Tantra

Dear Readers,

During my recent yoga retreat, I borrowed a book on Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses by Dr. Frawley.  My yoga studies in previous years hadn’t delved into tantric aspects very deeply.  I had read before, that our western obsession with tantra and tantric practices were somewhat misaligned with the true and original yogic teachings, like many great wisdom schools and revered pieces of literature.  And whilst I had myself tinkered with teachings from books on interesting positions and partnered breathing techniques, I was intrigued to understand the meta-physical meanings more deeply. 

This is my own crude interpretation of what I could glean from Frawley’s writings.  In the Hindu Tantric tradition, there are said to be ‘Ten Cosmic Powers’ known as the Dasa Mahavidyas.  They are anthromorphized as archetypes of the Divine Feminine Goddess.  With burgeoning distractions from subversive games in non-ethical polyamory and Giselle Pelicot-esque vampiric templates, becoming unveiled around us, it feels like, man or woman, we need her guidance more than ever.

1.         Kali – Creation and Destruction.  The all-pervasive power. Her image is confronting and somewhat alarming within Hindu sketches.  She is here for our yogic transformation, through union with ourselves as we meet ourselves ever more deeply through our life experiences.  She is also here to destroy afflictions, our states of perpetuated pain.  She reminds me of the wrecking ball that clears all that we may wish to tear down, because she is worthy of the new, creative tapestry.

2.         Tara – The Saving Word.  Green Tara, well-known also within Buddhist traditions, the wish-fulfilling vine, to assist us in accomplishing all our goals that we have stitched with strands of ether.  The manifest. She is a deliverer, here with us to rise above our troubles and promote our ability to discern that which is life promoting, and that which depletes our essence. 

3.         Tripura Sundari – The Beauty of the Three Worlds: matter, energy and thought.  Stability, motion and understanding, all three inter-connected and all three necessary to bring about our pure perception and one-ness with the beauty of the world of nature, where we feel fully well, connected to our inner well.  To dwell in the forest of bliss, to play here, through all cycles of nature, and in all weathers.

4.         Bhuvaneshvari – The Queen of The Universe: the power of vision.  The cosmic womb, the witness, the enjoyer of the dance.  The power of love, that offers a spaciousness for ease and provides freedom.  The embodiment of peace.  The mystery of that which lies behind the veil, beneath the depths of the cosmos and beyond the limitations of time and space.

5.         Bhairavi - The Warrior Goddess.  Goddess of the beautiful and the dangerous.  The radiance of fire with the power to destroy limitations, illusions and egocentricity.  Protection of the mothers gathered together, the goddess Durga who rides upon the back of the tiger/lion of righteous action.  Her potency and protection banish all who would seek to destroy that which is sacred.

6.         Chhinnamasta – Consciousness Beyond The Mind.  A lightning bolt of electricity, a weapon for immediate transformation, and the free flow through our energy channels.  Transcendence.  The liberation of the subtle bodies, beyond the entrapment of body consciousness.  An awakening, and an integration of all that has been before, that lifts us into the sanctuary of heart-centred living.

7.         Dhumavati – The Grandmother Spirit.  The widow.  The void, primal sleep, smoke and darkness. The bliss of surrender to the formless before creation can assimilate. The wisdom of forgetfulness. Suffering as an invitation toward the opportunity of freedom within solitude.

8.         Bagalamukhi – The Hypnotic Power.  Cosmic feminine power.  The magnetising power of truth.  The decisive statement that paralyzes those who would attack us.  That which cuts through the false constructions of the mind.  Speech as a weapon to destroy negativity.  The steady remembrance of the self from the forward momentum propelled by the justice of truth, that provides a space for us to heal.

9.         Matangi – The Utterance of The Divine Word.  The daughter of the sage.  Powerful thoughts and ideas transformed into words, song, the rivers, the out-cast, the teacher, the wild, the self-realized.  The feeling and passion of the divine word, the deepest expression of our hearts.  The form that is created through our anguish and the reformation of our own ideology, extracted from a re-centring back to a place of compassion.

10.     Kamalatmika – The Lotus Goddess of Delight.  The nature of supreme peace.  Lakshmi, the goddess of the abundance of the soul, empowered and unconquerable.  Where encounters in time and in space are not planned but feel gifted.  And a warmth within our hearts is felt as a continuous presence through each moment, spent in any place of any people.  Lakshmi is the lustre of pure gold, the maximum manifestation of the divine here on earth. 

The word Tantra can be translated as framework, or technique for expansion, the expansion of our consciousness.  Within this framework, there is a right-hand path and a left-hand path.  The right hand, is meditational, includes spiritual disciplines, purity in conduct and action and is suited for those with a devotional temperament.  Worldy pass-times such as sexual union, wine, meat, fish and grains or money are given up with a focus on self-restraint and asceticism.  The left-hand path, is written according to the rule of more ‘dharmic’ principles, relating to the family or Kula (community).  It is suited for those of a more heroic temperament, the warrior class.  Some walking the left-hand path engage in the taboo seeking liberation through direct experiences that confront psychological and societal boundaries, as a fast-track accelerating spiritual awakening.  Such practices can forcibly break our attachments to the three gunas in life (the causal factors of creation).  The gunas are Tamas (our desires), Rajas (action) and Sattva (spirit).  Frawley offers that substances and rituals can be used literally or symbolically, to transcend these attachments, symbolically they can be transformed into a sacred action offered to the divine. 

As I research the topic further, I am assured of the limitations of my current understanding on such a huge wisdom school of work with many lineages and interpretations.  For now, I’ll muse upon the feminine archetypes within my own psyche and how my traverse of the underworld from Kali toward Kamala can support the original intention of my writings, as an offering to help transform instability and harsh realities into more ease and care.