Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century (49 page)

LaSara is a sex-positive, poly, bi, Pagan author who has been writing about sexuality and spirituality for over a decade. She designs and facilitates workshops on topics related to both.

Jade Goddess (
www.jadegoddess.com
)

Saida Desilets offers Taoist-based workshops for men and women internationally. Jade Goddess is an intensive program dedicated to the education and empowerment of sexual energy as our most potent and creative life force. Taoist yoga and qigong workshops are also available.

The Human Awareness Institute (
www.hai.org
)

HAI has offered workshops dealing with intimate relationships and human sexuality since 1968. In their words, “We help you define what love, intimacy, and sexuality mean to you, and in turn, how that affects the other areas of your life. There is nothing you must believe, and no allegiance you must pay; no organization to join and no pressure to sell to your friends.”

Jwala (
www.jwalaji.com
)

Jwala, author of Sacred
Sex: Ecstatic Techniques for Empowering Relationships
, teaches workshops and offers private Tantra sessions. She is also a rebirther, masseuse, and sensual clothes designer, offering a line of Tantra-wear clothing.

Kutira and Raphael (
www.oceanictantra.com
)

Kutira and Raphael offer workshops and retreats in Maui. Their approach to Tantra includes yoga, meditation, breath work, massage, sexual healing, loving rituals, dance, music, theatre, positive ceremonial magic practices, and swims with dolphins.

Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson (
www.tantrapm.com
)

Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson, authors of the books
The Essence of Tantric Sexuality
and
Erotic Empowerment: The Fundamentals of Tantric Sexuality
, offer online and in-person Tantra workshops.

Midori (
www.fetishdiva.com
)

Midori travels the world lecturing and presenting workshops on a vast array of erotic topics, particularly conscious S/M. She’s not to be missed.

Charles and Caroline Muir (
www.sourcetantra.com
)

Authors of
Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving
, the Muirs offer weekend introductory workshops and week-long Tantra vacation seminars, as well as books, tapes, and home study courses.

Evalena Rose (
www.tantraforwomen.com
)

Evalena Rose leads introductory and weekend workshops and retreats for women in Santa Rosa, California. Women of all sexual preferences are welcome, both couples and singles.

Sexological Bodywork (
www.sexologicalbodywork.com
)

Taught by Joseph Kramer and Chrys Curtis-Frawley (among others), Sexological Bodywork is an intensive course at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, culminating in a Sexological Bodywork Certificate.

Sexy Spirits (
www.sexyspirits.com
)

Founded by Richard “Anton” Diaz, Sexy Spirits is a sex-positive education center specializing in Tantric and Taoist sexual-cultivation practices. Anton offers weekly lectures, classes, workshops, playshops, and play parties.

Carla Tarantola (
www.1tantra.com
)

Carla is a Tantra teacher, love coach, and intimacy guide. She offers private sessions and group workshops in New York, Maui, and California.

Online Resources

BDSM

Arizona Power Exchange (
www.arizonapowerexchange.org
)

The Arizona Power Exchange (APEX) is a support and educational organization for people whose lives or interests include S/M, bondage and discipline, or dominance and submission. This organization promotes safe, sane, and consensual erotic play between adults.

The Eulenspiegel Society (
www.tes.org
)

The Eulenspiegel Society (TES) is a nonprofit organization that promotes sexual liberation for all adults, especially for people who enjoy consensual S/M.

Greenery Press (
www.greenerypress.com
)

Greenery Press publishes many of the best books about BDSM and kinky sex, many with a strong spiritual aspect.

The Society of Janus (
www.soj.org
)

The Society of Janus is a nonprofit, volunteer-run, San Francisco-based education and support organization devoted to the art of safe, consensual, and nonexploitative power exchange. It’s a great site with lots of information.

GLBTQ

Ashram West (
www.gaytantra.org
)

Ashram West is an ashram for the gay community that teaches Tantra.

QueerNet (
www.queernet.org
)

QueerNet provides free online services for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer, questioning and allies, HIV/AIDS, sexual and gender rights, and leather and S/M communities. The site includes mailing lists, websites, and email hosting, and links to all sorts of queer organizations.

Queer Resources Directory (
www.qrd.org
)

The Queer Resources Directory contains 25,488 files about everything queer, worldwide.

TantraForGayMen (
www.gaytantra.com
)

TantraForGayMen is a noncommercial site dedicated to men who love men and who want to learn more about how to deepen their relationship with the Divine through Tantra. It includes a free members/community page.

POLYAMORY AND GROUP EROTICS

alt.polyamory (
www.polyamory.org
)

This is the home page for the Usenet newsgroup alt.polyamory. It contains resources, links, and FAQs.

Club Relate (
www.clubrelate.net
)

Club Relate is the masturbation swing club founded by Lynda Gayle and her husband Tom. Club Relate holds its parties in Florida, but the site contains information about masturbation in all its forms, including watching, being watched, helping, talking, listening to others’ fantasies, and parties. The site includes a forum for reader correspondence.

Loving More (
www.lovemore.com
)

Loving More is a national organization and resource center for people who wish to live outside traditional monogamy. The organization also publishes
Loving More
magazine, the only magazine dedicated exclusively to topics involving multipartner relating. The website offers information about polyamory, as well as community resources.

“A Modern Guide to Swinging” (
www.sexuality.org/mgswing.html
)

This is a very good introductory article about swinging, followed by links for more information.

SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL HEALTH

Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (
www.aim-med.org
)

The Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, founded by Dr. Sharon Mitchell, features an incomparable list of safer-sex and sexual health links.

The Body (
www.thebody.com
)

The Body is a very comprehensive HIV/AIDS resource site, featuring 550 topics.

The-Clitoris.com (
www.the-clitoris.com
)

The-Clitoris.com is a site dedicated to women’s sexual pleasure and health.

The-Penis.com (
www.the-penis.com
)

The-Penis.com is a site dedicated to men’s sexuality and sexual health.

Safersex.org (
www.safersex.org
)

Not just a site about safer sex, Safersex.org also features sex toys and supplies, free speech, pop culture, religion, and sexblogs—a very cool site.

Sexual Health Info Center (
www.sexhealth.org/main.shtml
)

Initially created as a project by two students at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the Sexual Health Info Center provides information and forums for adults to discuss human sexuality and its nuances.

Society for Human Sexuality (
www.sexuality.org
)

This is the Society for Human Sexuality’s huge website, devoted to acceptance and understanding of all sexual orientations and all consensual and safe sexual practices. It includes resources, local guides, essays, reviews, and FAQs.

yOni (
www.yoni.com
)

yOni is an exploration and celebration of the many faces of the Feminine, offering articles on sex, mothering, intuition, menstruation, shamanism, aging, and more. There are interactive discussion forums, an ongoing book list, a sharing circle, and links to a wide variety of other resources for women on the Internet. When you visit the site, be sure to check out
www.yoni.com/lover.shtml
.

TANTRA, TAO, AND SACRED SEX

Healing Tao USA (
www.healingtaousa.com
)

Healing Tao USA contains an online store, plus newsletters and a list of teachers certified by Mantak Chia.

The Kama Sutra Temple (
www.tantra.org
)

The Kama Sutra Temple is a sister site to
www.tantra.com
.

Nepal Institute (
www.newfrontier.com/Nepal
)

This site houses the teachings of Swami Nostradamus Virato. It has a good list of references, links, and resources.

Sacred Sex (
www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html
)

This site contains essays and articles by Catherine Yronwode on sacred sex, Tantra, karezza, and other forms of sex worship. This is a personal, noncommercial site.

Shiva Shakti Mandalam (
www.religiousworlds.com/mandalam/index.html
)

Shiva Shakti Mandalam is an excellent Tantra site from Mike Magee and associates. It has many pages with masses of reliable information, including good graphics, translations of key texts, and lots of Tantra links.

Society for Human Sexuality (
www.sexuality.org
)

The Society for Human Sexuality is a social and educational organization whose purpose is to promote understanding and appreciation for the many forms of adult intimate relationships and consensual sexual expression. The site is hugely comprehensive and features a section on Tantra.

Tantra.com (
www.tantra.com
)

Tantra.com is a comprehensive site featuring articles about Tantra, techniques, workshop and teacher listings, personals, and an online store.

Tantraworks (
www.tantraworks.com
)

Tantraworks is a large, well-maintained site created by Nik Douglas, author of
Sexual Secrets
. It includes an extensive database, links, and a bibliography.

Universal Tao Center Website (
www.universaltao.com
)

This is Mantak Chia’s site; it includes information on Tao and Taoist sexuality, plus a schedule of seminars, retreats, and workshops with Mantak Chia.

TEENS

Coalition for Positive Sexuality (
www.positive.org
)

The Coalition for Positive Sexuality is a grassroots, direct-action volunteer group formed in the spring of 1992 by high school students and members of ACT UP, Queer Nation, Emergency Clinic Defense Coalition, and No More Nice Girls. The site includes an online forum.

Scarleteen (
www.scarleteen.com
)

Scarleteen provides information on all aspects of positive sexuality in a stylish, hip, fun manner—a great site.

Teenwire (
www.teenwire.com
)

Teenwire, Planned Parenthood’s award-winning site for teens, provides honest and nonjudgmental information about sexuality, self-esteem, body image, drugs and alcohol, and communication, as well as relationship advice.

YouthResource (
www.youthresource.com
)

YouthResource is created by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) young people thirteen to twenty-four years old. The site offers support, community, resources, and peer-to-peer education about sex and sexual health.