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

each divine status. Three of the eldest sects use methods considered far
more extreme than those found in later derivations of Tantra. This indicates
that the original impetus of the left-hand path was the most radical,
gradually losing some of its atavistic nature as it was institutionalized, a
process which eventually resulted in the antiseptic right-hand path of Tantra.
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Northern India is home to two of the most radical left-hand path
factions, the Kaula and the Kapalika, both Shaivite, or Shiva-oriented cults
that seem to be among the earliest Vama Marga practitioners. The
Kapalikas, or Skull-Bearers, were so called because they always carried with
them begging bowls fashioned from the tops of human skulls, known as
kapalas, part of their deliberately forbidding outer appearance. Founded in
medieval Kashmir, the Skull-Bearers, like spiritual Hell's Angels,
deliberately went out of their way to attract insult and disrepute upon
themselves from respectable quarters of society. The Kapalikas and other
left-hand path sects often drink the consecrated madya, or wine, from their
skull cups; drunk on the mystery of death.
The kapala is an especially important symbol in both Indian and
Tibetan forms of left-handed Tantra, frequently depicted as one of the
traditional accessories of the many dark goddesses revered by sinister
initiates. In the case of Vajrayogini, the infinitely desirable scarlet-skinned
Dakini that embodies the Vajra form of Tibetan Tantra, the goddess,
wearing a necklace of human skulls, is often seen holding a skull-cap
brimming with blood in her left hand. Tantric Dakinis are also shown
making offerings of their own sexual elixir, or amrita, in these ubiquitous
skull-cups. The symbolic complexities of the kapala transcend the
immediately apparent association with death and mortality, also suggesting
the importance of the brain that rests in the skull-cup to initiation. The
research of Mircea Eliade, the great Rumanian scholar of shamanism,
suggested that the sacred role of the skull cap in left-handed Tantra can be
traced back to an archaic cult of goddess-worshipping head-hunters
operating in Burma and Assam.
The left-hand path siddha's utilization of maithuna, or sexual
congress, was not limited to initiatory intercourse between only two
magicians. Allowing for all-out orgiastic rites as well as for the more
prevalent Tantric union of two Tantrikas incarnating Shiva and Shakti, some
of the Kaulas and Kapalikas teach that spiritual liberation and illumination
are also to be found in the unrestricted transport of the senses, particularly
through the vehicle of pleasure with woman. A Kaula is a clan, or spiritual
community which one may be born into or be initiated into, and these orgia,
as unrestrained as they are, are held stringently within the context of an
initiatory school. Some Tantric scholars believe that the intentional
promiscuity of the Kaula orgies may have inspired the religiosexual scenes
portrayed in the famous erotic sculptures seen in the Khajuraho Temple.
The left-hand path orgy is quite different from the famous Holi
festival of religious promiscuity (still celebrated today in a symbolic, nonsexual
form) once held by the entire community to celebrate the coming of
spring. During the Holi revels, semen – customarily so zealously preserved –
was allowed to flow freely, and obscene songs were cheerfully sung to
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inspire high levels of lust. However, the Holi orgies were essentially rites
intended to connect its participants with the natural forces of fertility and
fructification. It was a festival of orthodox unleashing of Eros temporarily
permitted by the religious community for the good of the collective society.
This kind of group sexual activity – although outwardly similar to left-hand
path practice – actually served a completely conventional and orthodox
religious purpose, at an opposite extreme from the personal and initiatory
non-natural character of left-hand path orgia.