Practitioner to Scholar
Approaching Tantra
The Initiate's Path
Tantra is the most misrepresented part of Sanatana Dharma, distorted in equal measure by sensationalism and by squeamishness. This path approaches it slowly and honestly: first what Tantra actually is and how its lineages transmit it, then its vision of the Goddess and the subtle body, and finally the door to the long-form treatises for those ready to go deep.
By the end you will understand what Tantra is and is not, grasp its view of the Goddess and the subtle body, and know where the serious, book-length study begins.
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Approach with care
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The Goddess and the subtle body
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The living disciplines
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Then go deeper
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Foundations of Tantra
The 28 Śaiva ĀgamasThe 64 Śākta TantrasThe AghorīsThe Nāth SampradayaThe Pāñcarātra SaṃhitāsEighty-five titles and no text: the Saura tantras and how a tradition disappearsThe Shatkarma: The Six Acts of Tantric MagicThe two seats: how the tantric canon was actually organisedThe Vijnana Bhairava TantraWhat are Mudras?What are the Āgamas and Tantras?What is Shaktipat?Who was Abhinavagupta?
Going further · optional reading
Do Aghoris really eat human flesh?Myth-busting The documentaries call them cannibals. When you want the deep water
Two treatises extend this path
Book-length and chaptered, read in order. Start any of them once the readings above feel familiar.