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by Sienna
Tantra is a Hindu/Tibetan spiritual practice that utilizes sexual energy as the means to boost one's consciousness into alternate mind states on the path to enlightenment.
I was first drawn to Tantra at the age of 14. Being the child of a commune of magicians and Wiccans, I understood what sex was supposed to be on a philosophical and emotional level. I understood the sacredness of the act, watching the adult lovers around me being so happy and open about their sexuality. However, my limited experience with boys my age had turned out quite contrary to what I saw on the commune.
When I approached my favorite elder "auntie" about the subject, she laughed and told me to learn Tantra before I hurt myself. When I pressed her about the subject, she said not to sleep with anyone I didn't love, and that made sense, so I dropped the subject. But that word stayed in the back of my head.
When I grew up and began exploring different paths, I felt a push to do something different than what my parents had done. Since my mother identified with ceremonial magick, I began studying Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, finding them more fit to my personality. And there was that word again. Tantra. Synonymous with sex magick in some texts, denounced as a negative waste of time in others, elevated to the highest regard in yet others. Remembering the conversation with Auntie Jan, I set about learning everything I could about the subject.
There are many books written on the subject. However, most of the ancient ones are in what is called "twilight language," a metaphor-filled analogy language that sounds very poetic and romantic but that hides the actual physical facts of the rites. For this reason, it is said that eventually all students on a true Tantric path must have a physical teacher. However, there is much one can learn before one actually finds a physical teacher, as I learned before I found my teacher. Although we didn't work together very long on the physical plane, he is still around for me to ask questions of on the Internet.
When one first hears about Tantra and the idea of sacred sex, usually the Western paradigm walls come firmly down and the listener's mind twists and turns around the idea of something so profane being sacred. How can something that we have all been taught is "wrong" and "dirty" be a path to enlightenment? How can one possibly use sex as a way to meet divinity?
Some people think of Tantra as large orgies of people having ecstatic sex and orgasms with wild abandon. This is not Tantra, although in some New Age communities it is called such. It isn't as simple as fueling your magick with orgasm, either. That is simply sex magick, and while it has its place, it cannot be considered Tantra. There are two types of Tantra usually referred to: White Tantra is done alone, while Red Tantra requires a partner. There are several different styles of Tantra as well, most of which branch off of Hindu or Tibetan lineage. Some schools teach abstinence and withholding, while others teach letting go and reveling in the moment. As with any path, you should pick the style that feels right for you.
It is easiest for the Tantric student to begin with learning the philosophy before moving onto energy practices in meditations, such as the Kundalini Awakening Meditation. The philosophy allows the mind to grasp the physicality of moving energy through one's body and sensing exactly what one is doing to one's self. The duality of opposites is a common philosophy in many pagan belief systems, so it's not difficult for most people to adapt that balanced awareness to physical energy movement.
Tantra begins with dualism, the God/Goddess dichotomy, seeing the male as matter and the female as energy. All humans carry this duality within them, a material side and a creative side. The beginning exercises of Tantra aim to make the student recognize, analyze and balance these two poles. Most of these exercises are done with all clothes on, so they can't really be considered "sexual," although they will tend to influence the student's sexuality in a balancing way.
The second philosophy of Tantra is that it is about experience. Everything in life is an experience. We are incarnated to get the most out of our physical bodies, and that includes eating, smelling, touching, seeing and hearing. If you stop right now and look around the room, you will experience more from this moment than if you continue reading this. See what the lighting does to the colors of the room. Feel your clothing on your skin, whether your eyes are dry, if your toes are cold. Experience this moment. Look at things like you never have before, sniff the air, hear the noises in the room. That is what Tantra teaches.
Kundalini energy is the cornerstone of Tantric practices. In ordinary waking life, we can sometimes feel the minute stirrings of this energy as shivers up our spine. Kundalini itself is said to be one of the greatest energy highs ever! To awaken it, there are special breathing techniques that help you take the energy from your sexual center, up your spine and through the rest of your body, allowing it to pervade into the etheric realms. In awakening the Kundalini serpent, one creates an energy field that can manifest some very powerful results. Because of Kundalini's intense effects on the human body, I would be unwise to print an actual Kundalini meditation here without a lot of caveats we have no room for. I will mention some books at the end of this article that have Kundalini meditations in them.
However, I will say that to awaken Kundalini fully, one must go through an intense process of clearing out old emotional baggage and the energy attached to the physical body, usually known as chakra clearing. Chakras are psychic energy organs designed to receive and transmit energy from our environment to the mechanisms in our brain. In Tibetan Tantra (the style I practice), there are seven recognized main chakras, with secondary chakras in the hands and feet and even smaller ones throughout the body. When a chakra is "blocked" or "stuck," it means it is filled with energy and is not functioning as it is supposed to for your best interest. Such stuckness can lead a person to react instead of act, and one becomes a victim of one's environment, rather than a willing participant.
The chakra clearing is what makes Tantra such a powerful mechanism for change, even before the student learns anything about partnered rites. During this initial phase, the student is practicing White Tantra.
Once the philosophy is learned, the chakras cleared and Kundalini empowered, the student learns to balance his or her own personal duality between Shiva (the material) and Shakti (energy forces). In these meditations, he or she is also building up the sexual abilities, such as control of the orgiastic state. To control the orgiastic state is to keep control of your body while it is at maximum-capacity power. This technique is important because it allows for the raising of the student's vibratory rate, which is one of the keys to spiritual freedom.
Most of these meditations involve self-stimulation and are done alone, in the privacy of one's own temple at home. A typical trained Tantric (male or female) can continue sexual union for hours without orgasm. The self-stimulation exercises are an important prerequisite for such partnered rites, or Red Tantra. You can test how powerful the energy raised is by trying the following exercise the next time you are sexually aroused.
Whether you are alone or with a partner, as your arousal level grows, relax your physical body rather than tightening your muscles or arching your back. As your arousal grows, you will find that your energy feels different. This is only a very small sample of what Tantra can do.
Finally, when the student has learned the rites of White Tantra, he or she will begin a series of rituals for two that do not include sex but can be done skyclad. It takes the typical student about 18 months to get to this point in the training; individual results may vary. Many students who are interested in just sex, without the spiritual component, drop out way before this point, so that only serious students get the secret training that leads to Sacred Union, or Maithuna.
Once these steps have been taken, the student is ready to partner with another Tantric in a secret ritual that joins both participants as the One who is Everything. When you combine the power of Kundalini, the lessons of experiencing and the philosophy of duality with hours of intense energy connecting, the results are astonishing. Physical manifestations take almost no time to appear, and mental obstacles fall in the face of the energy. Tantra can lead one to a path of pure ecstatic experience, where the doorways to divinity are thrown wide open, and the world is your playground.
To learn more about Tantra and Kundalini, try:
· Ecstasy through Tantraby Dr. John Muartmford.
· The Art of Sexual Ecstasyby Margot Anand.
· Tantra, the Art of Sexby Omar Garrison.
· Skydancerby Keith Dowman.
· The Kundalini meditation in Donald Michael Kraig's Modern Magick.
· Web sites on the Internet, which will come up if you put in the word "Tantra" in any search function.
Sienna Newcastle is an ordained priestess of Isis Oasis Temple, teacher, authorand owner of Laughing Bird Books in Vancouver, WA (see http://laughingbird.hypermart.net/index2.html). She is teaching a four-part Tantra workshop in Seattle starting May 19 for those 18 and older. For info, contact Sujv55555@aol.com.