How did you arrive at your practice?
I have always been interested in both sex and spirituality. After many years on my yoga mat and meditation cushion, one of my mentors suggested I explore more deeply the way Shakti (Sanskrit word for life-force energy) manifests in the body. One of the most powerful ways to do this is through the practice of Tantra.
A woman named Psalm Isadora crossed my path and that was it. I knew she was my teacher. She was just back from India, she’d gotten a prompt from her guru that she should take the teachings from the jungles of you know southern India and share in the West. To demystify the complex practice of tantra as the intersection of spirituality and sexuality.
Most people in the West have experienced what is often called “neotantra.” It has less to do with the philosophy and ritual of traditional Tantra, and more to do with the sexual practices extracted from the deeper existential topics addressed in traditional Tantra.
I’ve been practicing the Sri Vidya lineage of Tantra for ten years.
What encouraging trends are you seeing in the world right now?
I am seeing more and more discussion and conversation driven by women’s sexuality first. Conversations about what it really is for a woman to be sexually expressed and what a woman’s sexuality really looks like.
There are more conscious, creative resources that portray women as they actually look, feel, and behave during sex. Websites like OMGYes are really revolutionary.
OMGYes is a great exploration and education about real-life stories of women—about how they masturbate, how they become aroused, and what it feels like when they orgasm.
Really accepting sexuality and getting away from the sort of closeted, covert, and shadowed perspective on our sexuality is underway.
You once wrote:
“The byproduct of navigating our hyperconnected multitasking lives with poise and grace is the suppression of raw emotion.”
What books do you recommend to help women get in back in touch with raw emotion?
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, is a book that continues to really move women. It is absolutely magical and really gives women permission to be who they are and to access their wild nature. This book is a pillar.
There are some classics that should be on every bookshelf, like Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying and the seminal historical novel, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.
One of my favorite books that explores the complicated relationship of spirituality with raw emotion is a memoir called The Rabbi’s Daughter by Reva Mann.
What about social media?
Social media is huge. There are so many people posting incredible content in bite-size size chunks on Instagram. And all you have to do is go follow some hashtags and your news feed will be filled with really powerful potent posts from the trenches.
Hashtags to follow: #WomenEmpowerment, #wildwoman, #sexuality, #femininepower, #sacredsexuality, and #sacredsex.
Notable Instagram accounts to follow (Editor’s note: some of these accounts include images that are NSFW):
@positivelyglittered “A group of Aussie girls getting their glitter on!”
@thefemmeproject “Art with purpose from a feminine perspective.”
@pleasureasmedicine “Miriam Elyse. Tantra Coach, Sacred Sexuality, Health & Wellness, and Pleasure as medicine”
@bloodmilkwomen “A Community for the Awakening Woman”
How will #MeTo affect our future relationships?
The #MeToo movement is a necessary disruptor to a system that has been oppressive to women by exposing all of the abuse and harassment that’s taken place. It’s an awkward period of growth for our culture, but it is the beginning of a shift.
The reality of what’s been going on is highly charged and feels chaotic, but that is a classic sign of growth. It’s a standard progression towards transformation: things have break apart before they come back together in a new, healthier, and stronger way.
After we move through the heat of this exposure to what has been happening to women, the truthful awareness, and a more evolved consciousness, we will get embedded in a new paradigm.