Gaian Tantra Vow

A mystical and mischievous welcome to friends and strangers alike, conspirators in the Sophianic Vision and budding adepts of planetary gnosis! Every day is unique in some way, and today (26 January 2009) is uniquely the day for the inception of Planetary Tantra. I feel immense gratitude for the privilege of releasing the sacred instruction of the Diamond Sky Dakinis, starting with the secret name that Gaia will answer to, and the vow of consecration required to pronounce that name aloud, which I received on October 10, 2008, 108 days ago. Almost simultaneously, came the other component of delivery: the 2nd Instruction, on the Tantric buddy system.

These instructions for the Gaian Tantra Vow are simple and easy to perform. For now, I provide no more than the minimal commentary required to explain how to put the threet components into practice.

There are many ways interact with Gaia: first and foremost, simply breathe. Likewise, walk in nature, dance under the stars, garden and learn about flowers and herbs, explore the seaside and ocean, investigate biology and geology, commune with other species. As perhaps the most intimate form of interactivity, Planetary Tantra is shamanic, sensorial, and sexual. This practice is like anuttarra yoga, the ultimate technique of spiritual union, but surpasses any traditional method, Eastern or Western, by a unique opportunity: to merge love and the supernatural. It invites the supreme magic of co-emergence, the union of desire and emptiness, in complicity with the earth in many ways that can be tested by direct experience. This is Gaian Tantra, what works for this instant, right now.

Over the coming months I will show how the Shakti Cluster is a full-scale "kit" for Gaian interactivity, providing the tools and guidelines that enable the dedicated person to become an adept, a siddha, in complicity with the lucid dream of Gaia. Generally, I do not care for the term "empowerment," but here I would venture to apply it, once and for all: in Gaian Tantra, each individual can be empowered on a twofold basis, through human love and supernatural beauty. Hence the 1st Instruction links intimately to, and complements, the 2nd.

So, this day, from the privilege of a natural-born mystic and terton, in the company of my Shakti, beneath the glorious winter sky over Long Island Sound, by the witness of two swans gliding in diamond light at Manor Park, I release for the beauty and sanity of the human heart the Terma of Gaia Awakening. The duration of this terma from October 2008 will be 208 years.

Explanation: In the Shakti Cluster, Dakini 18 is the named identity of Gaia in her lucid dream—the sole name she will answer to. The other seventeen components of the "console" represent powers and faculties to be acquired by interactivity with Gaia. Kalikas engage the Cluster by relating to the Shaktis according to their individual affinities, but all Kalikas engage the attention of Gaia by calling her unique name: Vajravilasi.

Pronounced VAHJ-rah-vee-LAH-see. Vajra means "diamond" or "lightning bolt." Vilasa means "delighting, flirtatious." Changed to Vilasi it becomes a feminine name; in Sanskrit, the names of consort dakinis end with i. The Shakta text Kamakalavilasa describes the delighting play of the Goddess as she morphs into the forms of the material world and dances rapturously through her sentient expressions, even flirting with the appearances she produces. (This imagery recalls the epithet "Whore of Wisdom," applied to Sophia in Gnostic myth. No licentiousness is implied, but the outrageous generosity of the beauty of the Divine Feminine is clearly suggested.) Vajravilasi is the Diamond Sky Dakini who assumes the form of a planet, and delights in her own beauty, inviting the myriad life-forms that arise on the planet to recognize and celebrate how beautiful they are.

Instruction: Call the name Vajravilasi aloud in a natural setting more or less removed from human intrusion. (Never pronounce this name in ordinary conversation -- just say "VV.") When calling out to Vajravilasi, let your eyes scan the landscape, taking in trees, rocks, clouds, and be mindful that you are looking directly at the presence you are naming. Let your eyes and your voice connect in a single intent: to engage the attention of Gaia. You do not call Gaia to your attention, you call Her attention to you by pronouncing her name.

We, ______________, selfless devotees of Kali Ma, self-initiated tantrikas of Kulachara, being of the ________ generation of the nine generations of Kali Yuga, born ____, here manifest our sacred intention.

We understand the Shakti Cluster to be the secret gathering of Dakinis, Mahavidyas, Female Buddhas, and Dangerous Protectors into the radiant womb of the single and supreme Wisdom Dakini Vajravilasi, who is co-emergent with the natural sensorium of this planet, Earth. She is the Sole Pristine Shakti of the Bhutas of Gaia, yet unchanged and unaffected in the six aspects of her divinity.

She, Vajravilasi, root guru of devotees of Kali Ma, wild mother of the tribes of Kulachara., we invoke by her single sacred name today as she has been invoked by many names of yore.

She who is Aniruddha, Prunikos, Outraqeous,
the Aeon Sophia of the illumined Gnostics,
Prithivi of the timeless Vedas,
Spandarmat of the Persian Sages,
Spider Woman, Changing Woman of the noble Red Races,
Sthevara who bestowed the enlightenment of Shakyamuni with the earth-touching mudra,
Asteroth of the World Tree,
Ishtar of the Stars in the limbs of the World Tree,
Arianrhod and Ariadne, weavers of the earthbound samsara,
Rhea who flows in all that is,
Bhudevi, moist luminous bhaga of the primordial race of Sidhe, Faery, Earthbound Dakini,
Kore and Demeter, ever-changing polarities of the Great Mother,
Gaia, green watery planet thriving with life,
gracious Dakini who delights to dance
in diamond light

— She, She alone, She supremely, is the grounding matrix of the Shri Yantrika Dakinis, the empty luminosity of co-emergent wisdom and bliss, the fountainhead of every moment of sensation, the continuum of animation of all sentient life and the animated mirror of insentient life, the source and expression and indwelling immanent divinity of this sacred, earth-consecrated Tantra, this embodied Truth. To Her we direct our vow.

By Sukrasiddhi, Mistress of Tantric Bliss,
in the presence of the Kalika Nirmanakayas of the nine generations of the Black Time of Innocence,
in the melting heart of ingenuous beauty,
in the galaxies dissolving in the eyes of all the earth's abandoned children ,
in the drift of our parallel world, Andromeda, where lost innocence dwells and invites our return until the end of the Great Kalpa,
in the reflection and embrace of that beauty innate to every sentient being,
every samsaric phantom,
every glance gone astray in the abandonment of addiction to the pain of not being seen,
in the crystalline effusion of the Dakini Elixirs,
tongue on knife,
instantaneous transmutation of all pain, loss, confusion, denial, withholding, fear, shame, antipathy,
and all the consequences in this mindless concatenation of fractured intensities,
in that releasement we take refuge in She alone who is safety for all sentient beings,
and graciously provides their liberation.

To Her we pronounce our vow.

Instruction: The Gaian Tantra Vow, or formula for Guyhasamaya ("Secret Gathering") Consecration, ought to be observed by two or more people in a sacred act of sharing and co-witnessing. Tantra is a buddy-system. (See also below, component 5.) Be sure to locate yourself in the nine generations of Kali Yuga—1945 - 1974 first generation, 1975 - 2004 second generation, etc. Fill in the blanks as appropriate: everyone writes the terms of their own vow. Be mindful that you are making this vow to the planet!!! You make the vow so that you will be able to sustain and actualize the first-hand interaction with Gaia that occurs when, in Her interval of time, She lets you know that She is aware that have engaged Her attention. This is how it works. You do not have to believe me or anyone. Do and and see for yourself!

Love is a siddhi, the force of discovery
co-arising with the illusion of separation.

A siddhi is a supernatural gift, a sparanomral ability for magic or occult power, such as telepathy or telekinesis. Normally, we assume that love between human beings must be a purely human affair, but in Planetary Tantra we recognize that it is a cosmic force of transhuman dimensions.

Invoking Gaia by her Dakini name and declaring the Gaian Tantra Vow, bring together a supreme act of love and a commitment to supernatural magic. The Dakinis teach that "love and the supernatural operate on the same frequencies." Their second Instruction contains a principle to be elucidated in the immediate future on this site: namely, love is a force of discovery that brings people together (who then come to love each other), and by this same force, Gaia brings us into intimate rapport with Herself and the Shakti Cluster.

Instruction: Pronounce the Vow with someone who may be a permanent partner, or not, or even with someone you have met recently. Even if you do not know that person for a long time, or deeply, be mindful that the Vow generates through love, and loves generates through the desire to love. So the mere desire to know someone, another human being, and take them as co-witness in the Vow, is an act of liberation based on immediate recognition of the Other.

This is why it is advised that two or more take the Vow together. Having done so, the rite of consecration to Vajravilasi becomes a transcendent bond, but never an obligation. Tantra is a buddy-system. You will always have the co-witness to recall with you the sacred moment of your consecration, together. Should you wish to live out the Vow with the co-witness, that is another choice, and a continuing commitment. But it is not required.

No one takes the Vow alone, as no single being or thing lives alone. At any moment, the simple recognition of another person is enough to dispel the illusion of separation. As William Blake said (roughly), no act is more sublime than to set another before you: to behold the Other. Taken together with a witness, the Vow frees those who take it from the sense of being alone before the awesome mystery of the earth, the Other who is Mother.

Be aware, also, that the supernatural magic you are invoking comes into your life from the body of the goddess Gaia, the planet on which you live, that supports your every move and gives you breath. Ultimately, your connection to this planet dissolves all pictures and projections of what might be or what has been, and frees you from the fictions of the mind into the realm of supernatural truth where you have Her Mind.

May the Wisdom Dakinis arrange you
May Gaia herself bestow you
to your unborn presence in her dream,
lucidly awake, in the merge of love
and the supernatural, pure and delighting,
samsara and enlightenment have the same look

May nothing endure but what love discovers
and may whatever you love truly set you free

May this terma liberate you
to be thus as you seem, just so

For there is no illusion in your truth
seeming or not, enlightened or not,

And that is such.
And that is such.
And that is such.