Karezza: Victorian Tantra

David Haenke and catherine yronwode explain how to practice karezza, a sexual practice developed by one of the first female doctors in the U.S. Alice Bunker Stockham.

The longing for the genital embrace is profoundly expressed in the belief in a "universal spirit," in "God," the "creator."

-- Wilhelm Reich, "Cosmic Superimposition"

Until recently, it was possible to read many volumes on the subject of Tantra Yoga without realizing that sexual energy was its central motif. over the thousands of years during which this complex philosophy, religion, and science of sexual union has evolved, its central source often remained hidden.

Today a number of spiritual teachers will show anyone with the time and money the actual practice of spiritual sexual union. Still, the essence of what they impart is shrouded in the terms of the teacher's particular religion, and subject to their sometimes tyrannical control. New Age revelations of Tantra's ancient central secret still leave the seven veils of belief and dogma intact.

Has anyone ever tried to remove the veils, to lay down simply and clearly, without intermediaries or the trappings of any particular religious trip, the essential lpractice of sexual spiritual union?

In the last half of the nineteenth century Alice Bunker Stockham, one of the first woman doctors in the U.S., did just that. In her book, "The Ethics of Marriage" (available from Health Research, Box 70, Mokelumme, CA 95245), she promoted women's rights and equality of the sexes, urged the prevention of "wedding night rape," and advocated a safe, free method of birth control through a practice she termed "karezza" (pronounced kar-ET'-za), from the Italian "carezza," or "caress." Read more