Each month, Kathy Kali will explore a different facet of Tantric Dance, a sacred sensual approach to meditation. Our world is ready for the return of the divine feminine, and Tantric Dance offers a direct physical experience of feminine wisdom, which is honored in tantra as the source of life.
Open your hand and let it rest. Your hands are used to “doing” something. Let your hand just do nothing for a moment. Feel the pulse of life in your palm, in your fingers. Letting go of your notions of what a hand is, feel the subtle energies in this part of your body. Notice the energy as vibration…as color…as sound. Let the energies circulate and expand, until you are no longer in your hand. You are in your hand’s subtle body.
What is the subtle body? The deep and subtle and quiet and slow aspects of our being are our deep feminine essence. Activating this subtle body, with receptivity, allows us to channel pleasurable energies more deeply. It is our transmitter. The more we “tune in” to the subtle places within ourselves, the more nourishment we can receive, and the more energy we can channel.
I’ve personally experienced the subtle body as a sweet tingling, a softness, a cloud of energy, and a sense of great space, within my body. In addition, when I feel a lot of pleasure or inner fire come through the Tantric Dance, it often feels as if the pleasure is moving up a central tube, or channel, in my core. Your subtle body may feel different to you. Allow yourself to explore and let your subtlety come through in its own way.
To cultivate awareness of your subtle body, I offer the following simple exercise:
1. Get comfortable and ground.
Lie, sit, stand, whatever your body feels called to right now. Feel your connection to the earth, and relax.
2. Belly breath.
Breathe into the belly, and release. Continue. This connects you with your life force, and deepens your grounding.
3. Notice the breath.
Feel the breath filling your belly and torso, and releasing. Notice any other places the breath wants to travel: your limbs, your back, your neck, your head… Core vibration. Feel the breath and the energy emanating from it, as vibration. Absorb this vibration, drink it in, and take into the depth of your being. Notice any sensations, sounds, sights, smells…
4. Do nothing.
Keep breathing, but do nothing else. You are in your subtle body.
Kathy Kali has been a leader in the field of women’s sacred music and dance for over 10 years. Her training in belly dance, hypnotherapy, and ritual work enriches her facilitation of the Tantric Dance of the Divine Feminine. She created the Tantric Temple at World Beat Dance Studio in 2005, and is grateful to her teachers and students for their love and support.
