WHITE, RED, AND BLACK TANTRA
If you know about tantra, you’re already ahead of most people. (If you don’t know about tantra, check out our article on tantra here.) The deeper you dive into the knowledge and practice of tantra, the more you discover the practice can add to your life. Tantra is endlessly varied and expandable, and it will take you as deep as you want to go. A good place to start if you’re interested in exploring tantra more deeply is with the concept of white, red, and black tantra.
"Tantra, a path where everything is included, and nothing excluded."
WHITE TANTRA
White tantra is oriented toward spiritual growth, and is largely about transcendence through both mental and physical practice. With the guidance of a teacher, white tantra helps us achieve purification of the body and mind by using rituals and practices including breathwork, sounds, postures, and meditation.
White tantra focuses mostly on the two uppermost chakras: the third eye and the crown chakra. It is focused on the individual: it utilizes the path of the right hand or Dakshini Marga. While white tantra does observe and practice the energy of the body, white tantra is not about sex and doesn’t require any physical touch. The focus of white tantra is on healing, awareness, and restoration.
RED TANTRA
Red tantra is all about the divine union of male and female energies in sexual union. While white tantra is about an individual path, red tantra must be practiced together with a partner. Focusing on the sensuality and sexuality of the lower chakras, the red tantra does end up using all of the chakras to bring orgasmic connection and being. Red tantra is not as much about mastery as it is about growth in consciousness and love. The practice of red tantra will also help one grow in courage and self-acceptance, as the practice requires one to release shame, judgment, and fear.
BLACK TANTRA
Black tantra is focused on exercising magical powers, or siddhis. When the energies in the body and mind combine toward a powerful focus, magic can occur. Sexual magic uses orgasmic energy to envision and then manifest desires during orgasm.
Black Tantra has been largely demonized and rejected due to the fact that humans tend to assign anything dark or black with negative characteristics. In reality, black tantra is as pure as white energy but is more dense, raw, and animalistic. Dark energy is the energy of creation, manipulating matter in order to create from desire and longing. It is oriented towards certain magical powers and rituals and is in fact a very powerful energy that is generated at the roots of our body, the grounding area of ourselves that is more likely to be connected to the void, the dark, and the emptiness where all was created.
DO NOT EXCLUDE
The practice of tantra is so much deeper and more expansive than many people understand. No matter what your experience is with Tantra, there is lots of space for you to explore and discover who you are and the power that is accessible to you.