Tantric Sexual Ritual and the Cult of the Yoginī
When Tantra is spoken of today, it is often mentioned in the context of sexual practices. Though it would be foolish to deny that sexual practices are an important part of historical Tantric sādhāna, to say that they are the focus would be a grave mistake. In the introductory chapter of his monumental work on the Tantric sexual ritual, Kiss of the Yoginī, David Gordon White describes the rarity of the sexual practice: “…such does not constitute and has not ever, as far as can be determined, constituted the mainstream of Kaula or Tantric practices in South Asia.” Sexual rituals were reserved for high level initiates (often royalty and their close advisors) who used these practices as a means to access universal feminine creative power, in many cases for physical and material gain. This description is far removed from the modern “Neo-tantric” perspective, where “Tantric sex” is seen in terms of orgiastic revelry and orgasmic bliss. Even modern scholars have fallen into the “orientalist trap”, glossing over Indian mythology in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis. Indian critics of modern Western scholarship have brought this misconception to the fore as of late, claiming that modern scholarship has done nothing more than “transformed great saints like Ramakrishna into ‘child molesters’, while the Hindu goddess is imagined to be a ‘sex maniac with a variety of pathological conditions’.” Critics claim that the tendency of modern American scholarship to focus on the violent and erotic details of Indian culture is a symptom of our own obsession; our desire to be stimulated through flirtation with the taboo.
While this critique of the American obsession may be fairly accurate, the reaction from Hindu critics is not without its own pitfalls. The Indian religious traditions grouped under the collective term “Hinduism” are extremely diverse. In recent history, the movement toward a collective Hindu identity has attempted to drive marginal practices and theologies such as Tantra out of mainstream thought; replacing them with a portrayal of orthodox religious unity. This “One Hindu Religion” is in actuality a recent development; possibly a result of the Nationalist movement’s attempt unify the diversity of India and its religions under the umbrella of the orthodox “Neo-Vedāntic” world-view. In effect, critics tend to downplay the importance of unorthodox practices, and in doing so may very well be undermining the most refined synthesis of the ongoing Indian philosophical conversation. Sexual imagery (sometimes manifested through practice) is without a doubt at the heart of this conversation, especially within the texts and practices of Tantra.
This raises the question, how can we continue to study the teachings and practices of Tantra, including the sexual practices and imagery, without portraying Hindu culture as sex-crazed and perverted? The answer to this question may lie simply in the refinement of our own phenomenological approach. Might our Western misconceptions about Tantra and its practices stem from a simple misunderstanding or oversimplification of Indian symbolism? Here we will delve into the appropriation of power through Tantric sexual practice; but before we explore the practices themselves, we will explore the symbolism that is utilized within them. In this way we will gain a more holistic understanding of “Tantric sex” from within its own cultural and historical context.
The Symbolism of Tantric Sexual Imagery
As Mircea Eliade put it, “The symbol reveals certain aspects of reality- the deepest aspects- which defy any other means of knowledge. Images, symbols and myths are not irresponsible creations of the human psyche; they respond to a need and fulfill a function, that of bringing to light the most hidden modalities of being.” So what is it that sexual imagery brings to light within the Tantric Hindu context? This is a question that elicits a necessarily multifaceted method of approach. From one angle, it is quite obvious that the embodied sexual act is a creative process homologous to the original work of universal creation. From another more subtle angle, the sexual act can be seen as a process devolution; a means of reunifying the underlying male observer with the dynamism of female creativity.
The images of Sāṃkhya philosophy were swallowed whole by many contemporary philosophical systems, as well as those that developed later. Within this dualistic system, reality is divided into the static male element of puruṣa, and the ever-changing female element of nature or prakṛti. These two principles are often compared to the experience of watching a movie. Puruṣa is metaphorically related to the movie screen; white, unmoving, and unchanged by the film that is projected upon it. Prakṛti is like the movie itself; changing, dramatic, and captivating. The movie is only observable if you have both the projection and the screen, just as the universe only exists through the intermingling of puruṣa and prakṛti. The union of these individual principles brings about the creation of the universe, just as the sexual union of male and female results in the creation of new life.
Similarly, within the Tantric conceptualization of the god and goddess (Śiva and Śakti), sexual union is the process through which the cosmos are created, sustained, and eventually destroyed. Georg Feuerstein writes:
…in Hindu Tantra, Śakti plays the active role, whereas Śiva, although aroused by Śakti’s love play, remains passive and cool. He manifests the absolute stillness of consciousness, she expresses the unlimited potency of Power or Energy. Together they symbolize the play of life and death, creation and annihilation, emptiness and form, dynamism and stasis.
Here the male god, in the form of Śiva, plays a passive role. He represents pure awareness; he is an anthropomorphic representation of the ability to silently observe. The female goddess, in the form of Śakti, represents creation; she is the ability to birth the limitless wonders of the universe. Together, in a union often represented through the embodied language of sexuality, they manifest experience. At the same time, the union of Śiva and Śakti also represents a sort of devolution, an unraveling of the false perception of separateness. Through the realization that experience only evolves through the union of the knower and the known, the Tantric practitioner comes to recognize that the Inner Observer is never really separate from the dynamism of Śakti. The birth of every moment is nothing more than the result of the metaphorical love making of the god and the goddess. Above all else, the symbolism of sexual union in Hindu Tantra represents the fundamentally non-dual nature of the cosmos.
In the context of sexual imagery, the body once again becomes a microcosm from which Tantra can draw homologous connections to the macrocosm of the universe. White states:
…since at least the dawn of the common era, Indians have known that the miracle of conception occurs through the union of male and female vital fluids, semen and uterine blood. With early Tantrism, these procreative fluids came to be conceived as “power substances” for the worship and ultimately the identification with gods and goddesses whose boundless energy was often portrayed as sexual in nature.
As might be expected, male and female sexual fluids took on the characteristics of their macrocosmic counterparts Śiva and Śakti. Female menstrual blood was considered to be a fluid representation of the raw creative power of the goddess. Menstruating women are considered to be dangerous; they are both bleeding “hot” creative energy from their sexual organs, and simultaneously requiring the replacement of that energy through the ingestion of blood (or a symbolic substitute). The male semen counterpart is considered to be shimmering, volatile, and “cool”. It is for this reason that the female energies, personified as the fierce goddesses and Yoginīs that we will be addressing shortly, desire to be fed with blood offerings and oblations of the cooling male seed. Combined through the process of sexual union, male and female power substances catalyze into a symbolic representation of non-duality. They become the fluid gnosis of amṛta, the divine nectar of immortality.
Sexual imagery and the practices built upon it are essentially symbolic of the interaction between the two elemental, and seemingly opposite forces of the universe. Through the imagery of sexuality, which draws upon the fundamental symbolism of the human body, Tantric sexual practices are designed as a mesocosm through which a practitioner can gain access to the universal power inherent in creation. By infusing sexual fluids with ritualistic meaning, Tantric sexual practices intend to unite the essential natures of the god and goddess and thereby gain access to a material embodiment of the freedom, power, and immortality of the godhead.
Tantric Sexual Ritual – The Fifth ‘M’
The sexual ritual no doubt evolved from the procreative symbolism of early Vedic sacrificial rituals. In fact, the sexual ritual is understood as a sacrifice in itself. Urban writes, “The homology between animal sacrifice and sexual union goes back at least as far as the Upaniṣads, where the male’s shedding of semen into the womb of the female is directly compared to pouring the oblation into the Vedic sacrificial fire.” Urban even calls the sexual practices “the esoteric counterpart to the public offering of blood sacrifice.” Within the context of ritual, this sacrifice is presented to a living female woman who is considered to be either the embodiment of the goddess, or possessed by one of the female semi-divine beings known as Yoginīs. White has this to say about the sexual sacrifice:
The decapitated and dismembered bodies that litter the myriad tableaux or Tantric expression exemplify the practitioner who heroically gives up that which is most precious to him, and which is restored to him by the Tantric deity. There is, however, a more effective way to sacrifice one’s life essence, which does not involve losing one’s head. This is the offering of one’s sexual emissions, which are at once the stuff of life itself (according to Indian medicine) and preferred food of several classes of Tantric deities, generally female.
By sacrificing one’s semen into the fire of the yoni, one is devotionally pouring their vital essence into the “mouth” of the goddess.
The sexual rite is the fifth ‘M’ in the pañcamakāra, the ritual of the five M’s that is composed of madya (wine), māmsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudrā (parched grain), and finally maithuna (sexual intercourse). Partaking in the ritual of the five M’s was a purposely trangressive act, designed to transcend the rules of spiritual and social purity in order to access the power of the marginal realm of liminality. Hindu Brāhmaṇas would ingest forbidden substances such as meat and alcohol that would normally be extremely polluting, however, in the context of the ritual, become a means of accessing divine power. In the end, the pañcamakāra culminates in the rite of maithuna where the act of transgression is most obviously performed through the extreme inversion of societal and religious propriety.
The ritual inversion of societal norms was apparent throughout the symbolism of the maithuna rite. Within the context of the ritual, the strict barriers regarding bodily purity, as well as the social barriers of caste and fidelity, were deliberately and most vehemently transgressed. In most cases it was preferable that the female sexual consort was menstruating at the time of the ritual so that the powerfully impure menstrual blood could be collected along with the semen of the male practitioner and transmuted into the divine elixir. Also, the female consorts that were picked to participate in the ritual were specifically chosen from a lower social stratum, preferably from an untouchable caste. Though in some cases the it was permitted to perform the ritual with one’s own spouse, it was highly recommended that one instead choose a prostitute, or better yet, the wife of another man. Urban quotes the Kāmākhyā Tantra:
Having approached the yoni of another man’s wife in particular, the wise man should make offerings. He should consider worship there, O goddess, as comparable to the yoni of a prostitute…With a woman in her menstrual period, he will attain manifold pleasures. Instantly, he will attain powers that are difficult even for the gods. Therefore, O goddess, the yoni practice is said to be the greatest of all.
The sexual act itself was also performed in an inverted fashion, with the female taking the active role on top of the male; truly an odd variation when considered from within the patriarchal orthodox Hindu society. Finally, the rite of maithuna was enacted for completely different reasons than the common sexual encounter or of husband and wife. While under orthodox circumstances sexual intercourse was carried out in order to bare a child (preferably a son), maithuna was a method for combining the heavily symbolic semen and menstrual blood of the practitioners and extracting that substance for the purpose of consumption. Within the Tantric ritual, sexual practices were designed to produce and use this substance in order to tap into the unlimited power of Śakti so that one might achieve bodily immortality, magical powers, or liberation from mundane existence.
The pañcamakāra ritual was enacted most often during three different types of ceremony, each with its own designated time and purpose. Abhiṣeka, or initiation, was a ceremony in which the Tantric guru would initiate new members into the kula, or clan. This ceremony often involved the lineage guru engaging in intercourse with a prostitute, and part of the produced elixir being given to the initiate. The yoni pūjā most commonly involved only a single man and woman. In this ceremony the man would worship the yoni of the woman as he would an image of the goddess, often with incense, sandal paste, and other accouterments. In turn, the woman would also worship the man’s lingam in the same way before eventually uniting in the rite of maithuna. The fluids produced were mixed with wine and ingested, and a small portion was also applied to the forehead as a tilaka mark. Finally, the most famous of the sexual rituals is the cakra pūjā, a ceremony only performed at times deemed astrologically auspicious. Here a group of often eight men and an equal number of women collectively partake of the pañcamakāra in a circle while embodying the forms of the god and goddess respectively (most often as a form of Śiva and Devī). These sexual rituals were forbidden for outsiders, and were performed only in secluded places and under the utmost secrecy. The knowledge of these rituals was reserved for the kula only.
The Kula and the Cult of the Yoginī - A Medieval Tantric Lineage
Kula (clan) practices focused around a group of semi-divine beings known as Yoginīs, who were understood as fearsome female apparitions that emanated as manifestations of śakti from the eight Mother Goddesses. The origin of this cult is believed to be the region of Assam in Northeast India, specifically Kāmarūpa which is home to the yoni pīṭha or vulva of the Goddess. The original founder of this cult is said to be the famed siddha Matsyendranātha who visited Kāmarūpa around the year 900 CE. Urban writes, “Matsyendra is said to have received his esoteric knowledge in Kāmarūpa while living among the powerful female Yoginīs who lived there.”
In the introduction to John Dupuche’s translation of the great sage Abhinavagupta’s description of the Kula ritual, he defines the word Kula as referring to:
…the family or grouping of the Yoginīs and of the ‘Mothers’. It is also taken to mean the corporeal body, the body of power, the cosmic body, the totality of things so that by entering into a ‘family’, a kula, the worshipper enters into the totality of cosmic powers, the Kula. He himself, in his own body, is the embodiment of the ‘Mothers’ and the whole of reality.
Entering into the “clan” was achieved through an initiation that could only be administered by the learned guru who had in turn received his initiation in the same manner. The Abhiṣeka (as described above) would transmit the kuladravyam or “clan fluid” to the initiate, thereby uniting him with the kula. This substance, as prepared by the guru and his consort, was considered to be, as White describes it, “the germ plasm of the divine, literally flowing through the clan, that made it a unified family.”
The transmission of this “germ plasm” that was at the heart of kula practices is part of an interesting cosmogony that White attempts to explain in his book Kiss of the Yoginī:
According to the Kaula world-view, the godhead – the source of all being and power in the world – externalized himself (or herself in the case of the Kālī-Krama of Kashmir) in the form of a series of female hypostases, a cluster of (often eight) great Goddesses, who in turn proliferated into the multiple circle of feminine energies (often sixty-four) that were their Yoginī entourage. These semi-divine Yoginīs and the human women who embodied them carried in their bodies the germ plasm of the godhead, called the ‘clan fluid’…While this fluid essence flowed naturally through these female beings, it was absent in males. Therefore, the sole means by which a male could access the flow of the supreme godhead at the elevated center of the mandala, the clan ‘flow chart’, was through the Yoginīs, who formed or inhabited its outer circles.
These sixty- four Yoginīs were understood as emanating from each of the eight female goddesses commonly referred to as the eight “Mothers”. Here he gives a description of the characteristics of the Yoginī spirits who are said to carry the “clan fluid”:
(1) They were a group of powerful, sometimes marital, female divinities with whom female ‘witches’ were identified in ritual practice; (2) their power was intimately connected with the flow of blood, both their own menstrual and sexual emissions, and the blood of their animal (and human?) victims; (3) they were essential to Tantric initiation in which they initiated male practitioners through fluid transactions via their “mouths” [vulvas]; (4) they were possessed with the power of flight; (5) they took the form of humans, animals, or birds, and often inhabited trees; (6) they were often arrayed in circles; (7) their temples were generally located in isolated areas, on hilltops or prominences and were usually round and often hypaethral; and (8) they were never portrayed as practicing yoga for the simple reason that yoga as we know it today had not yet been invented.
These Yoginīs, in the context of the sexual ritual, were believed to fly down from the heavens and possess the female consorts of the male tāntrikas, thereby transmitting the power (sākti) of the godhead through the fluid medium of the menstrual “seed”. As such, specially designed temples were built particularly for these practices. These temples were constructed away from society, often on a hilltop or in the forest. They were roofless and circular in construction, allowing for the Yoginīs to descend from the heavens, possess, and eventually leave the circle of female practitioners. The walls of these temples were lined with sculptures depicting the sixty-four Yoginīs all facing an Idol in the center, often of Bhairava (the wrathful form of Śiva) who is said to be their leader . Today, one can find remnants of these temples still standing in the Indian states of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
--------------------
Om Gam Ganapataye Namah
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds 
Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order 
Red Vein Kratom 
Isolated Cubensis Liquid Culture For Sale 
Injection Grain Bag
Chronic7 
kcobra15 
[Re: 
Edit 
Reply 
1 2 all )
leviticus2013
MAIA
Diaboleros
Middleman
Heru_sa_Aset
ob1kinsmokey