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

that the right-hand path was a later desexualised, socially acceptable
imitation of much older initiatory mysteries.
The secret rite can be successfully performed in any type of
surroundings or environment. No special ritual chamber or temple is
required; indeed, the physical bodies of the celebrants themselves are
literally considered to be the temples of the left-hand path. The human body
is often spoke of in left-hand path tradition as "the temple of nine gates" –
the nine gates being composed of the two eyes, the two ears, the two
nostrils, the mouth, the anus, and the penis/vagina. Through the nine gates of
the body do all the sensory impressions of material existence become real to
us, and through those same nine gates do we create the personally
materialized worlds we live in.
The traditional left-hand path initiate in India frequently selects a
location of suitably "sinister" aspect for the rite, favoring places possessed of
some forbidding atmosphere. Abandoned temples and graveyards, cremation
grounds burning with the eerie incandescence of funeral pyres, and any spot
popularly imagined to be haunted, are all places traditionally associated with
the carrying out of left-handed rites. Such sites are considered to be imbued
with shakti's dark energy, and we can often recognize in these wild and
inhospitable locations the Vama Marga's desire to bring the vital and lifeengendering
nature of sexuality into conjunction with its polar opposite, the
shadowed domain of death. This conscious welcoming of danger typical of
Kali Yugic erotic initiation is yet another factor at play in such
considerations. A more practical consideration for performing the left-hand
path sex rite in haunted or desolate locations must also be considered. The
ritual would be less likely to be interrupted by curious onlookers if held in a
place likely to scare away the superstitious.
By now, the reader will understand that shakti is taught to be most
active by night, a property of the lunar rather than the masculine solar
principle. Therefore, the hours between seven and midnight are most
commonly chosen to celebrate the five secret things.
99
Initiates of both paths celebrate the rite of the five M's while seated
in a circle, which usually includes the intricate symbol known as the Shri-
Yantra, a psychogram composed of interlocking triangles – the triangles
pointing upwards represent the lingam and the consciousness of Shiva, the
triangles pointing downward, in the universal symbol for the female genitals,
depict the yoni and the power of Shakti. The initiate paints this yantra
himself from red sandalwood paste or vermillion, extending his
consciousness into this self-created form of sexual union during the
deepening meditative process of its generation. At the center of one of the
triangles is a dot, the bindu, which is the hidden source of all creation, the
esoteric power of semen. The meditating shakta is thought to enter into the
process of creation itself by creating this image, even as a ritual space
outside of waking time is created in which the five secret things can be
celebrated. As with almost all Tantric rites, whether they be of the right- or
left-hand paths, the breath control discipline known as pranayama begins
the process of mental mastery that underlies the Panchatattva.
The male adept then assumes a yogic asana or posture known as the
yoni mudra, or "the sealing of the vulva", which suggests the concept of
sealing an electromagnetic power source that is an important physical aspect
of the sacralized sexual contact. While in this position, the initiate repeatedly
contracts the muscles of the perineum, located between the genitals and the
anus, a procedure designed to awaken the muladhara chakra located there.
This begins the ascent of the kundalini-shakti serpent energy in the body,
and is accompanied by visualization of the coupling of Shakti and Shiva as a
prelude to the recreation of their divine, world-creating copulation in human
form.