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I'm giving a talk....

14:58 / 29.09.04

I'm giving a talk at Treadwells Books in Covent Garden on the 11th October as part of a series of lectures on Tantra given by the group I'm in. Mine is on the Hindu Guru/Yogi Dattatreya, and as I say in the blurb "'I aim to give a short examination of his history, and using this as a jumping-off point for other Tantric themes, including a look at my own practice; I hope to provide a case study of how study and personal experience might combine in modern tantra."

Any 'lithers who can make it will be more than welcome. £5 entrance. Best to book it advance, Treadwells phone is 020 7240 8906. Thanks folks!

Goodness Gracious Meme

23:11 / 29.09.04

ooh, sounds interesting, might try and make this...

trouser the trouserian

08:40 / 06.10.04

I'll be there. Anyone else?

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:26 / 06.10.04

Hopefully... Do they let you in late?

11:20 / 06.10.04

Not really mate, as it's a bit disruptive to the talk. I should be starting at 7.30 so I'd get there as early as possible.

trouser the trouserian

09:01 / 11.10.04

- bump! -
tonight's the night!

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:08 / 11.10.04

If I can get out of work, I'll be there. I'll be the one - the *only* one - in a suit. I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to call ahead - should I do so, or can you pay on the door?

trouser the trouserian

09:15 / 11.10.04

Yes, you can pay on the door Haus.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:44 / 11.10.04

mawh. sorry honey, too hectic down here. bah humbug. Hope it goes well, break a leg an' all that.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:15 / 12.10.04

Very interesting stuff - I need to borrow a bunch of books at some point (once I have finished reading AVON: A TERRIBLE ASS, PECKED, obviously)...

11:13 / 13.10.04

Well, that was good fun, thanks very much to all those who came, especially the "out of towners". Haus, you can borrow any books you like - might have to loan me that Avon, though.

14:36 / 16.10.04

That was ace Illmatic, really interesting. Even if they couldn't get the brake off on our train home so we were stuck in the station for ages and didn't get back till 3 of your finest o'clocks in the morning.

Book recommendations please...

Also, your Tantra Magic book you mentioned, was it any good? And if so, 'worth buying' good?

11:54 / 19.10.04

Any chance of getting a transcript / notes or sommat up?

08:40 / 20.10.04

Transcript will be available soon, when I get a spare moment. The first 5000 words or so are all rit oop nice and proper but I got fucked off with writing it at this point, so the rest is a scribble of notes. Soon as I render it properly, it'll be available.

Ottoline: Tantra Magick is a great book, out of print but you should be able to turn up a copy on abebooks.com or get an Indian bootleg edition. Let me know if you can't, and I'll sort you out copies. The main book I used was Dattatreya: Immortal Guru, Yogin and Avatara by Antonio Rigopolous, but be warned, it is amazingly dry and academic. There's a few others I used but they all are various degrees of boring and impenetrable - apart from this. If you want to read more on the subject, have a google for Phil Hine's "Aspects of Tantra" PDF.

08:44 / 20.10.04

Oh, and just to bump - this Monday, two memebers of the group will be continuing the talks in this series, with a lecture on the mysteries of Shri Vidya and the Goddess Lalita. See link above for details.

09:52 / 20.10.04

from http://www.shivashakti.com/datta.htm
Typical of most dropouts of the ancient Pagan world, he lived completely naked. But this was a great spiritual era when all world renouncers were mostly naked or near naked. The Sanskrit idiom used to describe this condition was digambara, having a literal meaning of 'clothed in the sky' or 'sky as garment', but also an idiomatic meaning that the sadhu was one with his environment.
So. Wicca's SkyClad concept comes from Tanta, then?

Ill-boy, I was pissed off to miss this, espesh since I was in town later in the week. You been doing a lot of public speaking last few years?

trouser the trouserian

10:36 / 20.10.04

Wicca's SkyClad concept comes from Tantra, then?

It's possible. However, its well-known that Gardner was a nudist. Some Wiccans say that the practice originates from Leland's 1897 "Aradia: Gospel of the Witches" text (which claims, I think, to be 15th century in origin) or from Doreen Valiente's input into early Wicca. Still others claim the practice originated from the Indian Jaina religion. Or from the Celts. Or the ancient Greeks. I don't think anyone has a 'definitive' statement on where the practice comes from.

10:57 / 20.10.04

Sorry Abs, I don't really mean the concept of working nude , or the practice, but the term "SkyClad" itself. Yes, Gardner was a well-known nudist, and Leland's text (which IIRC is largely made up, according to Leland apologists[!] quoted in Hutton) talks about nude working, and let's face it there's no lack of nude working in occult literature...

But the term itself, "Sky Clad"... I don't know where this would have come from if not from Tantra -- I thought it was made up. I don't think the term is in Leland or anyone else in the western tradition -- is it?

I think a plausible scenario is Brits working for the Raj picking up the term from the Indians and shipping it back home to go in the melange of Victorian / Edwardian occultism, later to surface within Wicca. Dunno if it's "true" though.

trouser the trouserian

11:42 / 20.10.04

2stepfan
here's an article by Philip Carr-Gomm suggesting that Ross Nichols took the term "Skyclad" from the Jaina Digambara - which seems a plausible argument to me.

12:06 / 20.10.04

No, not really. This was the first "occult" type one but I think I'd been well prepared by the endless gabbing about this subject in the group I'm in. Went on for about an hour and a half. All went well, apart from occult wandering hand.

13:32 / 09.01.05

Pleased to say, the transcipt is now up on Phil Hine's site: here

Any comments welcome!

odd jest on horn

20:10 / 30.01.05

Slightly offtopic, as I'm not commenting on the talk/transcript, sorry.

Illmatic wrote:
Tantra Magick is a great book, out of print but you should be able to turn up a copy on abebooks.com or get an Indian bootleg edition. Let me know if you can't, and I'll sort you out copies

I've been looking all over the internet for this book, and even wrote Mike Magee an email about it. Unfortunately he's asked his publisher not to reprint it. He gave me the reason "that the material needs a more sympathetic and comprehensive treatment". I suppose that's fair enough, though I have got the impression, mainly here on Barbelith, that this book is the one that gets closest to that ideal, at least as a work for the beginner.

Anyway, my question is basically this: what do you guys that are more heavily into tantra than the rest of us, recommend as a good place to start? If the answer to this question is "Tantra Magick", could someone please help me out getting a copy?

Unconditional Love

20:38 / 30.01.05

odd jest on horn

20:49 / 30.01.05

Thank you :-)

Additional pointers to good tantra beginners' books, aside from the stuff to be found at Phil Hine's site, would also be appreciated.

In pm prefrably as this is threadrot.

07:06 / 31.01.05

Along with b>Tantra Magick I'd recommend Georg Feuersteins'b>Tantra. The path of Ecstacy or b>The Tantric Way by Ajit Mookerjree for good introductions to some of the practices and ideas in Tantra. Hugh Urbans' fab book, b>Tantra. Sex, Secrecy, Polotics and Power in the study of Religion for a look at how Tantra has developed and adapted in the East and West. Also recommend something by David Kinsley. b>Tantric Visions of the divine Feminine or b>Hindu Goddesses. Also, as so much Tantric ideas are represented through art and diagram, get Philip Rawsons' b>The Art of Tantra.

David Gordon Whites books (b>Kiss of the Yogini, The Alchemical Body are historical studies and pretty advanced. I havn't got round to finishing one yet as they make my brain hurt but the book he edited b>Tantra in Practise has some facinating stuff in it.

07:08 / 31.01.05

apologies for the bad html. thats what happens when you cut and paste and post this early in the morning!

12:57 / 01.08.05

I'm giving another talk at Treadwells, on Wilhelm Reich, in a months time: details here

Thought I'd pimp it a bit early, so y'all know.

Edit: The blurb is now excellent.

13:31 / 22.08.05

... bump again.

If I can get it all in, I’m going to try and cover his life and work, my experiences using techniques derived from his therapy, his comments on mysticism as well as indicating the range and unity of his work. Treadwells events link seems a bit screwed at the moment but please come if you can.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:41 / 22.08.05

Thanks for the heads-up, yours looks fascinating, as do several of the others.

Do any of the Londoners have any idea what 'James Butler on Queerness and Modern Magic' will be like? (ie, who is he/any good?)

14:43 / 22.08.05

I'll find out tonight an dcome back to you.

07:53 / 01.09.05

*bumppppp*

Tonight folks .....

09:59 / 01.09.05

Record it, dude. I'm going to be that rain washing the scum off the streets until midnight, can't make it.