In one sense Tantra festivals are quite new phenomenon on the planet, in another they are just the latest form of community gathering to meet the mysteries – like the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece or clan initiation ceremonies in India – the community comes together in rites to individually and collectively open their consciousness.
The great appeal of Tantra is the promise of SEX, in whatever form that takes – it is the gravitational force that pulls us towards other people, events and life – it’s the force that brings us onto earth into life itself. It might also be our greatest fear, as it pushes us to confront our shadows, neuroses that have been able to remain hidden through normal cultural repression, and so they have gathered around our sexuality.
The attractiveness of SEX can be in the appearance or energy of other people, in the juiciness and aliveness of the food we are eating, or the radiance of the nature surrounding us. It’s deeper and more primal than just interactions happening in a bedroom. Each of us have own personal attraction and unconscious reasons to attend events such as these.
So this is the initial attraction, but it is pulling you into something deeper – and this is what starts to happen at a Tantra festival, people begin to open up, move energy, connect with themselves and others – they begin to encounter those parts of themselves that haven’t yet realized themselves as love. Patterns and emotions we have carried for years begin to bubble up to the surface – it’s as if we create a field of energy between us, and that tantric energy field acts upon us to create transformation in the areas of our lives are ready for it.
Festivals are an excuse for something new to arise, a doorway for deeper evolutionary impulses to emerge. Have you ever noticed that we try to use our votes in various systems to effect change on the planet, however, the change only seems to match where our collective consciousness/unconscious is most concentrated? To really effect change we need to go deeper, deeper than the bunch of ideas and preconceptions our conditioning has collected through our cultural circumstances. We need to reconnect to impulses arising within us, to listen to the unfolding edge of the universe and what discover the secret whisperings of our souls. Then we can realize the unique gifts that wait dormant inside of us and learn ways to express these. From there we can create systems that support our consciousness to deepen, and our cultural values to shift – it’s a feedback loop!
So underneath all the fun connections, eye gazing, dancing, meditating, cuddling – all the things you might hope to experience at a festival, something else going on… By coming together as a tribe that is open and willing to change, these gatherings become an energetic focus on the earth, peircing through personal maya and unblocking energy like acupuncture needles – they allow for a shift in consciousness that can ripple out deeper into the collective. Our instinct for SEX can reach towards SPIRIT and SPIRIT can emerge as multiple forms of inspiration that get seeded within us. Then it’s up to us to bring these into existence.
This is a gathering of a Tribe, and that’s what tribe stands for!
James Stevenson
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