"another story? ...i'm all ears and whiskers!" - Mushika Metamorphose, Rite of Jupiter, 1999
according to the sanatan society "All Tantric and spiritual worship in the Hindu tradition begins with the invocation of Ganesha. Acceptance of the strange looking elephant-headed deity as the divine force stills the rational mind and it's doubts, forcing one to look beyond outer appearances. Thus Ganesha creates the faith to remove all obstacles."
of course, there are many different stories about Ganesha, some of which may have more relevance to us at one point or another in our lives (ymmv)...
through this chant, i have learned much about ganesha, and my own path:
Aum gam ganapataye namah
Ganesha: "Lord of Categories." (From Gan, "to count or reckon," and Isha, "lord.")
"All that can be counted or comprehended is a category (gana). The principle of all the classifications through which the relations between different orders of things, between the macrocosm and the microcosm, can be understood is called the lord-of-categories."
however, "Descriptions of the Ganas vary from the wholly abstract - representing the fundamental categories of existence, to somewhat negative descriptions of them being deformed, grotesque, dwarfs or night-walking spirits of gross and lustful appetite."
...
"This suggests ideas for working with our own complexes of desire-forms/demons - i.e. to allow them free reign, grant them name & form, acknowledge them as born of us - rather than trying to banish or suppress. This I feel is rather like saying "yes I am jealous, paranoid, stupid, mistaken etc., sometimes - these are true parts of me" rather than trying to cling to some idealized view of self or what self should be. This approach can be viewed as part of the sadhana of Klesha-smashing."
- from, The Ganas: Hooligans of Heaven
in this respect, ganesha is not only lord over the tree of life, offering guidance for kundalini traveling through the sephiroth -- he also shows the way through the world of shadow, claiming dominion over the qlippoth as well. ganesha offers control over that which Linda Falorio refers to as, "the dark repository of those mass primordial instincts ever lurking behind our ego-generated illusions of individual humanity." sometimes, ganesha has even been said to place obstacles in our paths, so that we may learn from the experience (in this respect, perhaps he is not unlike the archetypes of "adversary" and "trickster").
mushika is ganesha's vehicle (vahana), and offers ganesha subtelty and the ability to penetrate small spaces. but it is ganesha who holds the reins, providing direction for otherwise meandering thoughts, hopes, and dreams... a cybernetic controller, as in the word's root meaning 'steersman,' or 'helmsman' (kubernetes). also according to the sanatan society, as ganesha's mount, he represents ganesha's subjugation of the ego &/or vanity... the word yoga means to be yoked, like an oxen, or a horse, or in this case, a mouse... and through yoga, one's material being is yoked to the divine...
kinda reminds me of how, in vodou possesson ritual, the loa/angels/ancestor spirits are said to 'ride' the worshipers like horses.
--
i participated in a version of the rite of jupiter many years ago, for which jupiter was depicted as ganesha... in the aspect of a wise and compassionate king. i played his loyal servant, mushika the mouse, offering ganesha "access to the little places," with child-like devotion (bhakti).
what... Christ & Crowley are mentioned in the context of Mushika's relationship to Ganesha?
the version of mushika that i portrayed always reminded me of shaw's play, androcles and the lion, which is a great play about the reciprocal nature of compassion -- and years after its' original publication, shaw prefaced it with his thesis on how christ was a communist (which was so humourously criticized by crowley, in the gospel according to saint bernard shaw) -- the story is of course based on a tale recounted by Aulus Gellius, whose source was Apion. And even though Apion was was most famous for his over-inflated ego, he credited that the tale originated in Egypt... but who knows, maybe it is even older? according to the Antti Aarne & Stith Thompson Folk Tale Type Index, the scenario is also known as, "Aarne-Thompson type 156" (and if you've seen looney tunes, you are already familiar with aesop's fables about the lion & the mouse, and the shepherd and the lion, too!).
the charming old story, ""To the Lions," by Alfred J. Church was roughly contemporary with shaw & crowley; but in any case, i have always been amused by crowley's attitude of trial by fire:
"The Christians to the lions!"
concerning the tone of this remark, q.v. The Old and New Commentaries to Liber AL, & Tim Maroney's Introduction to Crowley: Christianity, as well as the gospel according to george bernard shaw
yet i digress...
--
The single most informative source of information about Ganesha on the internet, would have to be the book, Loving Ganesha: Hinduism's Endearing Elephant-Faced God, by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
there's a great deal of info @ ganeshduniya, as well
and one of the earliest writings about ganesha is the Ganesha Upanishad (also q.v. Notes on the Ganesha Upanishad," from Phil Hine's archives)
Phil Hine also provides this - A Ganesha Puja - a format for a devotional working from the Ganna Chakra - if you want to explore the traditional extensive ritual form for honoring Ganesha.
--
of course, there are many different stories about Ganesha, some of which may have more relevance to us at one point or another in our lives (ymmv)...
through this chant, i have learned much about ganesha, and my own path:
Aum gam ganapataye namah
Ganesha: "Lord of Categories." (From Gan, "to count or reckon," and Isha, "lord.")
"All that can be counted or comprehended is a category (gana). The principle of all the classifications through which the relations between different orders of things, between the macrocosm and the microcosm, can be understood is called the lord-of-categories."
however, "Descriptions of the Ganas vary from the wholly abstract - representing the fundamental categories of existence, to somewhat negative descriptions of them being deformed, grotesque, dwarfs or night-walking spirits of gross and lustful appetite."
...
"This suggests ideas for working with our own complexes of desire-forms/demons - i.e. to allow them free reign, grant them name & form, acknowledge them as born of us - rather than trying to banish or suppress. This I feel is rather like saying "yes I am jealous, paranoid, stupid, mistaken etc., sometimes - these are true parts of me" rather than trying to cling to some idealized view of self or what self should be. This approach can be viewed as part of the sadhana of Klesha-smashing."
- from, The Ganas: Hooligans of Heaven
in this respect, ganesha is not only lord over the tree of life, offering guidance for kundalini traveling through the sephiroth -- he also shows the way through the world of shadow, claiming dominion over the qlippoth as well. ganesha offers control over that which Linda Falorio refers to as, "the dark repository of those mass primordial instincts ever lurking behind our ego-generated illusions of individual humanity." sometimes, ganesha has even been said to place obstacles in our paths, so that we may learn from the experience (in this respect, perhaps he is not unlike the archetypes of "adversary" and "trickster").
mushika is ganesha's vehicle (vahana), and offers ganesha subtelty and the ability to penetrate small spaces. but it is ganesha who holds the reins, providing direction for otherwise meandering thoughts, hopes, and dreams... a cybernetic controller, as in the word's root meaning 'steersman,' or 'helmsman' (kubernetes). also according to the sanatan society, as ganesha's mount, he represents ganesha's subjugation of the ego &/or vanity... the word yoga means to be yoked, like an oxen, or a horse, or in this case, a mouse... and through yoga, one's material being is yoked to the divine...
kinda reminds me of how, in vodou possesson ritual, the loa/angels/ancestor spirits are said to 'ride' the worshipers like horses.
--
i participated in a version of the rite of jupiter many years ago, for which jupiter was depicted as ganesha... in the aspect of a wise and compassionate king. i played his loyal servant, mushika the mouse, offering ganesha "access to the little places," with child-like devotion (bhakti).
what... Christ & Crowley are mentioned in the context of Mushika's relationship to Ganesha?
the version of mushika that i portrayed always reminded me of shaw's play, androcles and the lion, which is a great play about the reciprocal nature of compassion -- and years after its' original publication, shaw prefaced it with his thesis on how christ was a communist (which was so humourously criticized by crowley, in the gospel according to saint bernard shaw) -- the story is of course based on a tale recounted by Aulus Gellius, whose source was Apion. And even though Apion was was most famous for his over-inflated ego, he credited that the tale originated in Egypt... but who knows, maybe it is even older? according to the Antti Aarne & Stith Thompson Folk Tale Type Index, the scenario is also known as, "Aarne-Thompson type 156" (and if you've seen looney tunes, you are already familiar with aesop's fables about the lion & the mouse, and the shepherd and the lion, too!).
the charming old story, ""To the Lions," by Alfred J. Church was roughly contemporary with shaw & crowley; but in any case, i have always been amused by crowley's attitude of trial by fire:
"The Christians to the lions!"
concerning the tone of this remark, q.v. The Old and New Commentaries to Liber AL, & Tim Maroney's Introduction to Crowley: Christianity, as well as the gospel according to george bernard shaw
yet i digress...
--
The single most informative source of information about Ganesha on the internet, would have to be the book, Loving Ganesha: Hinduism's Endearing Elephant-Faced God, by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
there's a great deal of info @ ganeshduniya, as well
and one of the earliest writings about ganesha is the Ganesha Upanishad (also q.v. Notes on the Ganesha Upanishad," from Phil Hine's archives)
Phil Hine also provides this - A Ganesha Puja - a format for a devotional working from the Ganna Chakra - if you want to explore the traditional extensive ritual form for honoring Ganesha.
--