Theos-Talk Archives (February 1995 Message tl00074)

Nancy: Thanks for your quote from HPB on sex magic.  As usual,
she is quite right.  She is referring to Kundalini Yoga, where
the Muladhara Chakra is located at the genitals and the Ajna
Chakra is located between the eyes (the third eye).  The
connection between these is the spinal cord - or rather the
Sushumna Nadi or Central Channel that actually lies in the Body
of Light at a point that corresponds to the spinal column of the
physical body.  When I began studying this stuff, little was
known, and few books were available.  Nowadays they are
plentiful, and a whole lot more is known about this subject.
Yes, arousal of the genital area does effect the brain and vice
versa.  This is a potential danger, but as used in Tantricism, it
is a useful fact.

I would like to provide a quick rundown of sexual magic as it
exists today, largely for those who are not familiar with it.  I
am not advocating its practice, but in the spirit of the TS
second and third objectives, I feel that its theoretical aspects
are important for us to understand and to discuss.  Those who are
squeamish about sex should please skip the rest of this posting.

There are many forms and levels of sex magic, but they can
generally be put into two main groups.  In the West, most sexual
magic operations end in orgasm and ejaculation.  This is true in
Wicca as well as most magical and occult schools.  The idea here
is to concentrate on the objective or goal, and then direct the
sexual energy that is generated toward its accomplishment.  At
orgasm, the energy flies away to accomplish the goal.  For the
most part, I would call these operations low magic, as opposed to
high magic (this is a purely subjective call).  They are also
sometimes black magic, though not always (remember, if the only
difference in black or white magic is the motive and if the
motive is to heal or otherwise help someone, then it can hardly
be black).

In the East, most sexual operations do not end in orgasm or
ejaculation (some Hindu schools do, but I don't know of any
Buddhist schools where this is the case).  The practice of sexual
magic in Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is a high magic technique
that is altogether white.  The motives are very pure - normally
something along the lines of strengthening the bodhisattvic vow.
Here the sexual partner is called a karmamudra or "action seal."
The action seal is specially trained for the task, and the goal
is the production of bliss, not orgasm or getting money or other
mundane objectives that are found in many other schools.  Taoism
also teaches a similar sex magic, both with and without a
partner, but the goals vary widely between schools.  I should
mention here that the action seal is virtually always a member of
the opposite sex.  If there are any special techniques or
versions for homosexuals, I am not aware of them.  However, since
the goal is to produce bliss (amrita, which is a physical
precipitation of ananda) I don't see why the sex or gender of the
karmamudra matters, so long as he or she makes you feel completed
or whole.

OK, so why is Kundalini considered superior to Raja Yoga? The
answer is simple: In Raja Yoga your consciousness can enter
samadhi.  In Kundalini Yoga, your samadhi is accompanied by
bliss.

The difference is the extra ingredient of bliss that you can only
get from some kind of sexual stimulation.  What is this
mysterious bliss? Some describe it as an overall orgasm, where
every cell of your body vibrates in orgasmic ecstasy.  If your
practice results only in genital orgasm, it is not good enough.
Paradoxically, Tantra teaches that by refraining from genital
orgasm, you can generate bliss which is an all-over orgasm that
can last hours instead of seconds.  This comes about by
consciously directing the "essence" of the sexual fluids inward
rather than ejaculating outwards as in a "normal" orgasm.  In
Kundalini Yoga, the karmamudra is used to stimulate your genitals
and allow you to generate a strong field of sexual energy in the
Muladhara.  Although a physical partner is not necessary (IMHO),
it helps because your auras overlap and the karmamudra can thus
stimulate and reinforce you in ways that you cannot do yourself,
at least at first.  Then, rather than ejaculation or physical
climax, you mentally direct this energy up the Central Channel
and into the Ajna, which vibrates and produces bliss that
radiates throughout your whole physical body via the nadis within
the subtle body.  If during this operation your mind is on the
karmamudra, or on the bliss that is produced, then again you will
fall short of the goal (and this is the real trap, which can lead
to black magic as HPB warns us).  While your body is saturated
with bliss, your consciousness must shift into samadhi.  When
done properly, the resulting combination of samadhi (which
Tibetan Buddhism calls emptiness) and bliss is far superior to
samadhi alone.  Samadhi alone is just another altered state of
consciousness.  But when combined with bliss, it is a direct
experience of spiritual consciousness, of those spiritual planes
that lie above the Abyss.  The Tibetan Yogis have gone so far as
to label 16 different levels of bliss and emptiness that we can
experience.

Vedanta teaches that one of our highest bodies or "sheaths" is
the anandakosha or body of bliss.  When consciousness is focused
in this sheath, a spiritual ecstasy is experienced.  Many of the
early Christian mystics reported an accompanying feeling of
ecstasy that they found hard to describe.  The Gnostics wrote
about a bridal chamber in which the Adept was the bride and
Christ, or one of the Aeons or gods, was the groom.  So the idea
of combining formless consciousness and bliss is very ancient,
and can be found in many cultures throughout our history.


There is also an obvious psychological equivalent, in which the
karmamudra is one's own anima or animus in the Jungian sense.
Sanskrit is ahead of us, and here the partner is the jnanamudra
or thought seal.  This is the inner consort, for which sexual
union becomes a symbol or metaphor for our own unification into a
whole and complete person - much like Jung's individuation
process.  The bottom line is that we are at present incomplete
beings.  One half of us is expressed outwardly with each
incarnation, while the other half remains in a potential form
within us.  Our evolution demands a unification.  We can sit back
and wait for a few million years, when the evolutionary power of
Kundalini will take effect, or we can hasten our evolution via
sublimation and transformation of the sexual energy and become
fifth-rounders (this is not an advocacy, but rather merely an
obvious observation.  This observation has already been expressed
by Sri Aurobindo and many others).

          Jerry S.