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The Shadow of the Dalai Lama – Part I – 5. Pure Shaktism, tantric feminism, and alchemy
© Victor & Victoria Trimondi
5. PURE SHAKTISM, TANTRIC FEMINISM,
AND ALCHEMY
In order to understand the “theological” intentions of Vajrayana and its iconography and psychology,
it is of great value to draw a comparision to the matriarchal and gynocentric goddess cults of India.
The high tensions and explosive forces in the sexual magic scenarios of the tantras can only be
explained in the light of the conflicting manner in which the two cultural currents treat the dynamic
between the sexes. To our knowledge there is no culture where the sexes have as theocratic systems
given rise to such sophisticated and complex power struggles as in Indian — up to and including the
present day.
Heinrich von Glasenapp calls pure Shaktism the contrary counter-force to androcentric Buddhism:
“pure, hundred-percent Shaktism is the teaching of all those sects which regard Durga or one of her
forms as the mistress of the world” (von Glasenapp, 1940, p. 123). Durga, that is just another name
for the goddess Kali. She is worshipped by her followers as the highest universal deity. All other
gods, whether masculine or feminine, emerge from her. She has both pleasant and horrific
characteristics, but the dark and cruel traits predominate. She is traditionally linked to a destructive,
man-destroying sexuality. She epitomizes forbidden sex, destructive rage, and death. Terror and
madness count among her characteristics and it is believed her out and out destructiveness will one
day reduce the world to rubble. Our era, which Hindus and Buddhists equally consider to be the
“dark” one, and which is rushing headlong and inevitably towards its downfall, bears the name of this
fearsome goddess — Kali yuga.
Kali appears to her believers as Shakti, that is as feminine energy in the form of a universal female
divinity. In her omnipotence “she includes both the spiritual and the material principles and can
therefore be understood to contain both the soul and nature ... The feminine principle creates the
cosmos in combination with the masculine principle– though the masculine is always of secondary
importance and subordinate to the feminine principle...” — reports the tantra researcher Agehananda
Bharati (Bharati, 1977, p. 174).
Here the androcentric Wheel of Time has been rotated 180 degrees and Tantrism’s patriarchal pattern
of dominance has been reinterpreted matriarchally. Instead of shaven-headed monks or long-haired
Maha Siddhas, women now celebrate as “priestesses and female shamans”. The omnipotent divinity
now reveals itself to be a woman. “Thus the followers of the Shakti school justify their appellation by
the belief that god is a woman and it ought to be the aim of all to become a woman” (Bhattacharyya,
1982, p. 109) — writes Bhattacharyya in his history of the tantric currents.
The gynocentric male sacrifice
According to one widely distributed view, the matriarchal element and goddess cult are believed to
have been predominant for centuries in Indian society and can still now be discovered in folk culture