The 8 Schools of Shaivism, A Non-Sectarian Approach

Recently, we've been asking the question How To Practice Tantra Safely and we proposed that the historical progression of ideas in Shaivism presents a kind of graded syllabus where the traditions that come earlier (like the Vedas and the Shaiva Siddhanta etc.) act as firm foundations for the traditions that emerge later, like the transgressive, non-dual Goddess-oriented traditions (Kaula etc.). Abhinava Gupta presents us with a kind of hierarchy for the various schools in Tantrāloka 29.51: ...