Selene Calloni Williams - The Mother Mantra: The Ancient Shamanic Yoga of Non-Duality

INTRODUCTION

The Key to the Reabsorption of Reality

FOR ANY ESOTERIC PATH , journey of self-development or personal growth, alchemy, or depth psychology to be truly effective, it must harbor in its core the extraordinary key of the reabsorption of reality. Shamanism, yoga, tantric Buddhism, Christian Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, Sufism, and the esoteric religions are all founded on the same key, the same procedure.

To reabsorb reality means to make room for the soul. Indeed, it means taking every thing, person, object, or place that we come into contact with daily and bringing it back to its true nature, which is image. Even physics shows us that everything is image, dream, apparition. Matter, in the sense of substance, is an illusion. The electron is a wave that propagates in emptiness, even though to our senses it is a particle. We humans are so fearful of the void, by which we mean the natural principle, that we are unable to perceive it, but we may conceive it between our heart and mind. Matter is not substance but soul; that is, pure emptiness.

This process of reabsorption, also defined as the withdrawal of projections, is the path that enables us to unburden ourselves of the weight of objective matter, of unavoidable events to which we must succumb. The path of reabsorption of reality leads us to become masters, partners, lovers of the eventswhich are beings, entities, spiritsand it awakens us from the illusion of being in the role of victims. The path of reabsorption of reality is the path of the aesthetic experience as the main alternative to the unaesthetic experience, caused by therapy.

For this reason the process of withdrawing projections is considered the means. It is indeed the means to a free and fulfilled life. It is, actually, a very simple and natural means, so simple indeed that the difficulty in achieving and using it lies only in our ability to deconstruct our self, in order to tap in to it. However society and its institutions, being themselves structures, are always in opposition to deconstruction. Thus, from ancient times this means has always traveled nonconventional routes, far from the central institutions.

This means is best expressed in its purest and most original form, with no superstructure, by the Mother Mantra tradition. It has traveled the routes of tantric-shamanic yoga and alchemy for many centuries now, both in the East and West. The name Mother Mantra is a choice. In the past it has been defined as the psychic formula of the imaginal creation; others have referred to it as the magic formula; others have defined it as the automatic means, or simply the means.

The roots of the tradition of the Mother Mantra, like those of alchemy and tantrism, are lost in time. Even though the classification of these traditions was written in historically datable times, it cannot be denied that this codification was based on oral traditions that had been passed down from ancient times. Polytheist and animist populations who lived in symbiosis with nature and its deities passed on their knowledge, perceptions, and rituals of nature through the great esoteric paths. This is probably why some scholars have sought connections between tantrism, alchemy, and animistic shamanism.

Even though there is no proof of a common historical root, there is such a deep-felt continuity between shamanism, tantrism, and alchemy as to strongly point to one big common tradition that takes on different huessome extremely intuitive, some rather refined and learned. We may say that tantrism and alchemy are the learned forms by which shamanic, tribal, ancestral traits have been expressed through history, both in the East and West. Tantrism and alchemy transmit the message of our origins, enriching it with cults, practices, traditions, rituals, myths, and wisdom.

Depth psychology, which is connected to polytheist and shamanic visions (such as in James Hillmans archetypal or polytheist psychology), is also a conscious transmission tool of the means. There is a golden thread that ties the revealed knowledge of the origins to the esoteric and spiritual traditions, weaving up to depth psychology.

The Mother Mantra tradition is this priceless golden thread. This is the precious treasure that I share in the following pages, with the permission of the visible and invisible masters. The Mother Mantra has the power of being universal, yet at the same time adapts perfectly well to the culture of the practitioner. Universality implies that it is for any-and everyone, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or culture. Particularity refers to its ability to adapt and fit perfectly to the folds of the single practitioners psyche.

The Mother Mantra presents three forms, called variants: two universal variants and a particular one. The three variants are basically three mantras for reabsorption. The first of these three mantras is the properly said Mother Mantra. The second is the Egyptian Mantra. The third is the Mystical Marriage Mantra.

The Egyptian Mantra and the Mystical Marriage Mantra are the two universal variants of the Mother Mantra and are presented in the pages that follow. The Egyptian Mantra allows harmony with the planet, with the Earths rhythm and natures abundance; furthermore, it tunes the conscious will to the shadows will, a necessary step for the successful outcome of any of lifes projects. The Mystical Marriage Mantra develops an intimate, erotic-creative union with the underworld bride/bridegroom, which confers inspiration and pleasure.

The Mother Mantra itself, the particular variant, is spread by the Mother Mantra Masters only and passed on solely to Guardians. A Guardian is someone who is not only interested in the personal practice of the Mother Mantra but also wishes to spread this mantra and its associated rituals. If the Mother Mantra is not received from a Guardian it will not produce the same effects. For that reason it is not revealed here.

A Carrier of the Mother Mantra is someone who has received initiation from a Guardian. When you seriously practice the spiritual exercises shared in this book you too will become a Carrier. The first two variants of the Mother Mantra may be practiced with full benefit by Carriers.

All three mantras of the Mother Mantra tradition enable us to retract our projections and to take responsibility for all the emotions and events that we have experienced in life. We may thus let go of our roles as victims of events and our reactions to them to become teachers, partners, and lovers of the events that are the multiple aspects of the invisible lover, which is our soul.

The mantras taught here allow reality to be reabsorbed. This enables the physical senseswhich are managed by the mind and its value setsto experience the substantial illusion of the world and the fundamental imaginal nature of every thing. Awareness is thus allowed to rise above the categories of good and bad, true and false, and flow freely in the infinite universe of beauty, in the state of nature.

The Mother Mantra has the power of a thousand hurricanes and a thousand storms unleashed together in the inner sky of our inseparable union with Everything. After this big bang, true life begins. The true birth is the second; the true mother is the second; the true life is the second.

In the first chapter, Natural Spiritual Experience, natural tradition is contrasted with social tradition. The differences in worldview and life experience that result from the immersion in and adherence to one or the other are explored in detail, resulting in greater clarity about beauty and the good, death and immortality, power and fighting, and sacred and healing rituals.