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

But Reuss cannot really be considered an exponent of the left-hand
path, since his original O.T.O. was entirely a phallocentric sperm cult –
women may have been allowed to join his Order, but they were not accorded
any great importance; in his writings and rituals, we find no recognition of
the Shakti power of the Feminine Daemonic, one of the most important
criteria for defining an adept of the left-hand path.
It is true that Reuss professed to view womankind as "the
incarnation of divine creative power" and "guardian of the holy fire", stating
that "Every 'Blessed Woman' is 'Holy' to us." Superficially, Reuss's theories
concerning the sacred place of woman would seem to be in accord with the
left-hand path reverence for the Shakti principle. However, when he writes
that his teaching seeks to establish a future in which every "'Mother' is
honored as the 'High Priestess' of her family," he betrays the traditional
views of most German men of his time: a woman may be sacred, but her
only proper functions are motherhood and minding the hearth. For instance,
Reuss condemned England "with its extreme Motherhood-denying 'woman's
movement (Suffragettes)"' and hoped that the O.T.O. could aid in
inculcating a more mother-friendly environment there.
Reuss essentially viewed the ideal female sex magic partner as a
fawning vessel passively absorbing her Master's seed – the structure of
O.T.O. sex magic provides the female with a secondary role while
simultaneously placing her on a pedestal. We will encounter the same
curious phenomenon in Reuss's O.T.O. contemporary Crowley, who praised
his women to the sky as living goddesses in his flowery abstract writings
253
whilst demanding that they be beaten, barefoot and pregnant scullery maids
in reality.
Tellingly, the O.T.O.'s ninth degree is nearly identical with Paschal
Beverly Randolph's simple instructions for making a "prayer" at the climax
of intercourse, focusing the will at the moment of orgasm to create a magical
change. But according to Reuss, who took his cue from Blavatsky's tall tales,
yet another of those mysterious Eastern Mahatmas had been instrumental in
founding the Ordo Templi Orientis, although this one was presumably still
occupying a body on the material plane at the time. Reuss put forth that his
dead colleague Carl Kellner had been initiated into sexual rites by two
Indian yogis, Sri Mahatma Agamya Guru Paramahamsa, and Beema Sen
Pratap. According to this founding legend, additional instruction had been
provided to Kellner by an Arabic fakir, one Soliman bin Aifha, reportedly a
Sufi Master.
Did these teachers exist? In Kellner's 1896 paper Yoga, A Sketch Of
The Psycho-Physiological Element Of The Ancient Indian Yoga Teaching,
which was presented to the Third International Congress for Psychology held
in Munich, he thanks a "Mr. Beema Sena Pratapa from Lahore." The paper,
notable as an early European introduction to yoga techniques, makes no
mention of any sexual rites, and is inaccurate in many basic points of fact,
which does not speak well for Reuss's claim that Kellner was instructed by
authentic Indian teachers.
Rather than accept the legend that the O.T.O. was drawn from
genuine Indian left-hand path sources, it seems far more likely that Reuss
merely picked up a few stray Tantric ideas from his extensive reading in
several languages and applied his own considerable reservoir of magical
knowledge upon this bare basis. It has also been argued that Reuss's
knowledge of sexual magic was obtained from his knowledge of Paschal
Beverly Randolph's Eulis Brotherhood and Hermetic Brotherhood of Light,
which seems quite probable when we examine the actual procedures of the
O.T.O.'s sex magic. If this were the case, the Western world's most wellknown
sex magical Order is not the product of secrets whispered by Eastern
holy men at all. It may be that the O.T.O. is a synthetic creation whose