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Archive for June 2010

1. Tantra’s Metahistory III: The Left-hand Path – II

   The Tantrists do not seem to go higher than the six visible and known plexuses, with each of which they connect the tattvas; and the great stress they place on the chief of these, the Muladhara Chakra (the sacral plexus) shows the material and selfish bent of their efforts towards the acquisition of powers.The Mahatma Letters (Letter CXIV, p480)

   In the last post I reviewed how the notion of the “left-hand path” and much of the themes which relate to it emerged out of nineteenth century Indology. I will now turn to how the concept of the left-hand path” was used by Madame Blavatsky and other early Theosophists. Continue reading »

   

   June 27th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

   Tags: LHP, libel case, metahistory, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Theosophy

   3 comments »

2. Tantra’s Metahistory III: The Left-hand Path – I

   In popular occult discourse, the concept of the “Left-hand Path” is often stated as originating within the tantric traditions, and sometimes, its popularisation within western occultism is laid at the door of Madame Blavatsky and other popular Theosophical pundits of the late nineteenth century – to the extent that the conceptualisation of the idea of the LHP in wholly negative terms (as can be seen in the writings of successive western occultists – Dion Fortune for example) is something that begins with Madame Blavatsky. However, although she may have been one of the first occultists to write extensively about the Left Hand Path, its identification with moral (and spiritual) degeneracy certainly did not begin with Blavatsky. Continue reading »

   

   June 17th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in History, Occult, tantra

   Tags: LHP, metahistory, nineteenth century, Orientalist, Theosophy

   4 comments »

3. Tantra keywords: Relational

   “This vision, relational being, seeks to recognize a world that is not within persons but within their relationships, and that ultimately erases the traditional boundaries of seperation. There is nothing that requires us to understand our world in terms of independent units; we are free to mint new and more promising understandings. … the traditional view of the bounded individual need not be eliminated. But once we see it as a construction of our own making – one option among many – we may also understand that the boundary around the self is also a prison.” Kenneth Gergen, Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community (p5)

   Continue reading »

   

   June 13th 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in tantra

   Tags: Practice, reflections

   6 comments »

4. Occult gender regimes: Polarity and the body electric

   “In taste, in learning, wit or science,
   Still kindred souls demand alliance:
   Each in the other joys to find
   The image answering to his mind.
   But sparks electric only strike
   On souls electrical alike;
   The flash of intellect expires,
   Unless it meet congenial fires.”
   Hannah More, The Bas Blue 1786

   For this series of posts on the theme of polarity discourse, I’m going to focus on representations of polarity which make an appeal to forces – to electricity, magnetism, etc. Continue reading »

   

   June 3rd 2010

   Posted by Phil Hine in Gender, History, Occult

   Tags: bodies, polarity

   2 comments »