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Posts tagged ‘Ganesa’

1. On the ‘Queering’ of Ganesha

   You create this world. You maintain this world. All this world is seen in you. You are Earth, water, Fire, Air, Aethyr. You are beyond the four measures of speech. You are beyond the Three Gunas. You are beyond the three bodies. You are beyond the three times. You are always situated in the Muladhara. You are the being of the three Shaktis. You are always meditated upon by Yogins. You are Brahma, you are Vishnu, you are Rudra, You are Agni, You are Vayu, You are the Moon, You are the Sun, You are Brahma, Bhur-Bhuvah-Svar.

   Ganesa Upanisad

   What makes a god ‘queer’? How – and perhaps more importantly – who makes that identification, and when does it become canonical?

   Continue reading »

   

   July 15th 2022

   Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Pagan, Queer, tantra

   Tags: colonialism, Ganesa, Orientalism

   2 comments »

2. Jottings: On Kubera, wealth and character

   I’ve been neglecting enfolding of late, as I’ve been absorbed in other writing projects that have diverted my attention (more of which, another time). It struck me recently though, that one way of getting back into a regular posting regime would be to try and write about some of the material I’ve been reading of late.

   Most recently, I’ve been doing some research on Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth. Google Kubera and you’ll see that he is indeed a popular Indian deity when it comes to petitioning the gods for matters of finance and money and there is an abundance of websites detailing Kubera’s mantras, yantras, and puja: even online pujaris willing to do Kubera Puja for you for a reasonable fee.

   You might expect then, for a god of wealth, there would be a corpus of material dealing with Kubera’s character and highlighting Kubera’s generosity and willingness to part with his treasures for the needy and the worthy. But no, it’s not that simple. Indeed, one might say that he has something of a reputation for being miserly. Some of the stories in which Kubera makes an appearance seem to me to indicate a tension in the relationship between wealth and the other major life-goals (Kama, Dharma, Moksha). Here are two sources which I think illustrate the complexity of Kubera and these tensions. Continue reading »

   

   October 12th 2018

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Ganesa, jottings, Kubera, reflections

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3. Ganapati variations: an eighteenth-century interpretation

   “But the obvious forms and ceremonies of a religion are not always to be understood in their obvious sense; but are to be considered as symbolical representations of some hidden meaning, which may be extremely wise and just, though the symbols themselves, to those who know not their true significance may appear in the highest degree absurd and extravagant.”
   Richard Payne Knight, A Discourse on the worship of Priapus

   In the midst of Richard Payne Knight’s A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its connection with the mystic Theology of the Ancients (first published in 1786) there is an early European analysis of Ganesa: Continue reading »

   

   February 12th 2011

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

   Tags: eighteenth-century, Ganesa, Orientalist, Richard Payne Knight

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4. Ganapati variations: Ganesa sorceries

   Having spent most of my Ganesa-oriented practice performing long puja with the aim of inter-identification with Ganapati, reading Gudrun Bühneman’s Tantric Forms of Ganesa (DK Printworld, 2008) was something of an eye-opener, as she devotes a good deal of space to the supplementary rituals associated with the various forms of Ganesa in the circa-seventeenth century Vidyanarvatantra and other texts. These rites are the fire sacrifices (Kamayahoma) for achieving special aims, and the non-homa acts classed under the six acts of abhicara: – attraction (akarsana); immobilisation (stambhana); eradication (uccatana); subjugation (vasikarana); delusion (mohana) and liquidation (marana). In this post, I’m going to briefly examine some of these rituals and make some general remarks on the subject on tantric sorcery. Continue reading »

   

   November 25th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Ganesa, sorcery

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5. Ganapati variations: How many Ganesas?

   Ganesa is the ritual, Ganesa is the offering,
   Ganesa is he who offers into the fire of Ganesa,
   If a person sees Ganesa in every action,
   That person becomes Ganesa – Ganesagita

   Continue reading »

   

   October 28th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Ganesa

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6. Ganapati variations: the female Ganesa?

   I became interested in the female forms of Ganapati after a friend recounted to me a dream in which she encountered a female form of Ganesha. Continue reading »

   

   September 13th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Ganesa

   1 comment »

7. Ganapati variations: the Ganapatyas

   Hail to the Lord of Vows, hail to Ganapati, hail to the First Lord, hail unto you, to the Big-Bellied, One-tusked, Obstacle-destroyer, the Son of Shiva, to the Boon-Giver, Hail, hail.
   Ganesa Upanisad

   Inspired after a recent Ganesa Puja in Wales, and reflecting on the fact that I have been a devotee of Ganapati for well over 20 years now, I thought it would be appropriate to write a short series of posts on some of the more obscure aspects of this much-beloved devata. Continue reading »

   

   August 26th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, tantra

   Tags: Ganesa

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