MISA students talk about eroticism, Tantra, and their relationships with their men.
February 4, 2025
Article 4 of 6. Read article 1, article 2, and article 3.
One of the MISA women I interviewed, N., expressed eloquently expresses a “sex complementarity” view: “You know, as a woman I can feel like I am equal with a man as a soul or a human being. I don’t put the man somewhere higher than myself, or me in a submissive position. But I just recognize his masculine role, and I respect and accept our differences, and the different roles that we have.”
Courses are offered by both MISA and ATMAN to assist women in developing hyper-feminine qualities. Parallel courses are available for the men. The aim is to enhance the “polarity” between couples.
MISA offers the “Venus: Association for Elevating Women” program in Romania. A parallel program for ATMAN is called “Tantra for Women Course.” Its courses are offered in twenty-five cities in Europe, led by over forty female coordinators, with group sizes ranging from four to sixty participants. Its mission is presented on the ATMAN website: “We are a group of yoginis and Tantric women united on a voyage of self-discovery. We have been studying… the sacred wisdom of esoteric ancient teachings adapted to modern times… now we joined our hearts to share our discoveries with you.”
This course provides (free) a “golden circle”; a space for women to meet, to share their concerns and experiences and support each other. The website lists a range of “Mini-Courses”: Feminine Archetypes; Esoteric Astrology—For awakening your Shakti; 64 Arts for revealing the Femininity; Secrets in Femininity—The Art of Surrendering.
D. described the activities in “Venus”: “We meet in small ‘Shakti’ groups, based on the Hindu goddess, Shakti, who represents femininity and energy. We do different things, we talk about very real-life aspects, like menstruation, or our relationships with lovers. Sometimes we do massage, other times dancing. It’s like a girls meeting.”
G. claims her “Venus” group helped her sort out her sexual inhibitions: “We learned together in the women group not to be so rational and manly styled, let’s say. And to become more feminine, sweet, and loving. My target with this group was to discover my own soul. I learned how to raise the energy and discover myself as a woman. Because the [sexual] experiences I had in my relationship at the beginning of yoga practice were very poor, I dare to say. Because I couldn’t feel the pleasure so much. I even didn’t know if I had orgasms or not.”
An administrator of “Venus,” A. C., explained how the courses were geared to facilitate harmony between the sexes: “There are a lot of differences… women, in general, are very emotional… men and women are not equal, but they are complementary. A woman has this menstrual cycle… when she is not very balanced emotionally. Women are much more connected to the soul than men, and there is a very big difference in the brain activity. [In Venus] we have some tools to balance all this emotionality, vulnerability, and fluctuation. A lot of women come to our classes who have blockages due to bad experiences with men. They are very closed, they don’t feel pleasure, they reject men in general. Gradually, we have developed this methodology to help them to open up again, to be positive in this area. And practicing the amorous erotic continence helps them to discover their own sexuality in another way that is closer to their soul.”
Adina Stoian (who was later arrested in Georgia together with her husband Mihai in connection with the French case against Bivolaru) has been part of the Tantra for Women Course since 2002 in Denmark’s Natha Yoga School. More recently, she participated in the Tantra for Women Teacher’s Training course or “Path of the Goddesses.” One purpose of these courses, she explained, was “for women to open up to ask intimate questions, they need a kind of gender support.”
Her husband, Mihai Stoian, taught a parallel men’s course on Tantra called “Vira.” “We don’t like to call it ‘Tantra for Men,’” Adina explained, “because then we get inquiries whether it is a homosexual approach—which it is not. It’s a polar approach. So, we call it ‘Vira groups.’ It’s from the Sanskrit V-I-R-A, which means ‘spiritual hero.’ Also, the Tantra for Women course will not be for lesbian women, although we don’t stop them to come if they want. But it’s oriented to support the knowledge of Tantra to be applied in the life of heterosexual couples.”
Bivolaru was giving a series of sex-segregated lectures on Tantra in Romania until the 2004 raid, which transformed his life into that of a fugitive or prisoner. In the secret footage of a lecture shown to me at the Bucharest Yoga Studio, Grieg is advising a women-only group, “If the man spends 15 minutes or less in foreplay, you must consider that as a rape!” The women clap and cheer. Clearly, they feel that their spiritual guide Grieg is on their side.
Bivolaru recommends to couples that, immediately after completing their lovemaking, they should separate so that they might “sublimate” their “energy.” Several women spoke of how they and their lover would retire to separate rooms or houses, where each would perform asanas or meditate in solitude.
L. explained how this practice worked in her marriage: “When my lover and I went to see Grieg (before we were married) he gave us advice on how to sublimate our sexual energy, don’t let it to be stagnant, yes, to make it rise. Because when sexual energy is down, you become jealous or fuzzy or have a lot of resentment. He gave us advice not to sleep together [in the same bed]. In the beginning we tried to shortcut this… we have lived together for many year… but after that, we understood his idea—that it’s not good for us to sleep together. Now, we have separate houses (we are not so far from each other) and we make love—but then we sleep separately. Actually, my husband is very, very strict about this. Like most women, I say, ‘Please stay! Just now, just for this night!’ And my husband says, ‘No!’ Actually, my husband… is more introvert than me, and he needed this time only for him, and I think it was very good, this idea.”
A man in MISA whom I interviewed in 2023 as part of my project of studying the November 22 French raids, explained his perspective on separation: “We reached the conclusion that this kind of separation—like not being together—is healthier. The point is, the erotic interaction does not get so good if we stay always together—that it’s better like this, to not live full time in the same place but to meet. It brings every time the chance of joy for meeting again. We are having dinner or lunch together. We go together in the holidays. We do several things together… she comes to my place, helping me cleaning, she is washing my clothes. I go to her house and take care of the maintenance. The distance between our houses is like 15-minute walking. I have a car, so I am driving her to work and back whenever possible. Especially me, as a man, I prefer time to be alone. I practice yoga meditation or spiritual retreats once a day, or two days, and after that I meet her, and it’s a very big joy of meeting again.”
When asked what exactly “sublimation” was, S. explained: “Sublimating means to raise the energy from the lower chakras to the upper chakras. If we keep the energy in the lower chakra, it is not harmonious. It’s very important to move the energy… through breathing and asanas. Yoga postures activate the chakras. For example, Anahata chakra brings a lot of love. Dynamizing the Ajna chakra brings a lot of lucidity. When I don’t do sublimation, I feel the energy is very heavy, I need to create an effervescence. Due to ‘gravity,’ our energy falls into the lower chakras. Most of the people have their energy in Muladhara chakra, Svadhisthana chakra. So that’s why I am careful to sublimate energy through yoga postures. Meditations, breathing, techniques that I learn in yoga classes and Tantra classes. Through practicing all this, I experience very high and intense states. I can feel God very much through the lovemaking. Everything is sacred in that lovemaking. You cannot say it’s sex. It’s not about sex. It’s something very pure. Like the way you imagine angels are making love.”
Source: bitterwinter.org
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