ICONOGRAPHY OF TANTRA
AND
RITES OF MALE-SUBMISSION

BY NAGASIVA YRONWODE, © 2000-2006
Introduction
the following essay was written for a church whose interests focussed
on integrating BDSM into a neo-Tantric context. its iconography and
general protocol included male-submission to a dominant female goddess
and priestess. it was my intent, with the contribution of the research
contained below, to ground the rituals they described as those of
'expiation, sin, or atonement' in metaphysical and mystical framework
which would avoid the problems of the BDSM culture and simultaneously
yield potential for sincere neo-Tantrics.

popular pictures of Kali and Siva often depict the supine, sometimes
aroused god surmounted by the goddess in Her full power and glory.
Academics (such as Kinsley, Dimmit and Pandit) describe this
iconography as a personal expansion on the metaphysic of samkhya-yoga,
whose polar elements, prakriti and purusha, were identified as Sakti
(Kali) and Siva respectively.