Love Goddesses of the Tantra

Contents

Preface—What's in this book

Preface especially for men

Part 1 - Four Love Goddesses

Introduction

Many goddesses within One Goddess

Major Goddesses

Qualities relevant to love

Four Love Goddesses

Active and receptive approaches

Subjective experience

Parvati

Durga

Lakshmi

Different kinds of beauty

Saraswati

Playfulness and exploration

Love-flow

Four kinds of love experience

Love and sex

Goddess qualities in men

Synthesis and balance

The Great Mandala

Unity in polarity

Polarity in oneself

Our conscious and unconscious

Part 2 – The Sacredness in each other

Our Journey into Love Divine

Perceiving the Divine in each other

Practicing deep perception

Seeing the Goddess

The Sacred in each other

Respect for the individual

The Light in each other

Freeing the light within

Recognizing love and being loved

Being loved by the Divine

Part 3 - Shakti and Shiva

Shakti – many meanings

Shakti in both man and woman

Consumed in the fire of Kali

Kali and male orgasm

Kali and female orgasm

The Divine Yoni

Unity in Polarity

Divine Intercourse of mind & body

Shiva as Transcendence

Light awakens Her enjoyment

Man's hymn to the Love Goddess

Maya – indefinable & everchanging

Shiva plays in Maya

Desire

Our Earth Mother Goddess

Preface – What's in this book

This book is about spiritual tantric love. It is not a tantric sex how-to-do-it manual, though it does show new ideas and ways to experience the love relationship and the love ritual. This book does not contain any sexual images, though it does contain tantric metaphor and figurative language.

This book is more about unique kinds of experience – different perspectives, attitudes, and ways of being in the love ritual. It is about different ways of loving and different kinds of lovers. Moreover, it's about understanding oneself and the other.

The emphasis is mostly on increasing one's understanding of the spiritual powers and energies potentially involved in the love-sex experience, and also having an attitude of spontaneity and exploration, so that we are always in wonder and discovery in the magic of love.

Yet any real learning about this whole subject, as well as any increase of one's love powers, will have to come from personal experience – from exploration and discovery. So all that this teaching can provide are ideas and suggestions to explore.

This book is primarily about the powers and qualities of Goddesses – in relation to sexual love and the love ritual. Our main focus here is on four love Goddesses, their unique powers and qualities, as well as their unique attitudes and approaches in the love-sex relationship, as manifested through a woman. These goddesses can also be understood as love archetypes; each with a distinctly unique power and quality, attitude and approach. Each woman will recognize at least one of these goddesses in her self-experience, perhaps even a few, or maybe all four goddesses in varying degrees.

Therefore, this book will give woman a better understanding of herself in relation to love and sex. For a man, he will recognize these qualities, attitudes and ways in different women, and this study will help him better understand the potential powers and qualities of woman in the love dynamic. And he might also recognize these different qualities in himself, because essentially these are universal spiritual potentials in each of us, woman and man.

The overall perspective in these teachings is from Indian tantra; yet the understanding derived from these teachings is universal and of practical significance to anyone, no matter what beliefs or religion or spirituality one has. But this is not an academic nor sociological study of tantra, nor of Indian goddesses. This is not a review of Indian mythology. In fact, most devotees of these goddesses will probably not have ever thought of most ideas in this book.

For this particular study of goddesses is from the tantric perspective, in relation to love and the love ritual. It's about how their unique qualities enter into love-sex relationships. It's about the four universal-spiritual qualities of love, or ways of love, or kinds of love. It's about the four kinds of lovers within the love ritual. It's a study in the psychology of lovers. The theme of balance is also considered, the potential balance of all these goddess qualities in oneself, leading to a realized and actualized wholeness of being. And in this study, more of the tantra will be revealed – which is universally significant and usefully practical.

Part Two focuses on the spiritual sacredness of each other, in love and in love-making, and how to spiritually experience one another as manifestations and expressions of the Great Divine. In this are ideas and ways to greatly enhance and spiritualize the love experience for both lovers, woman and man. The man will begin to see his woman lover as the expression of one of the Love Goddesses, or even as the Goddess Herself. He will experience the woman as the Goddess loving him, and he will be worshiping and devoting himself to Her. Likewise, the woman will begin to see her man lover as the expression of the Divine Love God. She will be the Divine Attraction and he the Divine Force. He will be the Divine loving her, and she will be the Divine loving him. Then both will come back into Union as One.

Part Three focuses on the Great Goddess Shakti and her spiritual love relationship with the Great God Shiva. Tantric love, at its heights of realization, is the love play and enjoyment between Shiva and Shakti, and their eventual re-union as being really One Being. Here we find juicy love metaphors at its erotic depths. The goddesses, Kali and Maya, also come into this love play.

In summary, the intention of this book is to enlighten the reader with more depth about tantric ideas and goddess powers, and how all of this is relevant to spiritual love and relationship. Yet this will not be an easy-simple book to read. These teachings are not simply laid out, to be consumed without a required thinking and understanding. These are esoteric teachings of tantra, not meant to be popularized or dogmatized. The reader will be challenged to think about these ideas, to understand beneath the words and penetrate beneath the surface. Enjoy!

Preface especially for men

Man must first learn to respect woman – respecting her freedom, independence, individuality, and choice. Knowing how to respect must come before knowing how to love. So if men want to really love women, then men should first learn how to get out of the woman's way and give her the spiritual respect of dignity and freedom.

Yet throughout the world there is still a sexist misogyny from men in relation to women. This comes from men's selfish desire to control and manipulate women for his own male pleasure, to make a woman his servant, or to make her into his sex object. There is no respect in this and certainly no love. Not all men are this way, but some men need to wake up to the sound of respect and treat women with spiritual dignity.

The true man of tantra accepts the value of sexual pleasure and enjoys the sexiness of women; but he does not disrespect women. He does not degrade her or affront her. He does not use her or manipulate her into what he wants. He does not attack her or try to steal pleasure from her. He respects her freedom and her choice. He respects her spiritual beingness. And if he does not give this respect, then he is insulting The Great Goddess and also insulting his Mother.

Man must recognize each woman as spiritually sacred. And in tantra teachings, the man realizes each woman as a divine goddess expressing in the world, or even as an expression of the The Goddess Herself.

Four Love Goddesses

Introduction

In the teachings of tantra there is one Ultimate Goddess, Shakti, who manifests and expresses as different goddesses, which are her various ways of being and expression. All of these are divine expressions of the Great Goddess. They are different facets, expressions, or faces of the One Goddess. Thus, Shakti manifests through the world and expresses through people in many ways. One of these ways of Shakti's expression is through love relations and through sexual love. Shakti manifests through all love and all lovers, though She is most evident through woman.

In the mandala of Shakti, which is the wholeness of Her Being, She manifests and expresses through the love ritual in four primary ways, four ways of loving, or four kinds of lover. Four goddesses each manifest in one of these ways. These are the goddess powers of Parvati, Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati – each expressing one of the four powers, attitudes, ways and approaches of Shakti's love power. Each of these goddesses manifest a unique quality and power of Shakti, which can be found and also evoked through the lover and in the love ritual.

These four goddesses are not all commonly known as love goddesses. Yet because all goddesses are ways and expressions of Shakti, these four goddesses appear in love-sex relations and in the love ritual. Tantra includes all goddesses, from all traditions. These goddesses can be experienced as qualities, powers, or as archetypes of Love, or as spiritual potentials in a woman, or also potentially in a man. Also, each goddess is one side of the Goddess Mandala, and each balances one another.

Many goddesses within One Goddess

Goddess archetypal powers exist in the spiritual dimension of reality, which subjectively permeates this physical reality. They come from ultimate spiritual reality, which can be called the One Self, Beingness, Great Spirit, Great Goddess, or God. This could also be called Love. The Goddess powers are in the collective psyche of all women and are also potentials in men. Yet they will appear and manifest somewhat uniquely for each culture and even for each person.

Each goddess contains and expresses a unique power, with its unique kinds of qualities, approaches and attitudes in love relations. These are fundamental potentials in our own being. Yet although each goddess expresses in a unique way, they are not completely separate from one another. Each goddess has some similarities with other goddesses, and they can fuse, blend and integrate together in various creative ways.

As well, each goddess has within all of the other goddess powers, yet these remain latent until realized and expressed. This is because each of the goddesses are qualities of the One Supreme Goddess, from which all emerge. Thus, any of the goddesses can discover other goddess qualities in their own being, since the Whole Self, the Great Goddess, is inherently within her. All of the goddesses emerge from Shakti, and thus contain Her Essence and all of her potentials. Each is a unique and particular reflection of Shakti.

In the Royal Court, of the One, is a hierarchy of goddesses. This means that certain goddesses encompass and include many other goddesses within them, or as part of them. Thus, certain higher goddesses express an encompassing quality of being, or potential of being, which is then expressed in various aspects or types, through a plurality of lower goddesses.

The terms, higher and lower, is metaphysical. This is the principle of beings within greater beings and ultimately within the One. It's also the understanding that each goddess emerges from a greater goddess, a more primary Goddess Power. Each of the Greater Goddesses contain a plurality of reflective goddesses within Her. Thus, there are many goddesses, yet the goddess pantheon contains goddesses within greater Goddesses, and all of these are contained within the ultimate One Goddess.

For example, the Goddess of Arts emerges from the even greater Goddess of Creativity. Yet from the Goddess of Arts emerges a whole multitude of art goddess powers, each one a particular goddess with her particular art skill or talent, who is then the goddess of that particular craft.

Major Goddesses

Two of the great goddesses, as found in many cultures, are the Mother Goddess and the Love Goddess, female archetypes of the Mother and the Lover. And it is easy to understand that a woman can be, at times, a mother or a lover. In tantra, both of these are potential expressions of Shakti, and both revered.

The Mother Goddess is the mother of all life, which comes from the Divine creative power called Shakti, which is also the Life energy in all of nature, both creative and nurturing. The Mother Goddess, and all of her powers, is within all mothers.

The Love Goddess is also one of the great goddesses, and She too is a divine potential within all women. In her greater expression, She is the power of love, in its sexual or romantic meaning, which is expressed in love sexual attraction and in the love ritual. She brings beautiful feelings and passions of love. When a woman expresses and manifests this goddess, a man can sometimes see the great Love Goddess in her, and he is attracted to Her power of beauty. She is also known as the Goddess of Beauty.

The Love Goddess, or Goddess of Beauty, and all of Her many aspects or qualities, evoke passionate enchantment and attraction for Her. She has a special power of attractive beauty and attractive sexual energy. Each of the other goddesses are also beautiful in their own special way, and may also have a power