Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java - Hardcover

Peter Levenda

 
9780892541690: Tantric Temples: Eros and Magic in Java

Synopsis

Tantra is one of the most misunderstood of the esoteric disciplines. In order to get a clear idea as to the nature of Tantric ritual and belief it is necessary to go where Tantra is still practised and from where important Tantric teachings originated a thousand years ago: the island of Java in present-day Indonesia. This book illustrates the history of Tantrism in Java with more than a hundred photographs of temples, statues and iconography dedicated to the system -- some rarely seen before, including the recently-excavated "white temple" of Yogyakarta - and accounts of contemporary practices in the shrines, cemeteries and secret schools of Java It is this Tantra - the Tantra of Java - that has influenced secret societies, mystics, alchemists, Kabbalists and magicians for hundreds if not thousands of years. This book tells the story of how human sexuality became a metaphor and a template for both spiritual transformation and the manipulation of reality; of how various sexual acts and psycho-biological states became the basis for a comprehensive cosmology that incorporates every aspect of human experience. Sometimes the secrets are buried where you least expect to find them. Sometimes they are hidden in plain sight. Sometimes ... they are both. In the largest Muslim country in the world we will discover a path of Tantra so unique, yet so vibrant and alive, that we will be astonished that no one had heard of it until now.

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About the Author

Peter Levenda is a well-known author of many published works on esoteric subjects He has appeared numerous times in documentaries for The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and in TNT's documentary The Faces of Evil. He has, also, appeared many times on podcasts and on Coast-to-Coast AM radio with George Noory and Ian Punett.

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