Sexual Awakening for Women a Tantric Initiation into the Essence of Female Sexuality  June 8th - 10th 2012, 10am - 6pm Plough Studios, Units 4&9, Park Hill, London, Greater London SW4 9NS

Tantra, the art of sacred sexuality, regards female sexuality as a powerful gateway to spiritual awakening. But the essence of female sexuality has got almost lost in the age of patriarchy. In pre-patriarchal times, women would be initiated into the mysteries of the feminine by crones who carried the feminine wisdom in their bodies. The time has come for this tradition to return. And this weekend is your opportunity.
On this weekend, Shakti will take women on a journey to awaken the spiritual power of their sexuality. This will happen through an introduction to and immersion in the qualities of the feminine: he wisdom principle of being, pure receptivity, connecting to source, entering the unknown, roundness and spontaneous creation. You will experience these qualities awakened in your consciousness, and particularly in the consciousness of your sexuality.
The awakening of female sexual energy requires a) a deep embracing and welcoming of this energy and b) a clearing of blockages in the chakras to enable the energy to flow freely up through the chakras. Shakti will assist each woman in the group with this process. Be prepared for an utter transformation of your sexuality. Conventional sexuality sets up a cycle of endless needs, wants and frustrations that keep us craving for more or cynically avoiding sex at all costs. This approach to sexuality is a deep dropping within, a giving up of the idea that there is something to "get" or to defend, and a surrendering into your essence. From there, an immense source of power starts to flow through you.
The material Shakti will be working with comes from her book Sexual Awakening for Women: A Tantric Workbook. Each woman will receive a copy of the book as a guide to take them further along the path.

Methods:
*breath work
*subtle movement into deep listening
*creative expression in clay, drawing and/or painting
*bliss dance, a movement system designed by Shakti to open up awareness in the body
*sharing circles

Watch a video of Shakti talking on women's sexuality here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYhvwtDvbiQ

Cost: GBP 220 - early-bird if booked by May 20th/ GBP250 - if booked one week before the workshop
/after June 1st GBP290
To secure your place you can pay a £50 non-refundable deposit as places for this workshop are limited.

For more information please contact Meera on 07787950351 or info@onlyforart.com

Sexual Awakening for Women

Workshop Intensive and Facilitators Training

Phase 1: 4 - 8 July, Scarborough Cape Town/ 1 - 5 December, Little Karoo 

Phase 2: 6 - 10 December, Little Karoo

Workshop Intensive

In this training, Shakti will take women through an intensive experiential journey of opening to the flow of awakened female sexual energy. This happens through the clearing of blocks in the chakras or energy vortexes in the body. The training is based on the material held in Sexual Awakening for Women: A Tantric Workbook. You will have an opportunity to encounter this work through direct transmission by the author.

Clearing blocks in the chakras

Each chakra or energy "hub" in the body holds specific unconscious patterning that needs to be cleared for energy to move freely up the body. This workshop intensive creates an opportunity for the systematic clearing of blocks held in each chakra. Here are some examples

• Base chakra (on the perineum): Clearing our love relationship with the body, or relationship with desire, life and death.
• Second chakra: Clearing tribal and ancestral blockages to the flow of awakened sexual energy, learning to listen to yoni (vagina) and following the flow of her energy through the body's circuits. Working through the virgin/whore/women's union archetypes in our psyches. Feeling safe to be sexual. 
• Third chakra: Embracing our power, moving through duality, meeting men and the inner masculine. 
• Fourth chakra: Loving our breasts, connecting heart and sex, dropping false identities, learning how to process feelings deeply and fully. 

Awakening female sexual energy  

When sexual energy wakes up in our bodies, it is called Kundalini. Kundalini is like a snake lying at the base of the spine. When it awakens, it starts to move up the body in an undulating, opening, receptive way. When this energy opens fully in us, it takes us into skydancing - the experience of full body orgasm and an ecstatic opening to the unknown, the mystery, the divine. Shakti will guide you into this experience through breathwork, movement and touch. 


Two phases

The workshop is presented in two phases. Phase 1 contains most of the material we work with in the first two chakras, and Phase two completes the process with the third and fourth chakras. It is possible to do just phase 1, but not just phase 2. The ideal is to do both.  For those who can do the first phase in July, this gives you time to integrate before doing the second phase. For international visitors, it is ideal to do both phases in one go in December.

Facilitation training

The workshop will give women the basic tools, skills and background to be able to facilitate this journey for groups of women. Some of the facilitation skills you will be guided through are:

• how to hold a women's circle
• deep listening
• sexual somatic presencing - feeling what is happening in the bodies of participants, and guiding them deeper.  
• 

Methods

Dancing 

Story circles

Subtle movement

Breathwork

Deep listening

Artwork and nature installations

Writing

• 

Who is the training for?

The training is for women who have a deep desire to awaken female sexual energy as a spiritual force in their beings. It is possible, and entirely suitable, to do the work just for your own awakening. And the training is also offered for women who would like to facilitate this work for circles of women.

Comments from women  who have done women's work with Shakti

"I reached many times the ecstasy I’ve been searching for, through my addictions. I met my power, I held it and I promised never to abandon it, I forgave myself for not being gentle to myself, to the Divine in me. I don’t know how I can ever be grateful enough. Let me be humble, let me surrender all I am to you Divine."

"To you, Shakti, our amazing leader, and to each of you dear fellow travelers, such gratitude for exquisite times shared, profound lessons learned and in resting together in the simplicity and Okness of Being. The sheer naturalness, openness of those short days will feed my soul forever with the lightness of being. In the nakedness of truth real words are hard to find, yet I need to say how ecstatic I feel in experiencing the depth, strength, love, wisdom and beauty of womanhood expressed in each of you. My heart sings and this means yoni too!
May we continue together as champions of the feminine.

For images and reflections on previous retreats, see http://www.women.shakti.co.za/2009/08/womens-tantra-retreat-images-and.html

The venues: 
Scarborough, Cape Town, South Africa
The venue for the first edition of phase 1 (July 2012) is Scarborough, a magnificently beautiful nature spot close to Cape Point in Cape Town. We will be staying and working in a wooden house amongst the indigenous fynbos, and very close to the magnificent ocean where whales frolic this time of the year.

n!au 'ma, Little Karoo, Western Cape, South Africa
The venue for the December events is the farm n'au !ma, which is run in deep respect for nature as a place of retreat and ceremony. It is situated between Montague and Ladysmith, at the foot of the Anysberg. Accommodation is provided in beautiful Karoo style houses with broad verandas, fireplaces, gas stoves and fridges. There is an exquisite kloof on the farm, and some delicious dams. The night sky of the Karoo is something to experience. The farm is about 4 – 5 hours from Cape Town, and 3 hours from George.

Cost

4 - 8 July 2012: R5 800, which includes shared accommodation for four nights. Bookings after 20 June: R6 300
1 - 5 December 2012: R6 750, includes accommodation for seven nights. Bookings after 20 November: R7 200
6 - 10 December 2012: R6 750, includes accommodation for seven nights. Bookings after 20 November: R7 200
1 - 10 December 2012: R12 750 includes accommodation for twelve nights. Bookings after 20 November: R13 500

Please note that the December events are out of Cape Town and so participants are required to come the day before the workshop starts and leave the day after. Workshops will consist of five full days each.

Price includes:

Shared accommodation. Single accommodation may be available at additional cost
Full facilitation fees


Price excludes:
Meals, which will be done on a bring and share basis. Each woman will be assigned a partner to prepare some meals with.
Transport to and from the venue. The organizers will assist in the coordination of lifts.
Copies of Sexual Awakening for Women: A Tantric Workbook will be for sale at R250

Bookings
Book with Annwen: annwenmazetti@gmail.com

 Sexual Awakening for Women

Talk and book presentation by Shakti Mari Malan

San Francisco, California 15 May 7 - 9pm

London 6 June 2012 7 - 9pm

Female sexual energy has a unique quality that is little understood in our world today. In her new book, Sexual Awakening for Women: A Tantric Workbook, Shakti shows women how to begin to taste again, and deeply enjoy, the bliss of female sexual energy. 

Shakti believes that female sexual energy is a gateway to spiritual awakening. Her work is an initiation into the deep mysteries of female sexuality. Sexual Awakening for Women takes women through an opening process of the first four chakras, or energy centers in the body, to awaken the flow of sexual energy or kundalini, and to connect with the energy of the heart.

The book addresses key concerns that block women from their sexual flowering, and provides ample exercises to assist women in releasing these blockages. Examples are:

▪ How to move beyond a critical relationship with your body to one of deep, poetic appreciation.

▪ Understanding the virgin-whore split in women's psyches, finding the gift in each of these archetypes, and a deep integration.
▪ Listening to our sexual organs, appreciating their stories and finding a deeply loving relationship with them
▪ Moving from a goal-oriented, contractive sexual experience to an open, flowing surrender into bliss.

▪ Bringing the masculine and feminine into dialogue, and finally, deep union with that which is beyond the ego-mind.

Bookings
California: http://totalitytherapy.eventbrite.com/
London: meera@onlyforart.com

Sexual Awakening for Women
Two one day workshops by Shakti Mari Malan
17 and 19 May 2012
Oakland (17th) and San Francisco (19th), California

Female sexual energy has a unique quality that is little understood in our world today. Though the practices you will work through in these two day workshops, and the transmission that Shakti provides, women can begin to taste again, and deeply enjoy, the bliss of female sexual energy. This is a journey within, an opening to embodied bliss from the inside out. That opening ripples through the body as a deep relaxation and an ecstatic aliveness. Shakti believes that female sexual energy is a gateway to spiritual awakening. It is the feminine, though her receptivity, that can lead the masculine into the unknown, the mystery, that which is beyond the ego-mind.

17 May 2012: Releasing the old

In opening fully to the flow of our sexual energy, we need to let go of old patterns that no longer serve us. Examples are

• sexual beliefs and attitudes held in our ancestral lineages
• attitudes we carry towards our body and sexuality
• the virgin/whore split in women's psyches and
• patterns that cause us to suppress the power of our womanness.

Through creative practices, movement and breath work, Shakti will guide the women through the release of what no longer serves us, and an opening to the true power of female sexuality.

19 May: Skydancing Woman

This day is a pure celebration of female sexuality. Through breath work, movement, dance and embodied meditation, we will connect deeply to our female sexual essence and allow that to move through our bodies. Skydancer is the literal translation for dakini, the Tibetan Tantric terms for the feminine principle. When woman's sexual energy wakes up, it dances through our bodies and into the infinite, ecstatic sky.

The presenter, Shakti Mari Malan

Shakti Mari has a profound passion for the feminine, and she believes that the awakening of female sexual energy is a key to the spiritual awakening of the world in our day. She has been facilitating the discovery of female sexual energy to hundreds of women over the last decade. Shakti is a dakini, or initiated female teacher of the Tantric mysteries, and a member of the Advait Tantraschool (advaittantra.com). Shakti is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has a thriving international practice. For more on her work and schedule, see shakti.co.za and totalitytherapy.com. Shakti holds a Ph.D. (UCT) in Social Anthropology.

Cost: $180 for one day, $300 for both days

Awekening Female Sexual Energy 21 and 22 April

Awakening Female Sexual Energy
A workshop for women
21 and 22 April 2012
Deva Ambu and Shakti Mari Malan
Bantry Bay, Cape Town
9am - 5pm each day

Women's sexual energy is a potent force for spiritual awakening. Patriarchy has left women feeling disconnected from our sexual essence and the beauty of our desire. It is time for us to embrace the power of our sexuality, and to reconnect our sexuality with our spiritual essence. This day offers women an opportunity to undertake this journey under the guidance of two women with deep experience in initiating women into the mysteries of the feminine.

We invite you to journey back to yourself come to -dissolve the imprints of the past -discover your inner source of energy -dissolve in your essence: orgasmic, creative, mystique. -awaken your potentials -contribute to the creation of a more conscious era -and "just" honor what you already are: a loving, powerful, fun goddess a unique, simple wonderful flower...


Some themes we will address are:

• understanding and experiencing the unique nature of female sexual energy
• noticing and clearing blocks in the energy system to enable awakened sexual flow
• sexual self loving as passionate meditation
• skydancing - waking up women's sexual energy, or kundalini, and guiding that energy
• women's sexuality as guide into the mystery

Methods:
breathwork
Osho meditations
dialogue
inquiry
subtle movement
dance

About Deva Ambu

Ambu (http://devaambu.com) is a disciple of the enlightened master Osho; living and working since 30 years at his International resort (Pune, India). She has a Master's in psychology (U.C.L University of Louvain, Belgium) and a postgraduate training in Sofrology (E.M.S. Barcelona, Spain).

Ambu studied Kundalini Yoga, Dance and theatre in Paris (1971-1977), where she was also guided by a Shameness, a " Woman of Wisdom ".

A sannyasin since 1977, she has been trained in Light and Energy Work, Aura-soma Therapy, Hara and centering, Meditative Therapies and Consciousness in Organizations at the Osho Multiversity (Poona-India).

At present she facilitates individual sessions, groups, trainings and Meditation Retreats in India, Europe and Latin America.

About Shakti Malan

Shakti Mari Malan (shakti.co.za and totalitytherapy.com) has a profound passion for the feminine, and she believes that the awakening of female sexual energy is a key to the spiritual awakening of the world in our day. She has been facilitating the discovery of female sexual energy to hundreds of women over the last decade. Shakti is a dakini, or initiated female teacher of the Tantric mysteries, and a member of the Advait Tantraschool (advaittantra.com). Shakti is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and has a thriving international practice. For more on her work and schedule, see shakti.co.za and totalitytherapy.com. Shakti holds a Ph.D. (UCT) in Social Anthropology.

Cost:1 600
Bookings: Book with Ahrian ahriangaia@gmail.com. Book soon as places are limited.

Wild Women Skydancing

A Women's Tantra Retreat

8 - 11 March 2012
n!au ma farm, Little Karoo

On female sexual energy

Sexual energy is a tremendous source of vitality and life force. When we own and live our sexual energy, we incarnate – we come to embody the goddess within. We wake up to the moment. Through our sexual flow as women, the worlds are birthed. And yet this potential lies dormant in so many of us. The snake, the kundalini, the origin of our embodied vitality, is there, at the base of the spine, but it slumbers, and it rarely gets touched.Until the wild woman in us wakes up to who she really is.

Skydancing

Tantra is a deep celebration of the power of the feminine. In Tibet, female practitioner of Tantra is called a Dakini - a skydancer. Skydancing is what happens when a woman's sexual energy starts to move up her body, though her heart and comes showering out the crown of her head. The whole body goes into an exquisite dance that happens in receptivity and relaxation.
Shakti, a practiced Dakini, invites you to come taste with us the nectar of the feminine that flows from skydancing. In this workshop, I will assist you to

• direct the flow of energy in your body through meditation, movement and breath work
• share the ecstasy and depth of the feminine with other women in dancing, chanting and story circles and
• find your own skydance as it is in the naked truth of your being, this moment.

Skydancing is a deeply authentic expression of the wild woman in all of us. This teaching from woman to woman takes some doing in our current western mind set. Women have been brought up to believe that most or all of their sexual expression is wrong and must only be presented in an acceptable way according to the culture. Skydancing invites a great unlearning. In this unlearning our true being begins to emerge and we dance again. It happens when we let go, and allow what wants to dance through us.

In my work with Tantra, an ancient eastern tradition that follows sexual energy as a doorway to consciousness, I have learnt that sexual awakening is linked to the opening of the chakras or "energy wheels" (represented by the spirals on the front page image). When the opening of the chakras happens in the body, it literally feels like an energy snake that uncoils at the base of the body and rises up through the crown of the head. For me personally, this rising brings a soft ecstasy that ripples onto the farthest shores of my life… It also brings a deep contentment with existence.

Sexual energy becomes illuminated when the repressions that block us at each of the chakras or energy points in the body are lifted. These repressions are the result of our conditioning, our patterning and the scars that are left by our life experiences. I believe that it is possible to bring our repressions to awareness and release them by working in a sacred circle of women.

What happens on the retreat

My focus is on the awakening of consciousness, not on teaching technique or improving performance (though these things follow of their own accord). I use the following methods to evoke awareness:

• We process body memories through acting and embodiment.
• We deepen awareness of female sexuality through breath work and other Tantric techniques.
• We reflect on our stories and vision our "this-here-now" realities through creating with the earth and writing.
• We meditate and do guided visualizations to deepen our awareness of essence flowing through us.
• We use sound, chanting, movements and dancing focused on a particular expression of our sexual energy to awaken the body to its inherent knowing.
• We have strong interactions with nature and the elements to reconnect us to our being-of-the-earth, the origin of our sexual energy.

The facilitator, Shakti Malan

I have been running retreats and courses on the Sacred Feminine for many years. I have a Ph.D. (UCT) in social anthropology. For more on me, see shakti.co.za and totalitytherapy.com

The venue

The farm n'au !ma, which is run in deep respect for nature as a place of retreat and ceremony, is situated between Montague and Ladysmith, at the foot of the Anysberg. Accommodation is provided in beautiful Karoo style houses with broad verandas, fireplaces, gas stoves and fridges. There is an exquisite kloof on the farm, and some delicious dams. The night sky of the Karoo is something to experience. The farm is about 4 – 5 hours from Cape Town, and 3 hours from George. For images and reflections on last year's retreat, see http://www.women.shakti.co.za/2009/08/womens-tantra-retreat-images-and.html

Bookings, costs and times

The cost of the weekend, which includes accommodation for three nights, is R2 750. Places are limited. A non-refundable deposit of R1 000 is required to secure your place and full payment is due by 1 March 2012 . Banking details:

Dr S.Malan
Standard Bank current account
Merriman Square branch (02-11-09-00)
Account number: 073152811

Meals will be arranged amongst us.
We will assist with coordinating travel where possible.
Bookings: Book with ahriangaia@gmail.com

The retreat will start Thursday 6pm and end Sunday lunchtime.

"Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love; and then for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire!" – Theilard de Chardin

Woman Awake
A Retreat for Women

21 - 24 October 2011
N!au 'Ma, Little Karoo

Who is the retreat for?

This retreat is a follow-up on the Wild Woman/Skydancing retreat that I have presented at this location for several years. It is suitable to women who have either done a woman's retreat with me before, or have done significant personal or group work with me.

Retreat focus

In the Skydancing Retreat and Chakra Workshop that women have attended with me so far, we have encouraged the awakening of female sexual energy in the first to third chakras. This retreat is focusing on the awakening of the fourth to seventh chakra in women, and specifically, the directing of sexual energy or kundalini through these chakras.

Retreat themes

1. Wild at Heart

The heart chakra wakes up when we become willing to feel everything and still let our hearts remain open. Come take the space to feel your wild, uncontained heart, and to give it wings - let it fly - take it Skydancing!

2. Divine Will

Beyond the heat chakra, our personal will merges with divine will. The power that moves through us becomes cosmic rather than personal. Bring your sexual energy and come dance in the fields of the tao or the dharma.

3. Cosmic Senses

When our sexual energy wakes up through the third eye or sixth chakra, our intuition, spontaneity and extrasensory perception open up. Come let me guide you into this journey of delicious, mystical sensory discovery.

4. The One Self

The crown of our physical body's sexual experience is when our sexual energy moves through our crown chakras. This takes us into a deep and ecstatic experience of oneness with all that is.

What will we be doing?

blissdance
meditation
immersion in nature
landscape art
dialogue, women's circles and lots of sharing

Cost and Bookings

Cost is R2 750, which includes accommodation but not meals (we will share these amongst ourselves).

Bookings with Annwen Mazetti annwenmazetti@gmail.com