In Conversation - Menstruation, Tantra, Neo-Tantra

... Jane wanted to be reassured, that the session would NOT include meditation, breath-work or intimacy exercises. During the past 2 years, she has spent over a thousand pounds on workshops retreats - angry and fed up with, what she called the "tantra industry" in England, having read books on authentic, original Tantra.

It is true that fundamental aspects of ancient tantra, relating women, remain taboo subjects. Menstruation and menstrual blood has occupied a central place in tantric practice and ritual. This is hardly ever mentioned today, yet just by talking about it, menstrual mythology and iconography for women (and men) can be a liberating, empowering, and healing experience.  (Particularly, as in our culture a negative view of menstruation, social and religious conditioning has left a deep scar on women's psyche and body image.)
   

‘‘Blood is the female (Vama) elixir. Mixed with wine and semen, it is the Absolute.’’

‘‘Sri Sankara said: The first menses appearing in a woman who has lost her virginity is Svayambhu blood. In a maiden born of a married woman and begotten by another man, that which arises is Kunda menses, the substance causing the granting of any desire. Devesi, a maiden begotten by a widow gives rise to Gola menses, which subdues gods. The menses arising in the first period after a virgin becomes a married woman is the all bewildering Svapushpa.’’
‘‘A brahmin goes to heaven by endless washing of the feet and mouth, whereas a person repeatedly making a forehead mark of Kunda, Gola or Udbhava menses destroys various ailments such as leprosy and smallpox and is free from all disease in the same way that a serpent sloughs its skin.’’

Menstruating Dakini

Tantra and Christianity

"While meditating upon the yoni of a beautiful woman, the adept shall utter the sacred mantra 10 000 times. He shall become wise as Brhaspati. 10 000 more shall he repeat it, whilst meditating upon the yoni of a woman in her moon-time (menstruating) and he shall become as captivating as any practitioner of the poetic art...." Mantra Mahodadhi (1589 CE.)

Yoni meditation (Madhya Pradesh, 12th century)

French missionary, Abbe Dubois writing on Tantra in "Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies (1807): “The ceremony takes place at night with more or less secrecy. The least disgusting of these orgies are those where they confine themselves to eating and drinking everything that the custom of the country forbids and where women and men … openly and shamelessly violate the commonest laws of decency"... and practices involve “things too abominable to be revealed to a Christian public”.

The Church Father, Epiphanius of Cyprus (CE. 310 ca. – 403), suggests that a Christian group called the Phibionites indulge in lavish feasts that begin with a special greeting: The men shake hands with the women, secretly tickling or stroking their palms. An erotic gesture or perhaps a code designed to alert members to the presence of outsiders. Epiphanius' testimony carries weight, because he admits that he himself fell in among them. Married couples separate to engage in ritual sexual intercourse with other members of the community. The union is not meant to be for procreation, however, for the man withdraws before climax. The couple then collects his semen in their hands and ingests it together while proclaiming, “This is the body of Christ.” When possible, the couple also collects and consumes the woman's menstrual blood, saying “This is the blood of Christ” (Panarion 26.2-8).8 Other Gnostic groups have also consumed women's menstrual blood for the Eucharist, while pagans, as has been shown, considered it a sacred gift from the Goddess.