464, 477–478.
10 Evola,
The Yoga of Power, 16.
11 Ibid., 14.
12 Ibid., 15.
204
jason reza jorjani
contrivance at its mercy and that cannot be democratized. Psychical
superpowers such as clairvoyance, telepathy, and telekinesis accrue
only to those individuals who have cultivated such siddhis for and by themselves.13 Moreover, an attempt to universalize these abilities so
that they would extend to the majority of predominately bestial men
would be utterly ruinous to any form of social order.
The utmost discipline of the will and cultivation of the mind,
including and especial y a contemplative engagement with the
subconscious mind, is a prerequisite not only for the attainment of
such abilities but also for wielding them in a way that does not threaten to unweave the fabric of the cosmos itself – let alone the tapestry of norms necessary for the survival of human societies. Supermen are
exceptional; they presuppose the stability of the human condition as a launch platform for projects exploring inner and outer space.
When viewed in terms of their significance to the human
psyche and its need for socio-political y stabilizing beliefs or tacit assumptions, the paranormal power unleashed by practice of the
Left Hand Path can be instructively compared to the maelstrom
surrounding the event horizon of a black hole. The first known
theoretical postulation of a black hole, or “dark star” as it was then called, is in a 1783 letter written by geologist John Michell to Henry Cavendish of the Royal Society. In 1915, the German physicist
Karl Schwarzschild developed the idea into a testable hypothesis
and devised a metric for calculating the size of an event horizon.
It has since been discovered that as much as 96 percent of the
universe consists of dark matter that is only obliquely detectable.
Furthermore, millions of the 80 billion or so galaxies in our universe may contain a super-massive black sun that gives birth to stars,
planets, and ultimately to life itself, by churning the gasses in its
environs. Such super-massive black holes appear to be the efficient
agency for the creation of galaxies.
Buddhism and Hinduism both understand the ultimate nature
of reality as a void rather than a plenum of Being. The swastika is a Hindu and Buddhist symbol for “well being” or su asti in Sanskrit.
13 Ibid., 16.
205
lovers of sophia
In this connection, it faces to the right and is ubiquitous at holy sites in India, Tibet, and Japan. When the Atlantis Society designed the
talismanic standard of the Nazi Party that it established as its political front, several years after Schwarzschild’s elaboration of the black hole theory, this occultist organization that included numerous scientists
among its membership seems to have employed the Swastika as a
symbol with a dual meaning. The left-facing Swastika signifies the
Left Hand Path. That it has been depicted in a spinning fashion
suggests a rotating vortex that col apses into a point. This black
symbol is set within a white Sun on a red field. I suggest that the red field does not only connote the fiery light of the white Sun, but also the bloody maelstrom wrought by the invisible and col apsed black
Sun that tears everything around its vortex into pieces.
Although the Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) that became a
prominent Nazi occult symbol – especial y among the SS – was
usual y a more elaborate twelve-armed wheel most infamously
incorporated into the floor of the central chamber at Wewelsburg
Castle, it was known to have variant simplified iconographic
representations. The two suns, the white and black, can be
interpreted as references to the visible physical Sun and the occulted dancing Star, as well as to the orthodox Dharma and the Left-Hand
Path. The centrality of the black Sun, set within the white one,
bespeaks a recognition that the terrifyingly groundless Void is the
ultimate ‘truth’ that lies behind or beyond an apparently purifying
Orthodoxy in Science and Spirituality.
Whereas the right-facing Swastika is associated with the creator
god Brahma or with the Buddha, the left-facing one is associated
with Kali and the cosmic destroyer, Shiva – who, not incidental y,
are lovers. The destructive force of Kali and Shiva is a purgative
or creative destruction. The left-handed Swastika highlights the amorality of the abyssal heart of darkness, the Black Sun whose
confounding signature can be seen in phenomena that we call
“paranormal” because they defy our expectation that arche of some kind allow us to abide in a rational cosmos rather than face absurd chaos. At the same time, such phenomena indicate the possibility 206
jason reza jorjani
of genuine creation – since in a material y finite cosmos bound
together by a crystalline structure of unchanging fundamental
principles, subject only to material iterations over measurable Time,
there would be no genuine possibility for unforeseeable creative acts.
Orthodox Hinduism and Buddhism have always been
uncomfortable with the cultivation of superpowers and the
exploration of the occult corporeity inextricable from them.
Contrary to what has often been supposed the reasons for this run
deeper than any moral concerns about the abuse of a power that
could potential y be wielded with impunity, from beyond the reach
of the law of any traditional society – ancient or modern. It is a
question of metaphysics, bearing on the ultimate nature of ‘Reality.’
There are two predominant polarities in Indian Philosophy.
One is dualistic and is epitomized by the Samkhya school; the
other is monistic and is most broadly represented by Advaita
Vedanta. Orthodox Buddhism has its roots in an internal critique
of Samkhya metaphysics and while it thereby opposes Brahmanical
Vedic religion by radicalizing the Samkhya divergence from it, with
the rise of Mahayana, Buddhist thought and mysticism essential y
takes a position largely overlapping that of Advaita Vedanta, which
has imploded Samkhya dualism and gone beyond Vedic orthodoxy
on what can be conceived as a parallel track. (In other words,
historical y speaking, the greatest divergence between Hindu and
Buddhist religion is at that point when the Buddha Dharma remains
close to its origins in Samkhya, a time before the rise of Advaita
Vedanta on the one hand and Mahayana on the other.) In any case,
the basic structure of the two polarities of Indian Philosophy can be
sketched out in the following terms.
In the Samkhya dualism, whose crystalline expression may
perhaps be found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, there are two primary principles in the cosmos: Purusha and Prakriti.14 The former is the eternal, immutably stil , immaterial, and supremely
self-conscious, absolute Being. The latter is the blind and restless
activity of apparently differentiated beings, as seemingly manifested
14 Ibid., 22–23.
207
lovers of sophia
in the sequential chains of cause and effect, action and consequence.
Prakriti is maya or deceptive “il usion.”
Maya not only deceives one into mistaking an il usory and
ephemeral world fo
r a reality in which one ought to invest oneself,
a person who suffers terribly on account of this misidentification is
also thereby prevented from recognizing that his own deepest and
truest Self ( atman) is the Absolute Being ( brahman). Consequently, the means to this transcendent insight is to purify oneself from
identification with any phenomena belonging to Prakriti – all
of which have the nature of maya – and becoming increasingly
unmoved by them, just as Purusha. The complex physical postures ( asana), breathing exercises ( pranayama), and mental disciplines of concentration ( darana) belonging to classical yoga (literal y “union”, i.e. with Purusha) have this as their primary aim.15
The asanas, for example, are meant to discipline one’s bodily disposition to a wide range of careful y determined postures so as
to avoid disorderly and unconscious movement, with the eventual
outcome of attaining what can be compared to an Egyptian degree
of poise characteristic of the sublime detachment and immovability
of the Pharaoh.16 It is not incidental that Patanjali cal s this form
of Yoga raja-yoga or “kingly” union, for it aims at sovereignty over maya by identification with the Purusha. While Patanjali and others of the Samkhya school – including the young Siddhartha Gautama
– do acknowledge and enumerate occult abilities, they see these as
powers that spontaneously arise on the path of purifying withdrawal
from Prakriti.17 As “powers” ( siddhis) they still belong to the sphere of Prakriti and are not one’s “own” insofar as one comes to increasingly renounce any self other than Purusha – who has no wil , strictly speaking – and so willful pursuit or purposive development of them
is considered a snare and temptation of maya.
15 Ibid., 79–92.
16 Ibid., 90–92.
17 I.K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in Sanskrit with Transliteration in Roman, Translation and Commentary in English (Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 2001).
208
jason reza jorjani
Advaita Vedanta begins in the intellectual recognition of the
logical incoherence of Samkhya dualism and it expresses a more life-
affirming ethos intent on seeing the world of everyday experience
as something more than a deceptive il usion. Instead of seeing
maya as a merely occluding force, the cosmic il usion is conceived of in theatrical terms as a magic show or il usionist’s performance,
whereby the timeless Ultimate Reality comes to self-consciousness
through a process of internal differentiation.18 Maya becomes maya-shakti. The word shak means to be able to work, to be able to do, or to have an effect, and so what for Samkhya is Prakriti becomes the Shakti or active power of an Ultimate Reality that Samkhya sees as Purusha by too narrowly identifying it only with its passive and abidingly eternal Being.19 For beings such as ourselves to come to
know that we are being acted by Being, ascetic practices of isolation
and disciplined dispassion will not do.
Three qualities, moods, or modalities of being ( gunas) are
interwoven in life: tamas, rajas, and sattva.20 Tamasic being is blind, dark, and obtuse; it characterizes the craving of beasts and
of crass and undisciplined men and women. On a cosmic level, it
is responsible for that concretization of unconsciousness into what
appears to be matter – especial y inorganic matter. Sattvic being has
the luminous and pure qualities that Samkhya wants to attribute to
the Ultimate Reality; it is, however, associated not simply with pure
Being in itself but also with the manner of being of the gods, who
one may suppose to be abiding in yoga or “communion” with Being.
Rajasic being is the dynamic and vital force that drives all heroic
and creative activity; it is found in the hero or titan. Cosmical y, it is the intermediary between the Ultimate Reality and maya-shakti
– a dynamic centrifugal and centripetal oscil ation through which
Being becomes its own other only to recognize itself.
When conceived of in terms of the Hindu pantheon, Advaita
Vedanta associates these three modalities of being with the Trinity
18 Julius Evola, The Yoga of Power, 27.
19 Ibid., 5–6.
20 Ibid., 40.
209
lovers of sophia
( trimurti) of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer or Transformer.21 It is a complex question how exactly
Brahma and Vishnu relate to the Sattvic and Tamasic modalities of
Being, other than to say that, however heretical associating Vishnu
with the sway of tamas may be, the most dense and occluding
materiality is a precondition of preservation. Maya-shakti is more definitely associated with Shiva and often pictured as his female
consort, his power that he has while remaining impassive qua male divinity and manifestation of the godhead. How then is Brahma a
Creator in any real sense?
Advaita Vedanta is beset with an even more troubling question
attendant to its attempt to preserve Vedantic or Vedic-rooted
religion in the face of a transformation that is ultimately destructive for it, the transformation of maya conceived in a negative and life-negating manner into the life-affirming maya-shakti. If the Ultimate Reality understood as Purusha by Samkhya is truly ultimate and perfect, why does it fall into life under the Rajasic and Tamasic
condition? Moreover, if gods enjoy the Sattvic state of mind why do
they fall into incarnations or rebirths characterized by a Rajasic if
not a Tamasic mentality? What are the metaphysical implications
of the doctrine of the declining ages ( yugas) in Advaita Vedanata and Indian thought more general y? Vedantic thinkers wanted to see
the concupiscence of maya-shakti as responsible for the godhead’s alienation from itself, in the form of the fall of Eternal Being into the finitude of becoming under the increasingly degenerate conditions
of a successive series of world ages ( yugas) ending with the Kali Yuga – which corresponds roughly to the Iron Age of the Greco-Romans or the Age of the Wolf for the Nordic peoples.22 Is this not a
retreat into dualistic thinking? And why is maya-shakti quite clearly associated with Kali now, rather than being sanctified as an aspect of Shiva and thus of the Vedantic Trinity?
It is widely believed that Tantric yoga, as opposed to the classical
yoga of Samkhya sages such as Patanjali, is an accommodation
21 Ibid., 7.
22 Ibid., 2, 39.
210
jason reza jorjani
appropriate to our degenerate epoch. In the Kali Yuga, we are
told, pashus or bestial men – literal y those who are “bound” –
predominate and divyas or godly men are virtual y non-existent.23
Consequently, viras or heroic natures must use any and all means to tap the destructive forces of the time as transformative ones capable
of violently wresting breakthroughs to a higher state of being.24 This is to turn the poison, the snake venom, into the cure or as a Chinese
expression puts it to “ride the tiger.”25
To take this view is to suppress the fundamental metaphysical
reorientation that has taken place. Among the many clues to
this reorientation is the Tantric view, which already has roots in
Samkhya, that the gods are deluded and seek to block one’s path
towards ultimate realization.26 More significant still is the insistence that maya-shakti is not only driven by desire, but that she is total y free in her creative impulse.27 Hers is a creativ
e desire that cannot
ever be encompassed by a comprehensive knowledge, not even
the self-knowledge of Brahman. She is the Mistress who delights
in cosmic play ( lila) not subject to any law for which she cannot make an exception.28 The free-creative impulse or spanda of Shakti cannot even be properly conceived of as maya or “il usion” once the meaning of this new Tantric metaphysics is fathomed. As compared
to what self-consistent Reality would Shakti be il usory? She is no longer the power of Shiva.
The archetypal Tantric image of the terrifyingly armed Kali
dancing seductively over the corpse of Shiva and yet somehow
sexual y arousing that corpse – or the various images of her
Mahavidya forms astride Shiva in a sexual y dominant position –
can be most honestly interpreted as a psychological recognition of
Shakti as the ultimate ‘Reality’. Albeit, a dynamic reality of Power 23 Ibid., 53–54.
24 Ibid., 54–55.
25 Ibid., 2–4.
26 Ibid., 58–59.
27 Ibid., 24.
28 Ibid., 57.
211
lovers of sophia
that never endures as a pure positivity but that seduces the aspirant
from out of a living void and forces him to dismember what he was.
When it is honest to its essential insight into the non-essentiality of creative energy, Tantra – whether in Hindu form or as Vajrayana
so-called ‘Buddhism’ – is inevitably synonymous with the most
radical y heterodox Shaktism.
This conclusion requires us to reconsider why mainline Hindu
and Buddhist schools are so uncomfortable with occult power
and subtle corporeity. The subtle body is supposed to occupy an
intermediate position between two other types of body, a pure causal
body and a gross material body.29 This, however, presumes, as its
metaphysical background the scheme of three domains of being: the
formless domain of pure principles or final causes; the domain of
subtle forms – where the subtle body is, so to speak, in its element;
and, final y, the gross material realm wherein the subtle body and its extrasensory powers can manifest but where it is, to put it crudely,
Lovers of Sophia Page 26
