13 Jun FAQ: “So What Is Tantra?”
When new clients come to receive an appointment, I am often greeted with the phrase: “So I’m really interested in learning about Tantra.” Or perhaps people will come to me and sit down and say, “So what is Tantra?” This gets especially awkward when Indian men sit down with me and express a sincere desire in learning about Tantra and as a white western woman, I’m in the awkward position of talking about a word that is historically and spiritually rooted in India.
So let me just clear something up. What I do is Not Tantra. Nobody in the modern erotic industry is a practitioner of Tantra. I am not a practitioner or teacher of Tantra. I would prefer to not have to associate myself with this word. The word Tantra has been misused and misconstrued in our modern American culture. I try to use the words Tantra and Tantric as sparingly as possible.
In our modern American culture – Tantra has come to denote or signify “Sacred Sexuality.” I believe that traditionally in India, Tantra is more frequently associated with – what we westerners would call – shamanism and / or extremely esoteric mysticism, than sacred sexuality. Tantra is considered very taboo in India, in what is a largely conservative & sexually repressed culture.
So can we please throw the word Tantra out the window? I wish!!! The unfortunate reality is that Tantra and Tantric Bodywork has become an industry standard term in the adult erotic provider industry to denote – what I have come to consider a more accurate term – “Holistic Erotic Massage.”
Tantra is a buzzword and a marketing term, at this point. These words are the most relevant terms that can help you, the client, look for and find the kind of work that I provide – which is an erotic bodywork service rooted in meditation, mindfulness, breathwork with an underlying holistic perspective unifying Body, Mind and Spirit.
Right now, unfortunately we don’t have a better marketing buzzword that has a connotation for Sacred Sexuality, Holistic Sensual Healing Bodywork, or sexuality that integrates an awareness of subtle energy.
I understand that in the realms of the Erotic Service Industry, there are a vast many options. You have the options of receiving sessions from a Dominatrix, or perhaps a more traditional Escort, or you can go visit a Stripper and get a lap dance. There are also many people who offer lots of different kinds of erotic massages or “rubdowns” – this has been known as FBSM for many years (Full Body Sensual Massage.)
What Tantric FBSM denotes, to me, is about an underlying perspective that is rooted in mindfulness and an intention to cultivate a conscious awareness of the body.
I would love to see the word Tantra tossed out the window in correlation to the erotic industry, but unfortunately – it’s probably here to stay. The overuse of the word Tantra in the erotic industry means that providers have bastardized the term and are not rooted in being genuine healing arts practitioners.
I would much prefer to use the word Taoist in relation to my work – as I believe the Taoist’s perspective on sexual energy, subtle energy and life force vitality is far more relevant to the work of being an erotic healing arts practitioner. But the word Taoist doesn’t have the sexy connotation, nor does it have the marketing sparkle.
I come to this work with many years focused as a healing arts practitioner, having studied massage, bodywork and energy based modalities; with a strong desire to give sessions where the intention is to drop into the Inner Gaze of the body’s sensuality, and to heighten our awareness into the current of pleasure and bliss that flows throughout our bodies.
All of that having been said, I do believe that sexuality is one of the most profound teachers we human beings have accessible within us, to cultivate our awareness of subtle energy / life force energy, and to cultivate our vitality and joie de vivre.
In the realms of subtle energy cultivation, we have so many techniques available: psychedelics, chanting, yoga, meditation, QiGong, martial arts, etc. But our sexual energy is one of the most practical and accessible ways we can open the inner doorways of our body+mind+spirit through which we come to experience ourselves as a hollow bone or conduit for life force energy – wherein we can receive waterfalls of life force energy that nourish us with ecstasy.