Sunday, January 11, 2009

What about sex during pregnancy?

What about sex during pregnancy?


• Some people like making love during pregnancy.
• Some people feel turned off by sex during pregnancy.
• Sometimes pregnant women feel too sick or tired or irritable to have sex.
• Gentle sex during a normal pregnancy will not harm the baby.
• Different positions may make sex more comfortable.
• Sometimes sex can cause uterine contractions, which go away after a few minutes.


To be safe:

Use a condom to keep your baby safe from disease.

If you are having sex with more than one partner, or if your partner has several other partners, insist on using a condom. Some diseases can cause a lot of pain and discomfort and may harm your baby.

Never blow air into the vagina and don’t douche!

Do not have intercourse if fluid or blood is leaking from your vagina.


Remember: intercourse is not the only way to make love!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Advanced Tantric Lovemaking Techniques

It takes time and practice to become proficient at any skill, and tantra is no exception.Because moving energy in tantra is a powerful force, you need to respect the process and not rush. But once you’ve mastered the practices as I have described them in these chapters, you’ll be ready for the more advanced exercises. These are characterized by the fact that they …
  • Use breathing patterns in more complicated ways.
  • Generate more intense energy.
  • Coordinate more steps.
  • Clear deeper emotions.
  • Direct energy in more diverse ways.
Some advanced practices might seem simple on the surface, but truly are more advanced because more skills are required to move energy in a new way. Relaxing into ecstasy is an advanced practice that California tantra teachers Steve and Lokita Carter discovered to be so effective in their lovemaking, they adapted it for students in their various classes at the Institute for Ecstatic Living. It is advanced in that it requires extreme sensitivity to very subtle movements of energy that elicit intense sensations. “We call it a ‘slow ride into timeless love,’” explains Steve, “because it includes micro movements, where the partners connect with tiny motions that are no more than half an inch, yet the results are exceptionally intense.”
Here are the five steps:
1. Ritual Start your lovemaking session by telling each other what you love most about each other at this moment. This creates a feeling of safety and trust.
2. Communication Agree to try something different. Tell each other how you feel about it and what you are afraid of.
3. The experience Do whatever you enjoy to get aroused. Once you are inside each other and have made love for some time, slow down. Resist the temptation to have an orgasm. Melt into each other and move your pelvis ever so slightly toward your partner’s pelvis (in micro movements) while looking into each other’s eyes. When you both feel ready to do something different, contract your pelvic floor muscles a few times. Do this at the same time or alternately. Focus on these small movements, allowing the awareness to increase sensitivity in your genitals.
Play with the speed and frequency. Tell each other what it feels like. After a while, come to stillness. With open eyes let your breathing and the contractions of your pelvic floor muscles carry you into timelessness.
Include the micro movements, stillness, and contractions in your lovemaking. Move faster, and then return to the stillness. This creates a slow wave of ecstasy.
4. Sharing After you have made love like this, share your feelings:
  • Did you feel relaxed?
  • Were you able to feel your ecstasy in the relaxation?
  • Did you feel connected to each other?
  • Is this something you would like to try again?
5. Closing End your lovemaking by thanking each other and bowing to each other

The maithuna
The maithuna is the most elaborate of these rituals and includes many steps. At one of Bodhi Avinasha’s teacher-training courses for Tantrika International, we observed Seattle tantra teachers Kirby Jacobson and his co-teacher Radhika demonstrate this ritual. “It is to be done with reverence,” instructs Jacobson. “The power of the Maithuna is revealed when the couple believes that each movement is a dedication to themselves, each other, and the universe.”
The sequence of the ceremony includes these steps:
1. Prepare the lovemaking space in the shape of a yantra (magical geometric design).
2. Purify and seal off the space with blessings in each direction (including the corners of the room, ceiling, and floor).
3. Prepare special powders, light lamps with special igniting substances (called “ghee butter”),
make offerings to chosen deities, and massage each other’s chakras (energy centers).
4. Use hand movements and mantra chants to invoke and connect energy between the partners.
This ritual could go on for days!

Kundalini
When you really follow your intense energy, it can feel like a snake coming up your spine. Kundalini is the name of the famous serpent power that lies coiled up at the base of the spine. Once awakened (through your practices), this energy travels up the spine. Its journey can take you into new intense sensations, if you go with its flow! Intense power surges of this hot kundalini energy rushing up the spine can literally make you shake—with fear, fury, enthusiasm, or ecstasy. Lack of preparation can lead to a panic called a spiritual emergency, but with responsible practice you can follow the inner snake to where it takes you, ending up dancing primitively, seeing visions, feeling outside your body, or experiencing inner knowing.

Tantra Twosome
Physical practices (yogic poses to move energy) complement your sexual practices, as I discussed in Chapters 5, “Prep Your Body Temple of Love,” and 14, “Getting Fit Together for Tantric Sex.” As you progress, these poses can become more advanced. Here are two exceptional advanced poses, developed by New York City tantrika Carla Tarantola:

Earth to sky salute
Stand facing your partner with enough space between youso you can bend down without bumping into one another. Take a few breaths to center and connect, reach behind you and clasp your own hands behind yourback with index fingers pointed out. Bend over slowly (one vertebrae at a time), dropping your head down as far as you can go comfortably and touching the back of your head. Lift your arms behind you as straight as possible with index finger pointingup to the sky. Breathe and feel the energy of the two of you creating a
channel connecting earth with sky (Shakti with Shiva). Lower your arms and come up slowly taking care with your spine, and do a backward bend to balance. Repeat three
times, then do the following pose. Tantric twosome trestle Sit in front of each other with your legs outstretched and slightly bent, with the soles of your feet pressed together. Reach forward to clasp your partner’s hands and interlock your fingers. Keeping your body straight, raise your
legs at the same time, keeping them between your straightened arms (or outside your arms if that’s easier). Do five full synchronized breaths together while looking in each other’s eyes. Notice how you maintain your balance in this position and how that is reflected in your relationship.

Advanced Passion Positions
The Kama Sutra contains many positions and acts, many of which are shown on various videotapes, but tantra teachers and students often come up with new possibilities from their own practice; you can do this, too. The only prerequisites to be sure these fit the tantric
tradition is that they …
  • Connect chakras (energy centers) to move energy.
  • Include breathing patterns.
  • Are part of a practice rather than an isolated act.
  • Honor one another.
  • Use the intense energy for a higher purpose.
A sexual position is not just an acrobatic achievement. In tantra, it is the passageway to divinity, allowing you to be and see the god/goddess. Once you can arouse a forceful pool of kundalini energy at the base of your spine, intensifying it in your sex center and then circulating it through your body, you can then send it rising out through the top of your head in a unified spiral together, reaching higher states of consciousness, to the point where you sense an expansion of this unified mass merging with the universe in outer space. There are no boundaries. You have become divine and merged with the divine to know true and intense god/goddess consciousness.

Dragon Goddess
I love this position because it invokes the dragon, the Chinese symbol of heavenlypower conferred on man. The two steps allow the fulfillment of the ultimate purpose of positions: to connect with divine energy in yourself, your partnership, and all that is. “This position and practice just came through me, and I knew my advanced students would love it,” explained New York tantra teacher Carla Tarantola, who discovered this technique while making love with her soul mate and beloved John.Lie on the bed or floor on your back (head on a pillow for comfort and eye contact) with your feet to each other’s head, base chakra pressed against each other, and thighs interlocking. Carla explains, “In this position, John kisses my feet, an act that opens up my appreciation and energy so much that I want to do anything to please him. I hold his lingam in my hands, and guide it to make circles at the entrance of my yoni. Then we make small circles with our groins pressed together, to move the energy.” Carla continues, “We help each other up into the classical yab yum sitting position, with his lingam still in my yoni, so the penetration is deeper. We undulate while we do the fire breath and then draw the energy up into our hearts and the back of the brain. Then we hold the breath, press our heart centers together, and visualize spirals of energy and fire connecting us and lifting us higher, while our hearts expand and merge together. Exhaling, we make the sound ‘ahhh’ and allow the energy to come back into the genitals, visualizing a golden energy coming down from the universe, flushing and enlivening all the cells of our physical body. In this way, we experience a nonejaculatory body orgasm. Then we go into a meditative state and repeat the building-up process three times before John decides to go into an ejaculation.”

Kabazzah
It’s no wonder that the sexual skills of the Japanese geishas gained such mystique with American GIs during World War II. The women practiced an ancient sexual art that allowed the man to lie blissfully passive. The secret: the kabazzah, in which the woman mounted the man and only moved her internal muscles to bring him to climax.

The Full Stop
In the full stop technique, you freeze in a position in the middle of lovemaking (take turns giving the signal) for one minute—becoming aware of thoughts and sensations instead of ongoing compulsive activity. The Easterners believe that only with such valleys can the peaks be higher.

Two New Erogenous Zones
The advanced tantra man knows the full art of polishing the pearl (pleasuring the woman’s clitoris). One new and effective way to do this is the Kivin method, in which the man stimulates the woman orally on two erogenous points on her genitals to bring her to orgasm within three to eight minutes. The method requires pressing one point (between the vaginal and anal openings) while applying pressure with the tongue on other points located on each side of the clitoral shaft.

Tongue Fu
In a Taoist practice, a woman strengthens her tongue by first pushing against an orange or a
grapefruit. She also strengthens her vaginal muscles by attaching weights to hold. These practices are described by Mantak Chia in his book, Tao for
Women: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy. Similar routines are described in Chia’s corollary book for men, Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy.

Mudras
Mudras are positions of the arms, hands, and fingers that connect the energy centers. There are many combinations of these; they can be placed externally on many areas of the body, on outside points correlating with inner points, and even reached internally. Every finger that is used communicates a different energy, which you must learn to become skilled in sending energy patterns to your partner.

Advanced Visualization in Tantric Sex
Imagery sets pictures in the mind that the brain cannot distinguish from reality, so you are likely to act on these. Taking advantage of this, sexual visions can inspire physical actions that lead to blissful union when practiced in a meditative, disciplined way. Here are two examples:
The tantric triangle Visualize yourself as a male god-like being with a triangleof white light at your third eye that points downward (the symbol of the female yoni), with the lower angle pointing toward the back of the tongue. The angles become the three doors of liberation, opening to the wisdom of great bliss.
The Shakti shine Visualize the goddess Shakti with blue lights radiating from her body that enter your body through your genitals and melt a blue radiance throughout your body.

Eight Steps in Deity Yoga
Deity yoga does this. In this exercise, you can use your favorite gods and goddesses from that chapter—the ones you most identify with—or experiment with others. Follow these eight steps to actualize a particular deity to achieve a certain state of being within you:
1. Set intention. Meditating on any deity should always be toward the goals of wisdom, compassion, and service to others.
2. Sit comfortably in front of a picture or statue and focus. Relax, close your eyes, and let the image appear in your mind’s eye. After a while, the image will become a radiant being of light. You will feel inspired and blessed; realizations will come to you.
3. Request the deity bestow blessings on you.
4. Picture the deity as light energy entering your head, allowing it to descend and then rise through your spine, dissolving into your heart. Feel the essence of the deity becoming one with you.
5. Focus on yantras, geometric forms that are associated with the deity and trigger desired energies.
6. Look at the geometrically shaped mandalas with the deity’s image that triggers certain imagery or emotions.
7. Listen to music invoking such energies. (See listings in Appendix C, “Tantric Tools,” for some ideas.) Choose CDs whose titles imply the energy, such as Ecstatica or Trance.
8. Perform mantras, prayers, and ceremonies associated with the deity and characteristics you desire. These can be simple or very elaborate.

Base Chakra Pleasuring
I will talk more about base chakra stimulation in the next chapter with regard to male sexual healing, but such exploration can also be a source of pleasure. Be aware that many partners will cringe at the thought, which can arouse shame, embarrassment, and fears (especially for heterosexual men, who may associate the act with being gay). Yet the presence of many nerve endings around the anal opening can lead to arousal. Always respect your partner’s
boundaries, go slowly, and follow your partner’s cues about when, where and how to touch.
the base chakra is associated with issues of safety and security; therefore
moving energy from the base center to the heart, throat, or sex centers brings more solidity to expression in that area. Bring the energy there by sweeping your hand in that direction, and then holding ahand on each of two areas to connect them.

Aids in Tantric Play
Just like toys are rated for use with age groups, sex aids are appropriate for different levels of lovers in their practices. Although there is no rating system, trust your intuition about which ones could be above your head (restraints, anal beads) for the time being. By all means surprise your partner with new sexual pleasures, but when it comes to some activities you know might be a stretch, discuss readiness together. One such aid is the Pearls of Delight, a long strand of washable pearls (costing about $12.95), that can be worn around the neck but also inserted inside the vaginal or anal canal and pulled out slowly. “Surprise your partner,” says Taylor Lamborne, a California tantrika who sells them. “Wear them when you go out for dinner as a signal of what’s in store for your love play when you come home that evening.”

Entering Space and Time
When you are really adept at tantric practice—specifically meditation—you canenter deep states of consciousness that take you across time and space. Some people can do this naturally, but most need a teacher as a guide. Attend a workshop on past lives or astral projection.
Past Lives Connected to God/Goddess
The idea of past lives might be alien to you, in which case some of these principles may be hard to accept. Put aside your skepticism for a moment and entertain possibilities of potential value for your personal transformation and exploration of sacred loving.
The principle of past lives is intrinsic, although not essential, to tantric loving because the gods and goddesses come from a tradition that is traced back to the beginnings of time. Becoming one with the lineage of all these deities helps you to unite with all that is, all that has come before, and all that will be. This merging of time helps you reach the state of bliss within yourself and the realization that you are complete without any partner.

Astral Projection
Advanced tantric sex partners can send their love and sensual connections through the airwaves, across space as well as time. This transmission is obviously useful for long-distance lovers, forced to be in different locations because of jobs, schooling, or other reasons. People who don’t think they have psychic powers can find themselves able to do such projected communication— by deep concentration and “sensing” the other
person.

Friday, January 2, 2009

The Exotic & Tantric Yoni Massage

The Yoni Massage (for Women)
My wife and I have practiced Tantra/Sacred Sex for several years and have received much joy from the techniques and processes. One of my wife's favorite and frequently requested sexual activities is the Yoni Massage. It has greatly expanded our sex life, brought us closer and has given me a greater appreciation of women. We've taught the technique to many of our friends and they too have enjoyed good results from it. I offer it here and hope it enhances your sex life. Enjoy.
BACKGROUND INFO
Yoni (pronounced YO-NEE) is a Sanskrit word for the vagina that is loosely translated as "Sacred Space" or "Sacred Temple." Its meaning and use is an alternate perspective from the Western view of the female genitals (i.e., Pussy, Cunt, Twat, etc., words which may or may not be complimentary depending on the intent of their usage). In Tantra, the Yoni is seen from a perspective of love and respect. This is especially helpful for men to learn.
The purpose of the Yoni Massage is to create a space for the woman (the receiver) to relax, and enter a state of high arousal and experience much pleasure from her Yoni. Her partner (the giver) experiences the joy of being of service and witnessing a special moment. The Yoni Massage can also be used as a form of safer sex (when latex gloves are used) and is an excellent activity to build trust and intimacy. Some massage and sex therapists use it to assist women to break through sexual blocks or trauma.
The goal of the Yoni massage is not orgasm. Orgasm is often a pleasant and welcome side effect. The goal is simply to pleasure and massage the Yoni/vagina. From this perspective both receiver and giver can relax, and not have to worry about achieving something. When orgasm does occur it is usually more expanded, more intense and more satisfying. Orgasm is allowed to happen or not happen.
It is also helpful for the giver to not expect anything in return. Just allow the receiver to enjoy the massage and to relax into herself afterwards. Of course, other sexual activity may follow but it should be entirely the receiver's choice. This perspective will build greater intimacy and trust, and will greatly expand your sexual horizons.
PREPARATION
Bathing is always helpful as it relaxes both the receiver and giver. A quiet space is desirable with pleasing music, candles, pillows, etc., or whatever makes the participants relax and feel safe. Allow yourself enough time and do not hurry through the process.
Go to the bathroom before beginning the massage. The best results will occur when the bowels and bladder are empty and you will avoid the unnecessary experience of interrupting the massage to go to the bathroom.
Connect with your partner by hugging, holding, eye gazing (looking into each other's eyes for an extended time), or whatever brings you to a place of safety and relaxation.
PROCEDURE
Have the receiver lie on her back with pillows under her head so she can look down at her genitals and up at her partner (giver). Place a pillow, covered with a towel, under her hips. Her legs are to be spread apart with the knees slightly bent (pillows or cushions under the knees will also help) and her genitals clearly exposed for the massage.
The giver sits cross-legged between the receivers' legs. The giver may wish to sit on a pillow or cushion. This position allows full access to the Yoni and other parts of the body.
Before contacting the body, begin with deep, relaxed breathing. Both giver and receiver should remember to keep breathing deeply, slowly and with relaxation during the entire process. The giver will gently remind the receiver to start breathing again if the receiver stops or takes shallower breaths. Deep breathing, not hyperventilating, is very important here.
Gently massage the legs, abdomen, thighs, breasts, etc., to get the receiver to relax and for the giver to prepare for touching the Yoni.
Pour a small quantity of a high-quality oil or lubricant on the mound of the Yoni. Pour just enough so that it drips down the outer lips and covers the outside of the Yoni. (Several excellent sexual lubricants are available for this. Many lingerie shops, sex toy shops, sex magazines, etc., offer these safe lubricants.)
CAVEAT - Do not mix oil-based products with latex.
Begin gently massaging the mound and outer lips of the Yoni. Spend some time here and do not rush. Relax and enjoy giving the massage. Gently squeeze the outer lip between the thumb and index finger, and slide up and down the entire length of each lip. Do the same thing to the inner lips of the Yoni/vagina. Take your time.
The receiver can massage her own breasts or may just relax and continue breathing deeply. It is helpful for giver and receiver to look into each other's eyes as much as possible. The receiver can tell the giver if the pressure, speed, depth, etc., needs to be increased or decreased. Limit your speaking and focus on the pleasurable sensations. (It is my experience that too much talking gets one out of their feelings and diminishes the effects.)
Gently stroke the clitoris with clockwise and counter-clockwise circles. Gently squeeze it between thumb and index fingers. Do this as a massage and not to get the receiver off. The receiver will undoubtedly become very aroused but continue to encourage her to just relax and breathe.
Slowly and with great care, insert the middle finger of your right hand into the Yoni (there is a reason for using the right hand as opposed to the left. It has to do with polarity in Tantra). Very gently explore and massage the inside of the Yoni/ vagina with this finger. Take your time, be gentle, and feel up, down and sideways. Vary the depth, speed and pressure. Remember, this is a massage and you're nurturing and relaxing the Yoni.
With your palm facing up, and the middle finger inside the Yoni, move the middle finger in a "come here" gesture or crook back towards the palm. You will contact a spongy area of tissue just under the pubic bone, behind the clitoris. This is the G-spot or in Tantra, the sacred spot (there are many excellent books that go into detail about this area). Your partner may feel as if they have to urinate or it may be painful or pleasurable. Again vary the pressure, speed and pattern of movement. You can move side to side, back and forth, or in circles with your middle finger. You can also insert the finger that's between your middle finger and pinkie. Check with your partner first before sticking two fingers into them. Most women should have no problem and will enjoy the increased stimulation from two fingers. Take your time and be very gentle. You may use the thumb of the right hand to stimulate the clitoris as well.
An option to try if the receiver wants it is to insert the pinkie of the right hand into her anus. Ask her first and do not insert your pinkie into her Yoni/vagina after it has been in her anus. Use lubrication and be very gentle.
(In Tantra, it is said that when your pinkie is in her anus, the next finger and middle finger in her Yoni/vagina, and your thumb on her clitoris, "You are holding one of the mysteries of the universe in your hand.")
So, what is your left hand doing all this time? You can use it to massage the breasts, abdomen, or clitoris. If you massage the clitoris it's usually best to use your thumb in an up down motion, with the rest of your hand resting on and massaging the mound. The dual stimulation of right and left hands will provide much pleasure for the receiver. I do not recommend using your left hand to touch your own genitals because it may take your focus off the receiver. Remember, this massage is for her pleasure and much of the benefit comes from not only the physical stimulation but the intent as well.
Continue massaging, trying different speeds, pressures and motions. Keep breathing and looking into each other's eyes. She may have powerful emotions come up and may cry. Just keep breathing and be gentle. Many women have been sexually abused and need to be healed. A giving, loving and patient partner can be of great value to her.
If she has an orgasm, keep her breathing, and continue massaging if she wants. More orgasms may occur, each gaining in intensity. In Tantra this is called "riding the wave." Many women can learn how to be multi-orgasmic with the Yoni Massage and a very patient partner.
Keep massaging until she tells you to stop. Very slowly, gently, and with respect, remove your hands. Allow her to just lay there and enjoy the afterglow of the Yoni massage. Cuddling or holding is very soothing as well. As you learn to master the Yoni Massage your sex life will be greatly enriched and you will learn a great deal about feminine sexuality.