Sangyum
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Tib., gSang yum
Secret Mother, Secret Consort, Secret (intimate) Partner
Often translated as spiritual consort rather than as secret consort - the Tibetan gSang does mean hidden or secret - the term sangyum refers to the intimate partner and/or married wife of a male initiate (lama, rinpoche, tulku). Especially tertons were in need of such living dakinis in order to help them reveal and decipher certain terma.
Apart from being called on in order to aid a terton, a sangyum would sometimes also be prescribed, so to say, in order to rejuvenate, to heal or to remove other divined obstacles in the harmonious development of a male practitioner. For two known examples of such relationships, see the short biographies of Dechen Chödrön and Khandro Tsering Chödrön.
Note Following the publication of June Campbell’s Traveller in Space, in which the author spells sangyum as songyum, also this latter spelling is now sometimes used. However, most books (as well as websites) about Vajrayana use the spelling sangyum.