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I’m very pleased to announce the release of a new edition of my book exploring the early passage of knowledge about chakras into Western Esotericism. This new edition collects the material originally published as a series of 4 chapbooks in 2018, and I’ve added some more information about the early tantric traditions.
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“In the subjugation, bewitching, and agitation (kṣobha) rites [the deity] should be visualized as red-colored. In rites of subjugation (nirviṣīkaraṇa), pacification, and prosperity increasing rites [the deity] is white. (1.33)
For the immobilization the deity is yellow, in eradication smoky-colored, in bewildering rites color of a cochineal insect [i.e. red like a ladybug], but in the killing rites the deity is black.” (1.34)
Uḍḍiśatantra
I recently listened to Amy Hale give a wonderful lecture on how theories of colour developed in Western Esotericism, I thought it was high time that I had a stab at some notes on the use of colour within the tantric traditions. This is a vast subject, and I’m going to take it slowly.
Continue reading »If you are an occultist of any stripe, chances are you know what Chakras are. If you were interested in magic back in the 80’s and 90’s you definitely know what chakras are because they were covered in nearly every book on magic, witchcraft, Kabbalah, or occultism that was on the market, whether it made sense to cover them in the book or not. I still wonder if there was some kind of secret chakra tax-break for publishers in the 80’s. Unfortunately, what was written in those about chakras bore little resemblance to any teachings that originated in India. Like Karma, Tantra, and bland curry – the west put its own spin on it and never looked back to see if they got it right. Continue reading »
This is the second of a series of posts examining the work of Baradā Kānta Majumdār, a Bengali author who was a member of the Theosophical Society in the 1880s and later collaborated with Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) in his English translations of Tantric texts. Continue reading »
In an earlier post in this series I gave some attention to a series of articles published in The Theosophist by Baradā Kānta Majumdār and concerning “Tantric Occultism” including english translations from Pūrnānda’s Ṣatcakranirūpaṇa which precedes Arthur Avalon’s (aka Sir John Woodroffe) translation of this text by nearly forty years. 1
For this series of posts, I’m going to take a closer look at these articles – particularly in respect to Majumdār’s references to the Chakras and Kundalinī, and then go on to some thoughts on Avalon’s work, The Serpent Power. Continue reading »
Notes:
A quick post to announce four lectures for this year examining various aspects of the history of Chakras to take place at Treadwells Bookshop London. Continue reading »
For this second post on the subject of Rama Prasad’s 1890 book Nature’s Finer Forces and its relevance to the development of contemporary discourses regarding chakras, kundalini and related subjects, I’m going to examine the “controversy” over Rama Prasad’s work that I mentioned in the previous post. Continue reading »
As promised at the end of the last post in this series, for this next part I’m going to take a look at the work of Rama Prasad – in particular his 1890 book, Nature’s Finer Forces, first published in Lahore under the title of Occult Science: The Science of Breath in 1884.
Why this particular book? I find Nature’s Finer Forces interesting for a number of reasons. Although it does not have a great deal to say about chakras/kundalini – what it does say – and how Rama Prasad presents an explanation of the subjects covered using the scientific terminology of the time is of value. It is frequently assumed that scientific interpretations of chakras, etc., are a western or ‘colonial’ overlay or imposition on indigenous, premodern representations of the transmaterial body. That Rama Prasad and a number of other Indian authors of this period (some of whom I’ll be examining in future installments) did so, raises interesting questions regarding cultural intersections and the formation of knowledge. Also, Nature’s Finer Forces was to some extent, the cause of controversy within the Theosophical Society – prompting Madame Blavatsky to make some fairly unequivocal statements on the subject of Tantra. Continue reading »
I’ve started working on an autobiographical writing project recently – looking back on some of my earlier writing, and reflecting on what experiences and ideas prompted me to do a particular piece, placing it within the context of my personal trajectory at the time, and how my ideas have changed since. An example of this process that I thought would be of interest to enfolding readers follows, an examination of the events which contributed to one of the first essays I ever wrote relating to the general subject of tantra, entitled “Kundalini: A Personal Approach”. Continue reading »
Earlier this year I started a series of posts examining some of the early ‘influencers’ of the modern chakra system as it tends to be represented in the west. I’d been interested in writing about this subject for some time, and had started to think that it would make an interesting book project – examining the development of the western chakra system within the larger context of biomedical discourses. However, I must admit that I baulked somewhat at the prospect of having to read through acres and acres of ‘new age’ material. Now I don’t have to, as Kurt Leland’s Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan (Ibis Press, 2016, 516pp, Paperback) is the definitive history of the evolution of the chakra system as it is known in the West today. Continue reading »