sah"; the preverbal
sound of the breath being drawn in and out. This mantra is a magical
recreation within the body of the inhaling and exhaling of the universecreating
force, an act of merged creation and destruction.
Readers familiar with the Hermetic tradition of ceremonial magic
may profitably compare the left-hand path use of mantras with the uttering
of "barbarous names" in the rituals of that tradition, or the Enochian
language developed by Dr. John Dee. All are forms of sonic magic that work
upon the hidden interstices of mind and matter, their potency all the greater
for their very unintelligibility to the waking consciousness. Dismissed by
non-magicians as nonsensical noises without meaning, the mantra speaks to
levels of reality impenetrable to rational expression. Aleister Crowley,
whose poetic pursuits made him more sensitive than most magicians to the
magic of the word, commented that "the long strings of formidable words
which roar and moan through so many conjurations have a real effect in
exalting the consciousness of the magician to the proper pitch."
Much of the force of the left-hand path mantra is generated by the
conditions of secrecy in which it is transmitted to the initiate. Like the
intimate transference of erotic power conveyed through touch in the Vama
Marga sexual rite, the whispered sharing of the mantra from guru to adept
cloaks the word of power in its own air of conspiracy. According to Vama
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Marga tradition, the mantra entrusted to the student by one's preceptor
cannot be effective if it is simply read from a book. The ritual act of being
personally provided with the mantra within an intimate initiatory context is