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

apparent incongruity is well symbolized in the simultaneously joyouswrathful
and lustful-destructive nature of Kali's capricious play with the
universe.
The circular form of the chakra puja orgy is probably the historic
derivation of the commonly seen mandalas that show many divine couples
in the copulating yab-yum (mother-father) position surrounding a principal
divine figure in the center. These mandalas are typically interpreted as
purely spiritual symbols by right-hand path Hindus, Buddhists and Western
art historians but the real-life orgiastic origin of the symbolism seems clear
enough.
A variant of the Chakra Puja is the Choli Marga, which takes its
name from the choli, a brightly colored blouse worn by the female
celebrants. This rite begins when each female Tantrika removes her choli
and tosses it in a straw basket in a magically prepared circle. Each male
Tantrika, with eyes closed, randomly selects a choli from the basket, thus
selecting by chance his shakti consort for the night's ritual.
If this random pairing of erotic ritual partners most frequently
breaks the taboo of caste, it also sometimes disrupts the more deeply-seated
taboo of incest. As the initiatory clan, or Kaula, may be composed of one's
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closest relatives, the Choli Marga also frequently led to sexual congress
between mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, and all other imaginable
combinations. The Tibetan wrathful goddess Lha-Mo, one of the
personifications of Kali, is said to be impregnated with an incestuous child, a
breaking of taboo that makes her all the more sacred to left-hand path
adepts.
Central to the overriding factor of chance which guides this orgiastic
working is the complete breakdown of socially ordained order, a
concentrated awakening of erotic ecstasy outside of accepted bonds. One of
the restrictions of the choli marga orgy is that the celebrant is usually not
permitted to perform the sexual rite with his or her legal spouse. As in the
more common two-person rite we have already described, each female
initiatrix sits to the left of each male shakta, an affirmation of the sinister
nature of femininity. In one variant of the left hand path orgy. known as the
spider-web rite, each orgiast is connected to all the others in the circle by a
piece of cloth. Each strand of cloth creates a symbolic spider web through
which sexual energy is transmitted, evoking the web-like nature of Tantra
itself.
The orgiastic and incestuous erotic rites of the Kaula and Kapalika
are tame in comparison to the thoroughgoing embrace of the outlawed and
the outcast we observe among the Aghori sect. The Aghori reached their
peak sometime in the sixteenth century but are still active as of this writing
in contemporary Varanasi, albeit in increasingly dwindling numbers.
The founder of the Aghori, Baba Kinaram, was revered in his
lifetime as a living avatar of Shiva, and according to legend died at the ripe
old age of 150 years during the latter half of the 1-00s. Like all Tantrikas, the
sexual union of Shiva and Shakti is of especial concern to the Aghori –
Aghora is the name of one of the five faces of Shiva – but they specifically
personify the male and female principles as the goddess Tara and her consort
Mahakal, Shiva as Lord of the Dead and the cremation ground. The threeeyed,
laughing Tara of the cremation grounds revered by the Aghori is a
particularly grim image of divinity, her matted hair held in place by a
writhing serpent, swathed in a tiger skin indicative of her ferocity. Tara is
often depicted carrying a dagger and the familiar skull cap of the Kapalikas
and Aghori. Although there is probably no etymological connection, Tara is
thought by some modern Tantrikas to be simply the Indian manifestation of
an archaic divine being present throughout the ancient world. This
speculation is based on the goddess's name, which seems to echo that of