Tantra: The Art of Sexual Healing
by Evalena Rose, M.A.

Tantra is a beautiful way to heal wounded sexuality and give you back your body and your life. It combines the ancient spiritual arts of sacred connection to yourself and others, gleaned from the wisdom traditions of many paths, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism and Native American spirituality. Using deep and intentional breathing, imagery and movement, tantra moves the kundalini or vital life force (prana) through the chakras, opening and energizing them, bringing you home to yourself.

I began Tantra quite "by accident" during a time when I was most disgruntled with my sexuality, feeling so little pleasure I didn't care if I ever made love again. When a friend gifted me a 7 day workshop in Hawaii, I thought only of sun, beaches and time to laze around. When it struck me I was in a workshop on sexuality, I thought "Oh, my God, what have I done now?"

Those 7 days changed my life forever. I learned my body is my own, I can set boundaries and allow only touch I desire, and I can feel desire and passion even without a partner. That week restored my holy relationship with myself. I learned that this body I'd given away so often, trading sex for love, was actually designed to give me pleasure and fulfillment in ways that could bring me to the Goddess within.

Tantra opens and activates the chakras and, by moving sexual energy through them, brings up whatever blocks true passion. My workshop leaders and dakinis (assistants who come to support sexual healing) created a sacred temple in which I felt safe to explore the pain of being sexually violated as a child, breathing through it to the pleasure beneath. In the exercises I could explode in rage, shake out the blocks, and reclaim a body ravaged by incest and years of reenactment through casual sex. It was amazing to be so accepted with all of my pain, respected and supported for my deep commitment to heal.

Even when the memories were the worst and I needed to be celibate, Tantra gave me a way to recreate my sexuality and enjoy the movement of orgasmic energy through my healing tissues. When I could make love, the practices guided me to connect my heart with my yoni (genitals) and enjoy a full-bodied extended orgasmic play far more fulfilling than any sexuality of my former, active life.

Now I find I can make love in hundreds of ways: through breathing alone with the full moon, running energy with the Goddess in the shower, touching hands on heart with my beloved and simply breathing love into each other, or through full, deep sexual exchange. Tantra adds the spiritual component so making love feels like worship and I feel like a Goddess being honored. Such a change. My body is now a temple and I enjoy life within it.

Published in Sonoma County Women's Voices, August, 1997