Some of my reports amuse my boyfriend a lot. He accompanied me to a discussion group on vulnerability, visited a country in the former USSR, launched calls for testimonials on his WhatsApp groups… He is unfailingly supportive. My last proposition still made him hesitate. “Would you like to participate in a tantra workshop, as part of my investigation into desire? »
To convince him, I give him a little overview of the sexual misery that awaits us… Alarming figures have just come out: the proportion of French men and women having had sex in the last twelve months has never been so low in fifty years: 76% on average, a drop of 15 points since 2006. The rate of annual sexual activity thus falls to an even lower level than in 1970, according to the IFOP study for the sex toy brand Lelopublished on February 6.
At a time when France is no longer sleeping, we must consider this tantra workshop – a spiritual practice based on the circulation of “sexual energy” and the art of relationships – as a public good. Despite his fears – “I’m not an exhibitionist with strangers”he told me –, my companion agrees to give of himself on the condition of keeping the stocking.
We fix the third eye
On the advice of a friend, we went to Satnam Montmartre, “the crème de la crème of kundalini yoga”, a tantric yoga, according to his expertise. Price: 38 euros per participant. The session takes place in a large room that smells of incense, on the first floor of a spectacular 19th century neo-Gothic mansion.e century, in Montmartre, in the 18e Parisian district. Around ten rugs, equipped with two small cushions – red for the women, white for the men – dot the floor. We take our place near an altar decorated with three-branched candlesticks, which represent the couple, according to the synergistic formula: 1 + 1 = 3. Around us, a majority of people in their thirties and forties, in leggings or linen pants, only we could easily have crossed paths in the cozy cafés or in the charming organic grocery store on rue des Abbesses.
“Tantra is a philosophy which aims at the union of polarities, the masculine and the feminine that we have in each of us… In this way, the couple is a wonderful learning ground for the quest for oneself”begins Anne Bianchi, the mistress of the place, whose hippie chic style goes surprisingly well with the 15th century fireplace.e century in carved wood. She warns against the preconceived ideas in force in the Western world: unlike red tantra which made the heyday of orgies of seventies, white tantra is not a sexual practice, although it can have an impact on sexuality. “No holes will be penetrated tonight. Neither the sex, nor the ears, nor the nostrils…”, she jokes. This is enough to reassure my companion, who nevertheless wonders how to stay cross-legged for the next two hours.
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