Tantra: The Cult of the Feminine [Hardcover]

Andre Van Lysebeth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1995

Known only for the virtues of its sexual practice, ancient Tantric ideology is a universal and wide-reaching ideology virtually ignored in the West. In Tantra: The Cult of the Feminine, one of Europe's foremost Tantric authors and teachers, Andre Van Lysebeth, gives readers a balanced, well-informed, modern examination of the secret teachings and symbolism of Tantra. Espousing no dogma, Tantra involves a search for reality that contradicts neither science nor religion. For Tantra, all of the myriad energy forms in the universe -- gravity, nuclear cohesion, electromagnetism -- exist throughout the cosmos. "Scientifically speaking, the universe is a gigantic continuum ranging from sub-atomic to astronomical dimensions. Tantrists have perceived this unity for over thirty-five centuries," points out van Lysebeth in his introduction. Originally published in 1992, Tantra has become the classic text on the subject, the source for serious students. Eight full-color illustrations and 36 line drawings complement a comprehensive and contemporary explanation of Tantra, complete with meditations. Andre does a remarkable job of bringing ancient theories into the modern world.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author

André Van Lysebeth has practiced yoga since 1945 and is the founder of the Belgian Yoga Federation and co-founder of the European Yoga Foundation. In addition to Tantra: The Cult of the Feminine, he is the author of five books on Yoga. He is considered one of the foremost authorities on Tantra. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books; 1st English edition (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288585
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288589
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and Thorough!, July 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tantra: The Cult of the Feminine (Hardcover)

I've perused an number of books trying to figure out just what Tantra is about. They are mostly obscure, or lacking answers to the questions which inevitably come to mind. This author, however, leaves no stone unturned, providing not only interesting background, culture, and history, but the very practical "how to" go about it. His directions are clear, easy to follow, and effective. My favorite part of the book, however, was the two pages at the end of the book where he talked about the relationship between Guru and Chela, based on Tantra. This is a relationship vision for which I had long been searching. Another book which I found exceedingly valuable is "Passionate Enlightenment".

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neo-Tantra non plus ultra, June 21, 2006

By 

Jai "Yoga.Twobirds" (Tularosa Basin, NM USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Tantra: Cult of the Feminine (Paperback)

I've seen this book before but never actually considered reading it, until upon the advice of a yoga friend of mine. Well, I can say that it was a mostly interesting read. Yet most of what he says here is abstract philosophical vapor, being in praise of Matriarchy and the Great Goddess and all that. It's like talking about talking about something, but never actually getting around to the thing itself. And what little there was of practical, experiential value [pp. 297-340] as yogic sadhana, is not original at all. Of particular interest was the fact that he complained so much about Osho (a.k.a. Bhagawan Rajneesh, Sri Sri Neo-Tantra). To me, when someone complains about someone else SO MUCH and are at such pains to distinguish and distance themselves, its a sign that they really *are* that similar, after all! Osho was (in)famous for promoting "neo-tantra," that is, an uninhibited sexual free-for-all for Westerners seeking both sex and enlightenment ("enlightened sex"?). Van Lysbeth's teaching are what I'd call "neo-tantra non plus ultra" (Neo-tantra--and not much more). He even uses the ridiculous term, "cosmic orgasm" [p. 345]. Still, it was interesting read & it fits with a lot of material I've been working with in other esoteric avenues, personally. The books numerous shortcomings include: the meandering writing style, no credits for photos/maps/diagrams used throughout [but note the excellent diagrams of ano-genital musculature, pp.306-307], the Mughal-style Kama Sutra paintings portrayed as tantric "asanas", the incessant textual references to works not cited in the Bibliography, the pretentious posture of imparting tantric "secrets" not discussed elsewhere, and the contrived historical sense of a "Tantra" that never existed except in the minds of befuddled Westerners and the Eastern gurus who sexploited them. If you want to learn something about Tantra, read Abhinavagupta or D.G. White. If you want to learn about sexual practices, read M. Chia or the Bihar School books on mulabandha. If you wish merely to wax mystical about your desire to return to Original Matriarchy, read this book--you'll feel real good. A note about me: practicing yoga, understanding historical Tantra, worshipping the goddess, returning to a more receptive Yin state of being--all this fits in well with my own evolving belief system. Just don't expect to find much of substance here.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quasi-scientific (and very interesting) argument for panpsychism ., January 22, 2007

By 

The Dilettante "Dilly!" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tantra: Cult of the Feminine (Paperback)

This is the best introduction to the tantric worldview I have encountered. The other reviewer's comment about "lifting the veil" is extremely appropriate - there is NO estotericism here at all. Lysbeth cuts through all of the linguistic and cultural/contextual barriers that tend to pose such difficulty for Western students of Tantra. No mumbo jumbo.

There are, however, several things for the propsective reader to be aware of. First, this is a book about "tantra per se" and not about any particular tradition therein. This is a guidebook to tantra as subjective experience and not an objective anthropological account of tantra as a cultural practice of the East. As such, the author has a wonderfully non-scholarly habit of distilling the essence of the teachings and blithely ignoring the specific historical details when they might be confusing or boring. I found this very refreshing, since authors with more "scholarly" approaches (e.g. Feuerstein) seem to lose the forest for the trees. This is something I want to learn - not just learn ABOUT - and for this purpose Lysbeth is absolutely peerless.

Moreover, a lot of the material here will be not immediately recognized as relevant to tantra at all. The author is well-versed in science and the history of philosophy, and about a third of the material here is a scientific apology for the tantric worldview. If you -like me- are the sort of person who feels its necessary to square your mysticism with contemporary psychology or thermodynamics, then this is likely to be very satisfying reading. But not everyone agrees that mysticism should have to explain itself in scientific terms, and this sort of rationalism is likely to turn some readers off.

Finally, this book has a very New-Agey feel to it. The author gushes about Goddess and matriarchy in ways that some may find off-putting. The first 10 pages read like "the Chalice and the Blade" and I (being a sort of anachronistically sexist male) was a little bit self-conscious reading it. Push a bit farther into the book, however, and the reader will discover that there is absolutely no man-hating undercurrent here. When all was said and done, I even found myself a bit persuaded by the author's sweet romanticism for "matri-focal" societies.

Nor is any interest in marathon sexual acrobatics necessary to enjoy this book. It has a surprisingly satisfying "big think" feel to it. The book is, on one level, just an argument for what western philosophers have called "pan-psychism" - the notion that everything in the cosmos is imbued with some level of consciousness. If the reader is open to the experience, he or she will walk away from this with a of interesting insights into metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of mind. It is especially recommended for anyone who has enjoyed Ken Wilber (Sex, Ecology, Spirituality), Robert Wright (Nonzero) or Howard Bloom (Global Brain).

Incidentally, this book also happens to kick the bejesus out of Julius Evola's unreadable "The Yoga of Power," which I also reviewed (and panned) in my quest for a good tantric initiation. This book is crystalline, and makes Evola look all the muddier by comparison. Indeed, what little I could actually understand of Evola's book now seems laughably wrong! (Surprisingly, Lysbeth actually cites Evola in his bibliography, but they don't seem to have been working from the same page.) Given the choice, skip Evola and get this book instead.