The way out

"The word Trance implies a passing beyond: scil., the conditions which oppress. The whole and sole object of all true Magical and Mystical training is to become free from every kind of limitation. Thus, body and mind, in the widest sense, are the obstacles in the Path of the Wise: the paradox, tragic enough as it seems, is that they are also the means of progress. 
How to get rid of them, to pass beyond or to transcend them, is the problem, and this is as strictly practical and scientific as that of eliminating impurities from a gas, or of adroitly using mechanical laws. Here is the inevitable logical flaw in the sorites of the Adept, that he is bound by the very principles which it is his object to overcome: and on him who seeks to discard them arbitrarily they haste to take a terrible revenge!

It is in practice, not in theory, that this difficulty suddenly
disappears. For when we take rational steps to suspend the operation of the rational mind, the inhibition does not result in chaos, but in the apprehension of the Universe by means of a faculty to which the laws of the Reason do not apply; and when, returning to the normal state, we seek to analyse our experience, we find that the description abounds in rational absurdities."
- Little Essays, Trance by A. Crowley


This is very well put indeed, and what is currently alive here is that the most common pitfall on the path to Freedom, denial, and aversion to personal and impermanent emotional/physical parts of human existence, has been, in my case (for the most part) averted by following the Tantric wisdom.

The king of Tantras

The Hevajra Tantra teaches the Union of Skillful Means and Profound Cognition (Wisdom or Emptiness); and states that such union helps achieve the powers known as siddhis.

The text belongs to the higher or Inner Tantras and includes the truly famous quote (the one below) that explains a basic tenet of Tantra in only a few words:

"One must rise by that by which one falls.

By whatever thing the world is bound, by that, the bond is unfastened.

Beings are bound by passion and are released by utilizing passion."

The Tantric reverence towards, and dependence on, women in general (and the yoni in particular), is born out in the following three quotes from the text, as is the intimate nature of most higher and secret rituals:

- At all times, whether washing one’s feet or eating, rinsing the mouth, rubbing the hands, girding the hips with a loincloth, going out, making conversation, walking, standing, in wrath, in laughter; the wise man should always worship and honor the lady.

- Concentrate on the triangle of origination in the midst of space.

- I dwell in the yoni of the female in the form of semen.


There are many paths... and in general, we can say there are:
- a path of renunciation (denial of everything that is not "pure light") - an old and boring path in my view,
- a path of transformation (embracing everything and not denying anything, not even sensual pleasures) - the path of ancient Tantra and the path of the new Aeon: Thelema,
- a path of (instant) liberation (focusing on natural Reality without any drama) - Mahamudra and/or Dzogchen.

So, there are a great many ways out, and the experiences we have are in line with previous aspirations and dispositions...
... and conditioned by current intentions. And when intention is to deny, to push away or 'renounce' (to use a fancy spiritual term), "thereby there cometh hurt." (Liber AL I-22)

"The word of sin is Restriction." (Liber AL I-41)