The Christmas season got off to a wonderful start with the Dartmouth Festival of Tantra and Healing Arts. This event was organized by Colin and Kerry, a husband and wife team who live in the lovely coastal town of Dartmouth.

DARTMOUTH: A JEWEL OF A PLACE

Dazzling Dartmouth

They wanted to bring their love of Tantra and their love of their home town together in a ‘gathering of the tribes.’ In doing so, they took on a humongous undertaking. The locals were not responsive to the lure of Tantra, and so we had 300 participants, but nary a one from Dartmouth! They reserved the local privately owned hotel on the high street and the local community centre, as well as another venue to host the event. The backdrop was the very charming village and the stunning beauty of this jewel of a harbour, surrounded by hills.

Dartmouth was buzzing with the influx of at times strangely garbed people who floated around on a perpetual high of pleasure hormones activated by attending short taster workshops guided by the UK’s most highly respected Tantra teachers. This in itself was a miraculous event within the event. Perhaps nowhere else in the world will you find such a gathering of very individualistic teachers who are able to come together in celebration and mutual respect for each other’s talent.

TANTRA COMMUNITY

One of the Tantra teachers, Hanna, summed it up with this statement:

“I am so in awe of what you have created. It was certainly an incredible experience for the participants, but most impressive is what it is and has done to the Tantra teachers. I have received beautiful emails and phone messages from other tantra teachers saying how they are so happy now that we are connected and sharing. Colin and Kerry, and Kavida of Tantra Link, you have transcended the ego and brought us together to create a real Tantric community. A great healing!”

(She mentions the great healing, because human nature being what it is, there have been times over the years when some Tantra teachers resorted to competition and backbiting about each other.) With great dedication, Tantra Link and the organizers of the Dartmouth festival have found a way to bring all the teachers together. It is not that we are blending into a homogenized stew, not at all! We have found out how to appreciate each other’s differences, and discovered that these differences are actually quite enriching to the wholeness of Tantra development in the UK. For the past year or so, we have been having regular Tantra Teachers gatherings where we come together and discuss all the many and varied issues relevant to the Tantra Transmission.

TANTRA FORUM

One of the highlights of the festival was the Tantra Forum, where people from the audience could ask any questions they have to a whole panel of Tantra teachers. The answers were brilliant, and it is unfortunate that we didn’t have a film camera going. I believe that next year it will be filmed and accessible through the internet.

BLISS

All the fun of the festival!

During the festival there were booths of all kinds, from crystal jewelry, to clothing, to sex toys for the bedroom. There was also some phenomenal music played live by Presence. Shiva and I guided a morning dance meditation called from Sex to Superconsciousness with Presence. It was so much fun! I also taught a couple of taster workshops, one for beginners and one for advanced. There was a gala dress up dinner party, and a fabulous dance party till the wee hours of the morning. If tired from dancing, people could go into the chill out room, where healers with angel wings on were offering caressing or massage sessions.

Throughout the festival, people could receive individual sessions of all kinds, from Tarot to Indian Head Massage. It appeared that everyone was deeply enriched by the whole experience. I anticipate that as time goes on, this festival and others like it will become a beacon of transformation for the world at large.

After all, human beings are made of both sexual and spiritual aspects. When we bring these elements together, as happens in Tantra, a mysterious alchemy is born, the alchemy of bliss. Living in bliss is our birthright as human beings. As Scientist Candace Pert says, in her book, the Molecules of Emotion, “We are hardwired for bliss.”

Love from

Sarita