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

deliberately test the initiate's ability to control consciousness under any
circumstances.
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The taboo status of these four substances in Hindu society confronts
the practitioner with the transgression of the forbidden so important to the
left-hand path – but there is also a practical reason recommending their
consumption before the actual sex rite. These three foods and wine have long
been thought to possess aphrodisiac qualities likely to enhance the erotic
union of Shakti and Shiva in maithuna. For Hindus who have spent their
lives on a strictly enforced vegetarian diet, abstaining from alcohol and an
excess of sexuality, one can easily imagine that even this seemingly mild rite
would be heady stuff.
Much of the disrepute which Tantric ritual held in the eyes of the
British rulers of India – and among the abstemious higher castes of Indians –
was inspired by more than the scandalous Tantric celebration of sexual
ecstasy. The traditional use of drugs in the practice was also worrisome to the
guardians of public morality.
In mentioning the Rite of the Five M's, many a modern apologist for
left-handed Tantra has selectively ignored the frequent use of the hempbased
drugs bhang or ganjam – potent preparations of marijuana and hashish
– commonly used in the rite as an aphrodisiac. The master yogi, Shiva, who
rules over all altered states of consciousness, is frequently portrayed brewing
bhang and other hallucinatory potions. Although the use of bhang augments
sensations of physical pleasure and intensifies the desire of the two
celebrants for each other, it is also used to help the beginning initiate
develop the ability of inner visualization. Eventually, the adept is expected
to create these mental results without external stimulation but there is no
condemnation of this practice by left-hand path Tantrikas on moral grounds.
Unfortunately, the precise use of bhang and other stimulants as an initial
opener of perception by traditional Vama Marga sects has sometimes been
taken as a green light for self-destructive drugged excess by Westerners. The
life of Aleister Crowley serves as an instructive example of the dire
consequences of this phenomenon.
On the Two Paths
The Panchamakara provides us with a clear example of the exact
differences between the left-hand path and right-hand path approaches to
initiation. Whereas the left-hand path truly breaks the socioreligious
prohibitions, the right-hand path practice of the rite of the five M's is in fact
entirely symbolic. No taboos are actually broken at all by the Daksina
Marga adept, who only safely acts them out using metaphoric substitutes for
the forbidden elements. Thus, the right-hand path practitioner will eat the
usual ordained Hindu vegetarian meal, substituting ginger for fish, milk for
wine, and so forth. When the time comes for the sexual rite incarnating
Shiva and Shakti's ecstatic union, the right-hand path rite replaces cock and
cunt with the representative union of two flowers, one a lingam-shaped
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floral protuberance, the other a yoni-formed blossom.
The right-hand path reliance on symbolism alone rather than actual
sexual rites is more than reminiscent of the sublimated sexual elements of
the Western magical tradition. It is quite common, for example, for Western
magicians to replace a real sorceress's vagina with a chaste sip from a
symbolic "chalice" or "grail", and use the magical sword as a surrogate for
the penis. Occult historians have theorized that these symbolic instruments
of Western magical ceremonial magic are but latter-day echoes of an earlier
sexual tradition. When one compares the symbolic and cerebral form of the
right-hand and the actual and fleshly left-hand performance of the Five M's
rite, it is hard to believe that we are not seeing a similar development. A
further indication that Tantra began as Vama Marga, the way of woman, and