Vama Marga (Tantric India)

By Mariam Gergis (Shayṭānata, شيطانة) 

In Kashmir’s hidden temples,

Where orthodox eyes cannot see,

The forbidden rites unfold

Under the dark moon’s decree.

Five elements transgressive:

Wine where water should be blessed,

Meat where vegetables were pure,

Fish where fasting was the test.

The circle of the initiated

Sits cross-legged on the floor,

Each taboo a doorway opening

To what was barred before.

She drinks from the skull cup,

Not in worship of death

But to shatter the illusion

That separates breath from breath.

The Shakta raises trembling hands

Above the sacred fire,

Speaking mantras that unmake

What convention would require.

This is not destruction

But integration’s art:

The poison and the nectar

Both held within one heart.

When dawn breaks over mountains,

The forbidden has become holy,

The practitioner transformed

Through embracing wholly

What society names darkness— Yet here burns clearest light:

The recognition that division

Creates suffering’s blight.