Ep. 13: The Transformational Powers of Tantra, Embodiment & Intimacy with Kashi Kundalini Rose

Following a radical path of self-love, Kashi Kundalini Rose has walked through the fire to bring her students the medicine of intimacy and self-discovery taught through practices such as sensual exploration, shadow work, yoni yoga, tantrahuasca, and more. Grab a yerba mate and a pen for this deep exploration about her journey as a tantra teacher, embodiment mentor, and doula of deep transformation who guides women and men through one-on-one offerings, online courses, and intimate retreats around the world. Kashi reminds us that desire is the blueprint for our dreams and eroticism is the portal to our expansion. 

🌹 Contact Kashi 🌹
IG: @kundalini.rose
Website: www.kundalinirose.co
Tantrahuasca Retreat: www.awakenyourmedicine.life/tantrahuasca-for-couples

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

To add live is to go off script to improvise, freestyle, or act on instinct. Hi, welcome to another episode with ad live with live. I'm your host, Liv, and I have a really special guest with me here today, Kashi, coming straight from the Costa Rican jungle in Puerto Viejo, where I used to live and I miss dearly. Kashi, welcome. Thank you. So good to be here. The people who are just listening and can't see the video, tell us this set up the scene for us.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Where are you? Well, I have my jungle background basically. So behind me, it's actually I'm inside, but I look like I'm outside because that is the houses in the Caribbean in Costa Rica. It's kind of like you know, you have three walls sometimes. So my living room is open. So there's beautiful greenery behind me.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, it looks like one of those AI backdrops that you can plug in, you know, when you're sitting in your like apartment with white walls. Nope, it's real. It's real, baby. I'm the real we might see a sloth, we might see a toucan.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah. Most likely you'll see my cat.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I hope so. Um, what do you call your house, your space? The Rose Temple.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

The Rose Temple. Actually, technically it's the Rose Temple Grove, is the name that I gave it because there's a beautiful garden, but you know, it gets shortened to the Rose Temple.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

The Rose Temple sounds like a place every woman should visit at some point. Um, I want my own rose garden. And I love that you are calling in from Costa Rica because this is where I used to live and this is how we connected, even though we've never met in person. But I feel like I know you so well because we've gotten to work together in a few different ways. And it just like brings me back to those years that I had in the Caribbean, and you still call it home, right? It's been your home base for a few years.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, for five years, a little bit more than five years. I came in 2020, January, uh COVID refugee from London on the run from England, and I just stayed in this house as soon as I found it. It's funny you said that about every woman should come here, because as soon as I found it, when I came to view it, I was like, this is where I can do the women's work. Like I saw it from that first moment. Was that this wasn't just a temple for me? This was supposed to be a haven for women, especially.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

So Kashi, also known as Kundalini Rose, I think that's your that's how people might recognize you online because that's your Instagram handle. But it's also how would you like what what do you identify with? Kashi, Kundalini Rose? What are the differences between these two wonderful names? I guess who are you?

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Well, basically Kashi, uh, I mean, the short version is the the name Cashi was given to me. It wasn't my birth name, but my surname is Money. So Cashi evolved and emerged because my surname was Money, it was a nickname originally. And then when I came to Costa Rica and I just birthed my business, then I gave it the name Kundalini Rose. And then it all got a bit squashed together. And so somehow now mostly I'm known as Cashi Kundalini Rose professionally, which is a bit of a mouthful, but it also rolls off the tongue.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

It does. It actually sounds like poetry. I reference you as Cashi, but online you're Kundalini Rose, which I love because if someone comes across your page, it's just like an immediate invitation into who you are. Like that just carries so much good energy and curiosity. Um, you are a teacher of Tantra and an embodiment mentor who guides women into profound transformations through one-on-one offerings, online courses, as well as hosting retreats around the world, including Egypt and Costa Rica. Your Tantra wasca retreat blends the medicine of ayahuasca, tantric practices, and intimate rituals to help women expand, reconnect, and reawaken their heart's purpose. You have also been a guide, a mentor, and a muse for me. I get to actually speak from experience through this conversation with you today, which I'm so excited for. So, welcome. And I just want to talk a little bit about my personal experience with you and how we connected. So I was on a personal journey of looking to explore my own sensuality, which is something that comes really naturally for me. I'm connected to my senses and I have a lot of desire to express through my senses. And so I was looking for guidance, support. And the internet is flooded with voices and coaches and classes that you can take around, you know, connecting with your feminine divine and sensual embodiment and all and tantric energy and all these things that feel a little abstract, but had a resonance for me. So I wanted to know more, but I couldn't find the right person until I came across an offering where you were doing like a free live session with a group of people who are interested in discussing the topic of personal, you know, sensual embodiment. And I was like, great, I'll drop in, love a free opportunity. And that was when I knew that I needed to connect with you and your work because you come across so authentic, so true. You take your work so seriously, but you also have a playfulness and a lightness to you, which makes it accessible and makes it fun because this process can be heavy, but I think you bring so much play to it. And that's one of my biggest takeaways is you've taught me how to like play in my sensuality and also expand so deeply through it. So yeah, your work has honestly changed my life. I know this is an interview with you, but I'm gonna talk a little bit more because I want to share my highlights that I took away from your course called Portal of Power. I love it. Which is it's just like praise, praise. Um Portal of Power is a course that you've been teaching for how many years?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I think I created Portal of Power in Oh, it was when I went to Egypt because I filmed half of it in Egypt. So it would have been two years, it was 2024. Okay, perfect. So I got in uh the first year that you had started it. First round, even. Oh, okay. That's that's special. I didn't realize that. And the course had just been created, and I do remember you dropped in into I guess it was like some kind of master class, mistress class, and you came in, and that's the first time you know I met you basically, was like in that in that class, and then you came straight into the program. So I'm pretty sure that was the first ever round.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

That's really cool that I got to be a part of that because it was it truly was so transformational. A few of the highlights from the course that I really carry through to my day today are that I have learned to not be a victim of my circumstances, but I am in fact a creator of them. I learned about just taking personal responsibility, and that has changed every relationship that I have in my life because I own how I showed up in those relationships instead of feeling like all these negative things happened to me or the question why me and poor me. And it really let me reframe where I was showing up in those dynamics and how the negative things that happened were actually the initiations that I needed. And I also learned about how my sensuality and my passion is more than sexual desire and romance. It is the portal to my creative self, it's the blueprint for my dreams and my purpose. It's a it's a big thing. It's serious. We have to take our sensuality and our sexuality seriously as women. Um, I need to listen, I need to move, I need to explore, and I need to surrender. And that's how I can transform my life. So easy, right? Just do those things every day. No, it's not easy. And that's why I found you because I needed a guide and you taught me how to step into my sensuality. Most young girls and women, we are not taught to tune in to that sensual side of ourselves. In fact, we're taught to hide it, or we're shown that our sensuality is seen through the male gaze, which is something to reframe. Truly, at 35 years old, I am now learning to reclaim my pleasure. So I'm learning that my sexuality is truly my own and it starts from my own energy. And yeah, it was never meant to begin or end with penetration. Um, it's actually the medicine that I make, that I channel, that I use to create, dream, transmute. And yes, come. So I want to open the floor to you now, and I want to talk about how you became the mentor that you are today. Like, how do you embody what you do? How are you able to teach women so authentically? How did you get to that point?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Well, I loved all of that. You're such a good student. You really took to it all like such like a duck to water, you know, just like gave you wings, and it's beautiful that all of those pieces are still so present. And yeah, it's like in many ways, I'm also just a natural on this path. Like I followed, I discovered Tantra at around 16 years old. I started reading Osho's books. I was a total book woman when I was younger. Um, I still am, but I don't have as much time for it. And I discovered Osho's books and I devoured them. And then I had a lover who was actually an Osho Sinnyasin when I was about 22, my second love. And he introduced me to Tantra as a kind of like lived concept. It was all very blended with polyamory and free love and open relationship, which I learned was not my jam, really, ultimately, but it was quite an initiation. I I guess that was the somatic initiation for me of like being with someone who practiced tantra and the walked the tantric path and had you know initiation with a guru. And it sort of was it was a big initiation for me. My biggest initiations have been through love and sexuality, you know, in in the good and the hard sense, like the heartbreaks as well as the deep, deep, deep love initiations, you know, that have been totally phenomenal and blissful and then also completely excruciating on the other side. So that has really been, yeah, my my greatest teacher. And I walked the path, not with any intention to teach. You know, it was like, I mean, 20 years ago, we're talking about 20, more than 20 years ago now, when I was with this lover of mine, and you know, I was like, Instagram didn't exist. I wasn't following people and going like, oh yeah, I can make some money out of this. I'll be a facilitator, I'll, you know, set up my brand. Like, none of that was even remotely of interest. I was dedicated to being a hippie at that point. You know, I'd come out of university, I was so over at vacation. I went to a really academic school and I was just like, I literally took my shoes off for seven years and traveled the world, and I was just spiritually hungry. I was, you know, I was an artist as well. I was a dancer, I was interested in expression. Sensuality was just a part of who I was, and I had a natural, I guess, lack of shame. So I found myself in lots of experiences and communities where we were just naked, you know, and it was just normalized. Actually, my dad was a nudist. So even when I was a little kid, I used to go on holiday with my family, and it was just everyone was nude and it was just normal, you know, it's France, so people weren't freaking out, like America maybe.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

It was just, oh yes, yes, we will, we will freak out.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So I think I had this real, just like comfortable in my own skin thing about me. And I thought it was actually normal, and it took me a long time to realize that this is not the case for many, many, many, many women and humans. So, you know, it's embodiment was always kind of a gift of mine. And at the same time, I was just walking the path of Tantra because it it fulfilled me. It was like it was always more of a remembrance. So when I was reading those books, when I was learning, it was less of a, oh, this is something new, and more of a validation of what I already knew inside me. And that's why I loved it so much because it was so affirming and validating. Somebody's put it into words and put it in a book. Like this is what I know in my soul. So, you know, that was the draw for me. And then I went deep in my spiritual awakening and in a sort of private tantric shamanic mentorship for many years. And that was probably some of my deepest initiations, priestess initiations, really like rude awakening. You know, it spanned my Saddam Return. And it was it was tough. I was also like quite isolated during that period intentionally to do the deep, deep, deep inner work and reclamation of my power at a soul level. And so I think after all of that, when I came to Puerto Viejo, I mean many things happened in between, but I'm gonna put it in a nutshell. When I came here, I again I didn't have the intention to teach, to guide, to lead. I had no plan because a lot of my life I live like like a mystic, you know, I don't really have a plan ever. Um I'm really following the guidance, I'm really following the calling. Of course, I operate from the mind, but most of my life, I also had a natural ability to be heart-led, right? Which is why my greatest initiations happened through following my heart. Yeah. And so when I came here, it was suddenly like Kundalini Rose just birthed effortlessly. It felt like an orgasmic birth. And it felt like this land was so supportive to me bringing that work. So, like I said, I found this house and I just knew that I was meant to do workshops with women here. And then from that, it expanded online. And so there was a real threshold for me of like 15 years at least of doing the inner work because it was my path before I actually started to teach and lead and guide others.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

I think that explains it so well from me as a student and finding you in the in the massive ocean that is Instagram and the internet. You really like hold the truth within you. And it doesn't feel performative, it doesn't feel like you studied it and now you're reiterating that information. It feels true like you have truly felt it yourself, and that's why you can teach it so effortlessly and with such knowing. And that is not the case for all guides and teachers. So I feel that story that you just told. And I love that love is at the center of it all. Um, I do one thing that it came up while you were speaking is what are some of the practices that you were doing to like really devote yourself to discovering yourself, to like what Kashi's practices are and back in the day, even that like kept you, you know, finding depth within yourself in your expression.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah, it's a great question because the practices have evolved. And I went through probably it was, I believe it was seven years where I was dedicated yogini. Like I would do 90 minutes of yoga every morning. And if I didn't do at least an hour of yoga, I felt off. So I was so devoted and dedicated to that practice for many years that it was actually an addiction. You know, I started to recognize eventually that it was a bit off that I was off unless I did my practice. My mentor actually told me to give up yoga. And I was like, because I I was like it's like a breakup, it's like a relationship that you have to end. But this was the beginning of a hugely dramatic series of ego deaths for me, right? And so that's the kind of mentorship I went through. It was very much um, it was quite radical, you know, it was a lot more radical than, say, the mentorship that I offer. But I had to break my yoga addiction. And what's interesting, I think would be interesting for other people to contemplate in a way, because I see a lot of people do the yoga thing and cultivate the yoga addiction in their own way, and it's often to do with um physical strength or flexibility. But what I learned when I gave up the yoga was that there was a lot of energetic shit, for lack of a better word, underneath the muscle that I had built through yoga. So I became a kundalini yoga teacher. I was so into it, and kundalini was always like I had super strong kundalini, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

I was full line. Okay, for those who don't know, when you say I had a lot of kundalini energy, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Okay, so you know, kundalini is a name um for essentially your life force. So it's often depicted in yoga and tantra as these two serpents that rise from the base of the spine and you know, they weave in and out of each other and they move through all the chakras. So essentially you can think of it as life force energy. It's the energy of life and aliveness, but it's also sexual energy because ultimately sexual energy is life force. As you said at the beginning, it's it's also our creative energy, it's also healing energy, it's the power of creation. You know, I always had a healthy body and a strong life force, and I was just, you know, Taurus this way. It was like I was strong in my body. The interesting thing about that phase was I was activating a lot of kundalini, but there was a lot that wasn't integrated. I hadn't done the root work, which is what I now guide a lot of women in. So the energy, the expression was ungrounded. And the yoga built a lot of muscle on top of a lot of energetic blockages, things that I needed to address and that I couldn't address while I was still addicted to the yoga. So basically, when I quit the yoga reluctantly, then the deeper healing could take place.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Very powerful. And it I love that you naturally have this energy and you have used it as like the gift, it's a gift that you have found ways to share and channel and also pull it out in other people. And I feel like that is what you're supposed to. I don't want to tell anyone what to do with their lives, but like when you have a gift like that, the point is to understand it so deeply yourself and then to share it. And so I love that you've created this world and this community that's global to share your gift.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Yeah, it's actually also a lot of the work that I do with my clients is supporting them. It's almost like midwifing them to birth their own dharma. You know, it's like I have it on my Instagram bio, dooler of deep transformation, because that's often the first part. You know, it's like the descent, like you said, it can be heavy, it can be difficult. There's sexual healing, there's trauma, there's stuff you have to face. That's often the prerequisite for then a system, a body, a being that you have the clarity, you have the freedom, the life force is able to flow, your creativity is able to flow, and that's when you can then birth your purpose. You can birth the dharma that is your gifts. I will walk them through the descent and walk them through the process and walk beside them while they go on that journey into birthing their own gifts that's theirs. It's not the same as what I'm doing, it's not the same as what you're doing. It's it's it's each person's own. And the way that we get to that is by actually going on that inner journey.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

That's so beautifully said. And I love that you're initiating people into their truth. It's not a formula of this is the result of this work. It's like, no, you discover what you need to be focusing on and harnessing, and that truth will come through, and then you just have to honor it. And it it truly does look different for all of us with our Portal of Power group. We had a variety of women coming from very different ages and backgrounds, and everybody had a different purpose come through. And that was like, it was just an affirmation to know that like stay on your path, like you got this. You don't need to, you don't need to try to emulate somebody else's. Like your truth is your unique power.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

So go all in. Totally. And and I I I kind of I coined a phrase um sexual dharma as well, because so much of my work is around sexuality, and I came to see so clearly that everyone has their own sexual dharma. So there are no rules or correct way to liberate your sexuality. You know, for one person it looks like polyamory or free love, and for another, it looks like monogamy with the person that you met as a child. Like it's, you know, it's different for each person. Only you can know the path for you. You can be guided. You know, I work a lot with astrology as well. I look at people's placements and their chart, and it's like this is this is the codes of your blueprint, but only you know how to walk the way.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Yeah, you give people permission to own. Their shit. And that is really important as women, specifically, because we're often like, like I said earlier, kind of like oppressed and pushed to the side. And our purpose isn't really supposed to be at the center of everything, but we are the creators. And why wouldn't it be at the center of everything we do in our lives? And that changes everyone's lives around us. So it's like, let's get going. Everything comes through us. And so finding that portal that's unique to each of us just feels like a responsibility and also such a privilege that we get to hone in on that.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yeah, it's like a beautiful combination of this individuality. And I think this is a kind of zeitgeist concept in a way. It's like the individuality of like, yeah, you do you and your unique path and your codes and your gifts, and no one else can fulfill your role on this planet. And this, like, we are the same, you know, women are the same. Like we all have wombs, we all can give birth. Like, we know what it is to birth, even if it's not children, you know. It's like we know the process of the cycle, the bleeding, the process of being a woman, you know, and it's it's this is where in Portal of Power, there's so much, you know, going into your individual codes in a way, and your individual journey. And then there's just this like coming back to the portal, you know, the throne of your feminine power, the yoni, the womb. This is what every woman has and can be responsible for. And that's the embodiment, that's the real embodiment, you know, it's like dropping women into their womb. And I don't know, there's so much about it online, and there's so many people talking about pussy power and this kind of thing. But it's like it really is the throne of your power. So, however brilliant you are, if you are not able to descend into the body and into the roots and root, which is what I wasn't doing fully when I was high on Kundalini yoga, then you can't be in your full power. You're missing a very important part of the equation. And so reclaiming your sexuality is it's it's just vital. It's vital if you want to grow into your highest potential, into your fullest expression. You cannot negate that part. And so I think you know, midwifing that journey, you know, and and it's a journey of rebirthing yourself because in the process, you do end up birthing yourself anew. That's just like that's what I'm so passionate about as a baseline for women.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

There's levels to your work, and so I want you to just share three ways you invite women to drop into their room and their root.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

I'm a big fan of the Yoni Egg. So I work a lot with that practice because there are many benefits to it, but one of the primary things that that practice offers is that it helps women to clear the energetic imprints that they receive and experience through sex, through intimacy, and that often they are not processing the impact of those experiences. So, my journey, I have a lot of Scorpio in my chart, and it's like sexuality cannot be casual in my own personal experience. And so a lot of what I'm teaching is to help women understand the depth and the energetics of sex, you know, it's like sex education that you don't get in school. And so the yoni egg practice helps women to be empowered when they learn the energetics of sex and they start to realize how much they have actually been impacted in their subconscious and in their tissues by sex. And then it's like with that tool, you can really clear a lot, reclaim a lot. It's it's kind of like the the super ally, the super tool for women to really also tone the muscles of the yoni and to actually really become more conscious, more agile, more expressive in their sexuality at all levels, really.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Because the yoni egg, you are actually it's a physical stone shaped in a traditional egg form, and it's you insert it into your yoni.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Yeah, yeah. So it's you know, if you look it up on the internet, there's there's all sorts of doctors saying you should never put a crystal in your vagina. And most of these doctors are men. When you have spoken with women who've used this tool, and obviously I introduced this tool to a lot of women, so I speak to a lot of them, then they are the ones to listen to. They will tell you.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

You got me into the yoni egg and also a yoni wand, and it has been amazing. I mean, I cried the first time I used it, it connected me to these like very unseen things that I probably wouldn't have accessed any other way because I love that it's a physical anchor. You're actually touching tissue and the crystals connecting to you physically, and so it actually gives you something to connect to. It's not this abstract idea of like think about a stone in the sky or focus on your third eye. Even that can be difficult. So this physically drops you in. So, you know, I don't want to tell anyone what to do with their bodies, but I would say find someone you trust like Kashi, who can give you the practices that show you how to approach this tool in a really safe and expansive way.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

100% because there's there's specific ways to use this, you know, and there are there are ways that are healthy and ways that are um yeah, like distorted, basically, distorted version of how to work with this tool, which is very ancient. You know, they say it came from Taoist, you know, it's a Taoist practice, but they say it came from ancient China. But I think the Druids were using it and many, many other civilizations. But I think what's beautiful about the egg is also that it creates more intimacy with self. And I think what a lot of people project tantra is all about is about intimacy with someone else. People think it's like slow sex or eye gazing, or you know, people often think that tantra is something you have to practice with a partner, and that's not the case, you know, even in classical tantra, but it's for me, it's especially important to support people to cultivate inner intimacy. So men as well as women, uh, like being really truly intimate with your energy, with your body, with your emotions, with all layers of you, because we can only meet another at the depth to which we've met ourselves. And you know, we are masculine and feminine, we are so much, you know, we have the whole universe inside us. And so I think that this is why the egg and you know, certain foundational practices, they they are so restorative. And this basically bleeds into everything in your life. So with the yoni egg, it's like people like that, it makes you way more orgasmic. Like that's a big, that's a that's a really big thing, you know, and at the same time, it goes so much beyond your physical pleasure, but it does support you to reclaim that, which as you said at the beginning is such an important thing for a woman, you know, to really own her pleasure and really have that permission in her life and in herself to live in her sensuality because we are such erotic creatures.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yes. Okay. So you're saying all these amazing words where you are so integrated into your world, but I've shared some of my experiences that I've done with you with other people, and they're like, but what does that mean? And they just are like, come on, like that's so abstract, that's so esoteric. And I'm like, Yeah, it it definitely can be. So let's take a minute to break down a few of like this commonly used words. How would you describe tantra to someone new?

SPEAKER_00 30:30

There's so many ways it can be described, but fundamentally, the main principles that I tend to work with that are tantric is this union of polarity at so many different levels. Let's start with you have men and women on the planet, children of mothers, you know, you have men and women, and basically as well, we have masculine and feminine energy. So coming back to the kundalini and the serpents, you have a masculine and a feminine serpent. You have both these energetics, both these polarities within you. So a big part of being happy in life, let alone being enlightened, is balance, right? Balance between the masculine and feminine hemispheres of the brain. That's when the mind is quiet and we feel peaceful. Balance in the body, you know, balance between work-life balance, you know, all of this is often just explaining, describing the balance of masculine and feminine energies. So tantra is the practice where you unite the masculine and feminine within you and outside you. That's why it can involve sex. It does include sexuality. And at the same time, it's the practice of uniting the body and the soul. Right? It includes everything. So sexuality and spirituality, you as an individual with the beloved that is the divine. So it's this path of the heart which welcomes everything. In Tantra, everything is one and everything is sacred because there's no separation. So the beauty of this path is that the heart is the place that all paradox can exist, that all polarities can meet and be held as one, be held in love. And so, you know, the love is basically the way and the path. And uniting everything in love and coming into that remembrance that we are love and that our divinity is also love, but it welcomes all of the shadow, it welcomes all of the negative, it welcomes all of the nitty, gritty, shitty parts of life, and it recognizes that all of it is sacred and all of it is love just taking a specific form. So this allows you to walk with freedom. It allows you to remember yourself as love and continue coming back to love. And at the same time, it's very artful, you know, it's very skillful, it's it's a it's a balance, it's a journey of integration. It's not just like sunsets and puppies and everything is love, we're done. It's like, no, you really, you really descend all the way in order to ascend all the way. You know, it's inclusive of the feminine, of the body, of all of bodily functions and you know, everything kinks, desires, weird stuff. It's all welcome. That doesn't mean you act out on your every weird fantasy, but you get to lean in, like we cover this in uh Portal of Power, existential kink. You know, we get to honor all parts of the journey and all parts of ourselves, and that's what brings us home to wholeness and brings us home to truth and brings us home to love and being ourselves. Okay, so Tantra is everything.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

So uh so what I want to say we keep things simple, no, because you you can't because you're not. But what I love, I love everything you just said, and people need to hear that because they're gonna resonate with a lot of those elements. So tantra is a practice, it's a way of being, it's an exploration, it's an application, it's kind of a a joining of both sides of the masculine and feminine, the yin yang.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

I was gonna say, here's a really simple answer to the question is the yin yang, right? That's it. That symbol is tantra, you know, it's like inextricably woven, each one contains the other. Together they make wholeness. It's like that with the polarity, it's it's a path that welcomes all parts of you, and when you welcome all parts of you, you don't resist yourself, you meet all parts of you with love, and that is such an exhale for the human being when you just accept yourself deeply, you know, instead of trying to mold yourself and perfect yourself, and of course, we're always evolving, we're always, you know, a work in progress, but there is something about the heart of Tantra that is like all parts of you are welcome, and I think that at least in my work and bringing a tantric lens to people, like it gives them this exhale, this like, oh okay, this is actually okay. This part of me is is okay. I don't have to erase it, I don't have to pretend it's not there. So I think that's an important part of what this path offers on a kind of social level as well.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Because I think truly we are all trying to find that self-acceptance. I see it with my parents who are in their 70s, I see it with you know the young kids who are just like discovering themselves from a from a like hormonal level. And they're like, who am I now at this stage? There's just we're all trying to find that. Kashi, tell me about eroticism. How would you describe that in a few sentences?

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Eroticism. For me, eroticism is so natural, so innate. It is the energy of life moving through you. It is your aliveness when you give it permission and you don't contain it, you know, and you allow it to move as it wants to move. And this can be nuanced because in the tantric world, some people are very like, trust your eros, trust your eros. Your eros being essentially that kundalini life force energy, but also your turn on, right? Can also be the energy of desire. And so that desire is very healthy, and we women have a lot of it. It's funny because I find that a lot of the time people think that men are the ones that want all the sex, and it's like a healthy woman, a woman who's actually liberated her body from social conditioning and you know, trauma, it's like we are endlessly desirous, we are insatiable creatures, not just at a sexual level, but also at a um at all levels, you know, we we have this amazing capacity to desire, and that is dangerous on a social level. But when we give ourselves that permission to be in our eroticism, we become so magnetic. This is before you even pair it with another being. This is just a woman who's in her erotic nature, who allows herself to be penetrated by life because you know, we are porous, we are receptive. And when we let things in, we let things touch us, then eroticism includes the wind on your skin. It includes, you know, your sexual turn on, but it also includes like the feeling of the sun. You know, I will have such erotic experiences just lying on the beach, not because anything is happening other than I'm just lying on the beach, but because I'm permeable to the sensation and I know how to let it in, you know, and once you let it in, it's like you can also let it out. But I think the reason eroticism is considered dangerous is because we have to learn to be responsible with it.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

I completely agree. Thank you for sharing that. I think there's uh an erotic side to all of us, but a lot of us, some of us have it more expressed and more integrated. And I remember being younger, probably in my like late teens, early 20s, college days. And I would just the way I kind of postured myself and would move my body was, I think it gave off like an erotic vibe. And so friends would tell me, they're like, Why are you being so sexy? Like, stop, you know, don't act like that, or like that's weird, and would kind of check me. And I always felt like I had to contain that natural movement that I have. And it took me years to realize that I wasn't looking to attract a man. I wasn't trying to flirt with somebody. I was actually just being connected to the elements and the situation that I was in. If I was by a body of water, it brought out that eroticism more and that that kind of response in me that wanted to feel and accept more. And that was never really encouraged. And so finding it at this age is like it's very freeing. Like you said, it comes back to freedom and also being mindful of when you share and express this very potent energy.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Exactly that, because it is potent. It's it's a voltage, and the more you cultivate it through tantric practices, through sexuality, through, you know, practicing basically with it at all levels, you know, it turns up the voltage. You know, it's like the more contained you are as well energetically, and that's also part of the work I do with women and with the Yoni Ag is like it helps women stop leaking their sexual energy. And that turns up the voltage of their creativity, of their own healing, of their own lives. Um you also have to be aware, and you learn this, you know, through being socialized and through experience that it invokes, it invokes things, it invokes the male gaze, it invokes judgment, it invokes attention, it invokes all sorts of things. And so you do naturally learn to contain it, and you need to, you know, we're not living in the Garden of Eden, we're not living in one big orgy. It's like there are spaces, and tantric temples can offer a space like this where your full erotic expression is invited and welcomed, and there are rules and it's a container, and that's one thing. But you know, to walk, I think for any woman, like we are so erotic in our nature, you know, if we were to fully take the lid off that in every moment of every day, it would be exhausting because of what we would invoke and the energies that would come towards us. So, of course, in a way, this is the dilemma of women is like I want to be fully expressed, and yet you also have to temper yourself because ultimately I believe we need to be responsible for that power at all levels, and that actually takes quite a skill.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

And at the same time, we want to be expressed and liberated and feel free, so it's a it's about it it is that tantra yin and yang of like push and pull and and control and release, and it's kind of um, but that is life, isn't it? It's life is one big contraction, and so we're just kind of working with that closure and opening and release and expansion. And when you start this work, it just becomes more, I don't want to say work, let's say play. It becomes more play, it becomes more exploration because you think you have like, you know, maybe you find some sensual release with the Yoni egg and you're like, wow, I'm feeling really like connected to my inner life force, and I just want to like move my body a certain way. And then all of a sudden you're realizing that there's a place and a time for that, and you can like maybe release that too much on somebody, and you're like, I actually didn't want to share that with them. And it just becomes this awareness that you bring in, but that also becomes the play of it all and the exploration of it. And I think that's really fun. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

I'm enjoying it, and again, you know, that's like coming back to the sexual dharma and everybody's is different, you know. It's like some people also you get in a committed relationship. I have a friend, she was in a long-term relationship with someone who is very traditional, and she's like, she's a tantrika, she's wild, but her relationship was very traditional, and so she had to contain that energy very much so around everyone except her partner. It's just basically very individual and very specific to the culture. You know, if you walk around in your full sensuality in Egypt, it's like you're gonna attract a whole different kind of attention than if you do it in California, right? So the culture is also relevant, the relationship that you're in is relevant, the people around you are relevant, and it's this power that women can wield. And also a lot of women use it to manipulate. You know, they use it very deliberately to manipulate. So I think there's a you know, every woman has to really meet herself and discover her own like ethics, her own framework, her own truth in the realm of erotic expression, and it's gonna also change, you Know as we grow, as we evolve.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Absolutely. But it like it those ethics that you're talking about are life ethics. Those are personal practices that you should have, anyways. And I don't know if all of us have a personal set of ethics that we actually have refined and processed and like adhere to. So, like you said earlier, this work bleeds into everything else in life. Your work relationships, the way you household, the way you eat, and the way you curate relationships. And I find that to be why this is so important. It's not just like personal expression, like sexual connection. It will truly reset the way that you step into life itself. And that feels really powerful.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Yeah, it's it's transformational, you know, because at the end of the day, your erotic energy, your sexual energy is alchemical in nature. That's why it's healing. It's like fire. Fire changes what it touches. And so you transform and your life transforms because you are the center of your life, and everything is actually a mirror for your own state, for your own healing journey. Because I believe that life wants us to evolve, wants us to heal. And so that everything placed on our path is actually of service to us if we know how to extract the medicine, if we know how to read it, if we know how to digest it, if we take the time to digest it. You know, with sexuality, some people they just like bounce from one experience to the other and they never digest what just happened, and then they just repeat the same pattern over and over again. Whereas when you actually take the time to digest anything, a sexual experience, a container, a course, an afternoon, then you get to extract the meaning for you. And that's how we grow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:59

You taught us that perspective is everything, you know, it's how we perceive the world around us and within us. And we can kind of choose that perspective. It's not forced upon us. If we have, if we're free, if we have the luxury of being able to um curate our life the way that feels the best for us, then we have the opportunity to perceive everything a certain way. And that is also an evolution. And I think the more evolved you become, the more you do see everything as of service and not as a problem. It's in the way, it's taking me away from something. Like actually, which is our next conversation of intimacy, is these challenges, these yucky things that happen to us or whatever, it's actually bringing us closer to ourselves if we allow it. So I would love to talk about what intimacy is for you and how you teach that to your students, your clients.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

One simple definition of intimacy that is is used quite widely, but it's it's a really good one is into me, I see. So intimacy, into me, I see, like real intimacy starts there, is looking inside yourself. Well, nice.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Yeah. I've never heard that.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

I love it. Uh it's a beautiful reframe because people think intimacy again, like tantra, is like, oh, you need a partner, you know, intimacy is sexuality, intimacy is some shared experience involving the genitals, you know, people have all sorts of preconceptions. But yeah, intimacy is being close to yourself, is knowing yourself, know thyself. Because if you believe or experience that we are divine, that our essence is divine, and that everything is within us, then what else do we need to do but know ourselves? It sounds very um self-indulgent. You know, my mother was always just like, oh, your navel-gazing ways, you know, it's so self-indulgent. Most people don't have time for this stuff. But it's like, it depends what you prioritize. And I have found that the more intimate I am with my own process and my own practice and my own self, then the more I actually have to pour into other people, the more wisdom I have, the more insight, the more I can serve. Absolutely, of course. Yeah, so you know, intimacy also is something we all crave so deeply. For me, I know that nothing fulfills me more than intimacy and not only sexual intimacy, but emotional intimacy. I'm one of these people that like if I'm having the worst day in the world and a girlfriend or a client in need texts me for support, and I'm able to be this is very Cancerian, my cancer ascendant. It's like I'm able to be there for someone, then I'm like, my life has purpose. I feel so good because I am there for them in intimacy. And likewise, if I am going through something and I just have one person who goes, like, oh babe, I really see you, I feel you. It's like everything is a million times better because this is what really carries meaning. It's not how much money do you make, it's not how many followers do you have on Instagram. For me, it's like, how much can you be seen and see others and really meet in depth? This is my nature, anyway. It's like I love depth. That's why, you know, defining things in simple terms is is quite a nice challenge for me. Like I love being met in my depth, I love meeting others in depth. And so I think that that fulfills something at a very human level that makes us feel connected. It dissolves this feeling of separation and that we have to somehow strive or struggle to be good enough or to be worthy. You know, when we have that connection, like I've seen it so many times in women's circles. Somebody comes with like this thing that they have so much shame about, you know, and they're in tears and they they find the courage to speak it, and someone else just goes, like, I had the same thing. And in that moment, so much dissolves. Like there's healing right there. Yeah because it's like I'm not alone in this. Yeah, I'm not alone in this life, I'm not alone in this experience. We are together, and that togetherness is is is what we crave. It's therapeutic. That togetherness is the union, is the unity of all that is. It cuts through this illusion that we're on our own. So yeah, I think intimacy is so important. And I think that's why I'm excited about Tantrawaska for couples and for practice partners. And basically, this is the first time in this retreat that we're inviting men into the space. We've had six retreats with women, and it's so intimate, it's so intimate among the women. There is no sexual intimacy, you know, there's no like sexual practices that women are doing together in in Tantrawaska level one at all, but there is so much intimacy on a soul level, on an emotional level. And so now to be welcoming men into the space and cultivating this intimacy in a very conscious way through practice and you know, through the journey, it feels so important because, in a way, the gender divide is really it's really deep. It's really built into our society in so many ways. And so coming together, not just because we're a couple and we have sex and we've chosen to be in a relationship, but because we need to meet each other in intimacy as brothers and sisters of this human family and actually remember that we're on the same team, that we are one.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Yeah, that's really healing work, Akashi. I I do want to recognize that you primarily worked only worked with women, or did you work with men one-on-one?

SPEAKER_00 52:02

I've been working with men since 2022, but most of my clients are women. But I do have a men's course online and I do work with men um in like live events and one-on-one as well. But less more of my clients are women.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

So hearing this transition, I want to know what sparked this moment. Because I know you um you do the retreat with uh Millie Moonstone, right? And so you guys, you guys hold this space together and curate it together. So, where was that spark for either you or her or together that you said, okay, this is relational intimacy that maybe needs to be explored more and held space for?

SPEAKER_00 52:41

Well, the story of Tantrawaska is that Millie conceived it many years ago with her beloved at the time, who was the man who introduced her to well, he was serving ayahuasca and she was playing music, and they did seven years of ceremonies together. And so she didn't know she was essentially apprenticing to serve the medicine. But when he passed away in 2020, she took on the mantle, and so she yeah, so she's part of that lineage, um, which is an offshoot of the Santa Dime. It's very direct lineage, actually, um, from the very beginning of when ayahuasca emerged from the jungle. But essentially, they had the concept back then when they were a couple and they were dreaming up their future to do tantrawasca for couples, and right around that time, I came back into her life. We've known each other since we were 20. And I came back into her life after I think we hadn't seen each other for 13 years, shortly after he died. And we went for a walk in the woods and just had this whole day together basically, um, reuniting. And and she told me about Tantra Waska. And as soon as she said the word, I don't know how it came up or anything. That word just like my whole body just was like singing. It was like I felt like a bit similar to how I told you, you know, the the um the books and all the the work of Tantra. It was like, I know this already. I felt that when I was gonna go, it was like it was already like inside me.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

Yeah, that recognition.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Yeah, it was complete recognition, complete activation. And then we basically birthed it together. And so we started with women because it felt like this is the foundation, and we were two women. So we said, let's start with that. We always had the vision to bring it to couples, and we always had the men um asking us, what about us? When are we gonna have it? You know, we had a lot of men asking us that. And we said, always like divine time. And I think that we got to a stage that it just made sense, it felt like the time was ripe. I think we had our own ideas of like, wouldn't it be nice if we were both in union and our our partners could, you know, be part of it with us, and we had this fantasy, but then it was like we're not supposed to wait for that. That's in its own divine timing. The path of union is so much bigger than just one person that you have sex with, right? It's like I said, it's tantra of everything, it's it's the union of all. So we said, let's just go for it, let's just do this now and let's bring on the brothers and let's do this healing that those the world really, really needs. And I've run quite a few in-person events here that have included men. And every time I do, it's such an amazing energy. I've had like also at festivals, I've had couples completely renew their relationships that are people on the verge of breakups, and like one workshop later, they're just seeing their whole relationship in a new light with so much gratitude and appreciation for their partner. So it really can change the game. It feels every time like this is healing the world, this is healing the planet.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Well, because it goes back to what you how you described Tantra is like the integration of both sides, feminine and masculine. And so for you to be fully leaning into that feels very right and very necessary. I think we need that balance more than ever on the planet. So the people that are coming to like your first Tantrawaska, men and women, are they coming in couples? Are they coming individually?

SPEAKER_00 56:11

What's the structure? So initially we had we had the concept was it was just for couples. So rather than it being a container where it's like singles who want to maybe hook up with people, it's like that's not the vibe. This is for committed couples, you know, because it's deep. And we're working with medicine as well, and it's it's you know, very powerful work. So we said people in committed relationships, and then we realized like there are people who are really on that path who are not currently partnered, but they are so committed to this work, and we want to include them. So essentially, we shifted the concepts a little bit to include dedicated practice partners, which means that let's say a woman wants to come, but she's not in a committed relationship, she might have a friend, you know, that is also really on this path and really inspired to come, and they agree like we're gonna be doing these practices together. Obviously, everything is invitation, so there's a lot of boundaries and consent. But again, it's not primarily about sexual intimacy. It will absolutely fuel your sexual intimacy, you know, it will take you so much deeper in sexual intimacy, but it's not, you know, again, it's like tantra is not only about sex. So you can come and you can do this relational work with someone you feel really safe with, with somebody that you have agreements with, that you, you know, you you get each other, you're ready to work together. Yeah, it's a safe space. It's a safe space, and you can heal so much this way, which means that when you are actually in a partnership, you've done your work. You are much more ready to stand in the fire of love with someone because you have worked through a lot of your stuff in a dedicated container.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Yeah, that that goes back to some of your like core practices that I've learned from you is that you have to kind of be your own safe space first, and then you can invite others to like really transform with you. And that goes for sexual intimacy. You know, if you want to discover something with a partner, that's amazing. But like you've kind of invited me to do it first with myself and just like see what it's like to witness yourself in that moment and to give yourself what you're desiring. And then when someone else comes in to share that space with you, it's like, oh, okay, I recognize this. It feels safe. And so it allows you to go even deeper. So, with that being said, like, can you give us an example of some relational work that you might guide during the Tantra awasca with with couples or with men and women partners?

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Well, I don't want to give away too much because it is it's a bit of a mystery school, you know. Can you give you an example from a recent practice that I guided? I actually did a Beltane ceremony here. Beltane is this festival, you know, it's a Celtic festival of sexuality, life force, spring. And so we worked with polarity. So we worked with the masculine and feminine, and we basically I led them through a practice where the let's say the woman was able to ask her male partner for what her feminine really craved. Yeah, was able to express like what is my feminine needing right now, and then they would come to some agreement. So let's say her feminine really needed to feel held, then her partner would be able to like physically go into a posture or a practice where he would hold her and give her what her feminine needed as her, as as an actually a reflection of her inner masculine. Do you see what I mean? So it's like you're externalizing your inner masculine in the person, and they are serving you by holding you if that's what you needed. And so the practice on a psychological level is actually bringing you into more balance and harmony, and it helps people to identify oh, what is it that my feminine needs? What is it that my masculine needs? Exactly. So it's fun for men as well, because men, you know, got to drop in and be like, what is my feminine need? What is my masculine need? And I think that sometimes, and I'm guilty of this, like when women think about their inner masculine, they sometimes are like, Well, he's here to serve my feminine. And it's a bit like this kind of like, or protect my feminine or provide for my feminine, you know? And it's like, what about what does he need? What does my inner masculine actually need, other than to just serve my feminine and look after her and take care of her and give her all the things that she needs?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:37

No, this like really resonates. Yeah, I feel that. I love that invitation to explore beyond your own needs. And also, don't you think in the giving, in the offering, there's also so much relational intimacy and expansion? Like it's not just about me on my throne getting, you know, kissed and rose petaled and all the things. It's like we are as women, as creators, we are also designed to offer and to gift. To nurture. And so, yeah, where how has that come up for you personally where you've found expansion in your offerings, whether that's to men or to community?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

I actually wrote a post about this the other day because you know, I had a lot of resistance to working with men because it was like, okay, I'm gonna have men come to my house. And, you know, some of the practices I know for men are really intimate. So there was a bit of a struggle for me of like, how am I gonna do this in a way that feels clean energetically, that doesn't um invite projections. And I had a projection on the men actually that like they were gonna potentially come with sleazy energy or think that I was available. And I didn't want, you know, a lot of my work, it's it's not like it's not me touching people, you know. A lot of my transmission is energetic. I'll guide people in touch. I'm a super tactile person, but when I'm working as a guide, like when I'm leading people, it's it's you know, I'm like, okay, men can come and I'll teach, but I'm not gonna, I'm not a tantric body worker, for example. You know, it's just not my thing because I personally I absorb so much energy. Like I'm very um porous this way. So that is just it's it's it's not the boundary you have. Okay. So I had all sorts of projections of what the men would expect or what they would think of me or what they would want. And it was just such a calling. Like, no, I actually want to serve the brothers. I want to, I'm doing all this amazing work with women, but like when I get over my own shit about it, I actually like when I drop into my heart, it's like I want to love men. I love men. So, how can I express the love in my heart for the masculine in ways that are safe, in ways that are in integrity, in ways that are going to touch and transform them? Because let's be honest, like that transformation is also required. And the feminine has been doing so much work, and the men have been doing so much work, but I think we're at a point where the feminine empowerment has almost become a little bit over the top in some ways, and like, yeah, women are so kind of on their high horse, and it's part of a response to like coming out of the persecution and you know, like claiming our power back. Men got so hammered for their primal nature, and this has become a trauma in them. So, a lot of the work that I do with men, and I do it in my own way, is like to really help them liberate that primal power because this is the power that also women really want because we want it to protect us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

It's I was gonna say the primal power. I just want people to know that you're not saying that they should just be out expressing their primal power, they should actually be so contained and aware of that power that they use it responsibly and are also but also find places to safely express it because the women also need it, but it's not through non-consensual experience or taking advantage or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:09

Of course, but it's it's that dark masculine energy that like women actually crave. And I think so many wet men have become we chopped off so many balls, and now the women are a bit like, where are the men? You know, that are the warriors that have this like throwdown, and they're out there, don't get me wrong, but I think socially there's been this like you know, we know a lot of men where they're like, I have to walk on eggshells now. You know, I walk on eggshells and I I'm too scared to open the door for women because I might get castrated for it. You know, we're in this weird, like everything has to be so equal, and it's like we're not the same. Equality doesn't mean we just level everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

When I hear like the integration of feminine, masculine, and sort, you know, finding balance, I do kind of see it as a as a one-to-one ratio. But I think it's actually they're like two different energies, and it's more about blending them and not like putting them on the same level.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:09

If you think about the yin yang, to go back to that because it's nice and simple, you know, there's no point in trying to make the black side of the yin yang white, you lose the whole thing, then it's just all it's just a white circle, yeah. Right? And so it's kind of like in our efforts to bring equality, sometimes we've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. And it's like, you know, you have women acting like men, and you have men afraid to act like men in case they get in trouble, you know? And so when I speak about activating men in their primal power, I mean teaching them how to move that energy, how to welcome that energy rather than suppress it, how to the same way with women, it's it's working with your sexual energy in a way that supports your health, that supports your creation. Creativity that supports you being fully expressed, you being able to give your gifts to the world. Basically, rather than shutting that part of you down, how can you harness it? How can you embody it? How can you bring it to the mission? Because we have a big mission on our hands right now. You know, the world is in a certain kind of way. And we need all hands on deck with full power, with full sovereignty. And the thing is, sexuality is one of the things that's been most hijacked, you know, through pornography, through religion, through all these different social constructs. So when we reclaim that as men and women, we become far more unstoppable and we become far more difficult to control. In a good way. In a good way.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

Yes. I was like, uh-huh. I love it. Important timing that you're doing this offering. I was surprised when you told me, but I was like, of course, this is happening. This is actually the medicine that that we all need. And I'm so excited to hear about how your first, uh, your first retreat goes with these group of people. Do you have that slated?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:07

Is it is there a date? We have November the 3rd to the 10th, and it's just down the road. So it's it's on the most, you know, Prince of Uva, it's on the most beautiful Caribbean beach ever. And it's right on the beach. So in the temple where we'll have ceremony and practice and everything, you can literally hear the waves. It's so divine. And yeah, we're very excited. And are you still accepting applications? Yeah. We still have spots. We actually only just launched, um, but there are limited spots. The temple is only so big, and um, yeah, but you are people are invited, there are spots open. Amazing. No, I want people to know about this, and how long is it? It's a week-long retreat. So it's seven nights, seven days, and it includes three ayahuasca ceremonies. So three of those days, and we we do the works in the day, so it's beautiful because you get to sleep, your circadian rhythm is maintained. Um, and then the rest of the days we have practice. We I mean there's so many ceremonies apart from the actual aya ceremonies. It's like it's a full week of ritual and yeah, deep practice and intimacy. Yeah, you'll be intimate with your partner, but it's also like, you know, the whole group as a collective always goes so, so deep. And at least with the previous tantrawaskas, it's like the way that the women leave, they are so lit, so radiant, like lit by their own power in the most beautiful, soft, sensual, delicious way. And so I'm just I'm so excited to see what this does for couples and for men. And it's gonna be uh sorry, so thrilled for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

And I just have to say one thing about the ayahuasca experience mixed with all the practices that you offer. I don't know what the tantrawasca journey that you take people on. I have not done it, but I it's on the list. But I just have to say from my own experience with ayahuasca, it's an amazing medicinal, awakening, life-changing experience with this plant medicine. But what I was missing from my retreat is that there weren't really the integration tools to implement all this like wisdom that I was downloading and like sensation because I had a very sensual ayahuasca um initiation, if you want to call it that. And I was just kind of left to like process all that on my own. Figure it out. And I have a feeling that you are providing the physical, the emotional, the spiritual tools that allows you to take what you learn through the plant and put it into action. And I think that's something that people should uh see as highly valuable.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:53

Both sides of it, because you know, that's why it is such a it's such a gorgeous marriage, the tantra and the ayahuasca. Really, I mean, when people hear it, sometimes they're shocked because it's like typically in ayahuasca, they separate sexuality, like no sex around the thing, you know, around the ceremony. But what we've seen with tantra wasca is we give people these embodiment tools, these practices, and then they take them into ceremony. So in ceremony, you have your own, we're not we're not putting you into practices. Sometimes we do with like the very beginning of the ceremony, you know, um, or with smaller doses, but the majority of the ceremony is like you have freedom. We we we facilitate in a way that gives a lot of freedom so you can really um be in your own medicine and work with her in that unique way that she works with you because she works so individually with people, right? Some people have very sensual experiences. I'm also like that. My experiences with ayahuasca were super erotic, and it was like, okay, what do I do with this? You know? So why Tandra Wesco is so liberating. But then it's like when you're in the ceremony, you have tools to help move energy. Yeah, you're actually more equipped to be even more effective and efficient in your process. And then when you come out, you I mean, because we have seven days, that is time, it's spacious. There's integration, there's sharing, there's a lot of support. So that you, by the time you emerge, it's like you're actually grounded in it. But then you also have all the embodiment tools and practices, and in this case it'll be like relational stuff as well, that you can continue to apply. So that integration is like a smooth landing. We like to say a long tail with a ceremony. And it's like, yeah, all the way, like smooth dragon's tail all the way. So you're just sliding off the edge of the tail and back into your life.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

But like nature supports, and I think it's a tool to make this experience 10 times more meaningful. So yeah, if you're gonna go to the Caribbean, you might as well go do Tantra Bosca.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:54

I just I I say to people, you know, because we have also people coming who've never actually sat with Israel. And I I'm just like, in my experience, 20 years of experience with this medicine and all sorts of different ceremonies. If you're coming to this and it's your first time, you are nailing it on the first round. Nailing it. Yeah. To me, there's no more optimal. I I I can't think of having optimal. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:19

I agree, I agree. And I'm sure you have it in a gorgeous space. So people can find more about that on your Instagram page, on your website. Where would you direct them?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:28

Pandraweska.com. And yeah, and um, me and Millie. And Millie is is she's just to mention Millie because she's the musician. So she is really the musical shaman because she is so exquisite musically, and the music is very important, you know. And she also brings, I think about 900 ceremonies of experience to the work. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:53

Yeah, I think it's important to know who's guiding you. So thank you for mentioning her. I do have to just say that that music is vital. I had a group of like indigenous musicians who guided our ceremony, and I cannot imagine have imagined it without that. It was such it was provoc provocative and also like so holding when you needed it. And it also is a uh music is a guide. If you are going experiencing the plant medicine, it can take you on a whole other journey. So between the plant medicine, between you two women as guides, between the music, the nature, uh, really special opportunity. I hope I get to attend one of these. It's one of my favorite things in life, is Sandra West. Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Um, I want to bring it back to intimacy to close out our conversation. And because I think there's a little bit of a gap in the world right now where people just don't feel as connected to themselves for various reasons. I think just through lifestyle, through technology, we tend to be taken away from ourselves. And I want to know a few of your personal practices that you would invite others to start integrating into their life today if they can, that have changed your life.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:11

Well, I'm a big advocate for the morning practice. Preferably the morning practice and the evening practice. But for me, the morning is more important because you know, once you've once you've done the morning, we've done your practice in the morning, you're set for the day. You know, the the the distraction, like you said, is just it's it's ruthless. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:32

And it's an it's a disruptor.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:35

It's so it it absolutely pulls us away from ourselves. And and you know, also just like the the sort of three-second attention span because of scrolling and what have you, you know. So anything like long form as a practice, such as reading a book, you know, even watching a movie, like an actual piece of art, a good movie, you know, as opposed to the scrolling is a good practice. But before you meet anything, if you can take even just 10 minutes in the morning and be with you, whether you're on a yoga mat and you stretch it out, whether you are just like sitting in meditation, do you try and do you without guidance, without some input, something you have to press play on, ideally. But if you need that support, then beautiful, use it. But for me, it's like I like to do Pilates in the morning, but like at least half the time I do feminine free form practice. Where it's like sometimes I'm moving around, I'm doing all these moves, sometimes I'm dancing, sometimes I'm stretching, sometimes I'm crying, sometimes I'm like holding myself, sometimes I'm journaling, sometimes I'm like just lying on the mat.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:42

Like it's really maybe just starting with creating the structure of a time frame and saying, I'm gonna just turn off the phones, I'm not gonna open the laptop, I'm not gonna like do anything for what 30 minutes to start.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:56

If you can't do 30, then 15. You know, some people have emas and it's hard, but just something that honors you and your need for intimacy with yourself before you go and mix up your energy and your life with everything out there and all the things that are demanding from you, you know, it's like plugging into the life force that comes from Earth, that comes from the source, you know. This is the vertical, right? We tend to um source a lot through the horizontal, you know, that's like everybody else, life stuff, you know. But it's like this is our vertical axis, is like if you're not sourcing from there, then you're gonna be looking to get everything you need from the horizontal, and that's not optimal. Yes, you're vertically sourcing, then you have more to pour into whatever it is you need to pour into, and you're not dependent on everything else, you're self-sourced, you're more sovereign. Let me just take a few breaths and connect with me. Let me bring my hands to my body, you know. Let me actually inhabit this vehicle because truly, we are especially women, we are a vehicle for love. But when we are like bombarded by all these frequencies, we can miss connecting to the love that is actually already in us, yes, the gift that is already there, and then we walk around like beggars when we're actually kings and queens.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:29

For me, my morning practice to connect with my higher self is writing. And I have shared this in another podcast where uh to talk about intimacy with self for me starts with pen to paper and it starts with no expectations, it starts from free form thought processing and just release. It's a way for me to digest. And that feels like a way, like going back to what you said before I take on the noise of the world, before I pick up the phone, before I talk to anybody about anything, they how doesn't matter how big or small, I am setting my vibe. I am processing what's within me and not what I'm being told to process. I would welcome anyone to do that for literally five to 10 minutes because you can fill a lot of pages in that time. And then close the book. Like you said, you know, feel yourself, connect with your body. How does that feel to get that stuff out of your head and onto the page and take a step forward through your day and see how that changes things?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:28

Totally. I mean, I I have filled so many books with journaling. I do it less now, and I actually I don't love that I do it so much less, but I recently picked it up again. So it was so formative for me for so many years of my life because and now when I look back, occasionally when I'm like back in London at my mom's, I can like flip through an old book because she has all my old journals. Um yeah, she keeps them for me, she's not allowed to read them, you know. But yeah, of course when I look back, it's your soul. Yeah, it's my soul. I literally I see things I knew, you know. Like when you're looking in hindsight, and I'm reading things I wrote at like 21, 23, 25, and it's like I didn't know, but I knew it's so it's fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:15

I I love that you're saying that. I think messages come through the pen. And so that's another reason why I think it's a spiritual practice and not just a cleanse your mind kind of thing. There are things that you need to hear that only like your pen to paper can deliver, even more from like typing in a Word document. I really think it's that tactical pen to paper that is like a channel. And I would I think it's transformational. I think it's necessary to get to allow whatever those subconscious messages are, give them a chance to be heard and felt. Because sometimes you'll surprise yourself with what comes through.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:54

Exactly. And sometimes, you know, we have a lot of thoughts in our head that are not ours. They sound like us, but they don't belong to us. They're actually our mother's perspective, coming back to what you said about perspective, our father, our teacher, our best friend. It's not actually truly ours. And I think when you write something down, like my frustration with journaling is like, I have too many thoughts, I can't write fast enough. For all, but I know because it takes a minute to actually write out the thought, you almost have an opportunity to recognize if it's not actually true to you, if it's not really yours, you know, it's out, and because you have to, it's more than just a microsecond flashing through your brain, you get to identify it, and it's not about analysis, but it's about more cultivating the witness and being able to see yourself more objectively, which is helpful because you're less caught up in your own drama.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:48

That is it. That is it. It actually cultivates perspective, it takes you into your own voice, into your own being rather than into the stories that sometimes were planted by someone else. And I just did a writing workshop last night, and the the facilitator is always talking about rewriting your story. And so I think there's a lot of that theme with what you do, um, and also with writing. And so I think there's there's there's a spectrum of healing and practices that we can do. And I think that's why I wanted to have this conversation is to show people that like you don't just have to join a tantrawaska ceremony like tomorrow. You know, that's that might be too much, that might be overwhelming. Eventually, I think that's an amazing thing to open yourself up to because of what it can offer. But there's also like daily practices like you just offered and embodiment practices, getting into yourself, feeling yourself first before you give yourself to anybody else. And so thank you for painting this picture of possibility and how to reconnect and build intimacy with yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:56

You know, your body and you is what you have for this whole lifetime. So if you're not committed to yourself, what are you doing? You're only ever going to exhaust yourself pouring into everything else. You know, you are the source of your life in that sense. You're not the ultimate source, but you are the center of your story. You're the author of your story, you're manifesting your reality all the time. But when you commit to self-love and really not only knowing yourself but loving yourself, that will see you through all the bumps and the dramas and the heartbreaks and all of it, all the initiations. Like so, build that trust in yourself now, build that confidence in yourself, build that love for yourself because that's what's going to see you through all the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:47

Yeah, so well said. I think if intimacy scares you or it makes you uncomfortable, that is the medicine for you. And you can cultivate intimacy with yourself in in really small ways, and then gradually you can deepen those ways. And I think through sensuality and sexuality is a really deep way to become more intimate with yourself. And you don't have to start there, but build up to that and allow yourself to grow to become intimate with all facets of yourself, not just your mind. You know, I think there's too much thinking going on, too much like brain stuff. I'm like, what about the heart stuff? What about the body stuff? Like, we have so many bodies that we should be channeling and tuning into. And that's what your work does. So for everyone listening, uh, I'll leave all of Kashi's info so you know where to find her. She shares so much content on her Instagram that you know, from just live streams to written content that sh is it's such an offering, you can just start there to learn more about this and then eventually, you know, jump into a retreat, book a one-on-one, join a course or a workshop and get to know yourself. Thank you so much. Yeah. Is there anything else you want to share?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:06

Uh the thing that comes is just it's it love, you know, it's it's like really this is why I say tantra is a path of love. Love is something that we can all understand. You don't need to define it further. It's like love, come back to love. I was on a call with my Mystic News ladies earlier today, and we had this moment where it was just like calling out a way of being, a way of talking to yourself, of making yourself wrong, and realizing, hey, that's not love. Sometimes we're so into the idea of self-improvement, you know, or or becoming trauma-free. And it's like the the method, the real method, is love. Like that is what brings you the transformation, the softening, the self-acceptance. That's what softens the resistance and allows you to really break through whatever is the thing that's holding you back. So start with you and with really bringing yourself, meeting yourself with love. No matter what you're going through, no matter what demon you're slaying, no matter what your mind is telling you. If you realize that you're not being loving towards yourself, that's the place to catch yourself and reset and ask yourself, okay, what is what is loving? How can I actually be loving with myself in this moment? You know, the heart is where all the paradox and polarity can meet. The heart can hold it all. And it's also the seat of the soul. So that's where your true wisdom is. That's where your compass actually lives, the compass that will navigate you as a soul and as a being that has potentially had many other lifetimes. And so you have a purpose that is woven into your soul. And if you can come back to love and come back to your heart, then you will find that purpose. Just do it. Just do it. She's like, be succinct and simple.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:17

No, we don't do that here. It's also called add lib with live for a reason. I'm like, we're here, we're there, we're this, we're that. And thank you for being one of my first guests. My other guest was like family. She's my sister. So this feels this feels just right.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:34

You're so much fun to be podcast hosted by and to go. Oh my god, thank you. I love it. I could, I could have like carried on for another hour if I had a pea break.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:42

So cool that you guided me to be to find my voice and my expression and just like get out of my own way. And this is part of me doing that. So it's really cool that we're like bringing it together. So I'm so proud. I'm so celebrating. Hey, I am so excited for new people to discover you through this conversation. And yeah, can't wait to see you in person one day to join you for a retreat. And yeah, where can everybody find you?

SPEAKER_00 1:27:14

Uh, I have loved this as well. It's just been so fun talking to you. And I am available on my Instagram at kundalini.rose, uh, my website also kundalini rose.co. And yeah, we also have tantrawaska.com. So these are probably the best ways to explore my work and to reach me. And yeah, it's been such a joy. It's I'm so celebrating this podcast and everything that you've birthed. And I hope that we meet soon. Yes, love you. Thank you again.