Our winter issue is out now. Regular contributor and Neo-Tantra visionary Dawn Cartwright reveals how to ignite the Spark we all crave, within ourselves and our relationships. Dive on in to find out more…
We adore this beautiful extract from Dawn Cartwright’s article in our Winter 2-19/20 issue, in which she shared some advice on how we can bring more love into our lovemaking. to read the full article, check here for your local stockist, or subscribe to receive a copy direct to your door.
Simple, beautiful moments of Tantra designed to open you to the extraordinary depths of the Tantric practice. Whether you’re just beginning, or you’ve been exploring Tantra for many years, you’ll find these moments bring intimacy in ways you might never have imagined. You’ll cultivate a steady sense of who you are, you’ll align with what is meaningful to you and you’ll experience a freedom to be and express as the person you truly are.
By Dawn Cartwright
Every moment is an opportunity for a beautiful Tantra ritual, all it takes is a bit of planning and preparation and soon hearts will be soaring.
The Invitation
First, extend an invitation to practise Tantra to a friend or lover. Be prepared to describe Tantra so there’s a clear understanding of what will take place. What is Tantra for you? Explore your desires and expectations for the practice together. What would you like to receive from the practice session? What would your partner like to receive? Whether it is to learn more about Tantra, to create a loving connection, to meditate together using Tantra practices, to ignite your sexual fire or whatever, embrace it.
Boundaries & Emotional Connection
Once you know what you’d like to give, receive and explore in the practice, talk about physical and emotional boundaries. What kind of touch you are comfortable giving and receiving – and where on each of your bodies you feel comfortable giving and receiving touch? Are there limitations to how long you can sit in meditation? Are you okay with incense? What kind of music do you enjoy? Sharing boundaries makes it possible for us to meet authentically and helps us to be responsible for fulfilling our own needs and asking for what we want during the practice. Create a comfortable Tantra practice environment to support you and your boundaries. What kind of environment will create the perfect atmosphere for the practice the two of you have planned? Use your imagination. Prepare your body. Take a shower, brush your teeth, anoint your body with essential oils, dress in fabrics that are sensual and comfortable. Bring a gift, something simple like a flower, or chocolate, or music.
The Tantra Practice
Before your practice session, choose a practice you both feel familiar with, preferably something you’ve practised several times on your own. This will make it easier for each of you to fully engage in the practice without becoming distracted as you try to remember steps or techniques. A practice you may wish to explore is described below.
Heart-2-Heart Breathing
Sit together, facing one another. You’ll place your right hand on your partner’s heart and your partner places their right hand on your heart. You both place your left hand over your partner’s hand on your heart. Close your eyes. Breathe out from your heart into your partner’s heart, giving love. Breathe in from your partner’s heart into your own, receiving love. This practice creates a weaving between your hearts and expands the connection you share. Continue for 3-5 minutes. Bow to one another to complete the practice.
Integration & Following Up
Make sure there’s time at the end of your practice to share what you have discovered with one another. Then, take
some time alone to integrate and digest what you have experienced by going for a walk or meditating. Make a date to check in with one another sometime within 24 hours. Share anything that may have arisen during or after your practice session.
Throughout the experience, remember to enjoy the moment!
Dawn Cartwright is a Tantric visionary, sacred writer, world traveller, and innovator in bioenergetic Tantra fusion. Dawn will have the ‘Women’s Sacred Sexuality, The Red Tent’ workshop, in the Wicklow Mountains, April 20th-21th, 2017.
This is a sneak peek from our Autumn 2016 issue, out now. Pick one up free in one of our stockists around the country to read the full article, or subscribe to have it delivered.
This series of Tantra Moments are techniques you can practice here and now, and I will continue to bring you more throughout the year. No partner is needed. No special abilities are required. Only you, just as you are.
Tantra Moments: Meeting Desire
By Dawn Cartwright
Desire is solid proof that life is brazenly optimistic. Proof that life believes in you, your ability to expand far beyond wherever you are right now. It’s that exhilarating feeling that fills the body whenever we are ignited – by pleasure, by love, new people, new ideas, new projects, old people, old ideas, old projects. Desire is the spark of something that has never yet been – reaching out to become. Meeting desire = meeting the future. It’s the you that you’re destined to be who’s keeping you up nights and making you crazy – not the object of your desire. It’s your future self emerging in those moments of passion. And the one you’re crazy about? That, my friend, is you. Expanding and growing, until the walls around you dissolve, leaving you exposed to the creative beginnings of true and unconditional love. (This makes life very happy.)
This is just a sneak peek. Read the whole article on Meeting Desire in the Autumn issue. Stockists | Subscribe
Upcoming Spring Events with Dawn
- October 6th (Thursday): Positive Nights: Sex Made Sublime. Dawn Cartwright is on her way back to Positive Nights for an experiential evening of discovery. You will be guided you through exquisitely beautiful Tantric practices designed for singles and couples alike, a journey into the far reaches of the heart. More info here
- October 7th – October 13th: Sacred Sexuality . How We Love: 6-Nights of Tantric Bliss. Explore the sacredness of your sexuality – the fire that ignites the heart and liberates the spirit. When lived and experienced naturally, our sexuality opens our heart, births creativity, power and freedom, actualising the potential of love in every way, in every encounter. More info here
This is a sneak peek from our spring 2016 issue, out now. Pick one up free in one of our stockists around the country to read the full article, or subscribe to have it delivered.
Positive Tantra: Open up to Intimacy
By Dawn Cartwright
If you’re new to Tantric ideas and practices, these simple, beautiful moments of tantra are perfect to open you to the extraordinary depths of experience and connection that tantra has to offer, a connection to yourself, the world and to others.
But whether you’re just beginning, or you’ve been exploring Tantra for many years, you’ll find these moments can bring intimacy in ways you might never have imagined. You’ll cultivate a steady sense of who you are, you’ll align with what is meaningful to you and you’ll experience a freedom to be and express as the person you truly are. Through the practice, you’ll experience a natural way of being that is sensual and blissful. This series of Tantra Moments are techniques you can practice here and now, and I will continue to bring you more throughout the year. No partner is needed. No special abilities are required. Only you, just as you are.
This is just a sneak peek. Read the whole series of Tantra moments in the spring issue. Stockists | Subscribe
Upcoming Spring Events with Dawn
- April 13th (Wednesday): Special Buddha Bag Meeting: Discover the True Potential of Sex. Dawn is on her way back to the Buddha Bag for an experimental evening of intimate discovery. Having just returned from a pilgrimage to India, Dawn will share the rare and beautiful Tantric practices she learned during her time there. More info here
- April 14th – 15th: Women’s Sacred Sexuality: The Red Tent. A wonderful workshop to nurture yourselves, learn sacred sexuality practices, enjoy nourishment and take space to allow yourselves to simply be. More info here
- April 15th – 17th: Workshop Sacred Sexuality: How we love. In a beautiful private retreat in the wilds of the Wicklow mountains, you’ll learn the many mysteries of Tantra, a path of the heart. More info here
Facebook Event Page | The Lantern Centre, Dublin 8 | Thursday 10 March, 8pm
Who says you can’t get to heaven having a good time? Don’t answer – you probably know them already, they who pollute the practice of pleasure with demons of Shame, Guilt, and Fear? Let’s shed those things!
Looking at the world, not as a vale of tears, sorrow or suffering but of subjective and objective beauty, a world of reality neither evil nor illusion, seeing all experiences as intrinsically pure and innately perfect, barring nothing except harming another, opens the windows to spiritual independence, creating opportunities for grasping the moment, taking the “short path” to enlightenment, the Tao of Healing Love.
Learn more with Anamarta, Creator of the Jade Egg Holistic Practice and Kuan Yin Qigong, and Kris Deva North, Author of Taoist Tantra, and Founder of Mantak Chia Taoist Training London.
healing-tao.co.uk | jadecircle.co.uk | Taoist Tantra: healing-tao.co.uk/tao_of_shopping/taoisttantrasexualsecretsoflove.htm
From Longing – To Belonging
Thursday 10 December, 8pm, The Lantern Centre, Dublin 8. Facebook Event Page
Tickets €15/€10 Concession
In this fast moving time of shopping-days-till-Christmas, you’re invited to join Fiona Daly in the space of Longing… a rich and fertile opening to your soul’s yearning.
“As we feel into this darkest time of year, we explore longing as a gateway to a profound and vibrant experiencing of your own depth. We will connect deeply with ourselves and with each-other, supported by the ancient tradition of Tantra and more recent understanding of our humanity drawn from psychology, neurology and relational therapies. The evening will be experiential and informative.”
Fiona Daly is a tantra teacher, psychotherapist and relationship counselor. She holds a gentle, joyful, compassionate space to nourish the emerging of your unique human self.
Like so many people who have struggled in relationships, I have felt the need for healing in emotional and sexual areas and have attended various workshops and trainings for that purpose. These have usually felt beneficial at the time but a few weeks later, I’d find myself wondering, have I changed that much?
Issues had only ever marginally improved, if at all, until I met Deborah Anapol and discovered Pelvic Heart Integration. Big changes happened and are still happening. It’s a work in progress, but there is progress!
I learned techniques that release old hurts that were regularly being triggered. I’ve learned powerful breathing techniques that harmonise the connection between my heart and pelvic area. Previously, I knew that my sexual and heart energies needed to be more in harmony – but I didn’t know how.
The ‘ battle of the sexes’ is an external reflection of an internal battle between masculine and feminine aspects of ourselves that we internalised during our childhood. We feel responsible for the emotional state we are in, yet it is the result of the presence, or lack of presence, of masculine or feminine support received from our parents.
Pelvic Heart Integration offered me techniques that I use in my own practice as a Tantric Massage Therapist, but most importantly, I have found more clarity and harmony within myself and see this continue to be reflected in the honesty and harmony of my own relationships.
A Tantric View on Parenting and Sexuality, Part 2
By Dawn Cartwright
Adolescence, a time of growth spurts, hormones and emotional outbursts alongside fi rst loves, invincibility and sexual awakening. This is a time of transformation from childhood to adulthood. Many criticise the unruliness of this age, but some dig beneath the surface and uncover the beauty and tenderness also present. Adolescence is sexuality in its purest form, full of aliveness, innocence, courage and an optimistic belief in the power of love. A little understanding goes a long way in creating an environment where adolescents are cherished, and sexuality and the passion it instills brought out of the shadows and into the full light of acceptance.
Early Adolescence: 9-14 years – puberty begins.
The brain sends signals that unleash hormones that initiate the radical transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, sex organs and libido. Boys may experience nocturnal emissions or ‘wet dreams’ and menstruation begins for many girls. Both may explore masturbation as an outlet for sexual arousal and curiosity. Early adolescents are often highly engaged with nonsexual interactions, such as online chatting and texting. One minute they’ll act like a child, the next like an adult – the process of becoming an adult is not linear and your child will move forward and back.
They’ll be dealing with peer pressure, popularity, acne, sexual arousal and hormonal changes. Listen and empathise rather than just dishing out advice. Also, their limbs are growing faster than the rest of their body so they lose balance more easily and can feel insecure about their bodies. Spend time swimming, rock climbing and cycling together to accompany them in building confidence and balance.
Middle Adolescence: 14-17 years – puberty is nearly complete.
The middle adolescent may be extremely concerned with their appearance. There’s an increase in sexual attraction and exploration. Dating and making out are common. Sexual exploration may include fantasy, masturbation and partners of the same or opposite sex. The gender of attraction is not necessarily an indication of the adolescent’s eventual sexual orientation, this is a time of self-discovery.
They begin to define their sexual identity and may experience identity confusion. Your adolescent’s brain is changing rapidly so there are bursts of emotion, blasts of rebellion, invincible one minute and completely insecure the next. They are certain they’re seeing the world as it truly is for the fi rst time in history. Sports, dance, music, martial arts, humanitarian projects and other organised peer activities can be excellent places to channel sexual energy in non-sexual ways as they explore who they are.
Late Adolescence: 17-21 years – your child has become an adult.
Intimacy skills and a sense of commitment and future are well developed and they are more likely to form long-term relationships. They are more responsible about their sexual choices and behaviours. Many become sexually active and more expressive or open about it during this stage. Sex and relationships are fi lled with meaning and mutuality. They begin to think about what kind of person they’d like to spend their future with. The hormonal swings level off and they are becoming more spiritually centred and aware. Their choice of music, clothing, study and career refl ect this awareness in ways that may challenge their parent’s perspective. They are aware of and have access to books, classes and counsellors, and hopefully loving parents that support their continued growth.
This is taken from our autumn 2015 issue. Subscribe to have the next four issues delivered direct to your door.
A Tantric View on Parenting and Sexuality, Part 2
This is a sneak peek from our autumn 2015 issue, out now. Pick one up free in one of our stockists around the country to read the full article, or subscribe to have it delivered.
By Dawn Cartwright
Adolescence, a time of growth spurts, hormones and emotional outbursts alongside fi rst loves, invincibility and sexual awakening. This is a time of transformation from childhood to adulthood. Many criticise the unruliness of this age, but some dig beneath the surface and uncover the beauty and tenderness also present. Adolescence is sexuality in its purest form, full of aliveness, innocence, courage and an optimistic belief in the power of love. A little understanding goes a long way in creating an environment where adolescents are cherished, and sexuality and the passion it instills brought out of the shadows and into the full light of acceptance.
Early Adolescence: 9-14 years Puberty begins.
The brain sends signals that unleash hormones that initiate the radical transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, sex organs and libido. Boys may experience nocturnal emissions or ‘wet dreams’ and menstruation begins for many girls. Both may explore masturbation as an outlet for sexual arousal and curiosity. Early adolescents are often highly engaged with nonsexual interactions, such as online chatting and texting. One minute they’ll act like a child, the next like an adult – the process of becoming an adult is not linear and your child will move forward and back.
They’ll be dealing with peer pressure, popularity, acne, sexual arousal and hormonal changes. Listen and empathise rather than just dishing out advice. Also, their limbs are growing faster than the rest of their body so they lose balance more easily and can feel insecure about their bodies. Spend time swimming, rock climbing and cycling together to accompany them in building confidence and balance.
This is a sneak peek from our autumn 2015 issue, out now. Pick one up free in one of our stockists around the country to read the full article, or subscribe to have it delivered.
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