Composed around the year 1000, the Kularnava Tantra provides the most complete definition of the central approach for understanding the Kaula tradition as the Royal Road of Shakti, which abolishes the dichotomy between renunciation and enjoyment. It is also the vira path: the tantric hero way. The Kularnava Tantra says: “No doctrine, no path can

Civilization has brought us many marvelous things, but it has also cut us off from our ancient roots and from our connection to nature, to animals, and to the cosmos. The arrival of religions has added all sorts of regulations and rules, which have repressed our fundamental connections with the world. We have become frightened, conformist,

The severed head: The severed head symbolizes mental silence and being rooted in the Self.

After centuries of evolution of the teachings in Kashmir, they were given clear expression by Abhinavagupta (ca. 950–1020 CE), widely recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of South Asia. He was born in the Valley of Kashmir into a brahmin family of scholars and mystics. A musician, poet, dramatist, and theologian, he had a profound

Her fearsome aspect is there only to push her devotees to gain the courage needed to go beyond the limitations of the mind, beyond the limitations of the beautiful and the ugly, the pure and the impure, the worthy and the unworthy.

This is one of the constants in tantric thought: the solution to a problem lies in the problem. Moving outside it will not set things straight. On the contrary, you must have the courage to penetrate to the heart of the darkness and stop constructing an idealized being who has all the trouble in the world coexisting with deeply human reality.

The most difficult aspect of dating the composition of tantric scriptures (known as tantras), and what actually makes all dating of them impossible, is the existence of the oral tradition. A text that is considered to be the first appearance of a Tantra can in fact come from a source that antedates it by several centuries.

Kali sprang forth from pre-Vedic (before 1500 BCE) rural traditions that were wild and shamanic before migrating slowly into Indian tradition. She was perhaps the ancient goddess worshipped by the inhabitants of the Vindhya mountain range, which separates north from south in the center of India. According to Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon),

Kali’s four arms: Kali's arms represent the cycle of creation and destruction, the cosmic rhythm, the circular nature of life and death in continual movement. When she is not carrying the trident, Kali’s hand adopts the mudra that extinguishes fear and gives the courage to confront the real.