Tantra and Intimacy
Thea Euryphaessa, Founder, Urban Deva
If there’s one thing that tires (read: bores) me more than anything, it’s the press’s mind-numbingly predictable, tittilatingly-sensationalised coverage of all things Tantra related. The words ‘Sting’ and ‘go at it for hours’ spring to mind. You see, when it comes to sex and sensuality we’re a prudish lot. Although we like to think we’re sexually liberated and laid-back, we’re mostly fearful, uptight, and embarrassed when it comes to sexual matters.
We’re also terrified of intimacy. Speaking from my own experience, it never fails to surprise me how insecure and inhibited men also are once they’re undressed and in a sexual situation. I’ve seen penises retreat so far inside bodies I’m surprised they’ve not popped out the other side. Men, it seems, carry as many sexual hang-ups and bodily insecurities as women despite their bravado to the contrary.
You see, no-one teaches us about sex. In fact, no-one even teaches us about our bodies and the intricacies of our intimacies. And so, we stumble and fumble in the darkness beneath the duvet or in candlelight (if we’re feeling adventurous). Although men regularly handle their ‘vajras’ (Tantric term for penis) when they pee, and women may entertain their ‘yonis’ (vagina) with a Rampant Rabbit or, horror of horrors, their fingers if they dare touch themselves ‘down there’, the potentialities of our sexual centres remain a relative mystery.
My interest in Tantra stretches back five years. In fact, it probably reaches all the way back to my early twenties (albeit unconsciously) when Sex and the City first ever aired in the UK. I watched the girls’ every move, eavesdropped on their conversations in an attempt to learn all they knew about sex. Why? Because I already knew something was amiss in my own sex life — I either wasn’t consciously connecting with partners, or was going through well-rehearsed techniques and rote routine. Whatever, sex was a tense, orgasm-focussed, BANG-BANG-BANG event rather than a juicy, sensually erotic opportunity to enjoy the experience in and of itself.
But with sex education limited to a half-arsed book and a biology class on the reproductive system, I was pretty much left to my own devices. And so it continued until early 2007 when a friend emailed me details of a talk being given to a group of women about Tantra by an organisation called Shakti Tantra. Intrigued, I went along. Although my curiosity was piqued, it would be another four years before I finally wound up on one of their ‘Women’s Invitation’ weekend-long courses — last weekend to be exact.
Thea Euryphaessa,
Founder, Urban Deva
