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

to shake the culturally ingrained idea that spiritual wisdom is something
communicated only through verbal constructs and rational discourse. Tanta
accepts that the very sight of an image, such as the mandala, yantra or a
specific form visualised in the mind, can create specific states of
consciousness in the viewer that transcend analytic modes of thought.
Furthermore, the Tantric tradition maintains that a genuine spiritual teacher
can initiate his or her student through such subtle means as an unspoken
thought, a mere glance, or a profound touch. If these transrational forms of
contact are deemed to be sufficient modes of instruction, then the far more
intense interplay of sex would obviously be an even more powerful
technique of initiation.
The female partner, although most commonly referred to as the
shakti or mudra, is known by a variety of names in various left-hand path
circles. In India, she is frequently the duti, the "messenger" between the
male adept and the goddess power Shakti. The word duti speaks to the
female's function as priestess, the physical intermediary between human
and divine modes of being. The consort is also referred to as the lata, or the
creeper, which describes the nature of her embrace of the male. Tibetan
left-hand path rites are also centered on the person of the dakini, or "lady
sky-walker". A dakini is simultaneously the red-skinned naked demigoddess
depicted in Tibetan religious art as an object of meditation as well
as the human female who embodies her in sinister rites.
Within Tibetan tradition, secrecy plays a much greater role than in
Indian Vama Marga, and some outwardly celibate lamas choose a female
sexual partner who is known as the Songyum, literally the "secret mother".
She is sworn to life-time secrecy, sometimes with threats of death by magic if
she violates the pact. One Tibetan tradition designates the female sexual
consort as "'the helper of the man on the way to enlightenment." Clearly, this
auxiliary concept of "helper" places the female in the position of a mere
assistant to the male's illumination, denying any initiatory value for her in the
sexual exchange.
This subservient role would seem to totally contradict the idea that
the male adept actually considers his female partner to be the incarnation of
the Goddess, serving to illustrate how wide a gap there can be between the
theory of the left-hand path and its occasional corruption in practice. Anyone
approaching the serious study of the left-hand path must always do so with
eyes wide open to the human condition. Esoteric symbolism can often be a
convenient justification for sexual abuse no more illuminated than what one
might find in any modern workplace. The phenomenon of the spiritual
"casting couch" is all too common among sex magicians in East and West,
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presenting a major obstacle to genuine erotic initiation in both cultures.
The choice of female partner for the left-handed Panchamakara rite
is sometimes a violation of taboo in itself. Widows were often sought as
ritual sex partners because of their traditional defiling status in Indian
society, a custom dating back to the time when they occupied so low a rung
in the social ladder that they were expected to burn themselves on their
husband's funeral pyre. Even now, the female sexual consort in left-hand
path rites is often referred to as a "widow", even in cases where she isn't
technically a widow at all.
Some of the Indian Tantric teachings insist that the ideal mudra is to
be found only among women in the age groups of sixteen, seventeen, and
eighteen. Supposedly, their feminine shakti power is at its height of energy
and dynamism at this phase of life. Another consideration is that a young
woman's relative lack of involvement in the routine of daily existence allows
them to more easily embody the Great Goddess, as she is unhampered by the
day-to-day concerns distracting a more mature woman.
A young, physically attractive shakti is often thought to make for