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Ganesh

  
 
Good Antlerhead
07:49 / 02.01.02
Who's had experience with him, what's he like, what are your preferred methods for contacting?
 
 
lentil
13:13 / 02.01.02
hope to be able to make a few suggestions in a couple of weeks' time - see my "help!" post
 
 
Bear
05:56 / 03.01.02
Hi all I was just looking at a site someone posted on another list - it has lots of silver magick related jewellery including a nice Ganesh thing although its $100, but it does include a little bit about him too -

quote:Ganesh-the son of Parvati & Siva is the remover of obstacles, Lord of Wisdom & Art, & the slayer of demons. He is worshipped today by millions of devotees both Buddhist & Hindu & is especially loved by merchants due to his ability to increase prosperity. Ganesh likes flowers, candy & sandlewood incense. His mantra is OM GANAPATHI NAMAHAH, repeated 3 times.

And underneath there is a little gecko pendant ! (we can start a Gek cult now) ! and he's only $18

btw this isnt some kind of add i dont work for this site or something although it does sound like it

the website is here -

Magickly stuff
 
 
FinderWolf
14:39 / 03.01.02
:: His mantra is OM GANAPATHI NAMAHAH, repeated 3 times.

I wanted to try this last year, but I read a different version of the mantra on Phil Hine's site, which was OM GUM GANAPATAYEI NAMAHA.

How would you pronounce "GANAPATHI" in the first version of the chant? "Ga-na-poth-ee"? Or with a hard "T", i.e. "Ga-na-pot-ee"?

I was pronouncing Hine's version "Ohm Goom Ga-Na-Pa-Ta-Yei Nam-ah-ha". The only word I wondered if I pronounced correctly was Ganapatayei.

And do you think the mantra doesn't work as well of there's a slight mispronunciation? I was wondering about this. Would the wrong pronunciation produce significantly different vibrations? Or does Ganesh get your meaning and appreciate your intent even if there's a slight mess-up in the pronunciation?
 
 
Lothar Tuppan
15:36 / 03.01.02
I've used 'Om Ganapathi Namah'
(Gah-Nah-Pah-T(h)ee) with the TH sound being a hard T with an almost silent H following.

Kind of like the 'th' in the modern German pronunciation of my name which is 'Lo-T(h)ar' (effictively almost Lo-Tar but with a bit of a 'h' sound after the t.

(although I pronounce it the english way of Lo-thar so that I don't end up sounding like a type of cigarette).

Anyway, that's what I was taught I have no idea if it is any more accurate than any other pronunciation. As for mantras, my feeling is that the pronunciation is important but not as much so as the vibration and breathing that accompanies the sounds. Taking Yoga classes (especially Kundalini Yoga) usually clues you in to mantras pretty well. Especially if the person has really studied their stuff and isn't just mixing yoga with some New Age crap.

One last note: Phil Hine's great and all but why in the world would anyone look to a British Chaos magician for expert advice on Hindu dogma? Especially since the mantra is slightly different in his book (I forget if it's prime or condensed that has the Ganesh mantra) than it is on his website.

Look to some Hindu religious texts or visit a local Hindu temple if you want authority of rituals for the Hindu deities.

Also, if you aren't comfortable with shamanic or astral journeys to commune with the spirits/gods of your choice then small (or large) altars to them are a great way to show them good will and starting relationships.

One job I worked at I kept a statue of Ganesh on my desk and burnt incense in his name every morning. It was a cool job, everybody got into it and soon people were burning incense for Ganesh instead of me if I wasn't there.

I miss that job.

[ 03-01-2002: Message edited by: Lothar Tuppan ]
 
 
Ganesh
16:04 / 03.01.02
Ganesh, oddly enough, occupies a rather special place in my own (admittedly small) personal pantheon...

<settles into 'Jackanory' mode>

I first visited India in 1997 with my partner, and had my first contact with the vast, technicolour delight that is Hinduism. I loved the myriad representations of the various Gods and Goddesses, particularly the sub-continent's most popular deity, Ganesh. By the time we returned to the UK, I'd collected hundreds of those wonderfully gaudy postcards which one sees everywhere in India, the cheapest of personal shrines.

Fast forward to the following November. I'd reluctantly accepted a six-month post in Livingston, a concrete shithole midway between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I say "reluctantly" because, although I have my driving license, I detest driving and had (at that point) never owned a car. In any case, a particularly inflexible medical training supervisor refused to allow me to swap my placement, so I had to buy a car.

So there I was, driving out to do my on-call one bright and frosty Sunday morning. There'd been a "cold snap" overnight but the sun seemed to have melted much of the ice, and the roads looked okay. I took the A40, a road I was used to.

I'd just passed through Balerno and returned to a "national speed limit" zone, putting my foot down on the accelerator and was doing around forty mph when I hit a patch of black ice. The car suddenly spun off towards the wrong side of the road, I did all the stuff you're supposed to (steer into the skid, pump the brake, etc.) and the car returned to the correct lane...

... but kept on going. I went right off the road, and crashed through some trees. The windscreen shattered but didn't fall in. I tumbled down a sort of embankment and the left wheel went over a fallen tree trunk, tipping the car over. It rolled once then came to a halt - upside-down.

My life didn't flash in front of my eyes; it was all too fast for that. I didn't even think "I'm gonna die"; it was more "This is gonna hurt". I had my arms braced against the steering wheel and I think I closed my eyes. I had the overwhelming sense that a tree branch was going to burst through the windscreen and hit me in the face. Luckily for my face, that didn't happen.

The passenger side was completely stoved in. Hanging from the seat-belt, the radio (playing All Saints' 'War of Nerves', I can clearly remember) seemed suddenly incredibly loud. I reached out and switched it off. Crisp packets and other car-floor rubbish fell around my ears and I thought incongruously, "Fuck, the emergency services are gonna think I'm such an untidy bastard". Then clear fluid (brake fluid, I later realised) started dripping down (I still hadn't turned off the engine at this point) and I wondered idly whether cars only blew up in the movies...

Another driver had been a few hundred feet behind me on the road, and helped me out the car window (the door wouldn't open). I remember systematically checking myself for fractures, cuts, bruises, whiplash. I was completely unharmed. The car, on the other hand, was written off. I'd only just missed an enormous fucking tree stump which, if I'd hit it square on, would've driven the front of the car into my ribcage and abdomen. After a few minutes, I started to laugh (frightening the hell out of my "rescuer") and had to sit down. The police, when they arrived, helpfully pointed out that I was lucky to be alive.

Next day, my mother drove me back to the site of the crash (not sure why, but I wanted to see it again). The wreck had been towed away and a few sad little bits and pieces lay by the roadside: a wing mirror, a Volkswagen hubcap and a rain-sodden postcard of Ganesh, Remover of Obstacles...

Okay, so I quite possibly owe my life to German engineering rather than a Hindu Lovegod, but I think that's when I first started to believe in magic. A little bit. I've felt warm and snuggly towards Ganesh ever since.

[ 03-01-2002: Message edited by: Ganesh v4.2 ]
 
 
Ganesh
16:08 / 03.01.02
In India, Ganesh is known to prefer sacrifices of fruit, flowers and sticky little cakes. We have several statues and images of Ganesh in the Edinburgh flat (including a rather lovely sandalwood one), and the first thing I brought to London was a little silver one for my room. He sits on my desk next to a vase of flowers, which I try to replace regularly. I burn candles and incense (he likes coconut) from time to time.

There are as many versions of his mantra as there are versions of Ganesh himself. I've got the most popular ones in a big book, back in Edinburgh. Will try to get hold of it, if you're interested.

My one-tusked friend; he's never let me down!

[ 03-01-2002: Message edited by: Ganesh v4.2 ]
 
 
Lothar Tuppan
17:03 / 03.01.02
quote:Originally posted by Ganesh v4.2:
I've felt warm and snuggly towards Ganesh ever since.



Wow. The only appropriate response to that story I can think of is "Om Ganapati Namah".
 
 
Ganesh
17:19 / 03.01.02


Oh yeah, and rubbing his tummy is meant to bring luck (some of the old stone temple statues bear pot-bellies shiny with a million hands). He presumably enjoys it too.
 
 
Ierne
17:39 / 03.01.02
HunterWolf: If you'd like to do more research on Hindu Deities, I suggest checking out East West Books on Fifth Avenue between 13th & 14th Streets in Manhattan. They have a good selection of books on Hinduism, and they do let you browse.
 
 
Good Antlerhead
18:08 / 03.01.02
The mantra I've been working with is "AUM Gung Ganapathaye Namah..." which I found on a Hindi website. But l also understand that yes, he has a billion different mantras which tend to correspond with different aspects of Ganesh. The one I'm worried about is "Gung," which is his seed mantra, his sigil, which is said to contain the entirety of his essence. I hear it's supposed to be pronouced like "sung," but you guys have different ideas, so...
By the way, what's with the mouse? Maybe Ganesh will soon rise to destroy his adversary the Lord Mickey and remove that fucking parasite from all our minds.
 
 
Lothar Tuppan
18:14 / 03.01.02
Here's what I wrote about Ganesh and his rat vehicle in another thread:

quote:
Ganesh is a bit different than most animal gods since he started off as a human child (divine mind you but still with a human head).
It's important that his attribute as the lord of obstacles was bestowed upon him after his elephant head was given to him.

Here's what the excellent Heinrich Zimmer says about Ganesh:

"Their son, the elephant-headed god Ganesha, 'The Lord and Leader of the Hosts of Shiva,' called also 'The Lord and Master of Obstacles' (vighnesvara), sits above a rat, (figure 53.) Ganesha forges ahead through obstacles as an elephant through the jungle, but the rat, too, is an overcomer of obstacles, and as such, an appropriate, even though physically incongruous, mount for the gigantic pot-bellied divinity of the elephant head. The elephant passes through the wilderness, treading shrubs, bending and uprooting trees, fording rivers and lakes easily; the rat can gain access to the bolted granary. The two represent the power of the god to vanquish every obstacle of the Way."

In this way, Ganesh may not have started off as a god with animal attributes, he may have evolved along with his societal function over time. The rat specifically (as are the rest of the divinity vehicles of the Hindu pantheon) is theorized as having been a Mesopotamian influence.
 
 
grant
12:47 / 04.01.02
PaTricky really should write something here about our Burning Man experience.

Camp Ganesh Mandala.
 
 
Bear
12:51 / 04.01.02
I'm just here to talk about the site I posted again don't mean to go on about it but I'm very impressed - I've been told the guy knows his stuff magick wise.. also noticed if you design a sigil he'll make it into a silver or gold pendant or ring or you can totally design your own stuff...it really is worth a look - I'm going to buy a chaos star dog tag when I get paid - woohoo...
 
 
Lothar Tuppan
13:33 / 04.01.02
He makes some beautiful stuff.

I drooled over some of the stuff in the 'art' section.
 
 
the rake at the gates
09:36 / 09.01.02
today i bought a smal ganesh figure, and iwas woundering if the objects in his hand mean different things, as all the figures in the shop had different objects in their hands. the one i chose has a club/septre of some kind, what looks like a knife, what looks like a noose, and his third hand is held out with his thumb and middle finger touching, anyone know what this means?
 
 
grant
13:58 / 09.01.02
I linked to this site in another thread.

Pretty good description of his hands & weapons.

I'm also fond of hubcom's Tantric pages, especially this one on Ganesh.
 
 
Mr Tricks
23:34 / 11.01.02
Ahhhh Ganesh...

Not sure what i can exactly say... Ganesh seems to reward "blind faith"

The journey towards GANESH MANDALA at B u r n I n G m A n was a mixture of eager preparidness & simple Blind Faith. What we KNEW we prepared while allowing faith to superseed worry with those aspects that had no clear answer.

the simple inspiration to create a campsite devoted to Ganesh seemed to be enough to allow him to get us there. We had no means of transportation until a handful of days before our departure when a friend lent us his Van... This was a common theme as people either knew of Ganesh or became curious as we discribed our quest.
From that point people we eager to offer what assistance they could & there we again saw the many hands of Ganesh at work.
Grant himself experienced a similar miracle when he temporarily lost his own set of tickets. Insidentily BM tickets go on sale January 21st..[/b]

We smoked alot of POT in his Honor, & while traditionally the Smoke of our friend Shiva ... GANESH seemed to welcome the sweet sensations of [i]GANJa...

Currently he stands protecting our (my GF & I) "stash" and will not let us run out... as soon as we begin to concern ourselves with replenishing our "stash" we are again & again gifted with some!!!

I pray he'll be equally generous in offering Me & My dog our future HOME...

hmmm... in India there's a belief that the computer itself is a manafestation of Ganesh... with the Monitor as his Elephant's head ... AND of course it's Mouse!!!


  
 
gnsha99
09:37 / 13.01.02
Hi folks! This is the first time on I've been on the Web in a long time. It's so much fun to be back. I was just looking over a couple of things that I just read here and thought that I might offer a little sugestion (insight?) into two things. Namely, according to the pronunciation guide that I found in the front of a copy of the Bhagavadhgita that I have, in Sanskrit the spelling of "Ganapathi" would be rendered better as Ganpthi. This is pronounced as though there were a swallowed "a" or schwa sound between the "n", "p", and the "t." It also described the "th" sound as something more between a hard "Th" sound and a "dh". Not being a linguist, I can't be sure that I even acurately understood what the guy was talking about. THe name of the the book is "The Bhagavadhgita as it is" and I can't remember for my life's sake what the author's name is. I'll look it up and get back to you. Bhaktivedantaswami, maybe?

Number two, a little ceremony I performed a while back. Before having to pass particularly worrisome probation test. I lit a white candle and a blue gangle, smoked an extraordinary amount of marijuana, and meditated upon the process of drawing Ganesh portraits and writing sigils of the number 9. The test was duly administerd the next day with results that came up clear. The next day I actually ran around the restaurant where I work telling people about how excited I was that the ceremony work. As a token of gratitude, I promised that I would help some one else overcome an obstaclce. That night when I went to see a friend who is a bartender and brought her a present of sorts. She gave me a big hug and told me that day she just turned in a seventy page test research paper and delivered an oral report that counted for 75% of the grade in her class.

It also just occured to me that some of the attributes of Ganesh are similar to some of the ones given by native Americans of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and similar parts of northwest Mexico to lizards. Some of those guys view lizards as "overcomers" of obstacles through their ability to actually go under things by taking advantage of the small cracks and hidden spaces. Some of them also honor the lizard for its ability to enexpectedly vanish from a predator by breaking off its (the lizards) tail. The draw back to that ability, though, is the fact that in escaping, you must leave some part of yourself behind.
Just some thoughts.
 
 
Papess
09:37 / 13.01.02
Hello!
I have had the honour of attending a blessing of a stupa for Ganesh. The stupa was marble and anointed with oil (the oil had been prepared by the Lama first) to prepare for the actual puja and ceremomy the next day.
I think Ganesh likes milk because they poured a lot of it over the stupa while reciting the mantra, during the blessing of the stupa. Also, Ganesh images all over the world in either '97 or '98 were drinking milk through the one tusk.

~May Tricks

[ 13-01-2002: Message edited by: May Tricks ]
 
 
Mr Tricks
22:25 / 15.01.02
May,

Where when was this ceremony???

I can totally relate to the aspect of leaving a bit of you behind. Or even the telling of the tale of how you got there... as I understand Ganesh is also the scribe for the whole Mahabaratta(pardon how it's spelt) & thus fullfils a role similar to THOTH... Thus he would then welcome the retelling of a good deed or grace as well as any effort to help another in their own endevore thus affording them the opportunity to spread the tale of good deeds & grace...
 
 
Lothar Tuppan
23:25 / 15.01.02
Yup. Ganesh is such a hardcore scribe that he uses his broken tusk as his pen.

He just plain rocks.
 
 
FinderWolf
00:54 / 16.01.02
I just bought myself a cool little wooden Ganesh statue for my room (at a place in NYC). There were some metal ones that were really nice, but most of them didn't have the mouse clearly depicted, and dammit I wanted that mouse!!!!
 
 
Papess
00:54 / 16.01.02
The ceremony took place at a Buddhist Monastery in Ontario, Canada. An amazing Lama there. He also is "recognized" (as a reincarnated teacher) in Hindu communities.

I think it was in '97 or '98. I must fill in those gaps in my earth memory sometime! hehe!

~May Tricks

[ 16-01-2002: Message edited by: May Tricks ]
 
 
christopher
16:54 / 16.08.07
Mighty Gam…Lord of all categories…come in silence through this dark forest of my life and remove the obstacles from my path as I wonder in awe at your strength in lifting things I alone had no power to move. Jai GAM, Jai GAM, JAI GAM!
 
 
FinderWolf
02:09 / 17.08.07
what does "Jai GAM" mean?
 
  
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