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

pleasures that actually drive Tantric initiation in a cloud of abstract
spirituality. The importance of intense biological delight to the left-hand path
106
is essential. In fact, it is a traditional left-hand path precept that the presence
of sexual desire in the human body is thought to be a portent that the
universe-creating divine energy has manifested within the initiate – the
presence of an erection is thus honored as a physical sign of divinity in
fleshly form. Although sinister Eros is very different from the exclusively
orgasm-focused sexual interaction that characterizes sex ordinaire, that is not
to say that it is absent of passionate desire for the sexual consort. If the
weirdly asexual sex rites suggested in some modern texts were even
physically possible, one must wonder how such requirements as erection and
vaginal moisture are accomplished in the complete absence of lust and desire
recommended.
It is true that the erotic pleasure enjoyed by the Tantric consorts is
partially understood as a manifestation of the greater ecstasy of divine
consciousness on the physiological level of experience. However, the
delights of the flesh are to be valued and enjoyed in their own right during
the left-hand path ritual.
The adept of the sinister current alchemically transforms the
naturally occurring properties of sexual desire into precise tools of
consciousness expansion. Since the first poem of erotic longing was first
sung, human beings have observed how strong desire has the ability to
sharpen attention, slow down one's sense of time, cause flashes of inspired
thinking, and radically increase energy, among many other unique
neurophysical phenomena. The left-hand path sex magician extends these
useful qualities of desire from the fleshly sphere of existence and generative
reproduction to the daemonic realm of being.
One of the many reasons that sex makes for such an effective
consciousness altering device and magical medium is an extremely practical
physical phenomenon: the mind experiencing extreme sexual arousal for a
prolonged period is able to focus into a one-pointed beam of clarity. This
heightened state of attention, achieved even during non-initiatory coitus, was
noticed by the pioneering sexologist Alfred Kinsey, who commented that the
firing of a revolver would not intrude on a copulating couple's ecstatic
exertions. This perfectly normal physiological event of erotic attention is
known to any sexually active human being but is usually allowed to
dissipate with orgasm. The left-hand path adept seizes upon this laser-like
clarity of desire, prolongs it as long as possible, and consciously directs it to
initiatory ends.
The intense, one-pointed pleasure that makes so many the
compulsive slave of Eros, is subjected to the initiate's discipline, and allows
him or her to become the master of this most primordial and elemental of
energies. Through controlled breathing and vocal intonation or mental
concentration on focusing mantras during the sexual act, the run-away wild
107
horse of desire is yoked to the magician's will, connecting the powerful
engine of protracted erotic ecstasy to the adept's self-transformative
operations.
The mantras droned to call down Shakti and Shiva into the subtle
bodies of the celebrants continue to be uttered during the sexual maithuna.
When the celebrants have achieved the highest level of intensity of their
incarnation of the gods, actually separating from a human state of
consciousness to experience their own divinity, the orgasm can be activated,
a peak of energy that magically transcends personality and allows the adept
to confront – and become – the integrated expression of pure consciousness
(Shiva) and pure energy of power (Shakti).
Theoretically, the repeated performance of the maithuna at ever