Erotica is usually identified in the same school as pornography, though it’s unfair.  Sure, they both have naked people.  But erotica is hinting at, teasing, tantalizing- and porn couldn’t be more blatant or graphic, though it’s not necessarily bad.  The issue comes down to a simple question:  do you think the human body and/or sex is something dirty, nasty and should be hidden?  If so, your mind’s already made up about any nude forms, no matter the quality or the beauty, no matter erotica or porn.  Somewhat surprisingly, women have historically been the main supporters of erotica, and are now the growing in numbers in the female porn industry.

A quick run-down of erotica through the ages:

•    40,000 years ago, in a Spanish cave, the first naked images were painted.  Or at least the first that we’ve found that date that far back.  They show both men and women, and men with women.  Some believe that the men-with-women designates the first pornographic image.

•    Erotic art was extremely commonplace in both Grecian and Roman homes.  The walls were covered with art and tapestries, the topic of physicality was openly discussed and even the ewers and dinnerware were covered in nude images.  Many were based on their mythologies, but doesn’t it make you wonder how the human race survived if these images were so detrimental to children?  They saw them every day, and Romans still managed to carve their place in the world.

•    The Kama Sutra might be one of the most misunderstood tomes of all intimacy times. Unlike most people seem to think, it’s not a sexual-deviant’s instruction book.  It’s a spiritual and physical guide to general fulfillment.  Body and soul.  While some of the sketches might seem too-detailed and others far-fetched (can anyone actually do that-?) it is not pornography.  Its purpose is not self-satisfaction, but mutual gratification.  And appreciation of what couples can do to improve their connection.

•    The Buncton/Winston Sheela Na Gig, which was 1,000 years old, upset someone who destroyed it for its eroticism.  You can find ‘before’ pictures on the net, which are hardly racy.  Naked, yes.  Destructive to the family fabric?  Hardly.

•    Lastly to be mentioned, the daring daguerreotype.  As in:  how dare they!  What is often omitted from mention is the fact that the models from the 1850s onward were keen on being shown.  It was a new medium.  Looking at the postcards, they’re tasteful and celebratory of the female figure.  At least half of the postcards sent were from women.  You could even theorize that these postcards were the first erotica/porn (depending on your interpretation) to become trans-global by both genders.

There’s a new history being created at the moment.  One-third of all porn site visitors are women, thanks to the stripping of taboos the internet has created.  The hottest market is being created by women directors, actresses and producers that are doing ground-breaking work to literally please women.  Not to be confused with such delicate erotic artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, who finally gave praise to the male body.  It could mean that through erotica and porn women are rediscovering their sensual identities, which seems to have been stifled for much too long.  Women shouldn’t have to feel ashamed to embrace their sexuality visually, graphically or individually.  They should be able to embrace what they like, mimicking their foremothers through the ages.

The sexual fire breath is one of the best exercises, especially with a partner (but you can also do it alone), for rapidly building a hot sexual charge and moving it up through your body, helping to open all of your chakra centers. In the sexual fire breath you use a combination of sound, pelvic rocking, PC (pubococcygeous) muscle squeezes, deep abdominal breathing, visualization and hand movements.

Use the sexual fire breath on your own to open yourself to your full exquisite sexual potential. Do it as a charger-upper before making love. Do it during lovemaking as you are being manually or orally stimulated. Do it during intercourse, but be very observant and ready to stop in a flash in the early learning stages or the man may go beyond his point of no return to ejaculate before you are both ready to end the lovemaking. If “energy” is very subtle for you and you don’t usually feel it, try this exercise. Most report really feeling something the very first time they do the sexual fire breath.

Sexual Fire Breath

• Lie on your back. Feet flat on the floor/bed. Knees bent. Legs comfortably apart. Hands at your sides, palms up. Eyes closed.
• Begin to breathe slowly and deeply into your belly.
• Focus your attention on your genitals and visualize drawing breath in and out through them.
• When you have a comfortable breathing rhythm established, begin to rock your pelvis, tilting it up toward the sky.

Use your feet to slightly push off the floor so that you are not using your abdominal muscles to rock and they can remain loose and open.

• Inhale as you rock back. Exhale as you rock forward. (Note: some bodies want to do it the opposite way – listen to yours and go with what feels right).
• Make sound as you exhale – AAAAAHHHH. (This is the most difficult part for many people but it helps enormously, sound carries the energy).
• When you are in a comfortable rhythm, add PC Pumping. Tighten your PC muscles as you rock back. Relax them as you rock forward. (Note: your body might want to do it the opposite way, let it.)
• Begin to visualize your sexual energy as a great ball of golden fire in your genitals. As you rock, breathe and pump draw the golden fireball up through your chakra centers, one chakra at a time.
• Send the energy out through your crown chakra into the universe. Do not leave it to build up in your head. If you are making love with a partner, you can also pass the energy to him through your eyes, your kiss, your breath.
• Pass your hands in flowing motions up your body to help with the energy movement.
• Breathe more rapidly to move the energy higher within your body, allowing yourself to open into its flow.
• When you reach a high edge of energetic arousal you can maintain this level by deepening and slowing your breathing and keeping your body relaxed.
• Rest in stillness for a few moments when you are finished practicing so that the energy can continue to flow through you. Bring it back down and store it in your belly chakra for later use.
• If you have left a store of energy in your head and feel some congestion there do Grounding and apply firm pressure with your fingertips to your crown chakra.

Excerpted from our Tantra and Kama Sutra Sex Positions eBook.

The basis of Judeo-Christian sexual prohibitions, as well as the sexual prohibitions of religions such as Islam, spring from ancient Jewish tribal law. In those days wives were considered “property” and laws were specifically codified to protect three things: livestock, wives and dwellings.

The priests and the prophets of the Judeo Christian tradition realized that by controlling the sex life of their subjects they would attain a significant degree of control over the people’s personal and spiritual lives. The threat of an eternal hell of fire-and-brimstone not only bolstered this control but it allowed the church to commercialize the forgiveness of sexual sin — a predisposition that was solidly programmed into our “survival of the species” In Islamic countries you need to go back to the pre-Islamic era of countless warring tribes and the efforts of The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) to bring all of them under the banner of the God’s divine teachings. Life is ordered and regulated by God and his messenger, the Prophet (PBUH) has transmitted the word to the people.

Coming to the subject of sexuality, in Islam it is confined to the bonds of marriage Sex is also viewed as recreation but again only within marriage. Islamic beliefs stress that there is divine reward for sex within marriage and that both partners are entitled to sexual gratification. Similar injunctions about wayward sex can be found in Hindu scriptures The book, Bhagvat Gita which means “ Song of the Lord” has this verse: “ O, Son of Kunti, the pleasures that are born out of sensory contacts are sources of pain. They certainly are transient, having a beginning and an end. The intelligent man is wise enough not to indulge in them” (Chap., v: 22) Even the Kama Sutra which is often tarred with the brush of soft porn raises sex to a spiritual level. In Hinduism, Enlightenment is the ultimate goal of life and yet it encourages people to enjoy everything and thus fulfill all material desires. Enlightenment is a long process and can be achieved only when all material desires are quenched. Thus you find two methods, the Way of the Renunciate and the Way of the Householder. Then there is one more method, the Way of Tantra which in its bastardized form is popular with westerners looking for a Quick Fix to all their problems.

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