Last week a friend wrote an article about the tantric massage benefits. In this post, I would like to expand the idea a little bit further.

One of the claims that I hear most often is that tantric massage is not a part of traditional tantra. This is true. Most of the ancient tantra and yoga was very different to what we do today. The physical “sporty” type of yoga with asanas is fairly new invention, and phyiscal bodywork as we know it today definitely did not exist in the olden days.

As tantric massage is a new form of bodywork practice, and it’s touching probably the biggest taboo in our western societies – sexuality – there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what it actually is and what it can be good for.

Unfortunately there’s also abuse and sad stories about crossing the boundaries when practitioners are not working from the place of purity and heart. And the term tantra is used in amazingly multitude of places and practices, which is of course only adding to the confusion.

In all circumstances and situations, the tantric massage practitioner should follow the professional and ethical way of working with clients. It should be clear to both parties what is to be done, and what not. And that this agreement can not be changed during the massage session. So for example, if you state in the beginning of the session that you’re not sure if you’re ready for yoni massage, this would be an indication that it will not be done.

Once the energy starts moving in your body and feelings of excitement and pleasure come in to the picture, it could feel like a good idea to do it anyway. However, our discernment may be off-duty while the endorphines race through our massaged body, so it’s better to stick to the original agreement. Doing this, you know that you are safe and respected. And obviously the practitioner should not propose to do genital massage during the session either, if it is not agreed upon.

Below I will introduce three different kind of videos, each offering a different kind of approach to what tantra massage is to them.

The types of tantric massage

I would identify three main categories what normally seem to be classified as tantric massage:

Sensual or erotic massage Yoni or lingam massage and (body) de-armoring Energetic massage

The first one, sensual massage, could be described of as an erotic play between the partners, but of course if you go to a practitioner, then they are giving and you are receiving. It can be tickling all the senses of the body: things like feathers or silky textiles could be used to caress the body of the receiver. Many would choose to use candles and fragrances to spice up the atmosphere. Oil is often used on the skin to make the touch more pleasurable and smooth.

Sensual massage can be an excellent way to expand pleasure and bring relaxation to you or your partner. In a basic form, it’s easy to do, you can check Fanny’s tips from the previous post. The most important aspects to remember are awareness (of what you are doing) and the attitude of serving, unconditional giving.

One of the tantric principles is to include in life everything that exists within us. In this light, you could understand why in tantric massage the genital area can also be treated. We often hold a lot of physical tension, deep emotions and various mental stories in our genital area, so why not let them go by a way of a massage?

In my opinion it would always be a good idea to build trust with the practitioner before you make the decision to have a yoni or lingam massage. It may require a couple of sessions. It is also a good idea to first do a relaxing whole body massage, not to go directly in to the genital area.

In the genitals, there can be a lot of tension that you’re not normally aware of. Often the clients are surprised of how much sore and painful spots there can be. The way to release them can be by gentle touch and being present, or some people advocate the de-armoring approach.

In de-armoring type of massage, the idea is to go deeper in to the tissue to release tension and perhaps even trauma. De-armoring can be done to any part of the body, any muscles or tissues, throat, genitals, anus. The expected result would be releasing of tension on all levels. Some people have received a great deal of benefit of this, but I’m not personally a huge fan of de-armoring. I rather prefer softer approach.

Energetic massage could be considered the “most tantric” of these three types that I’m presenting here. By this I mean that we are then working with the subtle energies in the body, helping the body to open the blockages for the energy to flow freely. Here the practitioner works with the different energy centers in the body, often referred as chakras in tantric-yogic terminology. In this type of massage, the advanced practitioner does not even need to touch the client physically, but they can skillfully help them open up and experience waves of ecstacy and bliss.

Tantric massage videos and brief comments on them

Here I will present three very popular videos from Youtube. Summed up together, the three videos have been displayed nearly 19 million times! Yes, that’s right. So definitely this is something interesting to many. Various schools and teachers are offering tantric massage courses, but as you can see from the videos, you would need to know what kind of massage you personally would be interested in giving – or receiving.

This first video is from a Dutch practitioner Ivar Mol. I watched some of their videos, and it seems to me fairly physical – and even acrobatic (see at 26:00 onward). This will certainly be relaxing for the body, but may be a bit on the rough side for some.

Somewhat confusing to me was the fact that in the middle of the video there’s a part when both of them are naked (from 16:00 onward), and then again later on they have their pants on. Maybe this is a compilation of different sessions, I’m not sure.

I do not read Dutch, so I don’t know what they’re explaining in the subtitles. For me, this type of bodywork would belong more to the de-armoring category.

The second video is edited much shorter from a whole session, but definitely you can see the difference in approach. This would be an example of a more sensual and erotic type of massage, which can be very enjoyable experience – to say the least! At around 2:50 to the video, he’s starting the yoni massage part. The video seems to be from a studio in Switzerland and the voices sounds Danish to me, but there’s not much info on the video.

In this video you can see that the woman is arching strongly at times. This is very common in a massage, and it feels like the waves of pleasure are travelling up the body.

The third video I’m presenting here is from Somananda tantra school, where I first learned tantra massage. In this video, Somananda is using very little physical touch and he’s working with the energies of the woman.

This video is also edited only to show an overview of the massage session. Normally the treatment can take up to two hours and normally in a session the whole body massage is done before the energy starts moving this strongly.

A word of warning – you may want to turn down the volume if you are watching this in an office or such a place..!

People often ask if everyone is able to experience something like this. My answer would be – yes, and you can too. But for most of us it may take for long time, and it very much depends on the state of your body and how sensitive you happen to be. There’s no magic here, even if it may look a bit weird at first.

“Moving the energy” type of massage – or any of the above for that matter – can be done to men as well, but perhaps men are more active in searching this kind of information online?

Conclusion

As you can see from the examples above, tantric massage can mean very different things. If you have tried tantric massage, and it did not meet your expectations or something was weird, perhaps you just did not end up in the right hands. A tantric massage can be very healing, can help you with your evolution and opening up to more joyful and blissful life.

I can only recommend the massage courses Somananda and his team are giving. I will write about my course experiences in a coming blog post, but if you are interested in such training, you can ask questions below, or you can check their training calendar on somananda.org.

If this made you curious, or if you have anything to ask or comment about the tantric massage, please leave your comment below. I will be more than happy to answer your questions!

Yours,

Simo