The Rose and the Thorn
Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.
― Jelaluddin Rumi
I am writing this as we, in Shakti Tantra, have just returned from leading our new and fresh Rose and Thorn retreat level one….
It was amazing, full of brave souls who took great strides in walking through their greatest fears to find only love and expansion awaiting them…
The Rose and the Thorn….together they make a whole in beauty….
They call it dark Tantra with emphasis on the dark…..
The dark being something very frightening, something to carefully avoid, something that will ‘get’ you…
Definitely something to avoid!…
They talk of ’shadow’ again something that you should be very careful of…
Shadow being a buzz word of these times, let us cautiously stalk that elusive shadow…
According to Carl Jung we all carry shadow, the less embodied in our conscious life it is, the blacker and denser it becomes, yet to penetrate the darkness we must summon all powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.
I have always know that by consciously working with our sexuality it is great catalyst for change …
I feel that by working within the arena of ‘Dark’ Tantra, ‘Kink’ ‘Fetish’ and whatever else this damaged society deems unsavoury…
A society that takes the greatest pleasure in a masochistic sexual perversity that condemns, suppresses and denies our desires…
Most of our fantastical desires have been outlawed, vilified, ignored, repressed and hidden from view…
To be in an environment that holds and encourages and allows our deepest shameful desires to be seen and encouraged in a heart felt arena,
Is a true gift to ourselves, a brave step ….to be able to call out our ’shadow’ to call out our shame, so that we can live a much deeper and more passionate life…
Pleasure and pain, black and white, yin and yang…uncovering our deepest sexual desires, facing our deepest fears, inadequacy, harsh moral judgments,
Which all contribute in keeping us small in our sexual expression, therefore keeping us small in our interaction with the outside and inner world…
So, we always come back to…. By working consciously with our sexuality it is a catalyst for great change.
Recent Rose & Thorn participants:
I didn’t think I would ‘get’ this work, but how wrong I was. This is a jewel of a workshop in the Shakti Tantra programme.
These people really know what they are doing, they walked me with great care and beauty through all my repressions and judgements, to embrace my shadow, with choice at every step….I loved it and feel free and lighter, within myself, thank you, thank you, you truly are dark angels carrying the light of consciousness…I most definitely will be back, you made it easy!
Ouch…ow…oooh…aargh…..oh my god yes….don’t stop!
What a great introduction to BDSM! I was nervous going in and expected it might have a dark element to it – how wrong I was. Shakti Tantra provided a safe learning environment, a load of really practical information that we got to apply then and there: from consent to impact play, all delivered in a truly heart centred way. I never would have imagined BDSM to be so joyful!
Hilly’s approach is very grounded and practical, coming from her deep understanding of family and intimate relationships. She is known for her wisdom, joy, love and total acceptance within her workshops and is very skilled and experienced in running groups of which she has over 30 years practice.
