3

Blood of the Yogini

67-93

"An etiological myth of menstruation ... describes the transfer of one-third of the "stain" the god Indra has incurred for his crime of brahmanicide (brahmahatya), committed in the killing of Vr.tra, onto women. [Taittiriya Samhita 2:5:1; discussed in Smith 1992, p. 33] Just as the two other recipients of this transfer -- trees and the earth -- exude sap {instead of sap, petroleum, in the case of the earth} ... by fissures ..., so too a woman exudes menstrual blood from the fissure that is her vulva."

"R.g Veda ... passages enjoin the husband -- who wishes to avoid immediate destruction of his person from the lethal power of the virginal blood shed on his wedding night -- to give the bloodstained cloth of defloration to a brahmin priest conversant with the magic of Surya, the daughter of the Sun and the spouse of the Moon." [RV 10:85:28-30, 34-5; discussed in Menski 1992, pp. 57-8]

p. 69

"The "tying of the tali," a mock marriage practiced among high-caste Nayar communities of Kerala, was ... a ritual defloration by a surrogate "husband," often a brahmin priest, enacted to defuse the power of menstrual blood shed following menarche." [Bhattacharyya 1980, pp. 33-4]

p. 293, n. 3:13

"The tali itself is a gold

[Pon ('gold') is accounted as female (infra p. 75).]

pendant having the form of the as`vattha ("sacred fig") leaf, whose form and

{With this Nayar fig-leaf mock-marriage caerimony, cf. the "fig-leaves" (B-re>s^it 3:7) in the mock-marriage (mocked -- ridiculed -- by >lohi^m in <eden, B-re>s^it 3:11-19) of H.awwah with >adam.}

ribbing is compared with that of the vulva".

{Out of a "rib" (B-re>s^it 2:21), H.awwah was created.}

"the danger of ... every successive menstrual flow is neutralized through the use of a barha khya, a cotton effigy of a part-deity, part-spirit that is believed to possess the girl and is hung on the wall of the seclusion room.

The khya, commonly represented as a dwarfed and pudgy figure who is black in color with curly hair and pouting lips, would appear to be a [personified deity of a] vulva." [Allen 1976, p. 314]

{Japanese mythicized erotic illustrations sometimes display personified vulva-beings.}

"In its Pan.d.u-Kunti dialogues, the MBh opines that adultery is not a sin if committed with a woman who would otherwise not make her menstruation {menstrual cycle} fruitful." (Maha-bharata 1:113:25-6)

In "a forbidding forest, one uses one's blood to trace a fearsome diagram (man.d.ala), at whose six corners one situates a series of terrifying goddesses. One worships these with mantras, and then places them in the midst of one's own body. They are then worshipped with pieces of one's own flesh {figuratively} ... . Then, having pierced {figuratively} his eight body parts (hands, breast, forehead, eyes, throat, and middle of the back), and having mixed ... together ... {literally} urine, feces, and some liquor, the practitioner places the mixture in the offering bowl. [Kubjika-mata 23:126-40] ...

Each of seven Yoginis is called upon and exhorted to eat one of the practitioner's bodily components : semen, bone, marrow, fat, flesh, blood, and skin. ... The passage then concludes :

[quoting Kubjika-mata 23:141-6] When he ... [performeth this rite] daily, then the resplendent Yoginis come on the seventh day. At the end of the seventh night ..., they [afford] the supernatural power of supreme knowledge to him ... . Contrary ... they instantaneously bind together ["again all of the parts he has offered to them"]. But if one carries out this [rites] in reverse order [it affordeth] the destruction (nigraha) of wicked ... ."

p. 72

"A fifth-century pre-Tantric Buddhist text ... speaks of a Yaks.in.i named Bhuti, the demoness of dreams," who causes nocturnal emissions. [Strickmann 1996, p. 320]

The Netra Tantra (19.188b-90b) describes these beings' activities ... :

When a woman has been marked by the Beings, then the embryo cannot be conceived. ... The Seizers who are fond of sexual pleasure have various comportments. The drink semen".

[quoted from Rasa-arn.ava 18:103, 105cd-6cd :] "The goddesses -- both Airborne and Land-based -- partaking (bhajayitva) of him while he is asleep indeed steal away his semen ... . ... They steal the very diamond-ash ... and at the end of his sleep, they make him ejaculate (ks.obhayanti)."

p. 73

"So, too, Baiga beliefs concerning the disease goddess Cur.elin Mata, who goes to young men in their sleep and robs them of their seed". [Harper 1989, p. 35]

[p. 294, n. 3:38 : "The name Churelin is a ... variant on the term cur.el, which is applied to the wrathful ghosts of women who died untimely deaths, and are identifiable by the fact that their feet are turned backward."]

"Quite often the effects of ... nocturnal emissions ... will become magnified ..., with a Jala-jogini (Water-Yogini) ... eating a young man alive." [Kakar 1982, pp. 27-8]

"one ... should always worship the naked "Great Seal" [maha-mudra] consort. Kissing and embracing her, and touching her vulva {with his lips}, he should effect the drinking ... of the honey down below (adharamadhu). [p. 294, n. 3:40 : "the lower lips (adharas) in question belong to the vulva, and ...

their "honey" (madhu), is the female sexual discharge."] ...

{In flowers, honey is of course the secretion of the female part (pistil) of the sexual organs.}

He attains abundant siddhi and becomes the equal of all the Buddhas. White camphor ["i.e., semen [virile]"] is drunk here" [praesumably quaffed by the woman (the "Great Seal" consort)].

p. 73

"In Hindu contexts, the Tantric Virile Hero generated ... vital fluids in a "eucharist" ritual,

whose ultimate consumer was the Goddess herself".

{The most natural way whereby the goddess herself could ingest the semen virile of a mortal man would be for her human impersonatrix (the "Great Seal" consort) to do so.}

p. 74

[quoted from Kaula-avali-nirn.aya 5:36-40 (cf. 5:81-2)] "The Goddess is fond of the ... penis ... . Therefore, one {a man} should fully worship the Goddess with the nectar of ... penis. A man -- who worships the Goddess ... by taking pleasure in the wife of another man ... -- knows no sorrow and becomes possessed of perfected {successful} mantras."

p. 74

1st Stage : "spread out your tongue broad

and lick her yoni ... ."

2nd Stage : "Like a worshipper who circumambulates the shrine

pass your tongue over her yoni

round from lef to right

moving in ever narrowing circles ... . ...

Open then the vulva's lips

with the firm pressure of your tongue ... ."

p. 75

3rd Stage : "With your nose pressing against the yoniman[.]i ["clitoris"] ...

Inhale deeply ... ."

{Accordingly, "man.i padme" ('jewel in the redwaterlily[-blossom]') would designate 'clitoris'. (Goddess Man.i-padma is said to be wife of Ava-lokita-is`vara.)}

4th Stage : "Taking the protruding, throbbing jewel {the clitoris} of her yoni ...

suck it ...;

it will rise and glisten, stand up from its sheath.

It will swell like a large ruby."

{[Mas^ale^ 31:10 :] "For her price is far above rubies."}

"in some ... Tamil Tantric groups, it is recommended that sexual union take place precisely with a menstruating woman, so that the merging union is effected of velli, "silver," that is, male seed, and pon, "gold," that is, menstrual blood. [Zvelebil 1996, p. 100, n. 2] ...

Zvelebil's work is on the Sittars, the Tamil branch or offshoot of the Siddha traditions of north India".

p. 75

"A celebrated ... account, found in the twelfth- to thirteenth-century [Chr.E.] Rudrayamala, of the orthodox brahmin sage Vasis.t.ha's forays into "Greater China" (mahacina) {this "Maha-cina" usually being identified as sTod-Bod}, to which the

p. 76

Buddha tells him to go in order to learn the "Chinese practice" (cinacara) of worshipping the goddess Tara. [p. 294, n. 3:46 : "the Buddhist Tara Tantra declares Vasis.t.ha and Buddha to be two Kula Bhairavas : Bhattacharyya ... (1995), p. 124."] There, Vasis.t.ha stumbles upon a Tantric orgy, in which" :

[quoting from Rudra-yamala 17:130b-31b :]"all the eminent naked Siddhas were actively engaged in the drinking of blood ... . They were drinking again and again ... taking carnal pleasure in beautiful women, all of them ... stuffed ... on meat ... ."

"There ... it is menstrual ... blood that the naked, fornicating Siddhas are drinking. "

"Poison {sic : actually, a psychedelic drug}, menstrual blood (dharamr.tam), semen, blood, and marrow : this ... the "Five Purifiers" [is to be employed in] the daily ritual (nityam). ...

Flesh is the favorite [food] of the S`akinis. Hear [now] the favorite [foods] of the Goddesses : buka flower, "S`iva-water," .... semen".

"The ritual begins with the consumption by the master and his consort of ... the buka flower and the extract of the kr.s.n.a flower, and concludes with the placing of "that which is to be raised into the head" ... : "Thereafter, he becomes a yogin."" (Kaula-jn~ana-nirn.aya 18:7a-14b)

"Among the Bauls ..., the male practitioner will drink ... his consort's menstrual blood once on each of her three days of menses. ... . ... Baul ritual practice is based on a quarternity, called the "four moons" (caricandra), which" :

[quoted from McDaniel 1990, pp. 180-2] " are used for the ritual piercing of the four moons. ... [Menstrual] Blood (rajas) is the main moon of the four : it is gathered on the third day of menstruation."

[quoted from Khan 1997, p. 131] "It is mithun ["the product of ritual copulation"] ... which supplies the main offering to the deity (here supposed to be the Tantric Goddess revered by the Nath Jogis, Hinglaj Mata)."

Hinglaj Mata)."

{/HINGa-LAci/ is the name of a certain Yaks.ini. /HING-LAJ/ = /HINGu/ 'Ferula as[s]a-foetida', "stimulating menstruation" ("HA") [It is in the same genus as Ferula tingitana = silphium, an herb by the antient Romans reputed to induce menstruation.] and "To curb pain during Menstrual Periods" ("AH") + /LAJa/ 'fried rice'}

p. 78

"the Samayacara Tantra calls the menstrual blood

of a married woman "arisen from the basin" (kun.d.odbhava), and

that of a widow "generated from the ball" (golodbhava).” (Bhattacharyya 1980, p. 17)

"Louise Finn [1986, p. 87, n. 71] ... gives the following nomenclature of types of female menstrual discharge ... :

kun.d.a is the first menstruation of a maiden born out of wedlock and

gola her first menstruation after her father's death.

Other types of menstrual blood include

"adamantine flower" (vajrapus.pa), the first menstruation after defloration;

"self-arisen" (svayambhu), any woman's first menstruation;

the "flower of generation" (bhavapus.pa), a woman's regular monthly period;

"white clay" (gopicandana), a mixture of semen and menstrual blood".

"The Mun.d.amala Tantra [2, quoted in Bhattacharyya 1980, p. 16] praises the blood of a virgin ... :

"The flower or blood (kusuma) generated from the

p. 79

... [maiden], who has not had sexual intercourse with a male, is known as the 'self-arisen flower' ( svayambhukusuma) or 'red sandalwood' (raktacandana), which is to be fed to the great Goddess.""

"the Goddess herself ... is ... several times (in the vocative) in the KJn~N : ... kulagama. Here, unlike agama, "scripture," {or rather, 'authority'} the feminine term agama has a physiological sense attested in the Manu Smr.ti (8.252) and Sus`ruta Samhita ..., in which it means "issue" of blood ... . ... Here, the ambiguity between the masculine term kulagama, "Clan Scripture," and the feminine kulagama is ... intended, ... in much the same way that

the female discharge of the Wisdom Maiden of Buddhist Highest Yoga Tantra initiations injected ... the fluid wisdom (prajn~a) of the goddess Wisdom (Prajn~a) herself, the source of the Perfection of Wisdom (prajn~a-paramita) teachings."

p. 79

[quoted from Dyczkowski 2000, p.42] "Command (ajn~a) ... is both the source of the universe and the means to attain the supreme state."

[quoted from Dyczokowski 1995-6, p. 127] "The ajn~a ... is her seminal {read : "erotic"} fluid that is released through her conjunctio with her male partner. The god encourages her to united with him by reminding her that the ajn~a she has to give is a product of their reciprocal relationship."

"A number of ... Kubjika sources support this ..., including the massive twelfth- to thirteenth-century Manthanabhairava

p. 80

Tantra (MBhT) [quoting its "Kumarika Khan.d.a" 2:10b, translated in Dyczkowski 2000, p. 42] : "[The Goddess] is the bliss of the Command (ajn~a), pure with blissful sexual intercourse."

[quoted from Cin~cina-sara-mata-samucchaya 1:5b-6b, translated in Dyczkowski 2000, p. 42] : "[The Command of the goddess is named]

Perpetually Wet (Nityaklinna) ...

{/Klinna/ 'wet' is from */klidna/, a variant of /klindat/ 'wet'. /KLID/ 'to become damp' may be cognate with Hellenic /klei-s/ (/KLeID-/) 'key', perhaps through 'keys to the kingdom of heaven' being taken to refer to opening the doors of the sky to admit rainfall. If so, this rainfall may be peculiar to dreams, for the name of him to whom the keys are given (Matthaios 16:19), /PeTRo-s/, is derived from /PaTaR/ 'dream-interpreter' (Strong's 6622), the etymon of the name /PTo^R/ of the city of (B-Midbar 22:5) Bil<am, who heard (B-Midbar 22:28, 30) the speech of the ass as clearly as the ass's braying was heard by (GM 20.b) the sleeping Hestia. And Malkhos's ear amputated by (Euangelion of Ioannes 18:10) Petros, named Simeon (Acts of the Apostles 15:14; Strong's 8095 S^im<o^n 'Hearing'), was evidently that of ass-eared (GM 83.g) Midas, for Midas expounded (GM 83.b) his own dream.}

aroused by her own passion (svarakta)".

{/Sva-rakta/ may be from */raj-ta/ (with /raj/ as in /raj-as/).}

erotic/sexual substance

correlated ritual substance

"female discharge"

"consciousness (samvit) in manifest form"

"yoga"

"conjunction of S`iva and S`akti"

"speaking"

"praising"

"embracing"

"musk"

"kissing"

"camphor"

"wounds, etc. [raised] by the [finger]nails and teeth"

"worshipping with flower garlands"

"Loveplay"

incense"

"kneading the breasts"

"praising of S`iva" {or rather, of Parvati}

"shedding of semen"

"["the concluding rite of"] releasing ["the image of a deity into holy water"]" {usually into a sacred river}

p. 80

[quoted from the Kaka-can.d.a-is`vari-mata ('Crow-Fierce-Lady-Doctrine') (KCM) 1:20, 33 :, a 12th-century Chr.E. alchemical Tantra ... :

Without the fluid substance (dravyam), there can be no siddhi, and no enjoyment or pleasure."

p. 81

"in the twenty-third chapter of Anandagiri's fourteenth- to fifteenth-century S`ankaradigvijaya, ... a figure named Bodholban.a Nityananda praises fearless Kapalika sages who are "always dependent on the knowledge (bodha) produced by fluid (dravyam), whose hearts are gratified by the embrace of Kapalika s`aktis".

p. 81

"the twelfth-century [Chr.E.] Amanaskayoga [2:33] of Goraks.anatha states that "some [practitioners], overstepping the limit ..., resorb semen {the term translated could also mean 'vaginal exudations'} from young girls' yonis. Without rajayoga ... there can be no perfection of the body for them."

The Yogas`ikhopanis.ad (1.36, 138) ... states that red-colored rajas, which is the true form of the Goddess's essence (devitattvasvarupa), resides in the great mound (mahapit.ha) of the vulva; while in the place of the moon {praesumably id.a}, within the upper circle of the moon, it is the bindu {'dot'} ... or retas ("sperm") that is the true form of S`iva's essence. So it is that the two essences are constantly ... (milita {Irish Milesians?}) in the path of brahman "between the two Merus." {the 2 Meru-s = the 2 Moirai Klotho and Lakhesis}...

Both of these sources read raja here as a strengthened form of rajas, that is, "deriving from female discharge," rather than ... the [later] standard reading ... . Both of these works predate the fifteenth-century Hat.hayogapradipika ...; and ... therefore ... their readings of the compound

p. 82

rajayoga are earlier than the more widely accepted reading of the term".

p. 82 "the term vajroli mudra, "seal of the place of the male organ" for the technique of urethral suction by means of which the Tantric yogin, having ejaculated into his partner, draws his semen together with her sexual emission back into his penis."

pp. 295-6, n. 3:88 "Darmon (... [2002]) argues, on the basis of ... that vajroli mudra is anatomically impossible.

{This is not at all physiological feasible (the bladder lacking the musculature to distend itself).}

However, the subjects of his research ... attempted to reabsorb fluids from an external catheter, through the urethra."

{This Chinese technique of "dao niao ... "involves inserting a device (a sort of thin tube called a “guan”) into the urethra." ("urethral suction")}

{However, so-called "vajroli mudra" is likely to be simply a figurative literary expression for suction through a man lips applied to the woman's vulva.}

{Concerning the technique used in Tibet, it is sometimes alleged that "the procedure is bad, because the spilled ens seminis is charged with atoms from the Secret Enemy." ("black tantra, black magic")}

"The Bauls ... also undertook ... "Catching the Uncatchable" ... . Here, the Baul practitioner's ... "Natural Human Being" (sahaj manus.) ... is naturally present in female practitioners alone. On the third day of a woman's period, the Natural Human Being, who feels an irresistible attraction to the s`akti in menstrual blood, descends from the woman's cranial vault to her triven.i (the place in her lower abdomen where the three subtle channels, the nad.is, meet). {Tri-ven.i = [Taoist] Triple Burner} Through coitus, the Natural Human Being is separated out of the menstrual blood, attracted into the male practitioner's penis, and brought back to his cranial vault." [Salomon 1995, pp, 195-6]

p. 82

[quoted from KJn~N 14:93-4 :] "one should, by means of the S`akti practice, pierce [upward] as far as the

"End of the Five Times Twelve" ... .

{allusion to the Chinese cycle of 60 (days, during the S`an/Yin dynasty; years, during later dynasties) as the multiplicative product of the 5 elements with the 12 animals. This allusion is one suggesting the Taoist provenience of the goddess Kubjika (who is the Taoist hunchbacked goddess who commenced the parampara of transmission of the book of C^uan C^ou).}

Those who have been brought under the power of the circles (cakras) {'wheels'} -- of Devis, Dutis, Yoginis, and Matr.s -- have become absorbed in the khecari-cakra ["the fifth and highest cakra in the Kubjika system"]. This causes the arousal (ks.obhayet) of of the supreme nectar ... :

nectar is the true clan-born essence (kaulasadbhava), which is born from the triangle of love (kamakalatmaka) ["i.e., the pubic triangle"]."

"Here, ... the five circles (cakras) of the goddesses who become aroused ... emit the clan nectar from their vulvas."

"another passage [KJn~N 14:37b-41a] ... relates the best kaulasadbhava to the "Gandharvi, Kinnari, Yaks.i,

p. 83

or female dweller of the underworld, or again the Asuri, or Vidyadhari [who is] aroused" (ks.ubhyate).

So, too, the Mahis.amardini Stotra and the Kaulacud.aman.i indicate ... the yogic technique of khecari mudra" [Boner & Sarma 1966, pp. 136-7].

[Ramanuja : S`ri-bhas.ya 2:2:35-7 -- quoted in Lorenzen 1972, pp. 2-3 :] "As the Kapalas declare : "He ... who is proficient in the highest mudra (paramudravis`arada), and who meditates on the self as seated in the vulva (bhagasana), attains nirvan.a.""

"as in the oft-repeated Tantric Buddhist aphorism that the Buddha once dwelt "in the vulvas of the Adamantine Maidens." [He[la]-vajra Tantra 1:1 & Guhya-samaja Tantra 1:1 -- cited in Snellgrove 1987, p. 121]

{One of the sacred texts of the nirvan.a-seeking Vajrayanists is the Buddha-KAPALA Tantra.}

Other Buddhist Tantric sources, such as the Sekoddes`at.ika ..., Kalacakra tantra, ... and Can.d.amaharos.an.a Tantra, further confirm this identity of the consort as the seal, and her vulva as the locus of initiation." [Kvaerne 1975, pp. 99, 101 (and n. 61), 106, 117-20]

"Jayadratha identifies the khecari mudra as a six-angled seal comprising two interlocking triangles". [Jayadratha's commentary on Tantra-aloka 3:95-6, discussed in Silburn 1988, pp. 232-5] {This 6-acute-angled, 6-sided, crossed-triangles emblem is the figure within the anahata cakra.}

p. 86 "Radha ... proliferates into circles of lesser energies, the multiple hladini ("gladdening") s`aktis. [Dimock 1966, pp. 133-4, 203-4] In its description of Kr.s.n.a's loveplay with these ... s`aktis, the BhP tells us that "a slender maiden received ... his chewed betel." [Bhagavata Puran.a 2:32:5a] That is, she shared Kr.s.n.a's chew, in other words, put it into her mouth".

p. 87 "recall the Vedic husband-hunting ritual of the maiden Apala, who transmits the soma she has chewed, through a kiss, to the god Indra, following which they engage in sexual intercourse." [cf. supra nn. 2:24-6; infra n. 4:116]

"(1) the shiny, bright green heart-shaped leaf of the betel tree (tambula ...), ... coated with

(2) white caustic lime paste made from crushed shells (curn.a) and

(3) ... red catechu paste extracted from the wood of an Indian ... mimosa (khadira) and wrapped around

(4) a ... nut from the areca-nut palm (supari)"

[quoted from Apfel-Marglin 1985, pp. 57-8] "A child is produced by the mixing of the man's seed (birya [virya]) and the woman's secretion (raja).

{This variety of /raja/ is intended in the term /raja-yoga/.}

The word raja in this context refers to the colourless (sadha) vagina secretion which is said to be ejaculated by the woman during [sexual] intercourse".

{This colorless fluid would be the secretion of the Bartholin glands.}

According to the Kula-ratna-uddyota, "the Goddess, dwelling alone in a cave, ... begins to lick her own yoni, which emits the semen {sic : ought to be translated "genital secretion"} ... that gives life to the entire universe. It is because she bent over to lick herself that she became the "Crooked One" (kubjika)." (Dyczkowski 2000, pp. 33-4; Dyczkowski 1995-6, p. 128)