Modern Tantra: Living One of the World's Oldest, Continuously Practiced Forms of Pagan Spirituality in the New Millennium

By Donald Michael Kraig

Modern Tantra shows how to practice the ancient Pagan spiritual system of Tantra for greater freedom, health, and happiness. Correcting the many misconceptions that surround Tantra, author Donald Michael Kraig shows that its wisdom can be experienced today, helping you access your natural energy for healing and spiritual advancement. Encouraging growth, experimentation, and personal evolution through exercises and meditations, Modern Tantra is a new look at a time-honored spiritual path.

With a non-dogmatic approach, this book shows you how to work with Tantric:

• Chakras
• Mythology
• Herbalism
• Healing
• Astrology
• Divination
• Mudras and mantras
• Sexuality
• Ritual magick
• Festivals
• Spells
• The three gunas and three doshas
• Goddesses and gods
• Sacred images
• And much more

• Language: English
• Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
• Release date: Dec 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9780738746425

Donald Michael Kraig

Donald Michael Kraig graduated from UCLA with a degree in philosophy. He also studied public speaking and music (traditional and experimental) on the university level. After a decade of personal study and practice, he began ten years of teaching courses in the Southern California area on such topics as Kabalah, Tarot, Magic, Tantra, and Psychic Development. He was a member of many spiritual and magical groups and was an initiated Tantric.

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One

Myth and Mythos

Put some people together and you have nothing more than a group of people. What can bond them into something more than a collection of individuals is not, as some people believe, due to a bloodline. Rather, people bond as a result of a common set of experiences and beliefs. These experiences can be contemporary or they may be modern versions of stories (often highly altered) about events that were said to have occurred in the past, sometimes eons ago. The bonds created by the common experiences of platoon members during war are often stronger than the ties of brothers and sisters. The life-threatening nature of war experiences can make those bonds even tighter.

When spiritual groups first start out, they frequently have such bonding based on common experience. In recent times, the story of the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons) was just such a bonding experience. It begins with a far-sighted leader who supposedly has a revelation from God. He is killed and his people, fleeing religious persecution, face incredible difficulties as they travel across a vast land. When they finally find a place to stay, a natural disaster seems like it will wipe them out. But they are saved by a miracle. By joining that church, you become part of the continuation of those experiences and the resulting beliefs, attitudes, and values.

I am not going to debate whether those events happened as described. What has happened is that members of that religion believe the story. Usually such stories become exaggerated over time. The historical becomes the mythic. The mythic becomes the mythos.

What is a mythos? It is an interrelated set of myths and beliefs that manifest in the group’s values and attitudes. Let me explain further. Virtually every culture or group has a mythos. Often, the attitudes and values of the mythos are reflected in a people’s arts—painting, theater, sculpture, music, etc. Myths are not merely stories; they have impactful meanings to the people who believe them or simply know them. They, too, exemplify the temperament, beliefs, and principles of that people. The myths/art and the associated attitudes/values combine to make the mythos of a people.

Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims all have their myths and mythos structures. Mystical groups, from Rosicrucians to Golden Dawners, from Thelemites to the numerous sects of Witchcraft, from Freemasons to, well, you name it, each have their myths and mythos. You might take some time to consider this: What myths do you follow? What mythos do you accept?

Hinduism is replete with myths and stories about gods and goddesses and their interaction with humans. Some, such as in the epic Mahabharata (of which the famous Bhagavad Gita is but a tiny part), are extensive. Others are short stories that illuminate a single facet of life. Generally speaking, all are considered acceptable to Hindus, even when the myth is not part of the religious or spiritual tradition followed by a particular person.

In the West, our myths have been far more straightforward. They do not deal with hundreds of deities, or at least not with so many deities simultaneously. The great myths of Homer, the Jewish Bible, and the Christian Bible are each linear and tell a more or less complete story.

One of the intentions of this book is to explore the nature of traditional Tantra as a complete Pagan system that can be followed, in whole or in part, by Westerners today. Therefore, it, too, must present a linear myth and mythos. Such a myth does exist. It is a glue that holds together several Tantric groups. It is the mythos that, in various forms, presents the paradigm that allows initiates to say, "This is Tantric; that is