The Kaula lineage is perhaps the most infamous of Tantric lineages, renowned for its use of “impure” substances (the famous 5 M’s) and transgressionary practices – including sexual rituals. It wasn’t the only lineage to adopt these practices, but its primary text, The Kularnava Tantra, was discovered, translated and widely published relatively early in the modern era, resulting in the Kaula’s notoriety compared to other similar streams. But what – if anything – can modern practitioners of Eco-Tantra adopt from the Kaula school?
Well, it is arguable that much of the Kaula philosophy (as with much of tantric teaching in general) is based on a deep connectivity with nature. You see, within Tantra there are always multiple layers to everything that is written and recorded. Those celebrated 5 M’s – known as the Panchatattvas - perhaps provide a good example of this.
The Panchatattvas refer to five substances that, during the period that the Kaula school flourished, were deemed to be impure or transgressionary by nature; these are: Mudra, Matsya, Madya, Mamsa and Maithuna. Matsya, Madya and Mamsa are fish, alcohol and meat respectively. Mudra is most often interpreted as parched grain, perhaps because parched grain is regularly listed among ritual deity offerings. Throughout most of the Tantras though, including the Kularnava Tantra, the word “mudra” has it’s more traditional meaning of being a gesture or posture associated with deification. I have written another blog about The Mysterious Khecari Mudra, arguing that this represents deification (or possession) by Shiva, and it seems reasonable to me that the mudra of the 5 M’s refers to the revered Khecari and Yoni Mudras (or sexual arousal). These mudras would be seen as an indication that the practitioner has been “possessed” by the deities and would be a necessary preliminary for their union through sexual intercourse – which is of course the final “M”, Maithuna.
The adoption of these five “essences” into tantric ritual is most often regarded as an act of rebellion, designed to affect the practitioner’s psychology – to encourage them to challenge the conventional wisdom of the orthodoxy and to develop a non-dualistic concept of the world, to understand that everything emanates from the same divine source and so nothing can be impure. However, as with most things in Tantra, the ritualisation of these five substances is multi-layered. In fact, it is a common feature across Tantra that external rituals can also be conducted internally. But for this to be possible, the five panchatattvas must have subtle body equivalents. This relationship (between the five substances and the subtle body) becomes clear once you realise that the 5 M’s also represent the five elements of nature: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space, which are subsequently associated with five elemental cakras in the subtle body.
Clearly, if Mudra is interpreted as parched grain (which it most often is) this would represent the Earth element, as it has grown from the earth. But Earth is also associated with the muladhara (or root) cakra, which is a point of grounding, and which is expressed through our physical form and our most base desires. If “mudra” in the context of the 5 M’s refers to physical sexual arousal (as I believe it does) then this too would awaken our muladhara cakra and bind us to the Earth element of our natures. Fish are clearly associated with the Water element, which is also associated to our sacral or Svadhishthana cakra and the consumption of alcohol was believed to ignite our inner fire, with the Fire element corresponding to our Manipura or solar plexus cakra. Meat is perhaps less obviously associated with the Air element, which is represented internally through our heart cakra (anahata). However, the Mahanirvana Tantra points out that meat can come from animals of the earth or the sky, and that when practicing with the Panchatattvas meat from animals of the sky is preferred, highlighting the association between meat and Air.
Finally, Maithuna, the union of Shiva and Shakti through sexual intercourse, is conducted not to experience sexual gratification, but to experience enlightenment and expansion. Consequently, maithuna is associated with the natural element of space. Tantrikas recognised that space, as an element, fills and surrounds everything, it envelopes and imbues the material world, and practitioners were encouraged to contemplate the nature of space when seeking to understand and experience their own non-dual existence. The element of Space is associated with the third eye, or ajna cakra, and it is to this point that the energy generated through sexual intercourse should be directed, through practiced breathing, visualisation and concentration, in order to experience spiritual expansion.
Through their association with the five elements of nature and their corresponding cakras within the subtle body, it can be seen how the ritualised usage of the five panchatattvas aligns with the modern practice of Eco-Tantra, which emphasises the interconnectivity between our physical bodies, our subtle bodies and our natural environment. In many ways then, an eco-tantric practitioner is a modern day kaulika.
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