08 Feb Sex-Positive Traditions
Being involved with Western tantra for decades, the idea that sex is a valid path of spiritual development has deeply informed my life. This is a minority opinion, however, and it turns out that it has been so worldwide and throughout most of recorded history. Sex is and has been considered “lower,” while spirituality is “higher.”
To align with Western tantra in contemporary society is to meet with disapproval and salacious interest. Mainstream society has been led to believe that “tantra” means sleazy sex, the quest for bigger and better orgasms, orgies, and prostitution, none of which I have any quarrel with, but are certainly not the tantra I have studied or participated in. These attitudes carry the Judeo-Christian condemnation of the body and sensuality even though the mainstream considers itself sexually open-minded. Some have believed that Western tantra is the recovery of long-ago techniques and secret teachings. At the same time in Facebook tantra groups there is often an Indian man posting that “Tantra is not really about sex” in an adamant tone. Reading this I would rationalize and say to myself that this is a reflection of Indian culture being uptight about sex, which it is, but it also pointed out that I should know more about whether tantra is really about sex.
I too have been under the assumption that tantra is a long-standing tradition that is sex-positive and life-affirming, and I found in my research for this class that some of it is, and some of it is decidedly not. The same holds true for the Taoist tradition. Are there other traditions that were sex-positive?
© 2024 Catherine Auman
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