Cults of the Shadow – Kenneth Grant (Muller)

Description

Cults of the Shadow explores the Left Hand Path Tantric tradition placing it within the wider context of the worlds esoteric traditions. The first chapters of this work explore the true nature of the human psycho sexual anatomy with a detailed exposition of the kalas in terms of Ophidian cults of Africa. This examination of the Left Hand is continued with an examination of the dark cults of Khem (Egypt) and the modern expositions within the work of Master Therion (Crowley), the Qabbalah of Charles Stanford Jones, the enigmatic art of sigil sorcery of Austin Osman Spare, Michael Bertiaux (Cult of the Black Snake) and others. Grant offers a clear outline of the interaction between early ophidian cults, the Egyptian mysteries and Tantra and the continuum of one to the next and helps make clearer the complex writings of Gerald Massey (1828 – 1907), a highly significant but misunderstood author.

In this work Grant places Thelema within the greater context of the Left Hand Path and expounds a deep and profound form of sexual sorcery or Tantra. He offers a profound interpretation of the symbolism of the dark cults as they offer us a means to awaken kundalini or the fire serpent through working with an initiated priestess who through her activated kalas accesses levels of consciousness beyond the human sphere. Clearly this is not a path for the dabbler or undisciplined, this approach to the Left Hand Path is not based on the rather mundane approach of western diabolism but on its true origin in the cults of the female gnosis as found in India, Africa, Egypt and beyond.