The 25th of January is the official birthday of Allthingstantra.com. A year ago I got the idea to start a tantra directory and blog. I wanted to make more sense of the tantra scene and help people find tantra teachers and schools around the world.

Blogging has been an exciting journey for me. Writing comes with minimal effort, and the topics have been easy to find. Mostly the articles are about something I have been reading, studying, or experiencing during a workshop or course. At some point, I tried to follow some kind of schedule on what topics to write about, but it seemed to restrict the creative flow.

During the past year, I have found some wonderful people to work with. I would like to thank Deidre who helps with the technical kinks of the blog and assists with the social media and Jimmy, who diligently helps me to put all these prepositions in the right places and proofreads these articles written by a non-native English speaker.

Most popular posts

During the past year I published 34 articles on the blog. Among these were a few quest blogs, an interview, and some translated texts as well.

Here are the most read posts from the past year:

1. How to Orgasm – the number one reason why it’s not happening

2. 3 Tantric Tips for a Good relationship

3. Chakras and their meanings

The How to Orgasm blog post was inspired by an article in a well known Finnish newspaper, which conducted research on the topic of orgasms. More than 8500 people answered their questions, and the replies were further analyzed by some researchers. The biggest problem was – not surprisingly – a difficulty in focusing. Our minds are too busy, and our lives are too stressful. I have seen and experienced good results with stress relief through tantric yoga, so that’s something I’m passionate to write about. This post got nearly twice as many page views as the next one!

3 Tantric Tips for a Good Relationship was based on my observation on what kind of people seek help through tantra or tantric bodywork. Besides my day job I have been offering bodywork and healing sessions, and there was a clear trend in what kind of people came to see me. The article provides general ideas for any long term relationship – simple but effective ways to stay connected with your partner.

Chakras and their meanings was the third most read article. Since I started on a yogic path, I have been fascinated by the ideas of subtle energies, pranayama, and kundalini. Apparently, I’m not the only one! Chakras have been a hot topic in the New Age environment for a long time, and a lot of the information offered is controversial. I wrote the article almost a year ago, and my understanding of chakras has deepened since then. The map and schema I presented in the article is a kind of “New Age combined with psychology” transformation of the traditional ideas, and it does contain some misunderstandings as well.

It is telling that sexuality and relationships are the most popular topics. When I started this blog, I didn’t quite know how to define tantra and how “tantra” differs from “neo-tantra.” Mostly the sexuality and relationship topics belong to the neo-tantra category – or sacred sexuality as some like to call it.

Also, somehow chakras seem to be a very intriguing topic for spiritual seekers. I remember Christopher Wallis mentioned in one of his talks that his article on chakras has been the only viral post he has written, getting hundreds of thousands of page views.

I have decided to keep these neo-tantric topics on the blog, even if the traditionalists will argue that they are not tantra at all. Many of those who are not acquainted with traditional tantra do get an impression that neo-tantra is the only tantra that exists – and indeed, it has already been around for a bit more than a hundred years. There’s just so much confusion out there as to what the tradition of tantra is compared to neo-tantra. With the blog, I hope to shed some light on both of these worlds. Why, you may wonder?

From what I have seen, there is a great need for working with sexuality, to be able to express freely. It could be seen as a stepping stone on a journey to freedom in other areas of life. Perhaps it would be possible to work out issues related to body image and restricted sexuality by doing yoga or other types of spiritual practice only, but somehow blockages in the area of sexuality seem to hinder the flow of the life-force very effectively. That’s why it might be a good idea to start working there.

It’s a tantric idea that you basically could use whatever tool works, so why not use these techniques and neo-tantric tools? Hopefully, they will work as an entrance for people who wish to start their journey to freedom.

A traditional tantric practice is not the easiest endeavor to start with. It has been an esoteric path of spirituality, and it does not always seem like a natural fit for modern-day people.

Change is the only constant

I had the ambitious idea to create a worldwide directory of tantra teachers and schools and to offer them a space to promote their work and get feedback on it in the form of reviews. It quickly became evident that it was not really working. I had contacted hundreds of tantra teachers and schools around the world, offering them the chance to list their business – for free.

I got very few new listings during the year. I think the reason for it was that it requires some effort to make such a listing, and everyone has their own website to be maintained as well. And our friend Google already does an excellent job of indexing those websites.

The other ambitious idea was to get good quality feedback and reviews for the tantra workshops and providers, as some teachers are misusing their authority. Dealing with things related to sexuality is very intimate for most, so there were almost no reviews left during the entire year. That part of the blogging idea failed miserably.

Also, I realized that even huge sites such as Tripadvisor.com struggle with fake reviews, so I thought there would be no way I would have the resources to tackle such issues.

As a result of this, I dropped the directory part from Allthingstantra.com, and now I am concentrating on blogging.

Dropping the directory allowed me to modify and renew the site to focus more on the blog content itself, offering things like view counts and related articles. It also is more lightweight and works wonderfully on mobile, too.

To cover the costs that I incur to keep this blog running, I will implement some kind of affiliate offerings during this year. As tantra is still a relatively small niche, I need to find some creative ways how to work it out.

What would you like to read about?

Heartfelt thank you, dear reader! I wish I can provide interesting and inspiring content for you during the coming year.

And you can suggest future topics by casting your vote below!

All the best,

Simo

What would you like to read about in this blog? Practice instructions on traditional yoga Practices of sacred sexuality and neo-tantra Reviews, experiences and insights related to tantric path Other Please Specify: Created with