Tantrika for Wiccans

Being a commentary on the Cosmology of Mahendranath Dadaji's Designations for a Westernised and East-West Order of Uttarakaula Tantriks, set down in 1979.

Uttara means north in India. Kaula denotes a stream of Tantrika which is Shakta, Goddess centred, that is utilising the Shakti energies of the femal, often minimised by Shaivite Tantra. Shaivite means 'of Siva': Shakti's partner. As Siva Pashupatinath [Lord of the Animals] this form of the godhead was known in the Indus Valley Civilisation of Ancient India prior to the Aryan invasion of 2000 BCE. Early Anglo-Indian scholar, and writer on international 'Witchcraft' history, Margaret Murry, knew was very akin to Eurasian deity Kernunnos, often associated with what has been called Celtic civilisation.

Dadaji was born in London, England and was a good friend of Gerald Gardner who began the revival of Wica, as he called it, after the abolition of the Persecutions Against Witchcraft Act in England. He said it was Aleister Crowley that told to him that if he had his life to live again it would be to India that he would go, to glean the esoteric secrets of most interest, and advised Dadaji, then Lawrence Miles, that that would be what he should do. After World War 2 and the Spanish Civil War that was what he did: not directly, but taking the cheap immigration trail to Australia and then backtracked through countries like Thailand studying Taoism and Zen before reaching, and travelling around, India, before finally settling there. He was initiated into several cults along the way, but the only one that needs to be of interest to us here was the one when he met Tantrik Guru Pagalababa at his ashram in a village near Ranchi. The Baba, was 96 at the time, and died in 1967, but at the meeting he associated Dadaji with a 'White Sadhu' [wandering holy man] mentioned in one of the Tantric texts, and passed on the lineage of the Uttarakaulas to him. Dadaji himself died in 1991, aged 80. Before he died he set up two groups to study the two main lineages he thought most important for Westerners: the Adi Nath Shaivites and Uttarakaulas. Dadaji's aim for the Westernised Uttarakaulas was to unite his knowledge of Paganism, in the form of the Wica he had known to the Oriental Paganism of the Uttarakaula tradition, both of which had been suppressed in the Piscean/Virgo Age. Tantrika is a path of wisdom and pleasure, not of the prohibitions and sufferings imposed by the Patriarchal religions, that emerged from the Middle East, and which Dadaji referred to as the 'misery cults'.

The schema Dadaji produced for East-West fusion explains the correspondences based around nine Goddesses. The format he used owes a lot to Western esoteric groups of his day, like the O.T.O. and the Golden Dawn. It largely speaks for itself but may seem formal by today's standards, and loaded with foreign words. The structure is not intended to be hierarchical as in such Orders as above, but there are elements of progression in places, and it is closer to Wicca and even Freemasonry, which did influence Gerald Gardner, although the latter is hierarchical, and patriarchal. But they do both have 3 foundation grades: after the 3 craft grades Masons can go under the Royal Arch to other grades. The Wiccan spin-offs from Gerald Gardner's revivalist Wica mostly functioned with 3 main grade, but 2 and 4 are also known. Usually they are one for initiation, one for learning how to use tools and craft techniques and a third of High Priestess or Priest able to employ the Great Rite of sex magick. In Dadaji's designations, or tradition, the first three grades are for those living the householder's life of the Kaula, family clan, but realisation can come during these levels, there is no waiting to clime to the top of a tree of attainment. Many of us reach an abyss in life and these can lead to situations beyond the family situations to what in India is the holy social dropout that is the Sadhu who more readily employ at least a further 6 planetary energies that are rarely resorted to as by householders. In the first the Uttarakaula level it is a dialect of the initiation and learning how to set a circle, create a shrine and use ritual tools to honour the first aspect of the Goddess with puja as seen in the first 2 levels of Wicca, but the second and third Tantrik levels, involves Tantrik yoga. To explain further we need to introduce meanings from specific Indian language for descriptions of activities, such as Mahavidyas: the nine aspects of the Goddess chosen in the tradition to describe development, which tends to be front loaded, rather than end loaded:

One of the Mahavidyas i.e. Great [Maha] Goddesses presides over each level of the levels of practice. As said, the first level is the same as in Wicca as it includes initiation as it includes setting up a circle and shrine. This is dedicated to SANTOSHI MA. She has the form and nature of a socially liberated young woman. The circle is first set by invoking GANESH, the elephant-headed son of of Siva and Shakti: white, east; south, red; west, blue; and north, green, with the mantra Aum Gam Ganapati Namah swaha! to each direction, and Aum Siva-Shakti to the bindu point, cosmic nucleus, above, completing the cone of power. Wiccan and Tantrik working tools are pretty much the same, as much as it is possible to generalise: knife or trident for Air in the east; incense for Fire in the South; cup or goblet for Water in the west: and plate or disc for Earth: recepticals for offerings and feasting. Open with 3 perambulations of your circles [reverse to close]. Then seat yourself facing east and begin deeper than everyday breathing to reach a contemplative state of mind, and when ready invoke with the mantra Hreem Kleem Santoshi Ma Swaha ! Until you feel contact. Visualisation is more correctly evocation, where the deep mind makes the contact form. Then ''Many thanks and return to Mount Kailash'' to finish. Devotions given in between are up to you.

The second level is devoted to the Devi SHANTI, which means PEACE and is the level of POLARITY. She appears as a lunar goddess, so at night. If you are working with a physical partner who is male, he becomes Siva, with the mantra Sivohim [I am Siva], and you assume the role of the Lunar Goddess, with the mantra Hreem Shreem Shanti Ma swaha! If working alone you can evoke the Goddess or Siva by visualisation to enact the polar opposite role and let your deep mind create the form. Erotic fantasy is deep seated as relating to the instinct to reproduce the human race. A male partner has to be able to extend coition with long foreplay until his partner has achieved the beginning of her orgasm, then you are in the ecstatic realm, and the shakti energy will flow down the woman's chakras to the union of basal chakras where it starts up the man's chakras to his crown and the union that completes the electrical circuit. Male premature ejaculation, requires further repeated foreplay to extend coition to the ecstasy level. ''Practice makes perfect'' and what fun it is! Female on top is best for clitoral stimulation. Result are likely to occur as a result of the rite, but not necessarily during it. Dadaji's use of the term Kula Chakra circle refers to group meetings, like those of a coven, but I don't know of any in Britain at present for this or any level.

The third level of the cosmology is ruled by the Devi TRIPURA, familiar to Wiccans as the TRIPLE GODDESS: the premenstrual girl [not allowed in the circle until 18 years old]; woman in her prime; and the elderly lady. The downward pointing triangle is her symbol, just as the upward pointing triangle is a male symbol. What has been called the Star of David is actually universal and appears in Hindu YANTRAS: geometrical contemplation symbols that are a visual equivalent to mantras for invocation. Most complex of these is the Sri Yantra, comprised of many interlocking triangles. Its practice is too complex to write fully of here but it has an important part in this level, which is the level of triangulation. Where the Sun is of the first level and the illumination of consciousness by initiation, and the second level is of the Moon and concerned with polarity, we find the third level to be that of Jupiter and its philosophical nature and the well-being that comes with the rewards of practice and the household life. Poverty is not a requirement in Tantrika as in some Piscean Age cults, but nor is greed. Lessons of the earlier levels are on-going and part of the philosophical wealth of life. The mantra for Tripura is Hreem Kleem Lalita Tripura swaha!

In the West we often hear of mid-life crises. Not everyone has them but family or work losses may trigger them. In India they are recognised and often lead to people of either sex, like widows too, with a spiritual outlook turn to the way of the wandering Sadhu as a result, which is socially acceptable there. In Western occultism there is the notion of an abyss to be dealt with. The household life is time consuming, but a sadhu my choose to reach further into mystic knowledge and in the Uttarakaula cosmology that Dadaji revealed he provided 6 more levels to explore with a Goddess and planet as rulers. Most Wiccans will have knowledge of planetary influences, if not it is well worth studying their nature.

Aghori Devi is Saturnine in Nature and can be the sign of the an abyss that will transform life.

Digambari means sky clad : naked to cosmic influences, and Mercurical so good for travel and communication.

Kali's is the magick of the crone. Sex fluids become important as their imbibing is health giving and a restorative to the elderly... but that is also at previous levels too. So Venus as her ruler is less puzzling than preconception may conceive.

Ambika is the Goddess of Oracles and rules Uranus' surprises in divination.

Durga is ruled by Mars and rides a lion while carrying a trident and shield that protects the Kaula clan.

Lalita is the mystic Devi of Neptunian vision.

Other correspondences are given in Dadaji's schema and largely speak for themselves. This does not mean that it is the whole of Tantrik practice. Kashmiri Shaivism is it's nearest relative, but as it says it is Shaivite and not Shakta. There is more detail in the books 'Rainbow Bridge' and 'New Tantras of the Uttarakaulas', and much published work on Tantrika, of varying worth worldwide, but its all about practice and not book learning and this is as concise as I could make it.