This is an excerpt from our spring 2015 issue, out now. Stockists | Subscribe
Practices to Unite Heart and Body
By Dawn Cartwright
Extraordinary gifts await the single person who embarks on the Tantric path. Clarity, self-love, strength and luminescent attractiveness effortlessly appear in those who learn to harness the most life-arousing of all energies, the sexual, in solo practice.
The Tantric iconography includes images of two deities, Shiva and Kali. We see Shiva in repose at Kali’s feet, her right foot upon his heart. Shiva is our body, inert without energy. Kali is energy itself, bringing life into lifeless matter. Heralding two ports of entry onto the Tantric path – the body and the heart – these two practices revive and join the two in you, as a gift to yourself. Remember, without Kali, there is no Shiva. And without Shiva, no Kali.
Tantra Heart Practice
1. Place your hands on your heart. Notice the rise and fall of your body as you breathe.
2. Inhale 2-3 seconds beyond what is habitual, as you expand your heart into your hands.
3. Exhale slowly and without force, as you pull your navel toward your spine and slightly upward.
Read the rest of the steps and the Tantra Body Practice in the spring issue. Stockists | Subscribe
