Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 84

Tantra? It’s that sex stuff, right?

Chances are you’ve heard of Tantra. If you’re involved in occultism, you’ve probably heard something like “it’s an Eastern form of sex magick.” If you’re more involved in what might be called popular New Age beliefs, you’ve probably heard that Tantra is about having long periods of ecstatic sex. Either way, Tantra is still “that sex stuff.” If you’re into sex stuff you’ve probably looked at the “pop” books on Tantra with cute names published by enormous super-publishers. Otherwise, chances are you’ve primarily avoided it.

When I first started studying occultism I ignored Tantra for a different reason. I was simply following what I thought was my personal direction by limiting myself to studying Western magickal, spiritual, and occult techniques. I didn’t want to incorporate Eastern techniques. I had nothing against them. I didn’t think they were inferior. I just wanted to stay with Western techniques. I always felt disappointed that so many Westerners felt they needed to incorporate Eastern concepts, including Tantric concepts, into their Western practices. This wasn’t because I felt that Eastern practices were in any way “bad,” but rather that is was a way of saying, “We’re Westerners and we’re not as good as those of the East.” I just didn’t buy this self-deprication.

As part of my studies and practices, I discovered that there were plenty of methods and techniques that were distinctly Western. There were, and are, Western forms of healing and meditation that are just as practical and effective as those of China and India. When it came to finding something similar to Tantra, after a long period of research, study and practice, I started teaching the Western methods, some of which had been totally ignored by Western practitioners. I share this information in my book, Modern Sex Magick.As far as I can tell, this is the first modern book on sexual occultism that doesn’t rely on Tantra. Actually, and more accurately, most of the others rely on what the author thinks Tantra is. Look at the bibliographies of those books (assuming they include one) and you will find few, if any, primary sources. And again, few, if any of the authors describe being initiated into any Tantric tradition other than modern or Neo-Tantra.

Find the Good in Everything

This isn’t to say that any of the pop Tantra books are “bad.” They may have some very good information. It’s just that they rarely have anything to do with Tantra. Some do get into Tantric sexuality, but they end up implying that Tantra is only about sex. Indeed, for years one of the most popular books on Tantra was Omar Garrison’s, Tantra: Yoga of Sex. That would be like writing a book on a particular automobile and calling it Corvette: Yoga of Hubcaps. Actually, I like Garrison’s book. However, it gives a very incomplete concept of the nature of Tantra.

I have a book that claims Tantra comes from the Pleiades. It doesn’t. Another claims Tantra is about repressing sexual urges and it began in ancient Egypt. No to both. Still another claims that Tantra involves having sex for something like 13.5 minutes while rolling in the mud. It doesn’t. Numerous books about Tantra are actually about forms of Taoist alchemical sexual practices. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these books. In fact, some share some great ideas and techniques. They’re just not about Tantra.

What Gives You the Right???

Some of you reading this may be thinking, “Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. What gives you the right to write about Tantra? After all, you’re that Western magick guy.” That’s a fair question, and one I’ve often asked myself. While the full answer is too long to present here (hmm, maybe I should do a book?), I will give a simple and brief answer: no matter how hard I tried to avoid Tantra, no matter how hard I tried to deny it, the gods and goddesses had a different direction for me. As a result, I kept being confronted with Tantric ideas, studies, and practices.

As a result, I’ve been studying Indian Tantra since the 1970s. I was initiated into one Tantric group and was eventually given authorization to initiate into that group. As part of my initiation, I was given the name Shambhala Nath (or Shambhalanath), Sanskrit for “Lord of Shambhala.” By the 1980s I was writing about Tantra. You can go to this page and see a glossary of words important to Tantra that I had written (it has been expanded since then). Since that time I have been initiated into several other Tantric traditions, including being initiated by Sunyata Saraswati, co-author of Jewel in the Lotus, receiving training from Namadeva Acharya, the late Thomas Ashley-Farrand who was one of the world’s leading experts on mantras, as well as being initiated into the Babaji’s Tantra Kriya Yoga tradition and several other traditions that don’t want to be publicized. I’ve also amassed several thousand books and manuscripts on Tantra. My personal studies and practices have gone beyond what any one group teaches. I have given workshops and initiated people into Tantra all over the U.S. So I think I have the bona fides to discuss the subject.

Wrong Things to Say About Tantra

Anyone who claims that “Tantra says” or “According to Tantra” is, at best, not being accurate. Tantra has evolved over thousands of years and developed in areas where communication and transportation was challenging at best. As a result, different forms of Tantra, all of which are completely legitimate, have developed. Tantra doesn’t “say” anything. Nobody speaks for all of Tantra. Anybody who makes this claims is not being accurate. Different Tantric traditions may focus on completely different areas of life, so much so they seem to be totally different, yet the may come from a common source.

Let me make clear that all of this applies to me. I do NOT speak for Tantra. I cannot represent all of Tantra. I am not the ultimate authority in any sense of the word. What I CAN do is share what I know. Others may disagree. That doesn’t make one of us wrong and the other right, it just shows that we come from different backgrounds. I would just suggest that you ask any writer or teacher some simple question: With whom did you study? Into what Tantric tradition(s) were you initiated? As with all spiritual traditions today we practitioners need to practice due diligence. Otherwise you may end up learning from someone who is making things up.

Frankly, there is nothing wrong with practicing invented traditions—if they work. I know several people who successfully practice what evidence appears to show is a made up Native American sexual tradition. It may not be historically accurate, but that doesn’t make it bad.

Well, that’s not entirely accurate. What such people are doing is, in my opinion, either a knowingly unethical or unknowingly incorrect form of negative cultural appropriation: stealing a simplified version of another culture for personal advancement. Why bother to call what you’re doing “Native American” or “Tantra” when it’s not?

I contend it’s because the purveyors are insecure about what they’re doing (and about themselves) and need a popular catch word in the hope of gathering followers. If nobody has heard of you, saying you’re teaching Native American secrets or Tantra is far more likely to get you students or followers than merely revealing what are your personal techniques.

It’s marketing, not fact. It’s claiming your sugar-filled, overly processed breakfast cereal is “part of a healthy breakfast” rather than admitting it’s overpriced and low in nutritional value.

So What is Tantra?

Tantra is one of the oldest, continuously practiced Pagan spiritual systems in the world. It’s not just about sex. It’s an entire approach to life. It includes magick, healing, divination, deities, monthly rites, seasonal rites, celebratory rites, and much more. Is it a religion? For many people Tantra, like other forms of Paganism, is a religion. It has many deities. Does it have a way of understanding how the universe works, like the Kabalistic Tree of Life? Yes, it has that, too, and uses a symbol far more complex than the Tree of Life for more specialization.

Note, however, that I seem to be writing about Tantra as a single thing. It’s so easy to write that way, but it’s not accurate. Many people only use parts of Tantra and don’t see it as an entire system. Others don’t use the Tantric symbol I mentioned in ways similar to the Tree of Life. Others don’t see Tantra as a Pagan religion. So what is Tantra? I’ll discuss that next time. If you have any questions or comments, write them below.

 

Recently, there has been a great deal of blog-flutter concerning whether astral initiations into magickal groups are valid (see, for example, here, here, and here). I’d like to share my ideas as this topic has clearly struck a collective nerve.

What is an initiation? According to the free, online Llewellyn Encyclopedia, here is the definition of initiation:

A ritual or event that indicates a spiritual and/or psychological change and movement to a new period in life or a new awareness. Traditionally, the candidate for initiation would symbolically die and be reborn into this new way of being. In some traditions, being initiated is supposed to confer various spiritual powers.

In magical orders, initiation also provides entry into the private organization. According to occultist Dion Fortune, there are two basic types of initiation, physical and non-physical. It is hoped that they either occur together or that the physical initiation triggers the non-physical one, however a non-physical initiation can occur at any time and at any place.

So here are the qualities of an initiation:

It’s a ritual or event
It indicates a spiritual and/or psychological change
It marks a new period
Symbolically, it implies a death and rebirth
Supposedly may confer spiritual powers (magickal abilities)
Provides entry into specific group(s)
Hopefully, a physical initiation triggers a non-physical (astral) initiation
A non-physical initiation may occur at any time or place.

There are also symbolic speeches by the ritual participants, symbolic actions made by the participants, and various other qualities. This information clearly shows there is a difference between a physical and non-physical (astral) initiation. But what is this astral initiation that is causing so much blog blather? One of the major problems with discussing astral initiations and their validity is that there are two types of initiations that are called “astral initiations,” even though they’re very different. Most people do not identify this difference and as a result, although they may be commenting on one type of astral initiation, it is possible to confuse it for a comment on the other.

 Astral Initiation Type One:
 The Higher Planes Initiation

This AI-1 version is the type of initiation that Dion Fortune means when talking about a “non-physical” initiation. This is the spiritual initiation which alters your mind, spirit, and even body. It is the true, inner initiation. It goes beyond merely granting you admission to some group or order. It is the spark that links you to the group’s egregore and to any deities or spirits that guide the group.

This type of initiation can occur at any time and at any place. It may be triggered by a physical initiation or the AI-2 initiation described below. Many people consider the AI-1 initiation the true initiation, and without it, any other initiation is meaningless.

It is hoped that a physical initiation will trigger an AI-1 initiation, and if performed well, it can really do that. The appearance of the initiatory officers and their abilities to work with magickal energies, the appearance of the space where the initiation is held, the sounds of speeches, any scents or tastes, and often being combined with a trance state cause by not knowing what will happen, can trigger the AI-1.

Astral Initiation Type Two:
Initiation at a Distance

The AI-2 type of initiation is simply an initiation performed from a distance. In this ritual, the initiating officers perform some sort of rite (either physically in one location or united in spirit on the astral plane) while the candidate for initiation also does certain things while on his or her own and usually at a distant location. There is frequently some sort of time coordination. It is the hope that an AI-2 ritual will trigger an AI-1 experience.

There are obvious challenges to the success of a physical initiation ritual and the success of an AI-2 initiation ritual. The physical initiation ritual can be ineffective when participants aren’t prepared and either are unable to work with the magickal energies or cannot deliver their speeches in a way that affects the candidate for initiation. If the accoutrements are unattractive and take attention away from the ritual instead of instilling a sense of awe and amazement the results may not be beneficial. And then there is the problem of finding a group that will effectively initiate you and any travel you have to do to get to them.

Even with all these issues, the problems associated with AI-2 are even more daunting. The person being initiated not only can’t tell if the participants are doing their jobs effectively, he or she has no way of knowing if they’re doing the initiation at all! For all the candidate knows, the officers may be sitting at home, drinking beer, eating chips, and watching Star Trek reruns. And at the same time, even if the ritual officers are doing a fantastic job they won’t know how well the candidate is doing. In fact, the candidate may ignoring the process and simply be at home, reading a book, or out at a club dancing to a DJ playing The Weather Girls singing “It’s Raining Men.”

When someone says that an Astral Initiation is the one that really counts, they are talking about type AI-1. But some people who are officers in groups or initiates of groups that primarily perform AI-2 initiations falsely want you to believe that saying an Astral Initiation is the one that counts refers to what they are doing. It does not.

Hierarchy of Initiatory Success

In my experience, here is a listing of the spiritual success at achieving an AI-1 experience from different types of initiations:

    Initiation Type                    Success Level  

Physical (well done):………………………High

Physical (poorly done):…………………..Medium–High

AI-2 (well done):…………………………….Low–Medium-Low

AI-2 (poorly done):…………………………Ineffective–Low

How can an AI-2 initiation that is poorly done, or even not performed by the supposed initiators, have even a low level of success? Because of the thoughts, hopes, wishes, drives, desires, and passion of the person supposedly initiated. If a person really wants it, that Higher Planes AI-1 initiation can occur at any time and any place. Just believing you are being initiated, even if the initiators are doing nothing, might result in an AI-1 experience.

The AI-2 experience will make you a member of a physical group, but other than that, the AI-2 is unlikely to result in an AI-1 initiation. It can happen, but it’s rare. In fact it’s supposed effectiveness may be nothing more than the candidate’s hopes and fantasy.

In my opinion the most effective means of achieving that transcendent AI-1 initiation is to experience a well-executed physical initiation. That is, where you go to some site and people do ritual actions and speeches. Even if it doesn’t immediately trigger an AI-1 initiation, a well-executed physical initiation will have a psychological effect on you and that may, in the future, trigger the AI-1.

I know, some people reading this will say, “But I can’t find a group” or “I can’t afford the travel, the costs, the time off from work, etc.” These are all good, legitimate reasons for choosing the easier, AI-2 type of initiation. I would like to point out, however, that there is another word that means “reasons.” It’s “excuses.”

You can come up with all the reasons/excuses you want. But let me ask you this: If I were to say to you, “If you will travel across the country and come to my home, I’ll give you ten million dollars. It will change your life forever,” would you be willing to figure at a way to earn or borrow some extra money and get some time off in order to reach my house? I would say 999 out of 1,000 people would absolutely do this. Suddenly, those reasons/excuses given in the previous paragraph just vanish—if you really want the experience that will change your life.

Similarly, you are more likely to receive a life-altering AI-1 experience by taking part in a physical initiation. I would say it’s worth it, wouldn’t you?

*   *   *

I’m going to be interviewed by Dorian Wallace on his Blog Talk Radio program,

Desperate House Witches.

Date: TODAY Friday, July 12
Time: 9:00 p.m. Eastern

(6:00 p.m. Pacific)
Here’s the  LINK  to the show’s blog.
Here’s the  LINK  to the live show.
You can listen through your computer from anywhere in the world.
Be sure to tune into this exciting, live program.

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

Part 2 HERE

Part 3 HERE

If you have successfully met the test or challenge of the Emperor, you will experience the Lovers, in both its traditional and modern forms. Traditionally, the Lovers is about choices. If you have been successful in integrating your inner and outer selves and your private and public selves, then you have made choices. You cannot successfully complete this row without making choices. The Lovers is also about passion and about choosing (choices again!) or doing things that you know in your heart to be right. So, skating through school or learning to pass through society under the wire may get you through, may be enough to get by, but they are not considered successfully completing the row.

The result of successful completion is the Chariot, the ability to control the often contradictory forces or experiences of life in ways that support or are in line with your world view. You will be able to move forward toward your goals with confidence.

But life never allows you to rest on your laurels. Just because you’ve completed one row doesn’t mean you can relax. It’s time to move on to the second row.

Note to faithful reader Ty: You anticipated control issues with these cards and that is certainly something to consider when they come up in a reading, but because these are the gifts of the row, that’s not really the case here. However, we could consider what happens when you don’t successfully complete the row…perhaps the shadow side of the “gifts” come into play. I have never explored that, but you can be sure I will and likely add to this series, thanks to your comment! This adds a whole new dimension and layer to this process. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I’m going to be interviewed by Dorian Wallace on his Blog Talk Radio program, Desperate Housewitches.

Date: Friday, July 12
Time: 9:00 p.m. Eastern— 6:00 p.m. Pacific
Here’s the LINK to the show’s blog.
Here’s the LINK to the live show.

 

You can listen through your computer from anywhere in the world. Be sure to tune into this exciting, live program.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Jane Meredith, author of Rituals of Celebration.

Many of the most powerful times I’ve had in ritual have been during celebrations for one of the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year. Moments of powerful community; of ecstatic spiritual revelation; of deep self-knowledge and of pure embodied joy as I saw, felt, touched, and lived the divine as it shone through myself, my son, my friends, or even complete strangers. Yet there’s an awkwardness about sharing these things, or about deliberately journeying into the depths of these festivals. They often remain as simple gatherings while the work of personal transformation, political action, and developing our relationship with divine happens on other stages, separate from this cycle.

The Wheel of the Year on the surface looks simple. It’s often depicted with playful and child-like images of coloured eggs, Maypoles, and harvest altars. Ritual outlines proposed in books or articles are often correspondingly simple, with chants; craft activities; and associated colours, plants, and animals. But we all know the Wheel is much more than this. It encodes our deepest understandings of the natural cycles, of the balance of light and dark and serves as a continual link to this sacred earth of which we’re a part.

Particularly at times of crisis, grief, depression, and despair, I think the Wheel of the Year offers not just solace, in the endless turning of the seasons and the continual return to spring and light, but also in its depiction of what happens in those darkest times. Samhain is not just a time for dressing up, conducting journeys through to the spirit realms, and honouring our beloved dead. It’s also the time of the deepest mystery intrinsic to the Wheel. Between Samhain and the Winter Solstice something happens—something unobservable—that allows the Wheel to spin around into rebirth and new growth, where all had been death, decay, and release.

This also happens in our lives. It is common to go through times of profound loss, despair, and utter doubt, which may last many years. There are three major times I can think of where this has happened to me. At the time it can seem that there is no way out and that things will never change. Yet, inevitably, they do change. And although we experience them as so individual, so particular to ourselves, in fact everyone has these experiences. The Wheel of the Year shows us—every year—that this inward time of release followed by nothingness and prior to a new beginning is an essential part of the living cycle; a cycle that as Pagans we celebrate and honour. This level of understanding, of how the Wheel relates to contemporary life and how deeply it holds us and teaches us, is what I feel calling to me when I stand in sacred circle, ready to engage in ritual with one of the eight festivals.

Our thanks to Jane for her guest post! For more from Jane Meredith, read her article “Traveling Deeper with the Wheel of the Year.”

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

Part 2 is HERE

In this article, we look at the main test or challenge of the first row, which is represented by The Emperor. The flanking cards, The Empress and The Hierophant, show the energies the create or intensify the challenge.

Many people think of the Emperor and the Empress as a pair, representing opposing forces or opposite sides of the same coin, so it is confusing why in this case the Emperor stands alone as the crux of the challenge and the Empress is essentially “paired” with the Hierophant.

The basic issue of the row is how you relate to and experience the world, which is shaped (in childhood) by home and school. The Empress represents home and family influences and resonates with the High Priestess and the inner experience. The Hierophant represents society and school/formal education and relates to the Magician and the external experience.

The main challenge or test is The Emperor, the archetypal father and traditionally the person who, in the child’s view, “lives” in both worlds: home and society. Please remember, these are archetypal/symbol ideas and not actual gender roles. The Emperor or archetypal father moves between both realms with, being a symbol of successful integration, ease and without losing his sense of self.

So the challenge of this row is learning how to balance your inner and outer experiences in a way that works equally well in private/home and in public/society.

In the next article we will look at the experience and results of the first row, represented by the Lovers and the Chariot.

Yes, the first prediction contest is still on. The person who makes the most accurate prediction will win a Tarot deck of his or her choice, and that may be chosen from all the decks offered by Llewellyn. To read all of the rules and make your entry, please go to this LINK.

This contest will run for several more months. At that time a winner will be selected from among the entries on the page at this LINK. Don’t wait until the last minute! A prediction made in January for an event that occurs in December will be considered as stronger than the same prediction made later in the year. Be sure to include dates or a date range when you think your prediction will take place and remember, the more specific you are the more strongly your entry will be considered.

Don’t enter on this page!!!! Instead click on THIS LINK and read all the rules. Then make your entry there.

This is your chance to prove how accurate you are at making predictions. The contest is open to people with a “hunch,” to professional psychics, and everyone in between.

Enter soon!

 

I have the wonderful luck of being able to provide several services to Llewellyn. As you may know, I write some books, I’m an acquisition editor, and I write this blog. What you might not know is that I’m also the editor of Llewellyn’s free, online encyclopedia. As the editor of the encyclopedia, my work involves tracking down terms that are associated with occultism, spirituality, the paranormal, and more. Then, I have to assure myself the definition of a term is accurate. Only when this is done do I actually place it in the encyclopedia.

The encyclopedia was already started when I became the editor and made my first set of new entries in 2005. Today I made my 50th set of entries, adding almost 190 new terms. By my estimates we now have over 4,500 terms in the encyclopedia. However, this does not give the full breadth of the encyclopedia as many of the terms have multiple definitions or longer articles associated with them. We believe that our encyclopedia is either one of the largest or the largest encyclopedia in this category available on the internet.

When you come across a word associated with occultism, spirituality, the paranormal, new age topics, etc., we hope—I hope—you’ll use the encyclopedia to look up the word’s meaning. We are so grateful for the support the community has given us that we’re doing this as a free service for the community. There are no gimmicks or charges; it’s really free. You can go to the encyclopedia’s home page and enter any term. Or if you have a bit of free time you can explore the many categories and hyperlinks that go from one word to another. It’s intriguing, enlightening, and entertaining.

For example, have you ever heard of an anaretic degree? It’s a name for the 29th of the 30 degrees that make up each zodiacal sign. You can find out the astrological meaning by clicking on the term’s hyperlink at the start of this paragraph.

Or did you know that graveyard dust, sometimes called for in magickal recipes, wasn’t traditionally accepted literally? It was actually a code name for the common herb mullein. Using coded names (so outsiders wouldn’t learn the real secrets) for herbs has a history of at least 2,000 years. In retrospect, some of the code choices, such as baby’s blood for strawberry juice, were not optimal.

Although I try hard to find as many terms as possible to enter into the encyclopedia, I’m always open to getting more. If you find any terms that aren’t included, please sent them to me: [email protected]. Include the term, a brief definition, and your source. If we use it you will get credit for it.

 

A Study of the Fool’s Journey 2

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

Today we look at the Basic Issue of the first row, represented by the Magician and High Priestess. It is helpful to use the idea of childhood development as a metaphor. Some of the concepts we deal with in the journey are very abstract and so having a down-to-earth metaphor helps communicate these ideas.

The first two cards do describe a basic issue and they do so by representing opposing facets of that issue. In this case, the issue is about negotiating your experience in and of the world.

The Magician, being an active and extroverted card, represents how you express yourself in the world.

The High Priestess, being a passive and reflective cards, represents how you experience the world.

The basic issue of the first row, then, is our inner and outer experiences as we interact with the world around us.

Next time we will look at the main test or challenge of this row.

Ah, summer. For many, this warm season means piling into the family car and heading to a fun and exotic vacation destination. A road that led many to an iconic summer vacation destination during the middle of the twentieth century was the legendary Route 66. Spanning eight states and over 2,400 miles, the Mother Road in its prime was full of kitschy restaurants, museums, attractions, and motels. This two-lane highway was so famous and had such an influence on America’s pop culture that it inspired a song and a television series. 

Thanks to the Interstate Highway Act and fewer people who wanted a scenic route to their destination, the attractions along the Mother Road are now few and far inbetween, but that doesn’t stop nostalgia. There has been a resurgence in the love of all things Route 66 since the late 1980s and it is still going strong. It is prominently featured in Disney’s Cars movie, and I turned on my local PBS station on Monday to find Billy Connolly trekking his way across Route 66 on a motorcycle.

With all of the abandoned attractions alongside the Mother Road, of course there are going to be some ghosts lingering in the shadows. Haunted Route 66 by Richard Southall covers all 2,448 miles of this legendary highway and relays some fascinating spooky stories. Swing by the Oatman Hotel in Oatman, Arizona, if you want to catch a glimpse of a spirit who resembles Clark Gable, who spent his first night of wedding bliss with Carole Lombard in the hotel. The Lemp Mansion in St Louis is famously known for its paranormal activity, and who can bypass Resurrection Cemetery near Chicago to see if they catch a glimpse of Mary on her way home after the dance.

If you’re looking for a classic road trip with a paranormal edge, pick up Haunted Route 66 and a road map. I myself have never cruised along this highway, but it is on my list of things to do. Life is short, so I am going to start planning my trip now. Have any of you taken a trip down Route 66?