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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less familiar term algolagnia, a modern neologism constructed by Dr. Albert<br />
Schrenk-Notzing from the Greek algos (pain) and lagneia (lust). In contrast<br />
to the rather vague sadomasochism, the more precise concept of pain/lust<br />
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cannot be misconstrued as anything other than an erotic activity. Algolagnia<br />
neatly sidesteps the entire muddle of literary and psychiatric symbolism that<br />
sadomasochism conjures, allowing the sex magician to constructively view<br />
the art of sexual pain through fresh eyes. <strong>The</strong> utilization of erotically charged<br />
pain in magical and religious rites predates both de Sade and Sacher-Masoch<br />
by millennia, and the magician who rejects the strictly time and culturedetermined<br />
phrase "sadomasochism" for a more eternal understanding of this<br />
initiatory activity can approach such work from a purer perspective. For those<br />
of you who have previously been content to describe your proclivities as<br />
sadomasochistic, now you know that you were actually an algolagniac all<br />
along.<br />
<strong>Left</strong>-<strong>Hand</strong> <strong>Path</strong> Dominance And Submission<br />
Some of our readers may be experimenting with this branch of sex magic for<br />
the first time, while others may already have a great deal of experience in<br />
such workings. In either case, it is necessary to first isolate the essential<br />
magical characteristics of the sexual personae most commonly assumed<br />
during the rites of pain/lust. Although the specific techniques used in the rite<br />
differ from the classic Vama Marga union, the dominant and submissive are<br />
really only incarnating non-traditional manifestations of the contrasexual<br />
Shiva/Shakti forces.<br />
If Shiva is consciousness, and Shakti is that consciousness made<br />
visible, as Tantra teaches, the obedient submissive (of either sex) might also<br />
446<br />
be a form of Shakti, embodying the thoughts of his/her dominant in the<br />
physical world. Alternately, the male or female dominant may represent the.<br />
Shakti force, active in contrast to the submissive's Shiva-like immobility: In<br />
either case, left-hand path dominance and submission is based on an<br />
awareness that the seemingly opposite forces are actually mysteriously<br />
united, transcending the apparent duality. In the mystical conjunction of<br />
Shiva and Shakti, the dominant knows that the slave's flesh being tormented<br />
is really his/her own. And the slave knows that every cruelty suffered at the<br />
dominant's hands originates in his/her own mind.<br />
Each of these roles offer unique possibilities for the accomplishment<br />
of specific magical desires, and need to be examined in further depth than the<br />
superficial stereotyping of popular imagery allows. <strong>The</strong> external relations of<br />
master and slave, submissive and dominant, would appear at first to be one of<br />
the most easily understandable manifestations of opposite polarities.<br />
However, even in thc non-magical orchestration of dominant and<br />
submissive sexual energies, great psychological complexity can arise. This<br />
complexity is multiplied incomparably once the destabilizing influence of<br />
left-hand path magic is brought into the equation. <strong>The</strong>refore, an understanding<br />
of the underlying magical theory of magical dominance and submission is<br />
required before entering the volatile arena of this extreme form of erotic<br />
magic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> advantages accessible to the dominant magician are perhaps<br />
more immediately clear-cut than those available to the submissive. In most<br />
cases, the master/mistress is the god or goddess whose will rules absolutely<br />
over the entire magical working. Now, a magician in a non-sexual working<br />
commonly manipulates some inert symbolic material in the microcosm to<br />
effect changes in the macrocosm. Let us say that he or she creates a magical<br />
sigil distilling the desire in the case of some abstract aspiration. Perhaps, to<br />
use an easily grasped example, a standard issue voodoo doll is crafted that<br />
stands in for the external force the magician wishes to influence. In typical<br />
ceremonial magic, the entire panoply of symbolic dagger, chalice, candle,