Divine Feminine Slow Dance
by Dana Gerhardt

"Move slowly. When you think you can’t go any slower, slow down even more."

A few days before the Taurus New Moon, I went to my first Tantric dance class. If you had ever told me that one day I’d find myself doing a sensuous dance, all alone, in front of seven strangers, I would have thought you were crazy. Last year at a lively concert of African music, my partner Robert and I, being so self-conscious, were the only ones in a thousand-seat auditorium not dancing. I couldn’t get angry when I later told Robert about my Tantric dance and his face went red with laughter, "I don’t even know you anymore!" I would have said the same.

What made this transformation possible? The candle-lit room, the scarves, the music, the steady delight and confidence from the other dancers. The room was a Venusian temple. It was earthy, sensuous Venus who was the real power behind the evening. As each woman danced, her personality dissolved into a larger presence. It was as though each woman—short, tall, round, old, young—had become the same woman: graceful, strong, radiant, unashamed. Every one of us embodied the living presence of the Goddess. My teacher explained that watching the dancers was as important as dancing, for in every dance there was a transmission. She was right. The next morning, in my body, I knew more than I’d known before. It was as though each dancer had brought a teaching.

"Dance from the energy in your womb," my teacher said. You have to slow way down to even feel this energy. If you walk with full awareness of your sexual center, you won’t want to hurry. You’ll go gracefully, taking full pleasure in every step. I wish you could have been there at my Tantric class, because I fear my words don’t do the Goddess justice. But perhaps you can simply tune into your own Goddess-knowing right now. Settle your awareness into your womb-space. And just be with it. Don’t move until intuition directs a movement. Simply be in your body: content, strong, patient, radiant, and unperturbed. Be there for an hour. Or just a minute. Or for all eternity.

Time doesn’t matter to Venus…or her tantric dancing mermaids and dolphins!