Ghantayana & the Women’s Millennium - A Manifesto

“Like a lion freed from a cage;

She will achieve Awakening…”

 Yasodhara II, 588, v 56

“Ghantayana,” is from the Sanskrit for bell, ‘ghanta,’ and vehicle, ‘yana.’  The ghanta/bell, symbol of feminine Wisdom, is paired with the vajra/thunderbolt, symbol of masculine Skillful Means.  After 1200 years of emphasis on the ‘Vajra’yana, over the last century focus has been shifting to the Ghanta.    

Starting with Alexandra David-Neel, Western yoginis, intellectuals and translators have explored Tibetan Buddhism, abetted by the Tibetan diasporas of the 1950s and 60s.  The shift of this population into North India, Nepal and Bhutan took place just as second-wave feminism was finding its voice in the West. 

However fortunate that intersection, there is a much earlier encounter that flashes powerfully in the mirror of time:  The Greco-Indic Ghandaran civilization (Swat valley, 326-100 BCE).  This  was a confluence of Greeks, Scythians, Persians, Khan, and Uddiyana Kashmiris – an admixture which gradually brought major changes to Buddhism; and presumably, to Greek philosophy and mysteric practices. 

The Macedonian march to Uddiyana (Kashmir) was first envisioned by Alexander-the-Great's mother, the Dodonean oracle Mirtali, also known as Olympias.  Mirtali met, fell in love with and married Philip of Macedon during the Demetrian Mysteries on Samothrace.  Their's was a far-from-peaceful marriage, especially after the birth of Alexander, whom Mirtali recognized as a Worldmaker. 

Born to the Molossian ruling house of Epirus, Mirtali claimed to be a descendant of Achilles.  This would also make her a descendant of Achilles' mother, the Queen of the Neriades, Thetis.  As the Goddess (Thetis) and her lineal heiress (Mirtali) were Oracles, it is not hard to imagine a shamanic sisterhood with the Uddiyana Dakinis, eventually producing the 3rd and 4th Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. 

[Other forensic scholar-mystics, familiar with ta mystica and eteo-tantric practices, can pick up the trail from here.  I recommend starting the dig around the 1st century BCE.] 

Demeter Bodhisattva, Afghanistan, 200 BCE

In Buddhist epistemology, a ‘turning’ of the Wheel of Dharma signals an epochal shift in how spiritual law is interpreted and applied. For more than two millennia Buddhism has honored the military structure of its warrior-caste founder (Siddhartha Gautama, son of a Kshatriya prince).  The evolutions of the 2^nd (Mahayana), 3^rd (Vajrayana) and 4^th (Tantrayana) Turnings have slowly loosened those strictures, bringing us -finally- to Ghantayana.

At the confluence of these great traditions,  Eλeuσian Eπiφanieς will amend the foundational Buddhist rituals, which have subtly advanced men’s particular spiritual challenges as common to both genders.  Ghantayana addresses the distinctions of women’s psychophysiology, spiritual ambitions and indeed, the very meaning of Enlightenment.  

The Fifth Turning will foreground women’s concerns for a restored ecology, a withering of bellicose language and industry, and the elevation of a value system based in compassion and creativity. 

Zoes Theá! (Goddess Lives!)