Tantric Art and the Primal Scene

Tantric Art and the Primal SceneKali: The Feminine Force by Ajit MookerjeeReview by: Daniel BenvenisteThe San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Autumn 1990), pp. 39-55Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of The C.G. Jung Institute of San FranciscoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jung.1.1990.9.4.39 .Accessed: 26/11/2014 02:08

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Tantric Art and the Primal Scene

Ajit Mookerjee. /(ali: The Feminine Force. Rochester, VT, DestinyBooks (Inner Traditions International), 1988.

Reviewed by Daniel Benveniste

Tantra is a way oflife in which the Tantrika seeks transcendencenot in withdrawal from the world but in a fully embodied entranceinto it. The Tantric way of life reflects a view of the \\!odd that isshared by various sects amongst the Hindu, Buddhist and Jaintraditions. While some of these sects arc strictIy Tantric in character,Tantric influences on art, myth, ritual, science, and philosophyhave, over the last two or three nlillennia, become an inextricablepart of the cultural pattern of all traditions on the Indian sub-continent. Distinctive attributes of the Tantric way include I)worship of the goddess; 2) recognition of an inner cosnlic energy(the Kundalini) lying dornlant in the human organism which canbe awakened in the service of identifying oneself with the supremereality; and 3) a belief that transcendence comes not from separationand withdrawal but fronl the unification of the opposites. Tantricart is the visual representation of this magnificent tradition. This artis characterized by paintings and sculptures of deities, geometricforms, sexual practices, schematic depictions of the universe (cosmo-grams), scenes frolll ll1yths, and other representations of the spiritualpath. A common thenle ret1ected in Tantric art is the unification ofopposites, represented by the juxtaposition of the male and female,of sex and death, of peaceful and wrathful deities.

This ancient artistic tradition received little attention in thewestern \vorId until 1967, \vhen Ajit Mookerjee began publishing abeautiful series of illustrated books on this subject. His most recentbook is ](ali: The Feminine Force.

The Sail Fl1U1Cist:o lung Institute Library ]ounuu, Vol. 9, No.4, 1990 39


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Tantra and Tantric ArtMookerjee traces the Tantric tradition archaeologically back

to the Harappan Culture which flowered in the Indus Valley fivethousand years ago. The earliest codified Tantric texts are abouttwo thousand years old; a great many of the texts we have todaywere \vritten between the seventh and eleventh centuries A.D.

Tantra is not a one-day-a-week religion; it is a cultural patternand a way of life. It has its own art., science., ritual and philosophythat crosses the religious boundaries of the nl0re fornlalized tradi-tions of Hinduism, Jainisnl, and BuddhislTI. Tantric nleditationelTIploys mantras and yantras as instrunlents of spiritual transfor-mation. A mantra is a vocalized sound which, when chantedproperly, is designed to evoke certain altered states ofconsciousness.A yantra is a picture or diagram which is used as an object ofmeditation, also to evoke such altered states. These altered statesare then said to open the doors to transcendent experience, wisdom.,and great understanding.

Mookerjee says that the aim of Tantric practice is

... to become aware of one's own incredible potential, [and]to realize and experience joy in being one with the cosmos ...There is no place for renunciation or denial in tantra. Instead,we must involve ourselves in all the life processes whichsurround us. The spiritual is not something that descendsfrom above, rather it is an illumination that is to be discoveredwithin. (Tantra Asana. New York, George \\Tittenborn, 1971,pp.15-16)

This illumination unfolds within both the mental processes and thephysicality of the body.

In the Tantric tradition, the body is thought to correspondquite directly to the structure and functioning of the universe. "Thecomplete dranla of the universe is repeated here, in this very body.The whole body with its biological and psychological processesbeC0l11eS an instlunlent through which the cosmic power revealsitself According to Tantric principles, all that exists in the universemust also exist in the individual body." (Mookerjee. J(undalini.London., Thames & Hudson, 1982, p. 9) A common image inTantric Jainis111 is a cosmogram depicting the universe in the fornlof Purusha., the Primal Man. The correspondence between thepersonal and cosmic bodies is further extended in the Tantric tra-dition by the idea that the personal body is the ulti~llate yantra,or tool, through which one nlay seek the tnlth.

This search for "'tnah" involves the awakening of an inner

40 Daniel lkn\'l:nist

psychic energy lying dornlant at the base ofthe spine. The energy iscalled the Kundalini and is represented as a sleeping snake coiledaround a phallus (Lingam)~ with the snake's Inouth open over thetop of the phallus. The ailn ofTantric meditation is to awaken thisKundalini and allow Her to move up through the body along thepathway of the seven chakras~ or energy centers; so that She~ asPower Consciousness, may re-unite with the Cosmic Consciousnessthat is Shiva, the ultimate lord of creation~ preservation, anddestrrtction. Unlike other spiritual traditions the Tantric path doesnot reject the body as profane but regards it as the vehicle oftranscendence.

Rather than subduc, tantra teaches us to realizc and harnessthe potcntial of the senses. Sexual instinct, an all pervadingurge, is the physical basis of creation and of mankind's evolu-tion. Sex is the cosmic union of opposites from which every-thing and every being arises. Its importance demands itsfulfillment. (Tantra Asana, pp. 35-36)

The recognition of sex as a cosmic union of the opposites isrevealed not only in the Tantrika's more open (though definitelynot casual) attitude toward sex but also in the frequently graphicdepictions of copulating lovers in Tantric art. This therne of theunion of the opposites is one that pervades the Tantric literature.There are numerous references to male and fenlale, death and birth,creation and destruction~ lingam (penis) and yani (vulva), pleasureand suffering, and self and other, all transcended in the union ofthese opposites. To fully cOlnprehend the mysteries of creation anddestrrtction and the transience of hurnan existence, meditation andritual sex practices (sexual asanas) are conducted by the Tantrikas inthe dead of night in the crenlation grounds~ amidst the rottingbones and t1esh of the recently cremated.

Phillip Rawson cites a passage from the Karpuradistotram thatamplifies this theme.

o Goddess Kali, he who on a Tuesday midnight having utteredyour mantra, makes an offering to you in the crcmation groundjust once ofa [pubic] hair trom his temale partner [sakti] pulledout by the root, wet with semen poured from his penis intoher menstmating vagina, becomes a great poet, a Lord of thl'vVorld, and [like a raja] always travels on elephant-hack. (TheArt of Tantra. New York, Oxt()rd Univcrsity Press, 1978, p.31 )

Throughout the Tantric literature there is a play between thethemes of one-ness and two-ness, unity and duality. It is from

Ajit Mookcr}cc, KaJi: The Ft'1llillille Foret' 41



one-ness that \ve are born into this divided \vorld~ and it is toone-ness that we seck to return. ~1ookerjee quotes the Devibha-gavata all this topic.

The one without a secoml perennial Brahman becomes dualat the time of aeation. As a single 1Jmp becomes dual by thediftcrcnce of Upad hi (condition), as a single face becomes dualin the fi)l"]ll oL1I1 image in the mirror, as a single body appearsdual with its shadow, even so our images arc many owing tothe ditlcrence of minds (which arc madc up of ~1aya)... Atthe time of tinal dissolution I am neither male nor female ornCllter. (Trmtm A rt. Basil. Switzerland, Ravi Kumar, 1983, p.103)

And again:

Divided into two parts, I cre~ltc. (Tantra Asal1a, p. 75)

The one-ness referred to is neither this nor that, aught nor naught,death nor imnlortality, day nor night. Oneness is the transcendenceof the opposites. Oneness is nothing, that is~ no-thing. The world issaid to have cmcrged when this nothing was heated and the first'\.ksire'l"l arose. lInages ofone-ness are typically depicted in the t()flTIof geometric diagrams such as concentric circles representing theuniverse; descending triangles representing the temale's lite-givinggenital triangle; a six pointed star representing the dialecticalconvergence of the descending-tcminine-t]iangle and the ascending-masculine-triangle. Other pictorial inlages demonstrate the lila ordivine play between the opposites conceived either as rivals inbattle or lovers in erotic embrace.

](ali: The Feminine Force is 112 pages long and includes 104illustrations, eighteen of which are extremely good color reproduc-tions. The eight chapters of the book are entitled "Sakti-worship,"~~Fe]ninine Divinity," "Fen1inine Force," "Manifestations of Kali,""Divine Mother,~' "Supreme Reality," "Kalighat Paintings," and"Hymns to Kali."

In the first chapter Mooke~ee presents a history of the femaledeities of India. He begins with the clay mother goddess figurinesof the Harappan culture c.2500 B.C. and moves quickly throughtheir development to the more moden1 conceptions and depictionsof Sakti. Sakti (or Shakti) is the personification of the teminineprinciple. She is associated with the teo1inine energy and" ... thepriolal creative p]inciplc underlying the cosmos." (I(ali, p. II) She isdepicted in lnany f(xms and has ]11any names, but they are all Sakti.The universe is both a l11anifestation of Sakti herself and of what is

42 D.lnicl Benveniste rcvil:\vs



contained within Sakti's womb. Sakti is the source of life-thecreator, the protector, and the all-consunling one. She is worshippedin the stones, the water, and the soil itself This goddess has notabandoned her worshippers and retreated to a distant heavenlyrealm. She is omnipresent.

Mookerjec's description of the nlultifaceted Indian goddess,Sakti, brings to mind Erich Neunlann's The Great Mother (Princeton,N], Princeton University Press, 1955, 1963) in which terrible,maddening, and death dealing aspects of "the nlother archetype"are laid side by side \vith birthgiving, inspiring, and nurturing aspects.

The second chapter is about the relationship of the personalbody to the cosmos. In this chapter Mookeliee develops the Tantricnotion that the spiritual life and transcendence are to be soughthere in the n1idst of the earthly world, not in a retreat from it.Mookerjee says, "Since, according to tantra, the body is the linkbet\veen the terrestrial world and the cosmos, the body is, as itwere, the theatre in which the psycho-cosmic dranla is enacted."(Kali, p. 35)

In this chapter are some an1azing pictures and descriptions ofyoni (vulva) worship. In one stone carving two worshipers are seenbowing their heads before a great disembodied vulva. In anotherstone sculpture a devotee is depicted drinking the yoni tattva, or"sublime essence," from the moist vulva ofa giant woman. There isalso a description of a pilgrimage site where a natural cleft in therock is always kept moist by a natural spring running through it.This site is worshipped as the yoni (vulva) of Sati (another manifes-tation of Sakti). Fronl July to August, after the monsoons, the\vater fron1 the natural spring nlns red with iron oxide, and a greatcelebration is held. At the celebration, the reddened water is takenas a ritual drink symbolic of Sati's menstrual blood. The shrine ofSati's yoni is in honor of only one of the fifty-one pieces of herdismenlbered body said to have been spread out at various sitesacross the landscape. A pilgrimage from one site to another is seenas worship of the entire body of the goddess in the landscape.While this pilgrimage can be made on a large scale trek across thelandscape of the goddess's body, it can also be made, just as flilly, ona slnaller and more personal scale. For, as the PurascharanollasaTantra says, "All the pilgriluage-centers exist in \\TOnlan's body."(Kali) p. 25) In the Tantric tradition godhood is worshipped inboth the personal and cosmic bodies. Mookerjee also tells us that,"When a high-priest and poet of fifteenth century Bengal, Chan-didas, fell in love with a washer-maid, Rami, against society'S

Ajit Mookcrjcc, Kali: The Fmziniue Force 43



strong opposition, he approached his temple deity the goddess,Bashuli, who told him, 'No deity can after you what this womanis able to give you.'" (Kali" pp. 25-26) Thus, the goddess, a nar-cissistic vision of the perfect cosInic woman, steps aside to n1akeroom t()r her devotee to form a relationship with a real woman.

Thc' third chapter is a detailed account of the mythologicalbattles of Sakti in her forms as Durga, Parvati, and Kali. Twopredominant then1es en1erge from these accounts of the goddess'sstrength: the strength of her grace and beauty and thc strength ofher death dealing all-consuming \vrath.

The fourth chapter offers a briefdescription of the n1any formsof Kali, such as the Black Kali, the Virgin-creator Kali, and theDasa-Mahavidyas (ten Great Wisdoms), each ofwhich has a differentform and function. There is also a discussion of the historicalcmergence of Kali in the Indian pantheon. The first known referenceto Kali is in a text entitled the Devi-Mahatmya c.400 A.D. ThereKali is said to have been born out of the forehead of Durga, aferocious goddess in the midst of a battle against the anti-divineforces. When Kali was born, she too emerged ready to fight, armedwith a sword and noose.

Kali's head birth recalls the Tantric vision of the Kundaliniemerging from the top knot; the Chinese belief that the spirit-bodyseparatcs from the physical body at the crown of the skull; theEgyptian belief that the soul leaves the body out the top of thehead; and the Greek myth of Athene's birth from a cleft in Zeus'shead. (Athene, too, emerged fully armed, letting loose a mightybattle-shout. )

In the next chapter, on the Divine Mother, thcre are numerousreferences to the tripartite character of Kali, the mother goddesswho creates, nurtures, and destroys. This chapter begins with apassage from a poem by Ramakrishna's disciple, Vivekananda:

\\'ho dares misery loveAnd hug the torm of deathDance in destruction'5 danceTo him the Mother comes. ([(ali, p. 71)

While some may find Tantric art and poetry morbid, otherswill find wisdom in the assertions concen1ing the dialectic ofcreationand destnlCtion which in the terminology of thc depth psychologiespertains to construction and deconstruction, synthesis and analysis.

There are sevcral particularly macabre paintings reproduced inthis chapter. One, of special interest to me, is a picture of the

44 ))anid Iknn:nistl: rC"il:\\,s



cosmic couple-Shiva and Devi-copulating in the midst of afunerary ground. In the background are two blazing funerary pyres.In the foreground are three wild dogs, two of them chewing onsevered human heads. Three other heads are scattered about on theground anlidst a field of beautiful flowering plants. In the center,the god Shiva is seen naked, lying on his back, with his eyes closed.Squatting on top of hinl, with his erect penis entering her, is thegoddess, Devi, wearing only her jewels. In her right hand shecarries her own head, which she has freshly severed frolll her neckin an act of surrender. As blood drips fronl her neck she smilessweetly. In her left hand she carries a sword and a skull cap cup. Theblood spurts upward like a fountain from her decapitated body. Shegathers this blood in her cup. Though her head has just beenremoved, the eyes are open and her body is pink signifYing hercontinuing vitality. Shiva, on the other hand, is ashen \vhite signif)tingthat he is "the dead god"-the god of death. Coiled around hisright arm are two snakes with their heads hanging down; aroundhis left arm, two snakes with their heads raised up. Coiled aroundhis neck and top knot are two additional snakes, one with its headdown and the other with its head up. As a Tantrika, Shiva maintainshis sexual asana (position for nleditation) without releasing theejaculate. Instead he uses the sexual energy to awaken the Kundaliniand then directs the Kundalini up through the seven chakras. Hereleases it through the topmost seventh chakra (the Sahasrara chakra)which is sonletimes rderred to as the "Mouth of God." In thispicture we see emerging fronl Shiva's topknot (the location of thischakra) a tiny head \-vhose nl011th spe\\lS fc)rth the river Ganges-theRivcr of Life. In this fashion the Kundalini participates in thccreation of a lifc that is Inind-born. This parallels the birth of apsychological life through the sublimation of the aroused libido.

Likc nlany of the European alchemical woodcuts, this paintingis a collage ofopposites. It depicts sex and aggression, the male andthe female, death and life, genital sex and sublimation, eyes openand eyes closed, snake heads up and snake heads down. This Tantricvision of thc opposites pertains to the Tantric path to transcendencethrough affirmation and inclusion rather than through negationand separation. God-hood is here, not elsewhere, is both male andfemale, and is both creative and destrrlCtive. To elaborate the ideathat creation and destruction may be contained in a single imageMookc.rjee recounts Ramakrishna's vision of the Divine Mother."He sa\\' an exquisitely beautiful woman, heavy with child~ emergefrom the G~mges, give birth and tenderly nurse her infant. A nl0mcnt

Ajit Mookcrjcc, Kn/i: Tbt' ri:milli,u' Fmn 45



later, she had assumed a terrible aspect, and seizing the child in herjaws, cnlshed it. Devouring her offSpring she re-entered the water."[

separate while the female genitalia contain. Thus, while the inlageof the vagina signifies containnlent, holding together, and synthesis,the penis signifies penetration, separation, discrimination, anddifferentiation. The sexual organs are fundamental because they arethe site of powerfill sensory input as well as being the basic discrim-inating difference, upon which socialization is oriented. \Ve all areassigned to one gender group or the other at birth, and we begin torealize the consequences of this assignment once the oedipal phaseis complete. But in wrestling with the vicissitudes of enculturationvia the metaphor of bodily experience, gender and generationaldifferences slip back and forth between fusion and differentiation.This confusion of gender identity gives rise to all the familiar andpuzzling fantasies of analytic work: the penis-bearing \\,on1an, thehermaphrodite, the pregnant male, castration, and the rcst.

Tantric literature addresses the slipping and sliding of "the\\Torld" bet\veen unity (flIsion) and duality (differentiation)') andTantric art is loaded with depictions ofhermaphroditic gods as \vellas sharply defined tnale and female gods. The mythology is alsorich in overt castration then1es, incest scenes, and other drama-tizations of psychosexual reality.

Kali's phallic character is often depicted as a sword wieldinggoddess standing on the body of Shiva who is lying on his backwith his erect penis pointing upward toward the goddess. ([(ali, pp.63, 70, 74-76) Her phallic nature is also reflected in the depictionof her long protruding tongue ([(ali, p. 62), a phallic baby emergingfrom her vagina (Kali, p. 44), a skirt ofsevered hunlan arms danglingfrom her waist ([(ali, p. 60, 82') 90, 95, 105), and even by thegraphic depiction of a penis in place of a vulva ([(ali, p. 28) In onerepresentation ([(ali, p. 28), the god/goddess is depicted \vith onefull woman's breast, one nlaIe breast, an erect penis, and only onetesticle. Syntheses such as these seem to consciously suggest equi-libriun1, or the balance of nlale and female while conveying anuneasy sense of mutilation. (Again, this mutilation reminds us ofhow the Tantric tradition tends to juxtapose not only the oppositesof male and fenlale but also those of creation and destntction.)

In the next chapter Mooke~ee introduces us to the work ofthe Bengali folk artists. He highlights that part of their \\fork whichridicules the foolish nature of men and attests to the assertivenessand strength of women. Mooke~ee uses this chapter to give us asense of the relationship between the cultural view of the cosmicfeminine and the more political view of \\,'omen. It is also a way forthe author to tip his hat to the culture he was born and raised in.

Ajit Mookerjee, KaJi: The Femi1Jine Force 47



(His first book \-vas The Folk Art ofBengal published in 1939.)"Hymns to Kali," which comes next, is a collection ofsongs to

the goddess. In introducing this chapter Mookerjee says:

The vast Sakta literature contains many poems to illustrate thegoddess's 'world play' (lila), the realization of which dispels allfear. For the i\1other is only terrible to those who are living inthe illusion of separateness; who have not realized their unitywith her, and ktlO\Vn that all of her forms are f()r enlightenment.(Kali, p. 97)

I regard this lila, the goddess's world play, as a cosmic metaphorfor the construction and deconstruction ofall psychic representationswhether they be dream images, complexes, symptonls, the ego, thesense of self or even a \vorld-view. Thus, enlightel11l1ent, or at leastunderstanding, is the boon of recognizing the wholly constnlCtednature of reality and the hegemony, or power dynamics, of thatconstruction. Analysis (which literally means "loosening"), is asystenlatic nlethod of deconstruction \vith the intention of maxi-mizing our understanding of this lila.

Ajit Mookcrjee is not a psychologist. He is an Indian arthistorian. Yet the subject matter of his work, as well as his view ofthis work give the depth psychologist and psychotherapist 111uch toconsider. In Kali: The Feminine Force Mookerjee presents us with arichly illustrated discussion of the female deities in Tantric art. Inparticular, the theme of lila- the world play ofcreation and destruc-tion so central to the Tantric tradition - has n1any far reachingimplications for the depth psychologist.

Psychological Commentary

Tantric art is rich in primal scene components, and its conceptof Kundalini is conlparable to that of the Libido. In The Psycho-pathology of Everyday Life, Freud said, "I believe that a large part ofthe mythological view of the world, which extends a long way intothe most nlodern religions, is nothing but psychology projectedinto the external world." (London, The Hogarth Press, 1901, p.258) In this formulation Freud helps us to see the very humanroots of myth-making.

In myths ofworld creation, the world typically begins in chaosand by various methods and transfonnations subsequently achievescosmos (order). There are many ways ofaffecting this transformation,but it is often by way ofa simple separation of the primordial chaosinto a duality. This duality is thcn subject to further ditlerentiations

48 Daniel Ikllvcnistl: rcvicws



which ultimately reach a transformative threshold, beyond which anew order is established. While unity is death and the closure ofpsychological space, duality gives rise to desire. This, of course,brings to mind the preceding discussion of unity and duality in theTantric vision of creation. ("Divided into two parts, I create."Devibhagavata, Tantra Asana" p. 75) Cosmogonic myth-making isa projection of a personal organizing principle onto the externalworld. This cosmogonic tendency is one that can be seen in creativeworks, autobiographies, the anamneses of patients in psychotherapy,and in Tantric art.

Erich Neumann says, "The fact that the dawn ofconsciousnessand the creation ofthe world are parallel processes which throw upthe same symbolism indicates that the world actually 'exists' only tothe degree that it is cognized by an ego." (The Origins and History ofConsciousness. Princeton, N], Princeton University Press, 1949, 1954,p. 329) Nunberg's "synthetic function of the ego" appears to be thecognitive organizer of this "cosmogonic tendency." And the shapeofsuch constructions appears to be conditioned by the uniquenessof a primal scene fantasy residing at its core.

The primal scene is Freud's term for the child's observation ofthe parents engaging in sexual intercourse. Since the primal scenefantasy refers to the child's experience of that event, such fantasiesneed not be grounded in an actual visual encounter with the parentsliterally having sex. Primal scene fantasies may emerge in responseto noises in the night, or simply a closed door. They are f.:1ntasiFs ofwhat lies beyond the prohibition! i

To assert that primal scene tantasy resides at the core of thehuman being's cosmogonic tendency and therefore at the core ofworld creation myths is to acknowledge I) that nlyths are thecreative work of individual people withIn a culture; 2) that mythscontain what psychoanalysts call "derivative" material; 3) that theego is first a body-ego; 4) that through the symbolic function thechild's organization of the world is constellated around variousmaturationally determined zones and functions ofthe body; 5) thatcuriosity in the prinlal scene and the construction of the primalscene fantasy is the child's attempt to come to terms with sexualdifference, with generational difference, with sexual and aggressiveimpulses, with the origins of life, and with the family order; and 6)that these issues are paralleled in creation nlyths which pertain notto sexual difference but to the separation of the cosmic opposites,not to generational difference but to the difference between thegods and the mortals, not to the sexual and aggressive impulses but

Ajit Mookerjee, KaJi: The Femi1line Forr:e 49



to ethical order and right social relations, not to the origins of lifebut to the origins of the universe, and not to the family order butto the stnlCture of the world. The cosmogonic myth, to a certainextent, is a primal scene fantasy projected into the cosmos andreworked by generation after generation of visionJries and culture

reformers.When a culture's spirit is given artistic expression in pictorial

or mythologic form, the primal scene fantasy residing at the core ofthe creative work usually lies blanketed as Freud recognized, underlayer upon layer of secondary process. In some traditions, however,this blanketing appears to be only a thin veil. In these traditions thesexuality of the cosmic parents is of conscious concern to bothadepts and devotees. The Tantric way is one such tradition.

Primal scene components can, of course, be detected in allmanner of human expression. For example, it abounds in the generalmythology of the Hindu tradition, where, as in Tantric art, it isthinly disguised. The Tantric texts contain vivid descriptions and/ordepictions of the gods and goddesses making love, of phallic women,of castrations, of the vagina dentata, of incest, of fused sex andviolence, and of a host of other themes all reminiscent of imageryassociated with personal strrlggles to C0I11e to terms with oedipaland preoedipal dynarnics.

The Linga and Yoni

]anine Chasseguet-Smirgel (C1-eatilJity and Pave1'Jw11. New York,W. W. Norton, 1984) brings into high relief the notion that theoedipal child is absorbed in the struggle to come to terms withsexual and generational differences. \Vorld mythology and othercreative works reveal these same themes but usually do so in a widevariety of veiled or disguised forms. Unlike these, the Tantrictradition has a tendency to leave the struggles ,"vith sexual andgenerational difference cast in the forn1S of their original sexual andfamilial contexts. For exampJe~ Kali is frequently described as havinga phallic character. On page 28, ~1ookerjec reproduces a pichlre ofa stone statue of Kamakalavilasa who is seen standing on her kneesand with her hands above her head supporting the head of Nandi,Siva's bull, who is symbolic of Siva's great phallic power. Kamaka-lavilasa is depicted naked with full breasts and a large crect penis. InlWode11l Art in India (Calcutta, Oxford Book and Stationery Co.,1956), also by Ajit Mookerjee, plate 58 is of a scroll painting in\vhich we see a naked evil spirit who has the breasts ofa \voman anda pellls.

50 Daniel Benveniste rc\icws



The yoni, or female sex organ, is worshipped in the Tantrictradition for its creative power. It is commonly represented as atriangular or teardrop shaped bowl. Mookerjee explains that whenthe yoni is pointing upward, that is, when it faces the sacrificial altarit becomes "Urdhvayoni," the erect yoni. A common Tantricrepresentation of the cosmic opposites in union is that of the lingaand yoni which is a stylized representation of the penis and vulvawherein a phallic object stands erect in the middle of a teardropshaped bowl. Mookerjee quotes his professor, Stella Kramrisch, assaying "The linga in the yoni emerges from the yoni." Kali, p. 47)He then goes on to say,

This fundamental relationship of linga and yoni has beenobscured by patriarchal interpretation, yet the emphasis ontinga-worship could not suppress the widespread rituals sur-rounding the ever-creative yoni. For the goddess is the matrixof all that exists: whatever is, in the world of things, fromBrahman (the Ultimate Reality) to a blade of grass, owes herits origin and is dependent upon her. (Kali) p. 47)

The linga emerging from the yoni has been the subject ofconsiderable depth psychological speculation, particularly by Indiananalysts. T. C. Sinha notes, in his 1949 paper "Some Psycho-analyticalObservations on the Siva Linga" that "the idol obviously representsa vagina (Gouripatta) and a penis (linga) during coitus." (Sanlkisa,vol. 3, no. 1, p. 38) He recognizes that some have suggested that itrepresents the infant's view of coitus from within the womb; andthat G. Bose even said it was derived from the fantasy of the child'sdesire to have intercourse with the mother from within the womb.He says that Flcurnoy, in his paper entitled "Siva Androgyny"attributes the conception of the linga and yoni to the bisexualnature of the human being. Sinha goes on to present case materialof a male patient who had the fantasy of possessing a penis withinhis anus with which he could satisfy his own homosexual desires.This man reportedly enjoyed looking in the mirror and watchinghimself push his tongue out through his lips. H. Whitman Newellstates that the image ofthe lioga and yoni, " ... synlbolizes castrationof both sexes in the act ofCOiUIS." ("An Interpretation of the HinduWorship of Siva Linga," Bulletin of the Philadelphia Association forPsychoanalysis, vol. 4, no. 4, 1955, p. 86)

Having briefly reviewed these previous interpretations I nowoffer my own interpretation that the linga and yoni represents thefantasy of the fenlale phallus.

In The Origins and History of Consciousness) Erich Neumann

Ajit Mookerjee, Kidi: The Feminine Force 51



describes the emergence from the uroboric or undifferentiated stateof primary narcissism by saying that "When the phallic character ofthe breast emerges, or the Mother is seen as the phallus bearer, it isa sign that the infantile subject is beginning to differentiate himself.Active and passive strivings gradually become distinct; the oppositesmake their appearance." (Origins, pp. 32-33) In an excellent reviewof the literature on the psychoanalytic notion of the "phallic mother,"Nancy Mann Kulisch describes this fantasy as having been attributedto 1) the boy's attempt to ward off the threat of castration, 2)evidence that the mother is all powerful, 3) an attempt to avoid therecognition of the existence of the vagina, 4) an attempt to avoidthe realization of the father's role in sexual intercourse, 5) an attemptto avoid the feelings of inadequacy evoked by the adult vagina, and6) the drive to become both sexes. ("Gender and Transference,"International Review of Psychoanalysis, vol. 13, 1986, pp. 394-395)

Thus, it appears to me that in the vision of the maternal orfemale phallus, the penis is to the vagina as consciousness is tounconsciousness, as social power is to helplessness. This should notbe misconstrued to suggest that women are unconscious or helpless.Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not speaking ofmenand women. I am speaking of the masculine and the feminine. Itake as a basic assumption that the psyche is bisexual, that con-sciousness is to unconsciousness as figure is to ground, and thatfigure and ground are often symbolically represented as penis andvagina. The phallus as consciousness or social power is that whichemerges from the cosmic womb, and repudiates elenlents back intounconsciousness to defend against the feelings of helplessness. Thelinga and yoni, like consciousness itself, is a defensive construction.The fantasy of the maternal phallus reassures us that there is novagina, no castration, no difference between the sexes, and that thedesire to beconle both sexes is possible. It gives us comfort andsupports the notions that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,that one can pull a rabbit out ofa hat, that there is a treasure in thedragon's lair, and that there is a god in heaven.

To see the vagina for what it is, is to see what it isn't. Thevagina is the vessel enclosing an enlpty space but perhaps n10reimportantly the vagina is the empty space itself. The vision of theempty space may elicit a dread akin to gazing into the abyss ofnaught. It is a tunnel with no light at its end, a hat with no rabbit,a dragon's lair with no treasure, a black heaven with no god-itis, a relinquishing of the centric notion of god for the acentric andTantric notion of Mahabindu, the metacosmic void. It is here that

52 Daniel Benveniste reviews



we experience the terror and the miraculousness of our existence,and the recognition that we are born from out of the void andwill one day return to the void. We are each contained within abubble of mortality, inflated with illusions, floating throughnaught, and destined to eventually collapse silently back intonothing. And yet, miraculously, during the course of our lives, weeach enter into two-ness with the universe, become conscious,relate to others, and take our place in culture.

The Human Roots of Myth-Making

Sudhir Kakar, in his paper "The Person in Tantra and Psycho-analysis," says,

Tantra claims that a person can become 'whole' (and in theextended mystical sense 'liberated') only \\then he annuls sexualdifferentiation and dissolves his gender identity into a certainkind of bisexuality. The realization of both masculinity andfemininity within the tantrik's own body, the experience of aconstant, doubled joy of 'two-in-one,' the rec'reation of aprimordial androgyny, looms large as the goal of a bulk oftantrik practices. (Samsika, vol. 35, no. 4, 1981, pp. 88-89)

Further in the article he notes a fourth century Buddhist text assaying "the adept who has sexual intercourse with his mother, hissister, and his daughter, goes toward highest perfection, which isthe essence of Mahayana." ("The Person in Tantra," p. 92) TheTantrika's attempt to annul sexual differentiation and obliterategenerational difference is neither a Perverted acting out or a psychoticclosure of symbolic space but rather a cultivated meditation onbeing and non-being within a higWy structured cultural context.To annul sexual and generational difference would be to destroyconsciousness, culture, and the cultural pattern of Tantra itself butthis is, of course, not its intent at all.

The goal of Tantra is spiritual liberation, not anarchy. Whilespiritual liberation ultimately implies a dissolution of the personalpsychic structure and death, the path to this liberation is not oneendless Bacchanalia. The path is a well studied exercise aimed atawakening one's own potential, participating in the miracle ofone'sown life, and realizing one's own god-hood. Mookerjee says, "Thespiritual is not something that descends from above, rather it is anillumination that is to be discovered within." (Tantra Asana, p. 16)Thus, the annulling of difference described in myth and art is notintended as a code for daily living, but rather as a metaphor of atruth for the aspirant to meditate on or, on occasion, to perform

Ajit Mookerjee, KaJi: The Femitline Force 53



within the linlits of a ritual enactment.The overt primal scene components in Hindu mythology and

the art ofTantra have the effect ofgiving us a strong, personal, andaftectively laden basis upon which to relate to the gods. They havethe effect of blurring the distinction bet\vecn the mortals and theinlnlO1"tals. vVhen we see the mortal nature of the gods, it seems toallow us to inlagine our own immortal naUlre or at least a parentalnature, which, from the perspective of the child.. is omnipotent andgod-like. The use of hodily imagery and primal scene componentsalso gives us clues as to the very human roots of myth-Inaking.They remind us that the ego is first a body-ego and that allsubsequent symbolic stnlCtures and representations of the \\/orldare cut frOITI the cloth of bodily experience and projected into the\vorld.

When we finally abandon the mystical notion of a cosmicreservoir of mythic synlbols existing somewhere olltside ourselves,or the biological notion that we somchow inherit mental represen-tations, we are ready to recognize that the recurring nature ofvarious images and thenles in myth.. ritual, art, and personal dreanlsis due to the very human process ofsymbolization and our tendencyto create sYI11bolic representations OLlt of our tinlclcss interests inthe body, birth, sex, and death. Jung called the repository ofpropensities to organize the world in ternlS of recurring images andthemes, "the collective unconscious." Freud called it the "collectivemind." Coming fronl the Jungian tradition, Joseph Henderson hasproposed a "cultural unconscious" intermediate to the collectiveand personal unconscious. ("The Archetype of Culture," in TheArchetype, Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress for Ana-lytical Psychology. BasellNew York, S. Karger, 1964, pp. 7-9) Thecultural unconscious pertains to the reservoir of shared cululralexperience, I110ral principles, social custonl, religious synlbolism,and so on, which nlay influence the symbolic stnlCtures ofall thosewithin the culture but will tend to be restricted to those within theculture's sphere of influence. Thus, sYlnbolic representations fromthis strata are neither purely ofa personal nature nor are they sharedwith all of humanity. Among the Freudians, Jacques Lacan hasproposed a "sYI11bolic order" which in S0I11e ways corresponds toHenderson's "cululralunconscious." The synlbolic order is the socialand cultural stnlCture into which one is born. It is a cululre's set ofrules.. its openings and linlitations as encoded in its linguisticstructure. (Ecrits: A Selection. New York, W. W. Norton, 1977)Lacan's concept of the "symbolic order" and Henderson's concept

54 Oaniel Benveniste reviews



of a "cultural unconscious," though not identical, go a long wayin helping us to further understand the recurring images andthemes shared by cultural ITI}'ths and personal dreanls.

Understanding the relationship between myths and dreanlsenables us to recognize myths and sacred art not as incontestable,god-given, ancient bits of wisdom but rather as creative produc-tions fashioned in the minds of mortals and laced with derivativematerial. This recognition neither strips them of their charm norof their evocative power. It doesn't reduce them to formula orexplain them away. The wisdom they convey is undeniable, yetwith the recognition of the human roots of myth-nlaking we areable to find new meaning in ancient myths, bringing them to lifein new ways in the minds of modem readers.

In Tantric art, myth, and ritual the process of symbolizationfronl personal body experience to cosmic vision is so direct thatthe profane is seemingly impregnated by the sacred. Thus, one'sspiritual nature is not delivered from above but rather takes theform of an awakening or an illumination fronl within. The resultis a world-view in which the so-called miracles of transformationor supernatural events pale next to the true miracles of existence,self awareness, human relatedness, and the ability to contemplateour own death.

This paper is dedicated to my dear.friend, Ajit Moolmjee, who diedon April 9th, 1990, at his home in New Delhi. -D.B.

Ajit Mookerjee, Kid'-: The Feminine Furre 55



Documents

Tantric Art and the Primal Scene