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