Tantra massage and androgyny. From myth to practical understanding

The Western myth

In Western civilisation we are familiar with the myth of androgyny as it was portrayed by Plato in “The Banquet”, a dialogue on love. Legend says that man’s original form was double, meaning that a human being was in the beginning made of a man and a woman linked at their back. These half-male/half-female humans were blissful andd powerful; so powerful that the gods decided to separate them in two parts, separation that resulted in the men and women we are today.

However, our souls remember the time when we were whole and long to get back to the original state. This is why we tend to spend our lives looking for our other half and trying to merge back, to become one again.

Freaky as it may sound, this symbolic myth is embeded with a fundamental human truth, one that is revealed in all spiritual traditions, from Christianity to Tantrism and Taoism.

 

The Bible says that God created Adam; then, out of his rib, he created Adam’s feminine counterpart – Eve. This is not to say that God created man first, as it is so simplistically understood by most. The fact that Eve was made out of a part of Adam symbolises that the original human condition was androgynous.

The Oriental perspective

Oriental traditions, however, managed to depict this more clearly, and made this truth a very practical aim of self-development.
Chinese spirituality, for instance, states that the entire Universe is created and manifested by the two fundamental forces: yin (feminine) and yang (masculine). Everything that exists is a result of these energies’ interaction and every single thing is partly yin and partly yang in various proportions.

 

The goal of Taoism is to balance these complementary aspects within our being, in order to reach perfect equilibrium and self-control. The fully awakening and balancing of the yin and yang is the key to absolute power and complete knowledge.

Tantra concepts

Tantra is also based on two fundamental concepts: conscience (Shiva, masculine) and energy (Shakti, feminine). It is said that Shiva without Shakti would be shava (a corpse), meaning to say that conscience without energy is as good as dead; without energy, it cannot create or manifest anything, it cannot act; and that Shakti without Shiva would be kalila (chaos) – without conscience, there can be no order, no purpose, no meaning.

One can only entirely know oneself, free oneself and unleash one’s absolute power, bliss and knowledge by completely awakening the consciousness and dynamising the energy.

 

Come to our salon in order to find out more about tantra techniques!