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

Hmty, or "the effeminate one." Hmty would have been an entirely derogatory
phrase in deeply conservative Egyptian society, which deplored male
homosexuality as an aberration of the natural order, a sign of Set's identity as
the epitome of anti-social subversion against divine law. As the leading
scholar of this god, H. Te Velde wrote in his classic 1969 Seth, God Of
Confusion: "Seth's homosexual act threatens to change the cosmos into
chaos." As such, the homosexual magician who invokes Set as Hmty in his
rituals takes upon himself the powers conferred by making any deliberate
break from societal norms, a basic necessity of left-hand path practice. Set as
Hmty is the scorned outsider, but his very separation from the community of
acceptable gods is what grants him his indestructible strength. In another
Egyptian tale, Set in the form of Bata is seen to transform himself into a
woman. In William S. Burroughs' 1981 novel The Cities Of The Red Night,
he depicts a credible homosexual sex magic rite which begins with an
invocation of Set.
The lesbian magician of the sinister current can also assume either of
the opposite poles of sexual being symbolized by Shiva and Shakti,
regardless of gender. In her case, she may very well already be deeply
immersed in the erotic-magical power of shakti and the Dark Goddess. Since
the left-hand path is the Way of Woman, it can be argued that the lesbian's
connection to the lunar flow of the Feminine Daemonic makes her a pure
expression of the sinister current. It is a curious fact that in the Western world
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far more men than women are interested in the left-hand path. Perhaps this is
because the left-hand path is itself a feminine force to which males are
attracted. As a more complete understanding of the Feminine Daemonic
principle's centrality to the left-hand path becomes known in the West, it will
be interesting to see if lesbian initiates will develop the modem sinister
current into previously untested areas.
It is unfortunate that the exploration of lesbian sex magic in the
modern West has so often been tainted by assuming that the celebration of
purely feminine sexual energy must incorporate the rhetoric and ideology of
political feminism into same-sex rituals and cosmology. This is most evident
among the Wicca movement and its variants. Just as male magicians holding
women in contempt would find little of value in the left-hand path, female
magicians of the "man-hating" variety would not be able to fully integrate the
needed polarity of masculine and feminine sexual principles into their work.
Should there be any confusion on this point, this use of male/female powers
in the left-hand path does not necessarily mean that sexual congress with men
is required of lesbian magicians, only that they must not be adverse to
evoking the masculine principle as a spiritual value independent of biological
gender.
Although the Feminine Daemonic is venerated by sinister current
sorcerers, we do not preach a message of "female superiority" as is currently
manifest in more politically motivated spiritual creeds. While any human
endeavor may be interpreted as hearing a political message of some sort,
there is no explicitly politically activist component to left-hand path sexual
magic, nor is our sorcery directed to the correction of perceived social
injustice or the balancing of equality between the sexes. Even if the practice
of left-hand path sexual magic may have the side-effect of influencing these
factors, it should be obvious that the numinous sphere of consciousness in
which such operations take place cannot conform with any political bias.
Although much given to the symbolism of individualism, personal
freedom and celebration of difference, it must be admitted that many
elements of the gay cultural milieu that have developed in the past few
decades are hampered by the same restrictions of proscribed role, predictable
tastes, code, and rigid conformism observable in the most conservative strata