Our aim is to make this festival as integrative and inclusive as possible so you can have the best experience for you. Here are some of the ways we are commited to doing that.

Family Sharing Groups & Emotional Support –  We want to serve you with a festival that has a strong ground underneath all happenings. Every day we will start from a different theme and align with that through a collective moment, meditate and rise awareness and presence. Bringing that to aliveness, and bring aliveness into that as well as presenting the daily program. The festival has the base of a retreat, and holds a deep space where each day we start from. During this time we will also have a chance to individually listen and share what in arising in us in small groups of 5-6 people. This group will be your “family” during the festival which gives you a chance to have mutual support as well as a safe harbour of people you know. Your group will be there to listen to your sharing without feedback or advice. It can be very touching and vulnerable at times and a gift to hear others as they move through the same human emotions, hopes, fears and dreams. There will also be a number of people available for emotional support throughout the festival – where you can share a cup of tea, talk about what is moving for you and maybe just get a hug when needed.

Respect for all Relationship Styles and Choices – The festival will offer spaces to support all the relationship styles and choices you make. Workshops will allow couples to pair up for more intimate exercies and the choice to stay with their own partner if that is their choice – teachers will annouce this to the group so they are aware when to make this choice. It will also be possible for individuals (and couples) to experience many different partners in exercises – seeing how it is to practice with a variety of people. Most importantly there will be no emphasis or pressure that one relating style is better than another and we encourage everyone to be really aware in their choices and to communicate as much as possible.

Creating a safe space – It’s important for us that you feel safe, this helps us all to open up and deepen. As well as all the above we will be encouraging you to be aware of your boundaries, and give specific tools for this. There will be no pressure to do anything that doesn’t feel right for you and the best tantric practice is being able to honor your truths. We aim to remind us all of that throughout the festival.

Presenting a variety of workshop types – Tantra has become such a diverse field with so many different paths. We aim to present a variety of these and also to have variety in the workshops offered. You will always have a choice of different workshops throughout the day so you can find something that is resonating with you.

These are our commitments and aims to support you, and we are always open to feedback and new ideas as this field continues to evolve and refine – if you have something you would like to share with us then you are most welcome to contact us.

Student/Staff Interactions

In the Awaken as Love events, facilitators and assistants agree not to have sexual interactions with students during the events. They are encouraged to enjoy hugs, cuddle puddles, sexy dancing and light interaction in temple spaces (massage), but they will not form relationships, or engage in sexual intercourse outside of any previous existing relationships. 

This has been a controversial topic of late and it is important to state why we hold this position. The first reason is that facilitators are paid to be present and support the whole group – not to be distracted by a few select individuals – this is very important in terms of the group dynamics created.

The 2nd reason concerns power dynamics – The Awaken as Love Tantra Festival is Integrally informed – which means it aims to look at issues from an integral stage of consciousness at the minimum. Experiments in the previous stage of consciousness – post-modernism, attempted to flatten out any notion of hierarchy, because it quite rightly rejected what it saw as oppressive hierarchies that we’re detrimental. However, it also rejected anything that looked or smelled like hierarchy – including natural forms of order within the universe (e.g organs contain cells, cells contain molecules, molecules contain atoms, it is natural that there are higher degrees of organization and novelty at different stages that contain smaller whole parts).

These experiments while however well intentioned (or not), created a lot of mess. It doesn’t work to deny the power relationship between teacher and student by simply declaring that everyone is “sovereign”. It also doesn’t make sense when individuals are exploring earlier childlike states of consciousness or when they are exhibiting trauma responses to just tell them that they are “sovereign” – adults need to be holding the space, free from their own ulterior motives and agendas when exploring earlier stages of consciousness, especially when in a position a role of power during that time.

Meditation

We sign up to the Tantra Alliance and Safe Mediation as neutral 3rd parties to address any concerns that might arise about facilitators  or session givers within the festival, so you can feel safe to be heard and supported if any issues occur that need deeper holding.