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

exerts in each individual magician's consciousness that is the source of
potential energy.
To fully comprehend the meaning of left-hand path taboo violation in
India, something of the importance of the concept of pollution and purity in
Hinduism must be discussed. Innumerable actions are deemed to pollute the
orthodox Hindu, who is restricted by strict religious law from eating,
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marrying, or even socializing with members of other castes – just a few of the
many deeds which are said to contaminate one's purity. The intricacy and
arbitrariness of these laws beggars description, keeping every aspect of the
orthodox Hindu's life regulated, especially for the high ranking Brahmins at
the top of the hierarchy.
The left-hand path initiate deliberately performs such polluting acts,
inverting them as consecrated rituals, thus transcending divine laws. He or
she who breaks the restrictions laid down by the gods is effectively
transformed into a god-like being. Even in the social chaos of our own Kali
Yugic time and culture, which lacks the strict concept of spiritual pollution
known on the sub-continent, there are actions beyond the pale that
possess the same kind of liberating power for the contemporary lefthand
path initiate.
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III.
IN THE TEMPLE OF
THE NINE GATES
Ecstatic Rites Of The Left-Hand Path
Left-handed rituals derived their force from the deliberate reversal of the
established morality. The explicit aim of the Five M's ritual is to raise the
worshipper above praise, censure, shame, pride of family, and caste as a step
toward liberation from the bonds which keep one from the supreme bliss; at
the same time the ritual testifies that the prevailing morality forbade such
things as wine, meat-eating, and sexual intercourse outside of wedlock.
Geoffrey Parinder, World Religions
The Five Secret Things
The Indian left-hand path celebrates many sacred rites of taboo violation, the
severity of which differ from sect to sect and region to region. The bestknown
is probably the Panchamakara, or the five things" also known as
Panchatattva the five tattvas. Once strictly guarded from non-initiates, the
act of erotic theurgy sometimes called "the secret rite" has long since ceased
to be secret. The Panchamakara is also commonly known as the rite of the
"Five M's", as it involves the ritual consumption of five elements taboo to
ordinary Hindus; the names of these elements all begin with the letter M .
Although the secret rite may now seem rather tame to the modern
Western reader, hardly deserving of its once secret status, it was
extraordinarily transgressive for its practitioners, living as they did in a
society surrounded on every side by the most scrupulously observed taboos.
An in-depth analysis of the many layers of the meaning hidden in this
notorious but often superficially explained ritual will allow the magician to
access something of the complexity of the left-hand path's most well-known
sacred act, and to view it from an initiated perspective.
There is a veiled mantric symbolism to the sound of M and the
number five involved with the names of these forbidden elements, the first
four of which are matsya (fish) mamsha (meat) madya (wine) and mudra
(parched cereal, alternately beans). The fifth element is maithuna (ritual
coitus). These edible elements represent Water, Air, Earth, Fire, united by the