What is Tantra Massage?
Contents:
I. Description of tantra massage
II. Tantra and tantra massage
1. Tantra
a. Meaning
b. Roots
2. What is the connection between tantra massage and tantra?
a. The development of the tantra massage
b. Relationship between neo-tantra schools and tantra massage
c. How is a tantra massage tantric?
i. Ritual
ii. Honouring
iii. Transpersonal encounter
iv. Holistic concept of humanity
v. Sexuality as life force
III. Target groups for tantra massage
I. Description of tantra massage:
The tantra massage is a comprehensive ritual during which the whole body is touched and massaged. The massage incorporates the senses, including water, wind, sound, aroma and sometimes taste.
During the tantra massage, the genital areas are also included in a harmonic and natural way.
Sexual intercourse does not take place (neither genital or oral).
During the whole tantra massage, right from the beginning, the orgastic energy is awakened, maintained and distributed throughout the body.
The massage recipient has the chance to directly experience and further unfold the potential of their sensual-sexual life force.
The massage has an established procedure with certain fixed basic elements. This has been developed in a meaningful way.
During the massage, both the massage practitioner and the guest are completely naked. Full-body contact between the practitioner and the guest occurs repeatedly during the massage.
The guest is not forbidden to touch the practitioner but shall nonetheless remain in the receptive role.
The massage guest does not determine the procedure of the massage. However, upon request, they are allowed to exclude certain individual elements. The practitioner does not address whether the guest has any sexual desires nor shall they enter into any negotiation of such.
The aims of the tantra massage are: an overall feeling of relaxation; to sustain the guest’s orgasmic state; and, where possible, to enable the guest to experience this orgasmic state in their whole body.
top ˆII. Tantra and tantra massage
1. Tantra
a ) Meaning
Tantra accepts the person in their entirety. It weaves together the apparent opposites of good and evil, so-called “holy” and “sinful”, spirituality and sexuality, body and spirit.
Whereas in other religions, spirituality and Eros appear to be strictly separate, tantra refers us back to our original connectedness.
Many religions see humans as being imperfect, sinful or at the least beings who have to make an effort in order to find enlightenment. Tantra, however, says that humans are already free and perfect. Tantra does not teach us a laborious path to enlightenment; instead it shows us how to recognise perfection.
A core teaching here is the moment in which something happens: being fully aware of the moment, clearly and with all senses, without judging it from the perspective of the past or the future. The moment when something ascends to become something greater, because all tension, all judgements and all “opinions” have disappeared.
b ) Roots
Without doubt, the roots of tantra are to be found in protohistorical matriarchal cultures. All of the world’s matriarchal cultures were infused with a spirituality that honoured sexuality as a vital and creative force, celebrating it in numerous festivals, rituals and in everyday life. Death also found its place in this concept of the world, where connectedness with nature and the cosmos was self-evident and ever-present. This also applies to the early cultures in the Indus valley, where the roots of all tantric traditions can be found.
Violent interference from alien cultures (the Arian invasion) led to the development of Brahmanism and, from this, Hinduism. The tantric rituals and teachings were incorporated, ideologically reformed or condemned and forbidden. In the centuries since then, innumerable branches and sects have arisen, who sometimes disputed each other’s teachings or even fought among themselves.
Later, there were mergers of tantric traditions with some elements of Buddhism. Then, after being transformed firstly by Hinduism and then by Buddhism, tantric teachings spread as far as Tibet.
In the 19th century, fragments of tantric teachings found their way to the West, thanks to merchants, colonialists, ethnologists and missionaries. However, seen from a predominantly Christian viewpoint, they were initially often heavily misunderstood.
In the 1970s, the Indian mystic Osho was the first to make tantra comprehensible for Westerners and establish tantric ideas more widely in the West. All serious tantric schools in the West can trace their roots back to his influence - even if some teachings from the different schools are contradictory. Our understanding of tantra in this Association is also largely based on his interpretation.
Tantra is neither a school of expertise and techniques for love or sex, nor is it a series of rituals. And there is no single generally valid doctrine, nor is there one spiritual leader with the power to define what tantra is or isn’t. If we try to see through all the religious and historical layers of ideology, the common core of the tantric teachings is a focus on the insight and experience of the ultimate unity of creation and destruction, male and female, good and evil, sexuality and prayer, Eros and religion. This core captures the source and roots of tantra in the matriarchal ultimate ground.
2. What is the connection between tantra massage and tantra?
a ) The development of the tantra massage
The term “tantra massage” was coined during its development in the “neotantra” schools. In particular, the tantric master Andro Andreas Rothe has to be named here since almost all tantra massages are still largely based on his pioneering work. His massage was extended and further developed by various massage institutes and trainers and is still being changed and adapted today.
b ) The relationship between neo-tantra schools and tantra massage
Tantra massage and tantra are not identical; indeed, none of the original tantric traditions mention massage or sensuality. For this reason, the tantra massage movement is often faced with the accusations that it is espousing roots that are not its own, degenerating “true tantra”, or even commercialising tantra.
The latter accusation of commercialisation is fairly easy to counter: all Western tantra schools can and could only spread by means of paid services such as seminars and workshops. In today’s society the flow of money is a prerequisite for almost any exchange of services or ideas, including worldviews or spiritual teachings. Tantra massages are a valid service; their visionary background and spiritual roots do not detract from their integrity.
The accusation of degeneration is just as unfounded: tantra was originally always a religion for the people. The official religions of Hinduism and Buddhism incorporated and reformed it, sometimes persecuted and condemned it, and also elevated it into occult teachings, making it inaccessible to common people.
Tantra massage offers the opportunity to allow many people to experience the spirit of tantra, even those who do not explicitly want to follow a particular spiritual insight tradition. The fundamental wisdom of the unity of all human aspects and the affirmation of sensuality and sexuality as a life force both apply to every human.
Nonetheless, one phenomenon should not be overlooked in this regard. The increasing popularity of tantra massage in recent years has led to a vast array of “tantra massages” coming onto the market whose quality and background are not always above suspicion. So the Tantra Massage Association sees one of its tasks as offering orientation in the form of ensuring and further developing the quality of the massages offered by its member institutes.
c ) How is a tantra massage tantric?
Although tantra and tantra massage should not be treated as one and the same thing, the tantra massage as propagated and represented by the Tantra Massage Association is based on certain spiritual foundations that can be found in all historical, geographical and ideological manifestations of the tantric teachings and in many other wisdom traditions as well. The following sections shows which attitudes and components express the tantric aspects of the massage.
Ritual
The tantra massage’s ritualised procedure has the effect of objectifying the action. The primary focus is not on the individual selection and sequence of massage strokes but rather on the predetermined and valid structure that lends the practitioner’s actions their authority. This compares to the use of an icon or mandala, which are both created according to canonically prescribed instructions. These instructions were determined at some point in the past and the same pattern is always applied. So icons and mandalas are not works of art in a free sense. And for the same reason, an icon is never signed by the artist with their own name. The result then has a different effect, beyond individual taste or ego.
Honouring
The approach in tantra massage is one of honouring and worship. During the massage, the divine aspect of the guest is honoured - their femaleness or maleness being perceived purely. The ritual form of the massage is an essential aspect of this fundamental attitude, since it allows both participants to take a step out of their everyday presence and enter a ceremonial setting to celebrate their own body and experience their own sensuality with dignity and beauty.
This imparts a feeling of acceptance which in turn is the prerequisite for fully enjoying a massage - which can actually be a healing experience. The act of fully accepting and honouring that which is present at this time in this place turns the meeting of massage practitioner and guest into an authentic encounter. This contrasts with the approach taken in therapeutic or treatment settings (see below). Therapy is based on diagnosis. However, the diagnostic view is depersonalising because it doesn’t look at the person but rather focusses on the illness.
Holistic
One quality that makes a massage tantric is being holistic. It touches the whole person without avoiding any part of the body. It also doesn’t leave out the aspect of sexuality, awakening its energy as a life force. And every consequence of this, whether breath, voice or movement, whether ejaculation, convulsions or tears ... all the way to passionate-mystical experiences or even just a plain simple orgasm: everything is fine and welcome the way it is.
Even the absence of any of this (e.g. ejaculation) is fine and welcome. There is no pressure to perform. With regard to orgasms, we do not regard the suppression of ejaculation as essentially tantric. However, channelling sexual energy can be very desirable and supported during the massage. Each individual man and woman has their own attitude towards ejaculation and this should be respected.
Transpersonal Encounter
A conscious step on the part of the participants in the massage enables them to meet as Shiva and Shakti - the divine presence within humans. The everyday man and everyday woman with all their projections take a step back, allowing them to represent the divine during the ritual.
Honouring phrases are spoken to open up the inner massage space and transform the next actions into sacred actions. This might sound somewhat “theological” but it implies nothing other than a conscious act of ritual greeting which enables the participants to leave behind their judgements and habits. What remains is deep respect and mutual appreciation. Respect is the approach which we offer and which we also demand of our guests.
Sexuality as life force and nothing other than that
In our Western culture, sexuality is almost always linked to other issues: relationship, love, guilt, shame, neediness, victim-perpetrator, disdain, marriage, politics etc.
However, sexuality during a tantra massage is simply about the sexual force itself. It is the movement of sexual energy that is not tied down to anything else. Without this power there would be no life.
Here we adopt the approach that sexuality should not be instrumentalised. It is not a means to an end: it does not serve as a vehicle to spiritual enlightenment. In other words, we are not interested in “spiritually exploiting” sexuality. Instead, we allow sexuality to be what it always has been and always will be, nothing more and nothing less: sensual and extrasensory, and passionate.
top ˆIII. Target groups for tantra massage
Individual Guests:
Tantra massages are designed for adult women and men of every age, social class and worldview. They are for people who want to experience their own sensuality in dignity and beauty.
Couples:
Tantra massages can offer inspiration and revitalising impulses for couples. There are several different arrangements and possibilities here.
Tantra massage as a method of treatment
Although tantra massage is not therapy and therefore is not carried out with an intention to heal anything, member institutes within the Tantra Massage Association repeatedly receive enquiries from doctors, therapists and psychologists requesting them to give their clients a healing experience by enabling them to experience their own sensuality.
This makes particular sense in cases of impotence, premature ejaculation, periods of low sexual desire, insecurity after illness, operations or pregnancy and certain other indications. In these cases, the following should be borne in mind.
The guest (and their therapist) has to know:
tantra massage is not therapy and is not carried out with the intention of healing;
the fundamental approach of the massage is open-ended and purposeless, oriented only to the experience of one’s own sensuality;
the guest is treated at all times with respect and appreciation;
the massage can be experienced as healing as well as enjoyable; the massage guest assumes the full responsibility for their own experience of the massage.
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