February Tantra News
Beloveds,
I resend this mail as apparently the previous copy came out unclear. This one with more complete details.
Water Wisdom
The depth of what it means to rest into being is something hardly known by humans. And yet when I surrender into the ocean, letting go of fear and excitement and all the minds that want to control the experience, something in me gets swept along into the state of being that exists here. Early in the morning large schools of fish hover sleepily in unison. When I dive down amongst them, they make way for me but do not get disturbed beyond what the energy of the moment requires. Later in the day, they boisterously feed and play chase-the-tail with each other, and yet the sense of deep rest into being never leaves them. To read more on my experience of the ocean and the realizations that are coming from this, read my blog.
The wisdom of life's waters moves me deeply, and the love that arises wants to be shared. And so it delights me that existence has created opportunities, right at hand. Very soon, within the next moon (1 - 4 March 2012), Courtney Ward of Halo Gaia and myself are taking a group of lucky people to swim with the dolphins in Mozambique, supported by Tantric breath, sounds and movement work. The retreat is called Waking up to Bliss. This is a rare opportunity to swim with wild dolphins who have a deeply intimate relationship with humans, and through them to be touched by the mysterious wisdom of the ocean. For more info, see
And then 4 - 7 May 2012 another exquisite opportunity: join breath work master Dan Brule and myself for an immersion in warm water rebirthing and water bliss. Details on my events page (shakti.co.za/events) soon, or contact Rhianne van der Linde rhiannevdl@gmail.com.
Intimate Presence
The weekend of 13 - 15 April, at Gecko Creek in the Cederberg, my partner Aaron Swanson and myself will be guiding you through an exquisite journey that we call Intimate Presence. Using the senses, we will discover how to meet ourselves, the beloved and all of life in intimate presence - becoming still, opening to love, feeling deeply. This retreat is super affordable and is open to those of you who are just starting to discover this path. It will also offer invaluable new material to the beloveds who have been working with me for a while. We are also running a retreat called Man and Woman Awake in KZN 21 - 25 March; there are only a few places left, so jump at the opportunity if you want to come on this long weekend. Booking with Ahrian ahriangaia@gmail.com
Sexual Awakening for Women: A retreat, a Book and Facilitators Training.
In the last several years, I have been running a series of retreats and women's workshops on awakening female sexual energy. Because my international teaching has increased significantly, I am no longer able to run women's workshops very regularly, and so I encourage you, women, to use the opportunities that arise. On 8 - 11 March, you are invited to join me on the Skydancing for Women retreat in the Little Karoo, which has been profoundly transformative for many women.
I am awed and grateful to announce that my book Sexual Awakening for Women: A Tantric Workbook will be coming out very soon - we are aiming for the end of April. This book is a complete guidebook that women can use to go on their own or collective journeys of awakening the sacred power of their sexuality. Towards the end of June this year, I am planning a 10 day Facilitators Training for women who would like to facilitate the material in this book for women's groups, or simply wish to immerse themselves fully and deeply into this material for their own awakening.
Totality Therapy
Soon, within in the next couple of weeks, the 14 months Totality Therapy online training program me begins with participants from all across the world, including South Africa. Now is your last opportunity to book; I may not run this course again in this format. This training gives you an opportunity to systematically work through the material that I teach, under my direct guidance.
BlissDance: regular dances and Facilitators Training
BlissDance has been continuing in the magical hands of Ian Light. I will be taking over from him on Wednesday 14 March, after the dolphins. BlissDance is every Wednesday night 7.45 - 9.30pm at the Kalk Bay Community Hall, opposite Dalebrook Pool on Kalk Bay Main Road (at the pedestrian robot). Cost R100, all welcome and no need to book.
On request from dancers locally and internationally, I have decided to offer a BlissDance facilitators Training. The dates are 5 - 15 November 2012, the venue Bodhi Khaya Stanford. The cost will be R10 000 excluding accommodation. Book with Ahrian: ahriangaia@gmail.com
Sessions
I am available for private individual or couple sessions from Monday 12 March.
International teaching schedule
May 11 - June 7: California
June 7 - 18: England
August 1 - 22: Scotland, Europe
October 1 - 19: California
Namaste
Shakti
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Tantra Intensive Retreat
with Shakti Malan and Aaron Swanson
21 (public holiday) - 25 March 2012
Illovo, KZN
The meeting and merging of masculine and feminine is a primary objective of Tantric practice. In human evolution, the year 2012 signals the time when the inner marriage between masculine and feminine becomes more available to us - and the imperative is strong for us to use the opportunity. When masculine and feminine merge, we awake to the truth of who we really are - the Beloved as such. On the way there, it is important for Man to open to fully embodying the Masculine, and for Woman to embody the Feminine. Once this has happened, we can open to the other, and start dancing with the Soulmate Within.
The feminine, as represented in Tantra by Shakti, is not afraid of the dark underworld. She creates the world of illusions. She is comfortable exploring and integrating what is in the unconscious. She explores dark eros and finds the gifts in those corners of existence that have been shunned. She smells, drinks, feels, hears, tastes. She receives the mystery and opens to that which is beyond the known.
The masculine, as represented in Tantra by Shiva, holds one pointed focus and stillness. Shiva sits in deep meditation on Mount Khailash, and is undisturbed by the movement of the elements around him. His quality is presence, and when he acts, he does so with skillful means. His attitude to the feminine is total love and devotion. He is the arrow that enters where the feminine guides and takes the energy upward towards transcendent oneness with all that is.
Aaron's exploration of consciousness and meditation practices has been through the work of masters such as Anadi, Adyashanti, John DeRuiter and Leslie Temple Thurston, through whose work he has discovered the ever deepening awakening of Pure Awareness beyond Form and its continuing clarification and evolution in the marriage of Spirit and Form within the Non Dual Ground of Being.
Aaron believes that Tantra is a path to embodied wholeness where we have the opportunity to bring the light of Pure Awareness and Divine Love deep into the body where all shadows and incongruencies in ones being must be faced with both the impeccable dedication of Spiritual Warriorship and the Heart of a sensitive Lover. Through the meeting of the Masculine and Feminine we have the opportunity to realize God in the Forms of the World, and support the evolution of our precious World into higher forms of development. It is a path of utter care and devotion that lovingly requires everything
On this retreat, we will explore the following themes:
- The qualities of the awakened feminine and masculine
- Awakened female and male sexuality
- Practices for fully embodying the masculine and the feminine
- Practices for the meeting of male and female
- Connecting sex and soul in Tantric lovemaking
- Exploring both unconscious and conscious aspects of our sexuality
The methods we will use are:
immersion in deep Tantric meditation
active meditations
blissdance, a tantric free movement form developed by Shakti
enactments and roleplay
guided conversations
This retreat is suitable for all sincere seekers of truth of any gender or orientation, single or partnered. You do not need a partner to attend.
Chubby's Bush Camp offers guests the ultimate intimate, relaxing bush experience. it is located in a Malaria free environment and easily accessible from both Durban and Pietermaritzburg on good tar roads.
Cost and bookings
Cost: R4 400 includes facilitation and meals
Bookings: Book with Pieta Erasmus: peeb@iafrica.com. Book soon as places are limited.
Full payment to be made into the following account:
Dr. S. Malan
Standard Bank current account
Thibault Square branch (02-11-09-00)
Account number: 073152811
INTIMATE PRESENCE
A Tantra Retreat
with Shakti Malan and Aaron Swanson
13 - 15 April 2012
Gecko Creek, Cederberg
Purpose
This retreat addresses the core desire to live in greater intimacy - intimacy with ourselves, our beloveds and the world. Intimacy is an expression of love, embodied. It is like a precious flower that opens in the light of pure presence.
On intimate presence
We live in a society where true intimacy is a rarity, and is feared rather than cultivated. The more we look outside for objects, persons or activities to fulfill us, the more we become estranged from ourselves. Our relationships become superficial. Through developing presence with ourselves, we can become intimate with others and with all of life.
Before developing presence, our attention tends to be diluted through projected needs and fears that leave us always unsatisfied and craving for more, or unconsciously avoiding the intimacy that is right here. On this workshop, we will introduce you to simple ways of building your capacity for presence with yourself, with a partner and with all of life.
When we bring conscious presence to the heart, it enables the heart to truly love. Without such presence, the energy of the heart gets dissipated by emotional undercurrents generated by the subconscious mind.
Through the senses
We will enter presence through the gateway of the senses, starting with increasing your ability to sense and savor your environment, your body and the presence of another. Then we move into a fine sensing of the inner spaces where love dwells, and where sexual energy becomes pure bliss. The way we habitually use the senses causes alienation and separation. But the very same senses can take us into the heart of intimacy, where life becomes a boundary less field of wonder.
What can you expect?
- somatic/ body oriented awareness practices
- bliss dance, a movement system that opens us to bliss by releasing unconscious emotional blockages held in the body
- partner meditations
- discussions on the Tantric approach to lovemaking
Who is the retreat for?
This retreat is suitable for beginners in Tantric practice, but will also bring invaluable new dimensions to those who have been doing work with me. The work is as suited to couples as to people coming on their own. What is required is a sincere interest in developing presence and real intimacy with life.
Cost and bookings
Every now and again I offer an event that is super affordable;this is such an event. Facilitation fee R1 800 pp, excluding meals (which we share amongst us) and accommodation according to your choice, from R270 to R110 pppn sharing).
Bookings with Ahrian: ahriangaia@gmail.com
The facilitators
Gecko Creek is an exquisite venue in the Cederberg, remarkably easy to access and only 2 - 3 hours' drive from Cape Town. See geckocreek.com. The Cederberg is an exquisitely beautiful wild area north of Cape Town in the Western Cape. Gecko Creek forms part of the only leopard sanctuary in South Africa. The rocky outcrops are full of San paintings, testifying to the fact that this place has been a sacred site for thousands of years. Cabins and tents all have extraordinary views over the wilderness. One of the reasons why we choose Gecko Creek is because it is a real immersion in nature, and brings us back to the basics of life.
Bookings with Ahrian: ahriangaia@gmail.com
Water Rebirthing and WaterBliss
with Dan Brule and Shakti Malan
Bot River
4 - 7 May 2012
Warm water rebirthing
After some preparation and processing, you will find yourself floating in warm water, using the connected breathing rhythm while being lovingly supported by two people. The process accesses "womb consciousness" and awakens unity consciousness, restoring direct conscious connection to Source, Essence... Water rebirthing facilitators accessing memories of being in the womb and the world (sometimes past lives) that we took on as pure innocent open beings... reviewing programs that were downloaded directly into the subconscious mind... recognizing that these early impressions control and limit us from the unconscious level... realizing that what our mother thought and felt, feared and believed, dreamed and desired... these were taken on as "ours"... The process facilitates the remembering or these early primal impressions and events, re-living them and re-programming them to empower and liberate us... to more fully embody our divine nature and more fully express our purpose and ultimate potential... Waterbliss
Waterbliss is an expression of BlissDance, a movement and expression space created by Shakti for the embodied exploration of Tantric principles. WaterBliss takes place in warm water and enhances two elements of BlissDance: the ecstatic playfulness of letting joy be felt in the body, and the deep letting go that the water element facilitates.
Waterbliss is about
▪ exploring weight and suspension
▪ trusting and letting go while being held in the collective womb of humanity represented by the group
▪ exploring and finding freedom in movement assisted by your fellow dancers and the effect of the water on suspension of gravity
▪ embodying dolphin energy - the deeply intelligent playfulness of the soul set free from the weight of our stories and identifications
▪ experiencing what it is like to live in a different element - to be surrounded by water rather than air
▪ shapeshifting - the water element supports you in experiencing the shape of your body differently
▪ liquidity and fluidity
▪ the oceanic experience of boundless oneness with all of existence
▪ dissolving body armoring - the historical emotional protections that keep us from feeling
▪ developing kinesthetic