Sacred Sexuality and Neo-Tantra | Happy Ending, Hype, or Healing?

Although the idea of Sacred Sexuality (or Divine Sexuality) is quite a hype nowadays, it’s far from being a new phenomenon. Certainly, it has strongly re-emerged — and has become almost mainstream through contemporary Tantra and Neo-Tantra movements, but sexuality and our sexual energy have always been given special attention in most civilizations — old and new — and in the vast majority of religious or spiritual movements.

In most cases, sex has been seen as something intimate, sacred, holy, God-given, and an act or experience between two persons that needs to be treated with due respect and reverence. Sexuality is considered powerful, an innate, strong human drive and force, an emotion and energy that needs to be controlled and sublimated to avoid excesses and “perversities.” Historically, this has often led to problems expressing our sexuality in natural ways, with all the consequences of that.

The institute of marriage or lifelong partnership was (and often still is) an important way of “monitoring” and controlling our sexual behavior; having sex outside the confinement of marriage or outside any other “sacred bond” condoned by society or by the predominant religion has been (or still is) marked as sinful, an act that can lead to “raised eyebrows,” to exclusion from family and society, sometimes imprisonment, and in extreme cases even to capital punishment.

In Tantra philosophy, sexuality is predominantly seen as a powerful creative and spiritual energy, one that is associated with opening the Chakras and Kundalini Awakening, and female Shakti Energy. The idea is that sexual energy, which is considered feminine, should unite or reunite with masculine spiritual energy, in order to experience Universal Unity, Divine Consciousness, Eternal Bliss, Self-Realization, Spiritual Enlightenment, and so on.

Nevertheless, the concepts of feminine and masculine are just one particular way to point to the concept of duality. That is, the world, mankind, the universe, in fact, all phenomena, everything in and around us is an expression in and of duality; without duality the world cannot exist. We need high and low, pulling and pushing, honesty and corruption, dry and wet, movement and stillness, sleep and wakefulness, sickness and health, and so on, for the world to make itself known and express itself in “the material sphere.”

As such, Tantra embraces this inherent duality in the world in us and around us — the “good” and the “bad” — as real and necessary, and as a sacred part of the game of Life. Nothing is “dirty,” loathful, unworthful, or to be suppressed; by contrast, the whole of phenomenal expressions need to be accepted and embraced in order to understand Life and live in inner harmony, and moreover, this includes the healthy expression of our sexuality.

In fact, the goal of ancient Indian philosophical systems, Yoga, religions, and spiritual movements has always been to transcend this state of duality, which — on a higher, spiritual level — is considered to be an illusion, self-deception, unreal, ignorance, a state that makes us see the universe, the world, and other people as separate entities devoid of any relationship to us.

It’s thought that innerly seeing the world only as a never-ending play of clashing opposites makes us restless and unhappy. Yet, by transcending (or surpassing) duality through a spiritual practice (such as, for instance, through Tantra Yoga or meditation) we can experience inherent unity and attain Universal Consciousness. Tantra and Tantric practices and techniques are just one of many ways of achieving this, and work with the physical, emotional, and energetic body.

Thus, every now and then in the history of mankind, there are groups of people with alternative or new ways of thinking who rebel against systematic sexual suppression. Taoism and Tantra are two well-known forms of these anti-establishment movements, which have emerged in the past two thousand years, sometimes gaining influence and then again being stifled and nearly eradicated themselves. Today, we again witness a strong push to the forefront of wanting to liberate sex, sexual energy and sexuality, and seeing it in the right perspective.

Yet, something that has been restrained or repressed for a long time, necessarily comes out forceful, like a sleeping volcano that suddenly awakes and erupts violently. It will scream, it will hype itself, draw attention to its aims in exaggerated forms, and it simply needs some time to balance itself. This is exactly what happens now in the Sacred Sexuality i.e. Tantric Divine Sexuality movement.

Today, we’re still in the midst of the exaggerated Neo-Tantric wave: everything sexual has become “sacred” as long as we do it or experience it in a “spiritual, mindful or conscious way.” As such, sucking on a condom, having Happy Ending and Full Service massages, masturbating the cervix, the clitoris, the testes and prostate, having unbridled sex, using a Yoni Egg, watching porn, and engaging in BDSM practices, can all be carried out as a “sacred Tantric practice” or as “Tantric Sex.” Perhaps this all is needed to reach people, but it all balances on the edge of the ridiculous.

Additionally, we too often see advertisement of simple Rub and Tug erotic massages or even straightforward paid sexual intercourse positioned as “Sacred Tantra Massage,” “Sacred Lingam Massage,” or Dearmoring Yoni Massage, to give some examples. This disturbs, distorts, and actually “rapes” the actual values behind Tantric and Neo-Tantric ideas, and increasingly positions Tantra in a preposterous footlight.

Another thing is the connection made between Sacred Sexuality and feminine sexual energy through the idea of Kundalini Shakti Energy being the female, dynamic and creative energetic aspect of universal manifestation. This has led to a focus on “liberating” women of suppressed sexuality, emotional and sexual trauma, an endeavor that has grown into a booming and profitable commercial market.

That is, women are “inspired,” cooed, and persuaded to buy trendy products and services that “liberate and solve everything” that is “wrong” with them, such as Jade or Yoni Eggs, Vaginal Steaming, Yoni Pleasure Wands, Full-Moon Druid-like retreats, Yoni Yoga classes, Emotional and Sexual Dearmoring Sex Toys, and whatnot.

At any rate, for serious Neo-Tantra and Neo-Taoist practitioners it has become increasingly important to rightly express what they’re aiming at, and distance themselves from the excesses, the utter hogwash, and commercial click baits. Unfortunately, it’s often those who scream the loudest and offer the most bizarre services who receive the most attention. And unfortunately, it’s likewise true that too many people i.e. customers look for the most brainless, most exhilarating, most trendy, easiest and accessible form of cheap entertainment.

Well, sex still sells, and many have jumped on the sacred sex-wagon as an additional way of making money. It’s a crazy world out there, but whatever you may think or feel about the current Neo-Tantra or Neo-Taoist madness, it’s obviously clear that the world continues to profoundly struggle with deeply emotional issues around suppressed and distorted sexuality and eroticism, and always again tries to find ways to solve those.

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