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

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

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human realm. Many Tantric rites encourage the adept to magically summon<br />

a transhuman elemental feminine entity – known as the devi in Hindu<br />

Tantra, or the dakini in Buddhist Tantra – into the body of his human<br />

partner. In a certain sense, this process of erotic theurgy is central to all lefthand<br />

path sexual rites, since the couple's goal during sexual union is always<br />

to transform their temporal consciousness into the divine states of Shiva and<br />

Shakti. However, the invocation of the devi and dakini can have a more<br />

specific function, roughly analogous to the Western sorcerer's conjuring of a<br />

particular demon or elemental to perform a task thought to be especially<br />

under that demon's jurisdiction. If the customary Tantric practice of attaining<br />

Shiva/Shakti-like consciousness through sexual ecstasy is primarily of an<br />

initiatory character, the devi and the dakini are often called upon for less<br />

mystical purposes, primarily when the Tantrika desires to effect a material<br />

transformation in maya – the devi or dakini, temporarily present in the sex<br />

magician's partner, serves as his accomplice in sorcery.<br />

Through Prayoga, the adept dispenses with the material world altogether.<br />

He visualizes these female elementals with such realism that he can then<br />

endow then with autonomous animation. It is at this point that sexual<br />

congress is performed with the devi for a specific sorcerous purpose, often to<br />

absorb her knowledge of higher states of being or to "see" through her eyes.<br />

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131<br />

<strong>Left</strong>-hand path Tantrikas in India and in the Vajra tradition of Tibet<br />

have also developed their own magical procedures for summoning<br />

discarnate sexual entities that very much resemble the succubi and incubi of<br />

medieval European infamy. <strong>The</strong> Dakini, or "Those Who Fly Through <strong>The</strong><br />

Heavens", who are said to sometimes appear to their human male consorts as<br />

achingly beautiful, exquisitely graceful demi-goddesses redolent of the<br />

sweet scent of lotus blossoms, are often described as providing sexual<br />

delight far in excess of the capabilities of human women. European and<br />

Kabbalistic demonology would also have it that once having known the<br />

paradisiacal embrace of the succubus/incubus, mere mortals are no longer<br />

satisfactory.<br />

As with all manifestations of shakti, the Dakini has her wrathful<br />

guise as well; red-skinned she-devils of fierce vampiric appearance are often<br />

materialized for sexual rites. Perhaps the most terrifying of these<br />

Vajrayoginis who serve as disembodied sexual iniatrixes of left-hand adepts<br />

is the sword-brandishing Chinnamasta, depicted as carrying her own<br />

decapitated head in her hand, while her neck spurts a fountain of blood. (<strong>The</strong><br />

decapitated head symbolizes the left-hand path adept's ruthless elimination<br />

of the false self of social conditioning.)<br />

Especially in the Buddhist branch of the left-hand path, the monk or<br />

sorcerer creates these beings as an exercise in learning to project utterly<br />

realistic thought-forms or tulpas, to visible – and sexually tangible –<br />

appearance. True success in the projection of these creatures is only thought<br />

to be attained when others perceive the tulpa as vividly as the magician. <strong>The</strong><br />

art of effectively sending such disembodied entities to others is related to<br />

this skill.<br />

As is so often the case, the Hindu and Buddhist branches of the lefthand<br />

path explain the conjuration of these sexual elementals from<br />

contradictory perspectives. For the Indian adept, the devi, once materialized,<br />

is believed to be an external being, existing outside of his mind. For the<br />

Tibetan, she is only a projection of maya, as unreal as all other apparitions in<br />

the phenomenal world – including himself.<br />

Rites <strong>Of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Radical <strong>Left</strong>-<strong>Hand</strong> <strong>Path</strong><br />

Even among Vama Marga Tantric sects, already operating outside of the<br />

established order, a great disparity of approaches exist when it comes to just<br />

how far each cult will go in their transcendence of taboo and sexual norms to

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