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The essence of Tantra is a non-hierarchical, non-judgmental, all-accepting approach toward experience. Tantra is an esoteric and magical tradition, which views everything that exists as part of the spiritual realm. In the words of the gnostic Hermes Trigemestus ‘as above, so below’. The Tantric approach to the interconnectedness of everything is reflected in the saying ‘everything is the essence of everything else’.

The roots of Tantra are somewhere in the pre-history of Indian religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and also Jainism. Tantric practices were drawn into a system around 1500 years ago, although its roots go back much further. It developed out of early matriarchal Indian culture, whose early goddess worship can be traced right through to today’s popular Shakti cults. Different groups arose around different teachers, and cultivated their own practices.

Tantra is best understood as a group of texts and practices geared towards direct experience, rather than a spiritual system. The texts, called Tantras, outline methods for self-realization. Many of the Sanskrit texts take the form of question and answer dialogues between divine lovers, in which ritual practices and philosophy are discussed. Like all mystical paths that emphasize inner development, many Tantric teachings are esoteric – their spiritual meanings obscure to the uninitiated.

These methods were handed down orally, and practised by teachers and their followers. Tantra wasn’t institutionalized, and there were no rules or hierarchies to limit access to the teachings. All that was required was the will to learn and the persistence needed to actually track down a teacher – since they didn’t advertise themselves.

With the development of the Vedic system, based on a group of texts called the Vedas, introduced by Aryan invaders and subsequently favoured by Hindus, Tantric practitioners were marginalized. Asceticism, or physical renunciation, gradually gained ascendancy amongst Indians. The philosophy of learning through suffering, or working through suffering and hardship in this lifetime in order to earn future rewards in the next was regarded by Tantra teachers as a misapprehension of reality. Tantra says you don’t need to suffer to attain enlightenment. Paradise is not in the next world, but here and now, if we can only see it.

Tantra developed partially in revolt against the proscriptive and caste-bound hierarchy of orthodox Hinduism. Some of the practices used by Tantrics were clearly conceived as blatant affronts to orthodox sensibilities. The central Tantric rite, called the five Ms, involved the use of five items considered taboo by Hindus. Mady (alcohol), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (kidney beans – an aphrodisiac) and maithuna (ritual intercourse) are all used in Indian Tantric rituals as part of the core practice of invoking and identifying with divine Shakti energy. Tantric methods were concerned with challenging conventional taboos and restrictions – viewed as examples of limited, and limiting, thought patterns. Within Tantra, the process of achieving enlightenment was accelerated by confronting fixed ideas about caste, ritual cleanliness and gender. Taboos were broken as a way of developing non-judgement. These were ways of developing awareness that every experience, and every individual, was intrinsically pure. Rather than attempting to master the flesh by punishing it, or attempting to control sexual impulses through celibacy, sex and the body were used as a vehicle for spirituality.

Although the caste system has been in place for thousands of years in India, Tantra was always open to people of all castes. Tantric texts taught that all men and all women had equal capacities for enlightenment within themselves. In contrast to orthodox Hinduism, many early teachers were among the lower castes. Tantrics came from a wide range of backgrounds. Tantric meditations were designed to be adapted to any situation or occupation – a wine maker could distill bliss from the grapes of experience, while a weaver could weave passion using threads of freedom to produce a rug of enlightenment.