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"Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?"
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought."
Graham Greene.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
Albert Einstein.
 People often ask me about the meaning of the word Tantra. The simplest translation of Tantra is "path" as in "path to enlightenment". Here in North America, Tantra has come to be associated with spiritual sex. Most of the traditional forms of Tantra in the East, are celibate paths.
This is a Kundalini Tantra course, and waking the Kundalini tends to cause an increase in sexual interest. Particularly in the beginning when the Kundalini energy is moving through the lower chakras. Later, the sexual energy gets redirected and refined to fuel spiritual growth and personal evolution. Bliss becomes an every day, every moment experience and sex becomes a pleasant option rather than a driving need.
Tantra practitioners make a distinction between a path and a religion. Religions tend to be dogmatic. The follower of a religion is expected to accept the dogma of the religion as their own beliefs. A path by contrast is much more about enquiry. It is not so much about answers as about contemplating questions, to find the answers from within. Near the beginning of this course you will open the voice of the Heart, the voice of the soul, your own Spirit. It is often called the "inner Guru." Gandhi called it "the still, small voice within."
Fire Serpent Tantra is not a religion. I will sometimes want you to experiment with making a leap of faith, but for the most part, I will not ask you to accept my ideas uncritically. What I am offering is a series of thought experiments. The opportunity to change your mind about some things, to try out some alternate belief structures and exercises in order effect an expansion of consciousness. If it is true that you can change your life by changing your mind, then it seems appropriate to experiment with changing your mind in order to observe how it changes your life.
I am not attached to dogma, not even my own dogma. I believe God-dess is bigger than all of our ideas about religion, about reality.. including my own. The part of our mind that thinks about things, cannot comprehend the Infinite.
Try it yourself, as your first thought experiment. Try to hold the entire solar system in your mind.. then the galaxy, then other galaxies, and more galaxies. Stretch your mind as much as you can, and try to comprehend "infinite". You will find that after a certain point your mind simply refuses to stretch anymore, it just boggles and collapses into silence.
I was doing this meditation for fun, when I was 13 years old. I did not know it was a Zen meditation, my own inner guidance prompted me to do it, so I did.
We cannot comprehend the infinite, but in clearing away the chaos and noise, we can *become* the infinite, manifest. The silent mind of a Zen Master is an indescribable, wordless state of awareness of the inherent perfection and Divinity (Buddha nature) in everything, including ourselves. It is a state where thinking is not required, words and actions are spontaneous and perfect. A state of Grace.
When you think of the term "Self Realization", probably 2 meanings come forth. One is the Mystical idea of Realizing oneself as unified with All that Is, clearing away Karma and finding the Inner Divinity. The second meaning is the personal development process of becoming uniquely your Self. Getting to know yourself and loving your own unique individuality.
These are both the same process. When you "wash" your brain, your mind and body clean of Karma, the real You can be seen and discovered.
Goddess makes every human being unique like snowflakes, and it is Her will that sorted your DNA when you were conceived. Within you, in your spirit, your DNA and your body's instinctual wisdom is that blueprint for the amazing creation that She intended. It is hidden under a pile of Karmic ego stuff about what your parents wanted you to be, and all the ways you gave yourself away to conform to other people's expectations and limits.
Want to know more? One of my graduate students wrote this essay:
Course intro by Percyval.
For many years now, I have been teaching both mainline, and a vanilla, I
guess, Kundalini counseling and mysticism. But I have also been teaching a
form of Tantra that I have come to call "Fire Serpent Tantra". That is
what this course is about. This is a course that's all about Kundalini. And
it's also about how BDSM female dominant rituals can be very sacred acts of
love and pleasure that evolve the spirituality of the individual. This
course has been broken down into three sections. It is designed basically,
in some ways, to follow my own path. That is the tradition of most
spiritual teachers, that they teach what they know. I was a spiritual
teacher before I got into the SM scene, and the course reflects that.
The first section of the course is matrifocal, in that we are focusing on
surrendering to the Divine Goddess, Shakti, which is symbolic of the Sacred
Serpent of the Kundalini Energy. However, it is essentially a very complete
Kundalini course. I teach you how to get grounded, how to awaken the energy
within you, and also how to surrender with it. How to work with it in the
process of living with it on a day-to-day basis. And also clearing your own
Karma and your own blockages, so that this Divine Energy, this Divine
Creative Energy, can evolve you. It will evolve you into someone that you
cannot even imagine at this time. It will bring out your fullest potential,
and you will become someone more amazing than you could ever have
comprehended, perhaps more amazing than your most amazing dreams. That is
the purpose of the Kundalini; that is what it does. It evolves your body
and your consciousness to become a temple of the Goddess.
If you are only interested in the spirituality of Kundalini and having your
Awakening, then most likely you'll only want to take the first section of
this course, because that is what it focuses on. I believe that before you
get into the emotional intensity of BDSM, that you should really have a good
knowledge of who you are. I believe the best way to gain that knowledge is
through the very beautiful evolutionary process of Awakening. So the first
section of the course is entirely devoted to that. It is solo work to focus
on awakening the energy within you, and learning how to work with it,
learning some of the possible pitfalls along the path, and also the joys and
the beauties that is the greatest love affair on Earth, between you and your
own Divinity.
Now this is a matrifocal course. In the second section of the course, we're going to be focusing on altering, changing and clearing out the cultural
programming that is patriarchy. Here in the Western world, we're in a
patriarchal culture. A lot of people are focused on "the Lord" as the
Divinity, and that is considered to be a male aspect. And instead we're
focusing on the female idea of the Divinity, the unconditionally loving
Mother Goddess. Now, the thing about cultural programming is that it's kind
of like being a fish in the water. A fish is not aware of water because
they're immersed in it. It's so much a part of their environment that
they're not even aware of how it really affects them, until they're caught
on a hook, and they're pulled out into the air. And then they experience
something different.
And that, in a way, it is what are going to be doing in the second section of
the course. By focusing on matriarchy, you will become much more aware of
exactly how your natural self, your nature, has been affected by the culture
of patriarchy. Aware of it so that you can choose to change it, to clear
that stuff out of yourself, and become freer of it. And that is really a
very beautiful process, because it's all about getting back to your own
natural instinct. And your instincts come from your Unconscious, from your
Body-Mind. And your Body-Mind is connected to Infinite Wisdom and
Creativity. When we speak of the Zen state of no-thought, where there are
no thoughts in your mind but your actions are perfect, that is a state where
the Ego and the programming of where the Rational Mind, which is very
limited, has been surrendered to the greater wisdom of instinct, of the
Body-Mind that comes from the Unconscious.
In the third section of the course, we're going to be focusing on getting into
the couples work, and getting into the beautiful rituals of Femdom BDSM
Tantra, the beautiful rituals of Female Dominant BDSM Tantra. We're going to
be focusing on the Wiccan ideal, which is that the Goddess Energy is
eternal, and the God Energy is mortal. And the Goddess gives birth to the
God, and the God is in service to Goddess's creation. So, the first part of
the course, we're going to be focusing on evolving the individual, so that they
are physically, spiritually and emotionally prepared for the very intense
beauty of the interactions of the third section of the course, which really
cannot be explained in words any more than any words can describe the
Infinite. But they can be experienced. And those experiences are vast and
beautiful.
So I want to mention again, if you've come to me because you're aware of me
as a Kundalini teacher, and as a spiritual teacher first, then I think you
will really enjoy the first section of this course. And it is designed to
stand alone. It is as complete as I could make it, and if anywhere it
sounds incomplete, then I'll simply add to it. It is very long. It is very
extensive. And I don't think that anyone should complete the first section
of the course, well, probably in less than about six months. Because you
have to surrender to Kundalini, you can't rush it. Some people perhaps are
already part way through their evolution, and they may be able to go through
it more quickly. But if you are not yet awakened, then you can expect the
first section of the course will probably take you at least six months.
And then in the second half of the course, we'll be looking at Western
culture, how it works, how it doesn't work. Western culture is patriarchy,
and patriarchy has given us a lot of gifts. It has given us the technology
that brings my voice to you today. But it's also given us some of these
environmental disasters that just aren't working very well. The whole
patriarchal ideal of dominion of nature simply doesn't work. It's gotten us
into a little bit of a mess in some places. So instead, we're going to be
focusing on surrendering to our own nature, to our own Divine Instincts.
It has taken me a long time to put together this course. It has taken me
even longer to evolve myself to a place where I feel ready to present
something like this. And I truly hope that you will join me on this
beautiful journey that is the greatest love affair on Earth, the
relationship between you and your own Divinity, your own Spirit.
Namaste.
"If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it--the life of that man is one long sin against mankind."
-- W. K. Clifford
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