ONE WITH KALI The Kali Yantra, symbolizing ascendance over the five elements and senses. From a Rajasthani miniature painting of the late eighteenth century.
century. 102 Shiva the Transcendental the active role of physical love, Kali embodies the lustful mistress, the whore, the sex initiatress, Isis, the High Priestess. In the long Night of Darkness, before the beginning of another Age, Kali sports with Shiva in ecstatic dalliance, serving as a focus for his Yogic power of penetration." The great goddess asks: "O Lord of All Creatures! Tell me the meaning and different types of sexual initiation! What are the best times for practicing sexual initiations and other sexual rituals? What are the secret rites known as Chakra Puja, Bhairavi Chakra, and Yogini Chakra, and how should they be performed? Tell me, O Hero, what is their deepest meaning?" Shiva, the Supreme Yogi, replies: "Dearest One! Your questions are so direct. Numerous are the sexual initiations that I have given you. Innumerable are those that you have bestowed on me. The true meaning of sexual initiation is empowerment, a selfless act of giving from one to the other. The very first sexual initiation of all beings occurs during their exit through the mother’s Yoni. The effect of this passage is to cause forgetfulness of past lives. During this first initiation the mother gives the whole world to her offspring, and in return takes away all painful memories of the past. The result of the first initiation normally lasts until death’s door. "Other types of sexual initiation occur both consciously and unconsciously, over the course of a lifetime, during times of ecstatic love-making. Few are those who have not received some kind of sexual initiation from acts of physical love, but those who are consciously aware of receiving sexual initiation during love-making are rare. "Sex has the power of both illusion and Liberation, depending on the participants’ degree of conscious awareness. Sexual initiation is the selfless bestowing of one’s sexuality on another. When a person accepts a sexual act as a gift, exchanges take place on several different levels simultaneously. There is a physical exchange and blending of secretions, a psychophysical exchange of life energies and polarities, a psychological exchange of attitudes, a Karmic exchange through a convergence of destinies-and there is a spiritual exchange, a communion between spirits. On the highest level, all these exchanges add to the quality of the couple. "In all acts of sexual initiation there is a two-way flow, an exchange of potentialities; the initiator takes on some unresolved energies, conflicts, or Karmas, and the initiated receives energies, attainments, and positive Karmas. Sexual initiation is thus an act of deep responsibility. During high acts of Tantric sex Karmas and unresolved personality conflicts can be totally transcended. The Yoni becomes an alchemical crucible of transformation, and the Lingam becomes a magical wand with the power of turning one situation into another. Together, the Lingam and Yoni provide all the myriad sexual initiations. In the Tantric tradition, sexual initiation is bestowed by woman on man, by woman on woman or several women, by woman on a couple or several couples, by man on woman or several women, or by a couple on couples or several couples. The person or couple conferring sexual initiation is viewed as a transcendental Guru. True Tantric sexual initiations require the presence and active participation of at least one woman. Sexual initiation is not a free license for wild orgies, but rather the carefully prepared ground from which a transcendental spirituality can blossom. "The best times for practicing sexual initiations and other sexual rituals are during the period between midnight and 3 a.m., during the dark fortnight of the lunar month, especially on the eighth and fourteenth nights of the dark of the moon, during a solar or lunar eclipse, and at times of pure spontaneity when there is no doubt of success. A sexual initiation is successful when a person’s life suddenly becomes changed for the better as a direct result of the experience. Unsuccessful sexual initiations cause havoc to the psyche of both
