Awakening Shakti (Sally Kempton)
The New Ageism of Shakti and Kashmir Shaivism
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yotga” by Sally Kempton.]
Before I begin my review, I want to make it clear that I am a long-time expert on the subjects of Shakti and Kashmir Shaivism, the subjects that Sally Kempton addresses in this book. I have reviewed numerous books related to these subjects at Amazon (scan through my 210 reviews and you’ll find them). Moreover, I also channel constant heavy-duty Shakti, so my expertise is not merely intellectual, but also experiential. Given my background as a student, practitioner, and teacher of not only Kashmir Shaivism, but multiple other schools of mysticism (Raja Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, Christian mysticism, Daism, and Pali, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism), it was with great interest that I considered the contents of this book.
I will begin my review by criticizing Kempton for her reductionist feminization of Shakti, which is is a synonym for the Christian Holy Spirit, the Buddhist Sambhogakaya, and the Jewish Ruach HaKodesh. In reality, Shakti is “neutral” Energy that is no more feminine than masculine. As I have written, “The fact that the grammatical gender of the word “Spirit” is masculine in Latin (“Spiritus”), feminine in Hebrew (“Ruach HaKodesh”), and neuter in Greek (“Pneuma”) tells us that God’s Energy can be thought of as male, female, or neither.”
If Kempton wants to perceive or worship Shakti as feminine, I have no problem with that (I often do it myself). But I do find it intellectually disintegrous for her not to have made it clear that Shakti, or Spirit, intrinsically, is no more feminine or masculine than is amperage in an electrical circuit. And in my opinion, whereas it might benefit a man more to conceive of Shakti as Goddess Energy, it might be preferable for a woman to imagine it as masculine Energy. As Kempton herself points out, the tantric traditions she writes about were generally aimed at male yogis; hence to make Divine Energy more appealing, Shakti was personified as Goddess Power.
Apart from her reductionist sexualization of Shakti, Kempton also reduces this Divine Energy to other stepped-down energies, which, in effect de-Spiritualizes this unborn, Holy Energy. When Shakti is capitalized, it should be a synonym for Spirit. I’m fine with using “shakti” (Shakti uncapitalized) to refer to energies that are less than Divine (such as pranic or life-force or sexual energies), but Kempton fails to make this all-important distinction; hence her text suffers from a blurring between Divine Energy and less-than-Divine energies.
Because Kempton caters to a New Age crowd lacking discernment in Eastern philosophy, she can get away with sloppy definitions, dumbed-down, slipshod explanations of tantric spirituality, but I cringe as I read her.
Kempton has not “cracked the cosmic code” and can only present a mishmash of disintegral, contradictory information and an incomplete picture of the en-Light-enment process. She’ll seem profound to neophytes, but the spiritual cognoscenti will not be impressed with her discombobulated exposition of Kashmir Shaivism, Shakti, Shaktipat, and Kundalini.
On one page she’ll talk about Kundalini rising through the body and unting with Siva in the crown, and on another page she’ll wax about Shakti from above uniting from Shakti below. But how it all comes together to “produce,” or unveil, the Divine Being and Self-realization is not evident in her jumbled discourse.
If you’re interested in similar but better book than Kempton’s, check out David Frawley’s “Inner Tantric Yoga: Working with the Universal Shakti: Secrets of Mantras, Deities, and Meditation” (see my three-star review). If you’re interested in in finding out what Kashmir Shaivism and Shakti (and Shaktipat) are really about, get a copy of Deba Brata SenSharma’s “The Philosophy of Sadhana: With Special Reference to the Trika Philosophy of Kashmir” (see my five-star review).
The essence of Kashmir Shaivism is receiving downpoured Shakti –and this reception of Shakti, Divine Power, is called Shaktipat. Kempton briefly mentions Shaktipat a few times, but because she is glamorizing and peddling a watered-down version of real Kashmir Shaivism, she doesn’t penetrate beneath the surface of this practice. If one cuts away the inessentials, Kashmir Shaivism equates with Christian mysticism, because the Shakti that the Indian yogi receives is the exact same Energy (the Holy Spirit) that the Christian mystic channels.
From a positive perspective, Sally Kempton presents an alluring picture of Kashmir Shaivism which will hopefully inspire neophytes to further, and deeply, investigate this fascinating and esoteric spiritual tradition. Given that it could be said she is creating a bridge - albeit a flawed one - between Kashmir Shaisim and New Age thought, I’ll cut her some slack and give the book two stars.
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yotga” by Sally Kempton.]
Before I begin my review, I want to make it clear that I am a long-time expert on the subjects of Shakti and Kashmir Shaivism, the subjects that Sally Kempton addresses in this book. I have reviewed numerous books related to these subjects at Amazon (scan through my 210 reviews and you’ll find them). Moreover, I also channel constant heavy-duty Shakti, so my expertise is not merely intellectual, but also experiential. Given my background as a student, practitioner, and teacher of not only Kashmir Shaivism, but multiple other schools of mysticism (Raja Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, Christian mysticism, Daism, and Pali, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism), it was with great interest that I considered the contents of this book.
I will begin my review by criticizing Kempton for her reductionist feminization of Shakti, which is is a synonym for the Christian Holy Spirit, the Buddhist Sambhogakaya, and the Jewish Ruach HaKodesh. In reality, Shakti is “neutral” Energy that is no more feminine than masculine. As I have written, “The fact that the grammatical gender of the word “Spirit” is masculine in Latin (“Spiritus”), feminine in Hebrew (“Ruach HaKodesh”), and neuter in Greek (“Pneuma”) tells us that God’s Energy can be thought of as male, female, or neither.”
If Kempton wants to perceive or worship Shakti as feminine, I have no problem with that (I often do it myself). But I do find it intellectually disintegrous for her not to have made it clear that Shakti, or Spirit, intrinsically, is no more feminine or masculine than is amperage in an electrical circuit. And in my opinion, whereas it might benefit a man more to conceive of Shakti as Goddess Energy, it might be preferable for a woman to imagine it as masculine Energy. As Kempton herself points out, the tantric traditions she writes about were generally aimed at male yogis; hence to make Divine Energy more appealing, Shakti was personified as Goddess Power.
Apart from her reductionist sexualization of Shakti, Kempton also reduces this Divine Energy to other stepped-down energies, which, in effect de-Spiritualizes this unborn, Holy Energy. When Shakti is capitalized, it should be a synonym for Spirit. I’m fine with using “shakti” (Shakti uncapitalized) to refer to energies that are less than Divine (such as pranic or life-force or sexual energies), but Kempton fails to make this all-important distinction; hence her text suffers from a blurring between Divine Energy and less-than-Divine energies.
Because Kempton caters to a New Age crowd lacking discernment in Eastern philosophy, she can get away with sloppy definitions, dumbed-down, slipshod explanations of tantric spirituality, but I cringe as I read her.
Kempton has not “cracked the cosmic code” and can only present a mishmash of disintegral, contradictory information and an incomplete picture of the en-Light-enment process. She’ll seem profound to neophytes, but the spiritual cognoscenti will not be impressed with her discombobulated exposition of Kashmir Shaivism, Shakti, Shaktipat, and Kundalini.
On one page she’ll talk about Kundalini rising through the body and unting with Siva in the crown, and on another page she’ll wax about Shakti from above uniting from Shakti below. But how it all comes together to “produce,” or unveil, the Divine Being and Self-realization is not evident in her jumbled discourse.
If you’re interested in similar but better book than Kempton’s, check out David Frawley’s “Inner Tantric Yoga: Working with the Universal Shakti: Secrets of Mantras, Deities, and Meditation” (see my three-star review). If you’re interested in in finding out what Kashmir Shaivism and Shakti (and Shaktipat) are really about, get a copy of Deba Brata SenSharma’s “The Philosophy of Sadhana: With Special Reference to the Trika Philosophy of Kashmir” (see my five-star review).
The essence of Kashmir Shaivism is receiving downpoured Shakti –and this reception of Shakti, Divine Power, is called Shaktipat. Kempton briefly mentions Shaktipat a few times, but because she is glamorizing and peddling a watered-down version of real Kashmir Shaivism, she doesn’t penetrate beneath the surface of this practice. If one cuts away the inessentials, Kashmir Shaivism equates with Christian mysticism, because the Shakti that the Indian yogi receives is the exact same Energy (the Holy Spirit) that the Christian mystic channels.
From a positive perspective, Sally Kempton presents an alluring picture of Kashmir Shaivism which will hopefully inspire neophytes to further, and deeply, investigate this fascinating and esoteric spiritual tradition. Given that it could be said she is creating a bridge - albeit a flawed one - between Kashmir Shaisim and New Age thought, I’ll cut her some slack and give the book two stars.
