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I don’t mention this often, but technically my PhD is in Folklore AND Mythology. I don’t like to call attention to it because I feel like it makes a fluffy sounding degree sound even fluffier, and frankly, I am a shitty mythologist. Continue reading »
In the previous post in this series I gave a brief overview of the “mainstream” or base of the Śaiva mantramārg – the Śaiva Siddhānta. I will now turn to an examination of the non-Saiddhāntika traditions that developed around it. These were a diverse array of traditions focused on the worship of the fierce ectype of Śiva – Bhairava – often seen as a “higher” form of Śiva, and various forms of the Goddess – Śiva’s power or Śākti. Continue reading »
I have to thank David Southwell for sparking my interest in the Indian Rope Trick. In 2019, I was preparing a lecture on the relationship between Yoga and Magic for Treadwells Bookshop (see Yogis, Magic and Deception – I) and was reading an early draft to David. He pointed out, quite rightly, that of all the Yogic feats I had mentioned, I had omitted the most famous of them all – the Indian Rope Trick! Continue reading »
In the last post in this series I began my examination of the two streams of tantric discipline – the dakṣiṇācāra and the vāmācāra – or as they have become known, the Right-Hand and the Left-Hand Path. The key point I wanted to make was that the relationship between the two streams was not oppositional and exclusionary – as the two streams are represented in popular occulture. In this post, I will provide a brief overview of the Śaiva Siddhānta tradition. Continue reading »
Of late I have been revisiting some earlier work I did on the passage of the concept of the “Left-Hand Path” into Western Esotericism. A consistent theme throughout Western Esoteric discourse almost from its inception (in the work of Madame Blavatsky and later Theosophical works) is that the so-called “Right-Hand Path and Left-Hand Path are binary opposites, and to align with one is to exclude the other. Continue reading »
Current circumstances have disrupted my lecture plans for 2020, but I have contributed a number of lectures to a new venture from Treadwells of London – their online subscriber lectures. Continue reading »
Anyone interested in the passage of South Asian esoteric traditions into Western occultism can’t really ignore the influence of Aleister Crowley. I recently had to re-acquaint myself with Crowley’s work as part of my research for my lecture at Treadwells last year on Yoga and Magic, and just after the lecture, picked up a copy of Tobias Churton’s new book Aleister Crowley in India: The Secret Influence of Eastern Mysticism on Magic and the Occult (Inner Traditions, 2019, Hdbk with dustjacket). Continue reading »
Something I find fascinating – and at times infuriating – is how a great many people claiming to be advocates, teachers, or representatives of “authentic” Tantric lineages or practices continually recirculate tropes that effectively erase any recognition that Tantra has any historical or cultural specificity. Continue reading »
“in view of the indelibility that is characteristic of all mental traces, it is surely not surprising that even the most primitive forms of genital worship can be shown to have existed in very recent times and that the language, customs, and superstitions of mankind today contain survivals from every phase of this process of development.”
Sigmund Freud, Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo Da Vince, 1910
Before I move onto an examination of Edward Sellon’s anthropological and “phallic” works, I want to first discuss the wider context of phallic theories of religion in the nineteenth century. Continue reading »
Interest in witchcraft seems to be at an all-time high at the moment, and over the last few years, there has been a steady stream of books examining the history of witchcraft in its various manifestations. The latest work I’ve had the opportunity to read is Thomas Waters’ Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times (Yale University Press, 2019, Hdbk). Continue reading »
