Tantra U

🕉 A social, historical, environmental, & experiential inquiry into the mystery of Kundalinī, life-force energy from a Native, Classical Tantrik perspective & also a modern Somatic perspective. 

We explore the possibilities of staying connected with body, self & environment, while safely activating & expressing the emotional & energetic bodies, sometimes also expressing as the energy of tantrums or micro-traumas (here with a small t - not a big T).

Exploring the multiple ways in which micro-traumas of disembodiment & dissociation can unfold from body & self, often from a young age. Creating somatic feedback loops to stay connected with the body & environment in the present moment, and noticing and potentially disrupting deeply embedded patterns.  
🕉 An embodied journey with a short talk & virtual museum visit through selected Tantrik temples in India.
Based upon original source texts in Sanskrit & my own translations (standing upon the shoulders of many giants 🕉) , we explore the development of the radical force of Tantra in India, beginning in the 7th century upto modern day times. We virtually visit selected temples, where different rivers of Tantrik tradition cross-fertilized with each other & challenged existing, deeply-rooted social injustice & prejudice. 

Later waves of Tantrik movement were key to challenging narratives of colonialism & the British Empire itself, also contributing to the rise of 1960s counterculture. We explore the parallels emerging between the rebellious soil of the Indian sub-continent between the 9th & 11th century AD that gave birth to a living culture of “Tantrik” tradition with the present emerging movements for regenerative social justice, during quarantine + activistim times for many on this planet.

During the embodied journey, using bottom-up languaging (i.e body to mind), we explore mobilizing our physical, emotional & energetic bodies. We explore tracking the capacity of the body to engage with breath, sound, movement, and placement of touch to shift greater degrees of awareness into the present moment. Using somatic practices from the Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra (VBT) which is probably one of the most well-known & widely referenced “Tantras” of the Tantrik corpus amongst other selected root texts, we explore the mysteries of Kundalini, life-force-energy.

Instead of your mind searching for, or another mind intellectually answering the beautiful, perennial question “So what then is Tantra?”, this session is an opportunity to support bottom-up listening. I.e To gift your body the opportunity to have an experience, and reveal insights, sensations, feelings, messages, or information to you.

Opportunities to interact with others. Please have space around you to move & sit, & a mattress to lie down. Clothing optional out of camera view. Please bring pen & paper to journal. (Optional) - Blanket & candle/ritual object.