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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Feminine Daemonic that characterizes the left-hand path; in fact, although<br />
many women were charmed by him, he was often described as the epitome<br />
of the overbearing macho patriarch. His ebullient promiscuity alone, despite<br />
certain suggestions of erotic-esoteric energy transfer, certainly doesn't<br />
qualify him as a left-hand path adept. However, there are enough indications<br />
of a Tibetan Tantric influence in his life and thought to cause us to wonder if<br />
he did not view his many female consorts as Songyums, or "secret mothers",<br />
in keeping with the covert practice of sexual initiation within left-handed<br />
Buddhism. Gurdjieff, ever the Sly Man, left only hints; whatever the motive<br />
force of his teaching was, it was largely communicated privately and in<br />
terms that suited each individual student.<br />
Rasputin And <strong>The</strong> Holiness <strong>Of</strong> Sin<br />
In considering the existence of a Slavic left-hand path, as suggested by such<br />
figures as Naglowska and Gurdjieff, the almost legendary sex-mystical<br />
exploits of Grigori Yefimovich (1862—1916) are worthy of a brief<br />
contemplation. For all of his notoriety, Yefimovich, far better known by his<br />
nickname of Rasputin (derived from the Russian word for "dissolute" or<br />
"lewd") has had surprisingly little influence on the sex magical tradition of<br />
the West. But the heretical Christian and heathen synthesis of erotic<br />
224<br />
illumination engaged in by Rasputin and his female followers makes for an<br />
excellent example of the universality of left-hand path principles.<br />
A great deal of foolishness has previously been written concerning<br />
Rasputin, who has been caricaturized as a Satanic mad monk. <strong>The</strong> "Satanic"<br />
charge has not the least basis in fact, and is simply based on his sinister<br />
reputation. Far from mad, Rasputin appears to have been a canny if<br />
uneducated observer of human nature, whose disreputable religious practices<br />
were in striking contrast to an otherwise calm and serious demeanor. And he<br />
was never a monk by any means; he spent all of three months on a spiritual<br />
retreat at a monastery, but never sought or claimed holy orders. Rather, he<br />
was considered by his admirers to he a starets, a wandering "holy man", due<br />
to his reputation for possessing mysterious powers of healing and second<br />
sight, which can he described as magical in nature. Rasputin's possession of<br />
magical siddhi was sincerely attested to by the adoring women in his circle,<br />
one of whom was the Tsarina Alexandra, Empress of all the Russias, for<br />
whom all types of occultism had long been an abiding interest. <strong>The</strong> strange<br />
circumstances of Rasputin's death have only contributed to the enduring<br />
legend of his uncanny powers.<br />
Rasputin's crude if energetic methods of sexual initiation were not<br />
his invention; they were adapted fairly faithfully from his contact with a<br />
Russian pseudo-Gnostic sect popularly known as the Khlysti, or<br />
"flagellators." Although the Khlysti never attained anything like the complex<br />
philosophical and esoteric body of wisdom known to Tantra, there are many<br />
similarities between their rites and those of the Vama Marga. Both<br />
techniques utilize copulation as a process of self-deification. <strong>The</strong> moment of<br />
supreme sexual ecstasy enjoyed by the Khlysti couple leads not to identity<br />
with Shiva/Shakti but to the male's mutation of his mortal consciousness into<br />
the Christ, while the female is transformed into the Virgin Mary. This act of<br />
spiritual incest between deified humans also recalls the agape practiced by<br />
libertine Gnostics, in which the male is mystically transformed into Christ,<br />
and his consort becomes the Sophia. As with the libertine Gnostics, the<br />
Khlysti interpret the mystery of sexual illumination as the spiritual descent of<br />
the holy ghost into the physical body.<br />
Initiates of the Khlysti, usually located in rural Russia, feigned<br />
devotion to the Russian Orthodox Church during the day, waiting until their<br />
clandestine nocturnal gatherings had commenced to practice their true<br />
religion. Just as the sexual evocation of Shakti in India's secret rite is<br />
traditionally carried out in an abandoned place at midnight, the witching hour