Essays From The Master

What is and why the black lotus, what does it represent? This is a question I have been asked since beginning the composition of the second of the Komuso Ryu texts that have published, one being Ninja Magick and the other being Revelations of the Black Lotus. In general the white lotus is a symbol of divinity and enlightenment as well as being a symbol of the eight fold path of Buddhism. The black lotus is said in one source to have been grown in the hearts of the slain and these slain are symbolic of the false selves that bar one from the path; the black lotus is a symbol of enlightenment via sorcery rather than via mysticism. Some view the white lotus as a symbol of Shamballah and its path which is the path of negation of self by becoming one with all. If the white lotus is the emblem of Shamballah and its path then the black lotus is the symbol of the counterpoint to Shamballah which is Agartha and its path which is the path of building one’s self apart from all things in part to observe all that is objectively and being able to manipulate all that is not one’s self. Shamballah and Agartha represent the bright and dark halves of the great wheel or Kalachakra, each being a reflection of the other.

If one sees Shamballah as the height of collective civilization and culture then Agartha represents the primal and savage path of the individual or the hunter and conqueror versus the group minded mass that sees all life as being the same, eating only plants. We can see these two ideas in the dual Pole stars of Earth with Shamballah being represented by Polaris and Agartha being represented by Draconis with Draconis coming long before Polaris suggesting that the world to some has been turned upside down. Each path is valid for those that are drawn to each of them and the interaction between the schools of thought represents the ebb and flow of the Kalachakra through which souls evolve. There are those of the Silent Way of schools descended from the Koga Clan that align themselves with being a form of the Pole Star School and the symbolism of the black dragon i.e. a form of Agartha. The path of the ninja is that of empowering the individual and the individual being enlightened through the handling of that power evoking the lore of Agartha. The answer to the question that started this article is: the black lotus is the emblem of being aligned with Agartha and it represents the wisdom of that path.

In the Komuso Ryu the black lotus is in addition to all that has gone before a name for a cosmogram that shows all the elements of nature and a unity of them through the nine ways of the ryu. Shamballah and Agartha are not foes merely two paths to enlightenment, one by becoming one with all and the other by being the one apart from all else. One provides the light and is of the day while the other is of the night because the light of each individual comes from within. There are some that link the lore of Shamballah with the symbolism of an eagle and Agartha with a snake or dragon, the dragon is a symbol of the pineal gland active expressing illumination and its light comes forth in darkness because it is an inner light. The black lotus was chosen as a symbol for the second text because it deals with insights born from a path aligned with the ideals embodied by Agartha. In China one of the other examples of the ideal of Agartha is the Mao Shan sect seeking immortality in life rather than after death. This is one of the streams of lore of which the Komuso Ryu also partakes coming to this ryu from Chinese Vagabonds.

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