Ancient Tantric texts refer to the Khecari Mudra and the tantric philosopher Abhinava Gupta recognises it as one of the most important mudras available to practitioners of Tantra. But what exactly is the Khecari Mudra?
Well, if you were to Google it you will find a strange technique involving the use (and occasional surgical alteration) of your tongue which from my reading sounds extremely uncomfortable and frankly quite dangerous. I tested myself to see how far I was prepared to roll my tongue back along my palate and I’m not ashamed to say it was not nearly far enough to achieve what modern teachers are touting as Khecari Mudra. Not everything is for everybody, and if this is Khecari Mudra it certainly isn’t for me (nor would I recommend it!).
But there’s an important point to recognise here – in the tantric references currently available to us (and more can always be discovered and / or translated) the Khecari Mudra is only ever referred to – it isn’t described. This is one of those esoteric secrets of Tantra that have been lost with the ages, and so is open to interpretation. Clearly, modern teachers have interpreted it as an extreme tongue roll that reaches towards the back of your throat, but is that the correct or most accurate interpretation, and is it the one we choose to accept?
You see, a further important point to recognise, is the evolution of the term mudra. Most modern yogis would understand a mudra to be a hand gesture, but that is not how it was originally used in the tantras. The word mudra means seal or sign and is often used interchangeably with similar words meaning posture within the context of tantric worship. In other words, a mudra is a physical embodied signifier of successful worship.
So, what constitutes tantric worship? From the outside traditional tantric worship undoubtedly appeared very similar to any other local form of devotional worship. Internally though, there was an important difference between mainstream worshippers and nondualist tantric worshippers. For mainstream worshippers, the purpose of the worship was to invoke favour or blessings from an external deity, but for nondualists there was no separation between themselves and the deity – they were the deity. For tantric practitioners the purpose of worship was to bring their conscious awareness to this lack of separation and the mudra was an expression of their success.
So, a mudra can be thought of as a spontaneously occurring gesture or posture that symbolises unity with an all-encompassing deity. But what specifically is the Khecari Mudra? Well, by all accounts the word khecari means “moving to the sky” or “pointing skyward” – something modern teachers believe ought to be practiced with the tip of your tongue. Either way, the word seems to be associated with the concept of ascension. Indeed, in the ancient texts the mudra appears to be related to another ascension, the successful movement of kundalini-shakti from the base of the spine to the crown of the head.
The purpose of kundalini ascension is to unify divine energy (deified by the goddess Shakti) with divine consciousness – represented by the god Shiva. Shiva is the primary tantric deity (alongside Shakti) and is often represented in the icon of a shiva-lingam – a phallus that also symbolises spiritual ascension.
There is a clear association then, through the concept of ascension, between tantric kundalini meditation, the word khecari, and the shiva-lingam. Indeed, if the Khecari Mudra is highlighted as the most revered mudra, it is also likely to be representative of the most revered deity – Shiva. This brings us back to the lingam – something that symbolises both ascension and Shiva. Despite modern attempts to separate the Shiva-lingam as a symbolic item of worship from its origins as a phallus representative of spiritual ascension, it is clearly designed to resemble an erect penis.
My conclusion then, is that the original Khecari Mudra, the naturally occurring sign that possessed a practitioner during tantric worship (especially whilst meditating on kundalini-shakti) and which signified their successful unification with the most revered deity, was an erection (at least for male practitioners – and to be honest, most of the tantras seem to be aimed toward male practitioners).
This corresponds with my own personal practice. From the first time I experienced kundalini it has been consistently associated with arousal. Even now, I can rarely meditate for any length of time without experiencing an erection. And if you’re not convinced, read the passage relating to the Khecari Mudra written by Abhinava Gupta, and see whether you think he is discussing forcibly rolling your tongue to the back of your palate or spontaneous sexual arousal:
“Experiencing the Trident [of goddesses / shaktis representative of the three channels of breath that must be united in order to raise Kundalini] as a single staff, rising through the spaces, O Beloved, he adopts the Khecari Mudra, meditating on himself as Bhairava embraced by the Khecari circle.”
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