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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has lent this initiatory tradition a socially transgressive character it has never<br />
wholly lost, which make the heretical female and contrary aspects of the<br />
sinister current even less palatable to the orthodox.<br />
Shiva and Shakti, the central divine figures of Tantricism are<br />
atavistic survivals of deities that predate the Aryan invasion of the Indus<br />
Valley. As such, despite the reverence accorded them, there is still a certain<br />
dishonorable aspect to them in the eyes of the average Hindu, especially as<br />
they are understood in left-handed Tantra. Shiva is a later development of the<br />
fearsome Rudra the Howler, a turbulent figure presiding over such<br />
undesirable phenomena as storms, disease, and thieves. Even today, Shiva is<br />
understood as a patron of all who have stepped outside of society's<br />
boundaries – from the holy man to the outlaw. In some archaic texts, Shiva is<br />
referred to as Vama, which could possibly be yet another meaning of Vama<br />
Marga – the path of Shiva. His connection to a prevalent phallic cult<br />
censured by the Brahmanic conquerors of India as a loathsome heresy,<br />
survives in Rudra's remanifestation as Shiva. In Shaivism, the cult of Shiva,<br />
the lingam is the symbol of the phallus, revered as the principle of formless,<br />
bodiless consciousness. <strong>The</strong> Aryan scriptures, known as the Vedas, explicitly<br />
condemn phallic worship.<br />
Similarly, Shakti's cult of the yoni, honoring the vulva as the<br />
embodiment of the ki<strong>net</strong>ic secret power thats charge animates all things can<br />
be traced to the pre-Aryan sexual veneration of local goddesses in the<br />
Neolithic age. <strong>The</strong> imposed religion foisted on the Indus Valley by Aryan<br />
invaders was centered almost entirely on abstract celestial male divinities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> introduction through force of this male pantheon forced the adherents of<br />
Shakti underground for many centuries, until their revival, first in Hinduism,<br />
and then in dynamic Tantric form, emerged. As opposed to the masculine,<br />
solar sky gods revered by the Vedic faith, the most important divinities for<br />
the original Indian civilization were chthonic goddesses, the multi-formed<br />
46<br />
predecessors of shakti.<br />
Coming and Going – Sex Within Death<br />
One rejected, unwanted substance that plays a part in traditional Eastern lefthand<br />
path practice is the dead body, which is accorded a special status in<br />
Indian culture. Just as much as the left-hand path is concerned with the<br />
human body at its most vital and creative, during peaks of erotic ecstasy, it<br />
also teaches an intimate knowledge of the body at its lowest ebb, in the decay<br />
of death. <strong>The</strong> antipodal contrast of Sex and Death are just one of the many<br />
juxtapositions of opposites that constitute the Tantric web, along with its<br />
most obvious antithesis, the sexual energies of Woman and Man.<br />
In India, the task of disposing of the dead is given only to the very<br />
lowest caste. For all other castes, even touching the dead, especially corpses<br />
of a caste lower than one's self, is considered a spiritual defilement of the<br />
first order. Those undesirables who are given the dirty work of handling<br />
human remains are also expected to dispose of the excrement of the castes<br />
above them.<br />
<strong>The</strong>refore, the left-hand path adept, the gleeful transgressor of all<br />
accepted boundaries, often makes the "unclean" burning grounds the place<br />
in which magical rituals and meditation are accomplished. It is not<br />
uncommon for left-hand path initiates to perform their spiritual work within<br />
enclosures constructed from human skulls. Such scavenger animals as<br />
jackals, vultures and ravens, those eaters of the dead that haunt the<br />
crematory grounds, are frequently associated with the left-hand path, playing<br />
a role of magical mascot similar to the bestial "familiars" known to<br />
European witchery.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Vama Marga sexual rite is commonly held at night in the<br />
presence of charred, partially cremated corpses, near the exterminating heat<br />
of the open funeral pyres. As an exercise in transcending duality, the male