EIGHTEEN months ago, I stumbled into level one of Shakti Tantra's women's training programme.
I say stumbled, as I arrived late, getting lost en route. For someone with a keen sense of direction, I suspect my lateness was more a deep-rooted, unconscious resistance to what I was about to embark on. Because on the way to the fifth and final week-long workshop (Ecstasy) I've just completed down in Cornwall, my girlfriends and I did it again: this time, unconsciously veering off towards London, twice. But we got there... eventually.
Now I have done this programme, I can confidently say the sex/personal intimate encounters the majority of folk are having are piss poor
The women's training programme comprises five workshops ― Women’s Invitation, Women’s Celebration, Women Behaving Badly, Women of Substance, and Ecstasy ― spread out over however long it takes you to complete them.
I went straight through all five levels, one after the other, with almost all the same group of women: a group of women who ranged in age from twenty-something through sixty-something, with most in their thirties and forties.
Even while writing this, my mind is still whirring, assimilating and processing all that's happened, all I've experienced. So, let me cut to the chase: if you have a poor relationship with your body (which, let's face it, is the vast majority), burying it in food/alcohol/drugs/loathing, do this programme.
If you want to revel in your body, delight in it, discover its delicious secrets (and my God, does it harbour many delicious secrets), do this programme. If you want to intimately connect with another, mind, heart and sex, do this programme. If you’re a mother who’s lost touch with her sensual, erotic self, do this programme.
If you’ve ever experienced any form of sexual violation, do this programme. If you find orgasm oriented, penetrative sex boring and unfulfilling, and wonder if there are deeper, more nourishing, more satisfying ways of connecting with another, do this programme. If you want to learn how to experience sheer, unadulterated ecstasy, then, do this programme.
In fact, now I have done this programme, I can confidently say the sex/personal intimate encounters the majority of folk are having are piss poor. A bold statement? Perhaps. But now I've completed this training, there's not a chance in hell I'd ever shack up again with someone who wasn't Tantric-oriented or, at the very least, wanted to learn about/pursue this path. Because one of the many jewels of this programme is you learn not to sell yourself cheap in any way, shape, or form. Quality, not quantity.
And I don't care how much sex you profess to have, how many orgasms you have, how ‘in love’ you are with your partner, or how 'mind-blowing' your encounters may be; how you know your way around the anatomy of your beloved better than a gynaecologist ― I'm here to tell you that, unless you've done a programme like this, you haven't got a clue.
Until you've learnt about the 'intricacies of your intimacies'; healed the deep-rooted shame you carry around your 'funny smelling', 'ugly', or 'strange' looking yoni (vagina, muff, minge) with a seeming life of its own; your podgy belly, saggy/stretch-marked boobs, dimply thighs/knees/bum; until you've realised you do deserve to receive and enjoy juicy, evocative, enriching encounters; looked the deeply hidden, psychological demons that block and inhibit your pleasure straight in the eye; explored the many, many aspects of your sexuality (and believe me, there are many), I'm telling you, you haven't got a clue.
Part Two to follow...
For more details of the women's training programme, visit shaktitantra.co.uk/women
To read Thea’s experience of each workshop, click on the following:
- Ecstasy
For more mind, body, and soul tips, follow Thea on Twitter @UrbanDeva
Visit the Urban Deva Facebook page facebook.com/urbandeva or website at urbandeva.com/blog
You can read about Thea’s life in her book, Running into Myself, available from Amazon.
