Francis King (1)

Francis King's treatment of Tantric practice in this volume is more attentive to authentic source materials and ethnography than most Neo-Tantric literature of the last few decades has been. Even so, he seeks to universalize it beyond its original south Asian context. His emphasis on what defines Tantra as such is not so much "sex" (as the typical Neo-tantrist would have it) as it is a dualist metaphysic and transgressive method.

Tantra is compared to ritual magic of the Golden Dawn school show more throughout the book. In particular, there is a claim that the tattwa materials that circulated in the GD were rooted in the Bengali Tantric text published in English by the Theosophical Society as Nature's Finer Forces. King carefully examines the correlations between the sat chakras and the qabalistic Tree of Life made by Aleister Crowley, J.F.C. Fuller, and Dion Fortune, rendering his own verdict and recommending related practices. He also weighs in on whether Crowley should be viewed--in King's terms--as "an authentic, if unorthodox, tantric" (76), ultimately answering in the affirmative and citing (without details) various secret instructions of O.T.O. to support the point.

In this book, King has an awful lot of opinions for someone who does not make any direct admission to being an actual practitioner. Most of them sound quite sensible, but it's reasonable to wonder about the nature of King's authority when encountering his authoritative tone. His historical speculations on the relationship between the Tantras of different religious traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, Jain) fall within what I understand to be the range of current scholarly views on the topic.

A set of appendices cover such diverse issues and items as psychedelic drug use in "Western tantra" (King's basically against it), a revision of the invocation of the "Bornless One" for goddess devotions, and a comparison of Taoist "internal alchemy" to parallel Tantric practices. show less

Tantra has been defined as a 'a mystical philosophy' and as 'an unorthodox religious tendency.' Both definitions are incomplete.

While Tantra has mystical, philosophical, and religious aspects it is, above all, a technique of action-a system of physical, mental, and spritiual discipine incorporating meditation, yoga, and sacramental worship in the widest sense of the phrase. This system has one purpose: The transformation of the individual-his or her rebirth to a new existence.

There is no show more 'tantric faith', to be accepted or rejected on the basis of thought and emotion. Tantrics make the same claim as Western magicians: 'If you follow a certain course of action you will be led back to the roots of your own indentity and will learn the truth about yourself and the universe you inhabit.'

Tantra for Westerners is a complete theoretical and practical guide to the Way of Action, covering the concepts of pleasure and pain, power and passivity, esoteric physiology, Tantra and qabalism, right-hand and left-hand Tantra, tantric rituals for westerners, and the arousal of kundalini-the serpent power.

Francis King is a well-known authroity on magic, msticism, and religion. His books include Techniques of High Magic, Ritual Magic in england and The Magical Wrold of Aleister Crowley. He is married and lives in London.

Contents

Introduction Tantra: The way of action
Chapter 1 Pleasure and pain
Chapter 2 Power and passivity
Chapter 3 Shiva, and the Qabalistic tree of life
Chapter 4 Esoteric physiology
Chapter 5 Chakras, secret traditions, and the golden dawn
Chapter 6 Right-hand tantra, left-hand tantra
Chapter 7 the middle pillar and the serpent power
Chapter 8 Tantric techniques of yoga and meditation for Westerners
Chapter 9 Tantric rituals for Westerners
Chapter 10 A summing up
Appendices
A Brodie Innes and the Tattvas
B The origins of tantra, drugs, and Western occultism
C The Chod rite and Asiatic shamanism
D Preparation for the iddle pillar exercise and Shakti invocation
E The Siddhas, Chinese alchemy, and Layayoga
Select bibliography
Index show less

Looking at the title of the book one might think that there is a course of magical development within the pages but actually what you find is a history of modern magic. It touches on Rosicrucian's and Masons and has a small amount on Levi, but the main thrust of the book is dedicated to the history of the Golden Dawn, its successors and its many personalities. There is much material here that was later in R. A. Gilbert's works on the history of the Golden Dawn.

A 207 page Reprint by Feral House, put out in 2002. Good as a general overview of sex-magic in the occident. Being an overview, it does not go into great depth on any of subjects treated. Of
particular note are the information on sex-magic and child sacrifice performed by eccentric priests in seventeenth century France and the correlation of positions for sex magic with
astrological aspects by the Fraternitas Saturni. The book also contains information directly
relevant to the O.T.O.